JUAN JOSÉ FLORES ARAMBURU: BIOGRAPHY - HISTORY - 2025

Juan José Flores Aramburu 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 terms, two of them consecutive.

Flores Aramburu actively participated in the army of Gran Colombia and was appointed colonel at a very young age, before he was 30 years old. He fought together with Simón Bolívar for the independence of the region and, once obtained, he was elected to govern the southern district of the recently established Gran Colombia.

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

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

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

Childhood

His mother, named Rita Flores, was a native of Puerto Cabello, while his 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 of his social condition had at that time was to join the army.

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

Flores Aramburu, the military man

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 is taken prisoner. As happened in many cases, Juan José Flores made the decision to join the patriotic ranks.

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

It was under the command of the brave Páez that Juan José Flores grew up as a military man, reaching the rank of captain and being decorated with the honorable Cross of the Liberators of America.

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 patriot army, which embarks on its journey to neighboring territories to continue the fight for freedom and the dream of a South American union.

This is how in 1822 Flores Aramburu participated in Bomboná, in the current department of Nariño, Colombia, helping to reverse what seemed like a lost battle in a surprising triumph. And at just 22 years old, the Liberator Simón Bolívar himself granted him the rank of colonel.

In 1823 Bolívar appointed him commander general of Pasto, a bordering territory with what would become Ecuador in the near future. This appointment was thanks to the courage and military capacity that Flores Aramburu projected.

Immediately afterwards, the man with great diplomatic acumen had succeeded in pacifying the rebels in Pasto in the shortest time. After this, he became the mayor of the southern department.

From the Spanish Empire to the oligarchy

At that time, while the Venezuelan militia expanded on the continent with soldiers forged to fight for freedom, the oligarchies that owned each region viewed 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 indigenous population: the aboriginal peoples.

For four years, Colonel Flores was in charge of moving the pieces like on a chess board, to find meeting points and avoid friction. Now the fight for freedom does not have to be fought on the battlefield but in politics.

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

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, 28 years old, is elevated by Mariscal Sucre himself to the rank of general of division. With these actions the prestige of Juan José Flores grows in the South Department.

Marriage with Mercedes Jijón

Article 33 of the new Magna Carta established that a person not yet being Ecuadorian by birth, could exercise the office of president, as long as he was married to an Ecuadorian by birth and, in addition, was a Gran Colombian who served the new State to the time 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 y 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 assassination 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 create a constituent from which the first Constitution of the State of Ecuador will be born, on September 23, 1830.

In this, the separation of Greater Colombia is established, and the consolidation under the same flag of Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca. From that same event, Flores emerged as president of the new nation.

Presidency

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

Juan José Flores was in the Ecuadorian presidency three times: between 1830 and 1834, elected by Congress with 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 fought a war with Colombia, which was not willing to lose a piece of its territory without opposing it.

In 1833 he harshly punished several uprising battalions and struck with an iron fist the ideologues called utilitarians. In addition, he had to confront his former 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.

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

Second government (1843)

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

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

Third government (1839-1845)

In his third term he achieves 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 re-election.

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

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

He lives in Europe, then travels to the United States, Venezuela and Chile, while hatching plans to retake power in Ecuador. Everyone is failing them, 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, requested 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 the age of 63, he must come out of retirement to command the army again to fight against the Colombian militias, and is defeated in the fields of Cuaspud.

The last contest

His last contest was still missing. At 64 he must face 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 the heat of battle he is wounded. Smyrk is put on the steamer and he dies on his way to Guayaquil, off the island of Puná, at midnight on October 1, 1864.

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

References

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