Francisco Malespín

Francisco Malespín Herrera (born September 28, 1806 in Izalco, Sonsonate ; † November 25, 1846 in San Fernando, Chalatenango ) was President ( Director Supremo ) of El Salvador from 1844 to 1845 .

Life

His parents were Luisa Herrera y Rodríguez and Juan Malespín. His sisters were named Indalecia, Florencia, Guadalupe, Julia and Maria Josefa. His brothers were called Calixto, Gabriel and Ignacio.

Malespín was a member of the Partido Conservador . After the Central American Union dissolved in 1840, José Rafael Carrera Turcios appointed Malespín commander in chief of the Salvadoran army . He was the strong man behind Presidents Norberto Ramírez , Juan Lindo , Escolástico Marín, Juan José Guzmán and Fermín Palacios . In February 1841 he applied to the Constituent Assembly for a decree to establish the Universidad de El Salvador . On March 11, 1842 Francisco Malespín let Izalco occupy and left in a public place the deputies Francisco Zaldaña and Pioquinto Hernández of the Partido Liberal execute by firing squad .

Malespín was elected president as the godchild of the first bishop of San Salvador, José Jorge Viteri y Ungo , and took office on February 7, 1844. In March 1844 he ordered government spending of 118,713 pesos. On April 29, 1844, Malespín ordered all citizens between the ages of 16 and 40 to be mobilized within 30 days.

The parliament, dominated by the clerical Partido Conservador , passed a law in March 1844 to reintroduce ecclesiastical jurisdiction in El Salvador, thereby revoking the law of August 26, 1830 of the government of José Damian Villacorta , which had abolished canon law and ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

After Malespín took office, a number of those exiled from El Salvador considered him incapable of holding on to the government. Manuel José Arce y Fagoaga penetrated from Guatemala 15 kilometers to El Salvador as far as Atiquizaya. The troops from Malespín defeated his troops in Ocxotepeque. Malespín invaded Guatemala as far as Jutiapa with 4,000 soldiers. On May 20, 1844, José Rafael Carrera Turcios sent his army to meet him. In August 1844, Malespín and Carrera made peace.

Attempted coup against Malespín

José Trinidad Cabañas and Gerardo Barrios were officers with José Francisco Morazán Quezada . On September 5, 1844, a coup attempt by the two against Francisco Malespín failed in San Miguel . The two failed coup plotters fled to Nicaragua via the Department of La Unión . The Ambassador of El Salvador to Nicaragua, José Antonio Jiménez, demanded that the Nicaraguan government either extradite cabañas and barrios or face the Salvadoran authorities. This request was rejected by the Nicaraguan government.

In the summer of 1844, the Malespín government took action against dissidents in the Partido Conservador .

On September 26, 1844 in León (Nicaragua) Manuel Pérez handed over his position of Director Supremo to Emiliano Madriz .

Guerra de Malespín

Malespín appointed his brother Calixto Malespín commander in chief of the army. On October 25, 1844, Malespín exchanged his position as Director Supremo for that of Commander-in-Chief. His deputy Joaquín Eufrasio Guzmán became the executive president. Malespín went to war against the Liberal Party in León (Nicaragua) . His deputy, Guzmán, gave him unrestricted rights to defend the state. The Nicaraguan troops had been withdrawn from Honduras after the defeat at Nacaome. Malespín was preparing a war of aggression against Nicaragua, which was against the laws of El Salvador. Malespín turned to Francisco Ferrera , Director Supremo of Honduras , at Nacaome . On November 7, 1844, Ferrera recognized Malespín as commander in chief of his troops. In Choluteca, a peace offer came from León. On November 21, 1844, negotiations with Malespín were unsuccessful,

Francisco Malespín commanded the troops from El Salvador, Francisco Ferrera the troops from Honduras and José Trinidad Muñoz Fernández the troops of the Partido Legitimista from Granada (Nicaragua) when they attacked León (Nicaragua) .

On the night of November 21, 1844, the Allied troops camped in the Barranca de San Antonio gorge . General José Santos Guardiola Bustillo abused drunken deserters, after which half of them left the Allied camp and Guardiola was placed under arrest .

On November 26, 1844 at 8:00 p.m. they reached León (Nicaragua) and dropped bombs on the city. On November 27, 1844 at 3:00 am, Francisco Malespín was drunk and ordered the attack on León, which ended in losses for the attackers. At sunrise, he found his camp littered with bodies, including Cruz Guardiola, a brother of the general. However, the attack continued until 4:00 p.m. when the Allied troops ran out of ammunition and many of their officers were killed or injured. Disorder arose and the Honduran forces wanted to break off the attack. José Trinidad Muñoz was in command and the attack continued. The following night José Trinidad Muñoz had entrenched, and by the morning of November 28, 1844, the Allied troops were ready to attack effectively.

A negotiating delegation made up of Hermenegildo Zepeda Fernández and Jerónimo Carcache from León came to the headquarters of the Allied troops. Francisco Malespín spoke for the Allied troops. The León Surrender Agreement: Article 1 required El Salvador and Honduras to pay all expenses for the current war, and El Salvador to pay for the April 1843 war against Guatemala, since Nicaragua had given no allegiance to that war. Article 2 called for the surrender of all arms within the territory of Nicaragua. Article 3 called for the extradition of Joaquín Rivera Bragas (1795, † 1845), Exsenator Máximo Orellana, Miguel Alvarez, José de la Trinidad Francisco Cabañas Fiallos, Gerardo Barrios , Diego Vigil Cocaña and Ramón Vijil.

Siege of León

León was besieged by the troops from El Salvador and Honduras and the Partido Legitimista . Justo Abaunza y Muñoz de Avilés and Fulgencio Vega from the Partido Democrático (Nicaragua) financed a shipload of 1,000 muskets , 200 rifles, 200 barrels of gunpowder and 200 quintals of lead, 12,000 flints , which arrived in the port of El Realejo for the besieged Leon. Malespín learned about this ship from the British Vice-Consul of León Thomas Manning through an agent of Silvestre Selva Sacasa . The guns fell into the hands of the besiegers.

José Francisco del Montenegro was envoy from Rivas and Juan Ruiz was envoy from Granada near Malespín. The legation brokered the creation of a new government without the consent of the besieged León. Silvestre Selva Sacasa proposed to be made Director Supremo by Malespín and allies .

Silvestre Selva Sacasa became Director Supremo in Masaya , where the Partido Legitimista was staying.

Malespín added Francisco Castellón Sanabria as an outlaw to the surrender condition of December 1, 1844 . A series of skirmishes took place, which ended in favor of the aggressors. Malespín was furious at his failure to take León. León was continuously bombarded with cannons. He made one last attempt and launched an attack himself on the Sutiaba factories, which were defended under the command of Gerardo Barrios. After a few hours of hard fighting, the aggressors were repulsed and left the battlefield littered with dead and wounded.

In the besieged León there was no coordinated battle leadership. The competence of "Gran Mariscal" Casto Fonseca was sometimes questioned. José M. Valle, aka El Chelon , suggested that command be passed to José Trinidad Cabañas. Fonseca, feeling offended by the proposal, retired José M. Valle, suspecting cabañas. The siege and its horrors continued. The city surrendered to the attacks under Guardiola on January 24, 1845. Malespín had a number of prominent citizens of León fusilized and left the city to the pillaging and raping soldiers.

Gerardo Barrios and José Trinidad Cabañas managed to escape from besieged León to San Salvador. Gerardo Barrios convinced his father-in-law Joaquín Eufrasio Guzmán, the executive president. He ordered the capture of the Malespín brothers on February 2, 1845, and the Malespín replaced in the high command by José Trinidad Cabañas. On February 15, 1845, Malespín returned from the victorious campaign against León. The peace treaty was signed by José León Sandoval .

Fall

On February 17, 1845, the Senate admitted a lawsuit against Malespín and ordered the property of Malespín and its associates to be confiscated. The government declared traitors to anyone who would give refuge to Malespín. Parliament had annulled the election in which he was elected President and replaced Malespín with Vice-President Joaquín Eufrasio Guzmán. On February 23, 1845 , Archbishop Jorge Viteri y Ungo, Malesín, excommunicated because he had the Presbyterian Pedro Crespín fusilized and had sacred objects from the Church of Leon expropriated. Malespín fled to Honduras, where he was given asylum by President Coronado Chávez . In November 1846, with the help of José Rafael Carrera Turcios of the Partido Conservador , he tried to invade El Salvador. On the way to San Salvador , Malespín was killed in San Fernando, Chalatenango .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Lopez Bernal, Carlos Gregorio El levantamiento indigena de 1846 en Santiago Nonualco. Conflictos locales, etnicidad y lucha de facciones en El Salvador  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in Revista de Historia of July 1 2000  
2. ↑ La Prensa , 20 DE NOVIEMBRE DEL 2001 Historia de las elecciones ( Memento of the original dated December 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ en: Hubert Howe Bancroft , HISTORY OF CENTRAL AMERICA. VOL. III. 1801-1887 , THE HISTORY COMPANY, PUBLISHERS SAN FRANCISCO, 1887
4. ↑ Official biography (span.) ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

predecessor	Office	successor
Pedro Arce y Fagoaga	President of El Salvador February 7, 1844-25. October 1844	Joaquín Eufrasio Guzmán