Biografía De Eloy Alfaro En Inglés

BIOGRAPHY ABOUT ELOY ALFARO
José Eloy Alfaro was born on June 25, 1842, in Montecristi in the coastal province of Manabi. His father, Manuel Alfaro, was a Spaniard who came to the town as a buyer ofstraw hats and settled down to live with Natividad Delgado, a girl with mixed white, Indian, and African ancestry. They had eight children, and their common-law marriage was legalized through achurch wedding in 1863.
Eloy Alfaro was 22 years old when he started his revolutionary career by taking prisoner the governor of the province. From then till 1889, he was constantly engaged in efforts tosubvert the successive governments of Ecuador, either as an independent guerrilla leader, as an officer in a bigger revolutionary movement, or as the backer of other revolutionaries. His originallysuccessful business ventures in Panama and his marriage there to Doña Ana Paredes y Arosemena gave him the financial means to pursue these activities. Even though he invariably failed, his constantactivity led to his recognition by liberals as a general, and his prestige further increased as a result of contacts with outstanding liberal revolutionaries from other countries.
Alfaro occupied thepresidency from September 1895 until January 1901. His successor, Gen. Leónidas Plaza, had been his first choice for the post, but at the last moment he pressed for Plaza's withdrawal. Alfaro wasunsuccessful, and relations between the two men remained cool. When, in 1905, Plaza handed over the presidency to his own candidate, Lizardo García, Alfaro overthrew the new president within 4 months and onJan. 17, 1906, assumed that office himself.
Alfaro did not deserve the way he died, but he certainly had been courting a violent death. With the exception of his years in the presidency, he had beena threat to his country's political stability for 50 years. As president, he condoned and occasionally even ordered political murders. Under him rapacious militarism became the curse of the country,...