Manuel Enrique Araujo

Manuel Enrique Araujo (born October 12, 1865 in Alegría, Usulután Department , † February 9, 1913 in San Salvador ) was a doctor and from March 1, 1911 to February 9, 1913 President of El Salvador .

biography

He was the only President of El Salvador to be assassinated while in office. His family were landowners, of Portuguese origin, who later devoted themselves to growing coffee. Araujo was the owner of the Hacienda Condadillo in the area of ​​the village Mercedes Umaña in the Districto Berlin , which he sold to one of his nephews, Modesto Araujo, who bequeathed it to his son José Luz Araujo.

Araujo studied at the Universidad de El Salvador . After obtaining his doctorate in medicine, he specialized in surgery in Europe . Araujo ran for president in November 1910, with the support of outgoing President Fernando Figueroa. Araujo's candidacy took account of popular discontent with the Figueroa presidency. Araujo was elected with great participation. Araujo represented progressive, liberal politics. During his presidency he opposed the US intervention in Nicaragua . He abolished prison sentences for indebtedness and introduced compensation for accidents while working on the land. He introduced general conscription , which was previously limited to the poor. Interior Minister was Miguel Tomás Molina. Minister of War was General Ing. José María Peralta, who was the author of the book La muerte de la tórtola (The Death of the Turtle Dove). Foreign military advisers were hired to conduct the training and technical preparation of the Salvadoran military . In 1912 he founded the Guardia Nacional , to which he appointed officers of the Spanish Guardia Civil , based on whose model it was to serve as a land police. During Araujo's term of office, Juzgados de paz (lay courts, which were allowed to impose fines) were installed in all Municipios, (districts) to ensure compliance with the law. Miguel Mármol reported that the Guardia Nacional would have been honorable at the time and that the decline in the values ​​of the repressive organs only began in the Meléndez-Quinjónez dynasty .

The Ministerio de Agricultura (Ministry of Agriculture) was founded to promote the cultivation of coffee. In 1911, one hundred years of independence was celebrated with the inauguration of the monument of the Próceres (avant-garde) in Parque Libertad in San Salvador. In 1912 the current flag and seal of El Salvador were legally established.

On February 4, 1913, during a concert in Parque Bolívar (today's Plaza Barrios ), the President was fatally injured by blows with a machete and died five days later. The farmers Virgilio Mulatillo, Fermín Pérez and Fabián Graciano were executed after a military tribunal . The background to the murder remained unexplored. Mármol reports that the perpetrators, a handful of Native American illiterates, trained on coconuts at the instigators' haciendas. Mármol's mother had worked as a cook for Araujo. Mármol quotes his mother as follows: “Nobody knows who El Salvador has lost - may God accept him into his kingdom. He operated on my aunt and saved her life. He didn't take a centavo for it. ”.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Roque Dalton Miguel Marmol. Los sucedes de 1932 en El Salvador at EDUCA in San José, Costa Rica, 1993. p.54
2. ↑ José María Peralta LA MUERTE DE LA TORTOLA O MALANDANZAS DE UN CORRESPONSAL
3. ↑ Roque Dalton The world is a limping centipede. The Century of Miguel Mármol , translated from Salvadoran Spanish by Michael Schwahn and Andreas Simmen, Rotpunktverlag Zurich March 1997. p. 37.

predecessor	Office	successor
Fernando Figueroa	President of El Salvador 1911–1913	Carlos Meléndez