José de Fábrega

José de Fábrega

José de Fábrega (born October 19, 1774 in Santiago de Veraguas , † March 11, 1841 ) was a Panamanian statesman. He is considered the hero of Panama's independence from Spain.

Fábrega began his military career at a very early age. His father was given permission to make his son José an officer candidate when he was only three years old. In 1789, at the age of 15, he was made lieutenant . From 1814 Fábrega served as governor in the city of Santiago de Veraguas , a stronghold of those loyal to Spain, like Fábrega himself. In 1815 he was promoted to first lieutenant and in 1821 to major general .

On November 10, 1821, the town of La Villa de Los Santos on the Azuero peninsula declared its independence from the Spanish crown with the primer Grito de Independencia en la Villa de Los Santos . Instead of - as expected - suppressing the independence movement, Fábrega entered into talks. The advocates of independence convinced him, so that Fábrega called on November 26, 1821 a meeting of representatives of all Panamanian cities. There they declared independence from Spain on November 28th and at the same time joined the Bolivarian Greater Colombia . Simón Bolívar accepted this, appointed Fábrega as governor and commander in chief of the province of Panama and awarded him the honorary title "Liberator of the isthmus". In 1830 the Federation of Greater Colombia dissolved, Fábrega suppressed the movement of General José Domingo Espinar , who wanted to detach Panama from Greater Colombia.

From 1832 to 1835 Fábrega was governor of Santiago de Veraguas . In 1837 and 1838 he represented Veraguas in the Senate.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Thomas M. Leonard: Historical dictionary of Panama . Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham 2015, ISBN 978-0-8108-7834-1 , pp. 121 .