Benito Juarez

BENITO JUAREZ

(San Pablo Guelatao, Mexico, 1806-Mexico City, 1872) Mexican politician. Son of Marcelino Juárez and Brigida Garcia, marriage humble Indian, Benito Juárez was orphaned as a child andpursued his studies in his hometown.

He was twenty years old when he entered the Oaxaca Institute of Science, where he graduated in law. His concern for social reality and in particular thesituation of farmers led him to express his liberal views and actively participate in politics.

In 1831 Benito Juárez was elected alderman of the city of Oaxaca and the following year, a deputy to theState Congress. The energy with which he defended the interests represented in 1846 earned him being a Member of Oaxaca to the Congress. A year later he was appointed governor of his home state, aposition he held until 1852.
His opposition to the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by which Mexico lost vast areas of its territory to the United States, found the channel in the Liberal ranks and in thedefense of a federal project. However, the Conservatives took power in 1853, under the leadership of General Santa Anna, Juárez was forced into exile in Cuba.

After two years he returned and joinedthe plan Ayutla, whose signatories included the generals Villarreal, Comonfort and Alvarez. By winning the pronouncement was appointed Minister of State and, under the presidency of Ignacio Comonfort,Minister of Justice. As such a series of laws passed that restored the freedom of education, printing and work and annulled the privileges of the clergy and the military.

Their laws, which inspiredthe 1857 Constitution, a liberal, triggered the reaction from conservatives, who delivered the following year in the plan Tacubaya. Comonfort negotiated with them, gave a coup and imprisoned Juárez,which was the trigger of 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...