Manuel José Arce

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Manuel José Arce y Fagoaga

Manuel José Arce y Fagoaga (January 1, 1787, San Salvador—December 14, 1847, San Salvador) was president of the Federal Republic of Central America from 1825 to 1829.

1 Background
2 Independence movement
3 As president
4 Later life
5 External links

[edit] Background

Arce was the son of Bernardo José de Arce y Antonia Fagoaga. He was born in what is now El Salvador. In 1801 he was sent to Guatemala to continue his education. There he graduated in philosophy from the Colegio de San Francisco Borja. He began the study of medicine at the Universidad de San Carlos de Borromeo, but these studies were interrupted in 1807 when he was called back to the family estates because of the health of his father. In December 1808 in San Salvador he married Felipa de Aranzamendi y Aguiar.

[edit] Independence movement

Arce was an early participant in the movement for independence from Spain, joining in the first Cry for Independence on November 5, 1811 in San Salvador. The insurrection was led by his uncle, José Matías Delgado, the provincial vicar of San Salvador. The rebels held the government for nearly a month before royal authority was restored from Guatemala. Arce was also involved in a second insurrection that began January 22, 1814. This cost him four years in prison.

He strongly opposed the incorporation of El Salvador into the Mexican Empire of Agustín de Iturbide. In April 1822 Colonel Manuel Arzú, in command of Guaemalan troops supporting annexation to Mexico, occupied the Salvadoran cities of Santa Ana and Sonsonate. On June 3, 1822, Arzú entered San Salvador, reaching the Plaza Major. Nine hours of fighting resulted in many casualties, burned houses and plundering, but the Guatemalans then withdrew. Colonel Arce was one of the commanders of the Salvadoran defenders.

However, his forces were defeated in early 1823.

Arce was also a member of the delegation sent to the United States to request annexation by that country. (The government of El Salvador had requested annexation by the United States on December 2, 1822.)

In October 1823 he left the United States to return to El Salvador. He stopped at the Mexican port of Tampico, where he tried unsuccessfully to raise a force to liberate Cuba from Spanish rule.

[edit] As president

Also in October 1823, Arce was elected a member of the executive triumvirate of Central America, in absentia. He took up this position on March 15, 1824 on his return to the country, serving until October 20, 1824. During this time the government succeeded in pacifying Nicaragua, without a shot being fired.

Federal presidential elections were held in 1825, and the Honduran Conservative José Cecilio del Valle apparently won the most votes. The Liberals, however, controlled the federal Congress, and they decided that Valle had not won an absolute majority. They chose Arce as president. He served from April 29, 1825 to April 13, 1829, but the manner of his election made his administration controversial from the start.

In spite of being a Liberal himself, he soon lost the support of the Liberals in Congress. After 1826 neither house of the federal Congress met. Arce obtained some support from the clergy and the Conservative Party, but there were difficulties with the State of Guatemala. He deposed the Guatemalan state governor, Juan Barrundia, a Liberal, and replaced him with a Conservative. The Salvadoran state government rebelled, beginning a civil war that lasted from 1826 to 1829.

In 1828 he called on Vice President Mariano Beltranena y Llano to exercise the functions of president temporarily. When Arce wanted to resume the office, Beltranena refused to turn it over. In 1829 Francisco Morazán Quesada took power by force of arms and named José Francisco Barrundia y Cepeda provisional president of the federation. Arce was briefly jailed, his property was confiscated, and he was exiled. He sailed for New Orleans, residing first in the United States, and later in Mexico. In Mexico in 1830 he published his autobiographical Memoria.

[edit] Later life

In 1832 he was in Soconusco (part of the Mexican state of Chiapas), where he organized a military expedition against the federal government of Francisco Morazán. His force was defeated February 24, 1832.

He did not finally return to El Salvador until the end of 1842. Soon thereafter he was forced to flee to Honduras and Guatemala. In April and May 1844 he directed some armed attempts to overthrow General Francisco Malespín in El Salvador. He returned again to the country in the middle of 1845. He left politics for private life in 1846, working on his book Brief Indications for the Reorganization of Central America (San Salvador, 1847).

Arce died in poverty in San Salvador in 1847. His remains were interred at La Merced Church in San Salvador. On November 28, 1947 the Legislature elevated the town of El Chilamatal to a city, renaming it in the process Ciudad Arce.