Benito Juarez

(St. Paul Guelatao, Mexico, 1806-Mexico City, 1872) Mexican politician. Son of Marcelino Juarez and Brigida Garcia, humble Indian marriage, Benito Juárez was orphaned as a child and received his first schooling in his hometown.

I was twenty when he joined the Institute of Sciences of Oaxaca, where he graduated in law. His concern for the social and in particular the situation of peasants led him to express his liberal views and to participate actively in politics.

In 1831, Benito Juárez was elected alderman of the city of Oaxaca and the following year, deputy to the State Congress. The energy with which he defended the interests represented in 1846 earned him being deputy for Oaxaca to the Congress. A year later he was appointed governor of his home state, a position he held until 1852.

Benito Juarez

His opposition to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by which Mexico lost vast areas of its territory to the United States, found in the Liberal ranks channel and the defense of a federalist project. However, the Conservatives took power in 1853, commanded by General Santa Anna, and Juarez was forced into exile in Cuba.

After two years he returned and joined the Plan de Ayutla, whose signatories included generals Villarreal, Comonfort and Alvarez. By winning the pronouncement was appointed Minister of State and, under President Ignacio Comonfort, Minister of Justice. As such enacted a series of laws that restored freedoms of teaching, printing and work and nullified the privileges of the clergy and the army.

His legislative, which inspired the 1857 Constitution, a liberal, triggered the reaction of conservatives, who delivered the following year in the Tacubaya plan. Comonfort agreed with them, gave a coup and imprisoned Juárez, which was the trigger for the War of Reform. As president of the Supreme Court, Juarez, who had managed to escape, became the legitimate president, according to the Constitution, and established the government in Veracruz.

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