Rafael Guillermo Urdaneta

Rafael Guillermo Urdaneta

Rafael Guillermo Urdaneta (born February 8, 1823 in Santa Fe de Bogotá , † March 10, 1862 in Barbacoas in the Municipio Urdaneta district (Aragua) ) was a commander in chief of the Venezuelan army , a politician and candidate for the Venezuelan presidency .

origin

Rafael Guillermo Urdaneta Vargas was the descendant of a Spanish immigrant family. His father, General Rafael Urdaneta, was a companion and close confidante of Simón Bolívar , who had risen to become general, minister of war and president of the Greater Colombian Congress. The mother Dolores Vargas París was also active in the independence movement of Greater Colombia.

youth

Rafael Guillermo Urdaneta received a thorough education at the Academia Militar in Caracas , which should qualify him for later political and military offices. In 1841 he entered the service of the Secretaría de Guerra de Venezuela. On leave, he accompanied his father to Europe from 1842 to 1845, who, as a diplomat, was in charge of concluding a friendship agreement with Spain . Rafael Guillermo Urdaneta used the three-year stay from Paris to travel extensively across Europe. In the summer of 1843 he toured Belgium , southwest Germany and Switzerland . A trip to Spain followed in autumn 1843. In 1845 he toured Italy , Greece , European Turkey and Austria-Hungary . The death of the father in October 1845 caused the return to Venezuela.

Military and political career

After his return, Rafael Guillermo Urdaneta continued his political career as a department head in the War Ministry. In 1848 he took an active part in the civil war as a captain of the infantry. In 1853 he was appointed 2nd commandant of the infantry. In 1857 Rafael Urdaneta resigned from the Ministry of War for a year, as he represented the province of Maracaibo in the National Congress as a member of parliament. After returning to the War Ministry, Rafael Guillermo Urdaneta rose to the rank of general and was named a presidential candidate in 1862. The escalating situation of the ongoing civil war required his personal intervention. On March 10, 1862, Rafael Guillermo Urdaneta fell in a skirmish between the "Guerra Federal" and the insurgents, the "Batalla de Barbacoas". In his memory, the district in which the battle took place in Babacoa was given the name "Municipio Rafael Guillermo Urdaneta", today a rural district with around 19,000 inhabitants.

Family and offspring

Rafael Guillermo Urdaneta married Merced de la Plaza on June 9, 1851. The eldest son Rafael died in childhood. Another son and daughter died in 1904 and 1937 without offspring.

swell

• Mario Briceño-Iragorry: Vida y Papeles de Urdaneta el Joven . Tipografia Americana, Caracas 1946.
• Honras Fúnebres del General Rafael G. Urdaneta . El Nacional, Caracas 1864.
• Kurt Nagel from Jess: Algunas familias maracaiberas , Universidad del Zulia, Facultad de Humanidades y Educación, 1969