Vicente Guerrero

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Vicente Guerrero
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In office April 1, 1829 – December 17, 1829
Vice President(s)	Anastasio Bustamante
Preceded by	Guadalupe Victoria
Succeeded by	José María Bocanegra

Born	August 10, 1782 Tixtla, Guerrero
Died	February 14, 1831 Cuilapam, Oaxaca
Political party	Popular
Spouse	Guadalupe Hernández

Vicente Ramón Guerrero Saldaña (10 August 1782 – 14 February 1831) was one of the leaders of Mexico's struggle for independence from Spain and an early President of Mexico. He was born in the town of Tixtla, some 100 km inland from the port of Acapulco, in the Sierra Madre Occidental. He was from a poor zambo (a mixture African & Amerindian descent) family. See: historian William Loren Katz.

He joined in the early revolt against Spain in 1810, first fighting alongside José María Morelos and then taking command over those troops after Morelos's death. The valiant resistance he displayed against the Spanish armies and the fact that he himself was a Mestizo made him a hero among the Mexicans who would rather deposit their trust to a fellow of the same race than to any other of the Criollos supporters of the revolution like Agustín de Iturbide in the central New Spain or Simón Bolívar at the south.

Once Mexico achieved independence, he at first collaborated with Agustín de Iturbide (he even accepted his Grand Cross of the Order of Guadalupe and the rank of General in his Imperial Army). After Iturbide was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico by the Congress, Guerrero later turned against him and came out in favor of a Republic with the Plan of Casa Mata.

When the conservative Manuel Gómez Pedraza won the election to succeed Guadalupe Victoria as president of Mexico, Guerrero, with the aid of General Antonio López de Santa Anna, staged a coup and took the presidency on 1 April 1829. (The violent nature of the coup displeased some Latin American liberals of the time who otherwise sympathised with Guerrero's goals, and his actions were condemned by Simón Bolívar.) The most notable achievement of Guerrero's short term as president was ordering an immediate abolition of slavery and emancipation of all slaves.

Guerrero was deposed in a rebellion under Vice-President Anastasio Bustamante that began on 4 December 1829. He left the capital to fight the rebels, but was deposed by the Mexico City garrison in his absence on December 17, 1829. He hoped to come back to power, but conservative General Bustamante captured him through bribery and had him executed.

The state of Guerrero is named after him, and his birthplace was renamed Tixtla de Guerrero in his honor.