Juan José Flores Aramburu: Biography

Juan José Flores Aramburu He was the first republican president of Ecuador. This military man of Venezuelan origin was born in the city of Puerto Cabello on June 19, 1800 and died in Ecuador on October 1, 1864. Flores Aramburu was president of the Ecuadorian nation for three periods, two of them consecutive.

Flores Aramburu actively participated in the army of the Gran Colombia and was appointed colonel at a very young age, before turning 30 years old. He fought with Simon Bolivar for the independence of the region and, once obtained, was chosen to govern the southern district of the newly established Gran Colombia.

In 1830 this district of the south became the Republic of Ecuador, once it was definitively separated from the Gran Colombia. That is when Juan José Flores Aramburu remains as the president of this nation: this first presidential period he held from 1830 to 1834.

His government was characterized by important contributions to Ecuadorian society that had great significance. For example, in 1832 it annexed the Galapagos Islands to the Ecuadorian territory. In addition, in its second term of office the third Constitution of Ecuador was created, in the year 1843.

Among other elements, the Constitution promoted the lengthening of the presidential period, which is why the first signs of discontent towards Flores Aramburu were generated because the Ecuadorians did not see with good eyes the intention of this military man to perpetuate himself in power.

First years of Juan José Flores Aramburu

His mother, named Rita Flores, was originally from Puerto Cabello, while her father, Juan José Aramburu, was a Spanish merchant. The home where Juan José Flores Aramburu was born was very humble, and one of the few alternatives that young people had of their social status at that time was to enroll in the army.

At the age of 13 he joined the royalist army, which defended the riches extracted from the lands once snatched from the original inhabitants and sent to the Spanish Crown. In this way, Juan José Flores Aramburu was under the orders of the Spanish Empire.

Flores Aramburu, the military

Defending the interests of the conquerors, Juan José Flores participated in several battles, obtaining the rank of sergeant.

In one of the warlike encounters with the patriot army of Venezuela, he becomes a prisoner. As it happened in many cases, Juan José Flores made the decision to join the patriotic ranks.

Once in the patriotic army, Juan José Flores was under the command of José Antonio Páez, the centaur of the plains, brave and brave soldier.

It was under the command of the brave Páez that Juan José Flores grew up as a soldier, reaching the rank of captain and being decorated with the honorable Cruz de los Libertadores de América.

When he was just 21 years old he participated in the battle of Carabobo, held on June 24, 1821 and with which the patriot army definitively expelled the Spanish Empire from Venezuelan territory.

However, this does not quench the thirst for freedom of the patriotic army, which embarks on its journey to neighboring territories to continue the struggle for freedom and the dream of a South American union.

This is how in the year 1822 Flores Aramburu participates in Bomboná, in the current department of Nariño, Colombia, helping to reverse what seemed like a lost battle in a surprising triumph. And with barely 22 years old, the Liberator Simón Bolívar grants him the rank of colonel.

In the year 1823, Bolívar named him Comandante General de Pasto, territory bordering on what in the near future would become Ecuador. This appointment was thanks to the courage and military capacity that Flores Aramburu projected.

Then, the man with great diplomatic tact had managed in a minimum time to pacify the rebels of Pasto. After this he becomes the general quartermaster of the southern department.

From the Spanish Empire to the oligarchy

At that time, while the Venezuelan militia was expanding in the continent with soldiers forged for the fight for freedom, the oligarchies that own each region saw the process with suspicion.

There were landowners, wealthy merchants, customs agents and a nascent banking organization, marked by a deeply conservative spirit. This group laid its foundations on a thick layer of slavery and a heartless exploitation of the native population: the aboriginal peoples.

For four years, Colonel Flores is responsible for moving the pieces as on a chessboard, to find points of encounter and avoid friction. Now the struggle for freedom does not have to be fought on the battlefield but in politics.

In 1828, Peruvian General José de La Mar moved forward with a solid army to annex the rich port area of ​​Guayaquil, taking advantage of the fact that Bolívar was in northern Colombia.

The Venezuelan Antonio José de Sucre and Juan José Flores confront him in what is known as the Battle of Tarqui. The victory was overwhelming. And right there Flores, with 28 years old, is raised by Mariscal Sucre himself to the rank of general of division. With these actions grows the prestige of Juan José Flores in the Department of the South.

Marriage with Mercedes Jijón

Article 33 of the new Magna Carta established that a person not yet Ecuadorian by birth, could exercise the office of president, provided that he was married to an Ecuadorian by birth and, in addition, was a great Colombian who served the new State to the moment of your choice.

And perhaps because of the above or in search of acceptance among the traditional families of the region, Juan José Flores marries Mercedes Jijón de Vivanco and Chiriboga at 24 years of age.

Mercedes was a 13-year-old girl, the daughter of a landowner and merchant with a noble background in the Spanish house of Jijón, with whom she had 11 children.

The father of Ecuador

The confluence of a series of concatenated events leads Juan José Flores to become the founding father of Ecuador.

The murder of Antonio José de Sucre in Colombia on June 4, 1830 opens the way for Flores to a new political position.

Upon hearing the news, Simón Bolívar immediately wrote to Flores recommending that he know how to take care of the oligarchy of Pasto and El Paso, since they feel their interests affected by the presence of the liberating forces.

However, through negotiations and agreements, Juan José Flores manages to make a constituent from which the first Constitution of the State of Ecuador will be born on September 23, 1830.

This establishes the separation of the Gran Colombia, and the consolidation under the same flag of Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca. From that same event, Flores emerges as president of the new nation.

Juan José Flores Aramburu as president

From the taking of the presidency, Juan José Flores must face several enemies: the oligarchic groups of the region, the Catholic Church, the ambitious external enemies of the Ecuadorian lands and their personal enemies.

Juan José Flores was in the Ecuadorian presidency three times: between 1830 and 1834, elected by the Congress of 18 votes in favor; from January to April 1843, as provisional president; and from 1839 to 1845, with 34 of the 36 votes.

First government (1830-1834)

His first government was difficult: in 1831 he successfully faced a rebellion by Luis Urdaneta and in 1832 he waged a war with Colombia, which was not willing to lose a piece of its territory without opposing it.

In 1833 he severely punished several uprising battalions and struck with an iron fist the ideologues called utilitarians. In addition, he had to face the one who was his vice president, Vicente Rocafuerte, and disrupt the so-called Revolution of the Chihuahuas (1832-1834), and thus avoid a secession in the north of the country.

At the governmental level, it faces budget problems, creates several tax laws, creates a non-aggression pact between the different oligarchic groups and achieves the adhesion of the Galapagos Islands.

Second government (1843)

In his transitional mandate, Flores negotiates with his enemy Rocafuerte. You must also reduce an uprising in Pasto, to the north.

And if that were not enough, he must also face an epidemic of yellow fever that brought sailors from Guayaquil to Guayaquil, which decimated the port city.

Third government (1839-1845)

In his third term he obtains monetary laws and faces counterfeiters of the official currency. As president he also promotes a constituent and approves the Constitution of 1843, where he manages to pass an article that guarantees his reelection.

It imposes new taxes that favor the oligarchy of the Sierra against those of Guayaquil. It also builds public schools where the children of the Indians, slaves and poor mestizos could study for free.

In the end, in 1846 a movement is organized against him and he is expelled from power. A document called Popular Pronouncement of Guayaquil, and Flores Aramburu goes into exile.

He lives in Europe, then travels to the United States, Venezuela and Chile, while forging plans to regain power in Ecuador. All are failing, but in 1860 the situation had become very difficult within the Ecuadorian borders.

There were four groups contesting the government, and the president of the moment, García Moreno, asks for his help.

Flores leads an army and defeats General Guillermo Franco who, with the support of France, was in the port area. That action was called the Battle of Guayaquil.

Three years later, at 63, he must leave his retirement to command the army again to fight against the Colombian militias, and is defeated in the fields of Cuaspud.

The last fight

He still lacked his last fight. At age 64, he faces a group of rebels in the south of the country that was advancing through El Oro and in the area known as El Jelí.

In battle he is wounded. They climb it to the Smyrk steamer and pass away to Guayaquil, in front of the island of Puná, at midnight on October 1, 1864.

Juan José Flores Aramburu, a military man and practically self-taught politician of the war, spent his life struggling in the fields and at the negotiating tables to achieve an ideal: a consolidated and unique Ecuador.

References

1. Aviles Pino, Efrén (s / f) Gral. Juan José Flores. Encyclopedia of Ecuador. Retrieved from: encyclopediadelecuador.com
2. General Correspondence of the Liberator Simón Bolívar (1875) Volume Two. NY. Print of Eduardo O. Jenkim Recovered in: books.google.es
3. Salamé Ruiz, Gil Ricardo (2008) End of life of Antonio José de Sucre. Retrieved from: aporrea.org
4. Van Aken, Mark J (1998) King of the Night Juan José Flores & Ecuador 1824-1864. University of California Press. USA. Retrieved from: books.google.com