Diego Vigil Cocaña

Diego Vigil Cocaña (*  1799 in Tegucigalpa , †  January 10, 1845 in Granada , Nicaragua ) was a Central American President .

Life

Family and education

Diego Vigil was born in Tegucigalpa as the son of José Vigil Fernández and Josefa Cocaña Fábrega. He was related to the later Central American President Francisco Morazán and was one of his closest confidants and political supporters. Vigil studied law at the University of León in Nicaragua and then worked temporarily as a lawyer and notary in Tegucigalpa.

Political career

Like his relatives Dionisio de Herrera and Francisco Morazán, Diego Vigil was also a member of the Liberal Party. From 1824 he was for this member in the Federation Parliament of the Central American Confederation . 1826/27 he was governor of the province of Tegucigalpa, but was imprisoned at the fortress Castillo de Omoa after the occupation of Tegucigalpa by troops of the conservative Federation President Manuel José Arce . After the reconquest of Honduras by Morazán, Vigil was liberated and appointed Morazán's deputy as head of state of Honduras . When Morazán set off for El Salvador at the head of an army on March 7, 1829 , he transferred the official duties to Vigil, which he carried out until Morazán returned on December 2 of the same year.

After Morazán was elected President of the Central American Confederation, Vigil went with him to Guatemala City and - after the federation capital was relocated in 1835 - to San Salvador . From February 1, 1836 to January 6, 1838 he was head of state of the province of El Salvador. The main focus of his administration was the fight against cholera and the suppression of two uprisings. After the violent death of the Vice President of the Central American Federation Gregorio Salazar on the occasion of the conquest of Guatemala City by the troops of Rafael Carrera , Vigil was elected on February 1, 1838 as his successor - and thus again as Morazán's deputy.

When Morazán's second term as Central American President ended on February 1, 1839, he transferred the official duties to Diego Vigil. In view of the already very advanced process of disintegration of the federation - after the secession of Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica only El Salvador and the part of Guatemala not occupied by the troops of Rafael Carrera belonged to the federation - it was no longer possible to hold new elections, so that Vigil initially continued the official business on a provisional basis. After Guatemala had formally left the Federation later in the year, the Parliament of El Salvador (as the last remaining member state) officially recognized Vigil as Federation President. Just a few months later, on March 31, 1840, El Salvador also declared its withdrawal from the federation, which thus ceased to exist.

Last years of life

On April 8, 1840, Diego Vigil left El Salvador with Francisco Morazán on board a ship in the direction of Calderas in Costa Rica and from there to David in what is now Panama . Vigil Morazán also supported his last attempt to restore the Central American Federation by overthrowing Costa Rican head of state Braulio Carrillo . After Morazán's execution on September 15, 1842, Vigil settled in Granada in Nicaragua, where he stayed until the end of his life.

Web links

• Diego Vigil on the homepage of the government of El Salvador
• Diego Vigil on the homepage of Honduras Educacional

literature

• Rodolfo Pastor, Historia de Centroamérica . El Colegio de México , Mexico 1988, ISBN 84-8377-291-4

predecessor	Office	successor
José Francisco Morazán Quezada	Presidents of Central America February 1, 1839–31. March 1840	-

predecessor	Office	successor
José Francisco Morazán Quezada	Heads of State of the Province of Honduras March 7, 1829–2. December 1829	José Francisco Morazán Quezada

predecessor	Office	successor
Francisco Gómez de Altamirano y de Elizondo Timoteo Menendez	Heads of State of the Province of El Salvador February 1, 1836–23. May 1837 June 7, 1837–6. January 1838	Timoteo Menéndez Timoteo Menendez