Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez

Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez ( born December 16, 1831 in Bagaces [ wp 1], Guanacaste, Costa Rica, † July 6, 1882 in Alajuela, Costa Rica) was president of Costa Rica.

Life

His parents were María Gutiérrez y Flores and Rudesindo de la Guardia y Robles. He married in 1850 Perfecta Barrios y Ladrero 1857 Emilia Solórzano y Alfaro. In this marriage Angélica Guardia Solórzano was born, the wife of Saturnino Lizano Gutiérrez.

He enjoyed little education, was in the military, took part in the campaigns against the Filibusteropiraten by William Walker ( mercenaries ) and was seriously wounded at the Battle of San George. Subsequently, he was a military commander of Alajuela. After 1870 Jesús Jiménez Zamora overthrown, he sat Bruno Carranza Ramírez as a president, which it promoted him to major general and appointed commander of the army of Costa Rica.

Presidency

The Constituent Assembly appointed him as president. Guardia solved then this meeting on October 1870. 1871, met another Constituent Assembly and issued the Constitution of 1871.

1871 joined Henry Meiggs, an uncle of Minor Keith [ wp 2], a contract with the government Guardia, on the production of a rail link from San José to Puerto Limón. For the financing of expensive loans were taken out, which form the basis of the debt of Costa Rica. In elections in April 1872 Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez was elected for four years as president. 1876 ​​gave the presidency to Aniceto Guardia del Carmen Esquivel Sáenz, who had been elected for the term 1876-1880, but remained commander in chief of the army.

Mid- 1876, he was Vice President of Government Aniceto Esquivel Sáenz, with the Government of Justo Rufino Barrios Auyón in Guatemala. There he negotiated with the local representative Ramón Salazar, the Tratado Guardia - Salazar [ wp 3]. According to the agreement, the Government of Costa Rica, the anti- Jesuit policy of Barrios should assume that prohibit Jesuit residence in Costa Rica and close the Colegio San Luis Gonzaga de Cartago. Tomás Guardia the de facto ruler of Costa Rica was in the reaction time. What helped make the Barrios government was the puppet government of Vicente Herrera Zeledon not recognized.

From July 30 1876 to September 23, 1877 was Vicente Herrera Zeledon formally President. Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez remained until his death on July 6, 1882 dictatorial President of Costa Rica. Shortly before his death he ended the state of emergency and suspended the Constitution of 1871, with some amendments, in force. Among the changes was that the death penalty had been abolished.

Guardia could count on devoted friends, which allowed him to do without long journeys of six to seven months that he had suffered a loss of power. There have been various attempts of coups by Federico Fernández Oreamuno (1827-1896), the father of Alberto Brenes Córdoba. [ Wp 4]

His son was Saturnino Lizano Gutiérrez.