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<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404700708.html" title="Facts and informations about Antonio Guzmán Blanco">Antonio Guzmán Blanco</a>

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Antonio Guzmán Blanco

Antonio Guzmán Blanco (1829-1899) was a Venezuelan political leader who effectively dominated his country from 1870 to 1889. This period saw the first truly national government of Venezuela and a great surge of economic activity and material progress.

Antonio Guzmán Blanco was born to an aristocratic family in Caracas. His father, Antonio Leocadio Guzmán, was a leading Venezuelan intellectual, editor, and Liberal party spokesman. Young Antonio, very well educated in both law and medicine, saw that Venezuela's intermittent civil wars and revolutions were retarding its progress.

In 1859, a year after the ouster of dictator José Tadeo Monagas, Venezuela was again torn by civil strife—the Federalist War—and Guzmán Blanco joined the federalists, first as secretary and finally as virtual partner of federalist chief Gen. Juan Falcón. In 1863 Guzmán Blanco entered Caracas in triumph at the head of his army.

While Falcón was elected president, Guzmán Blanco took an important financial post and helped draw up the new federalist constitution of 1864. Later that year he was sent to England to negotiate a loan of £1,500,000, on which he received a fat commission. When he returned to Caracas, Falcón entrusted to him the economic reorganization and developmental planning of the nation.

Guzmán Blanco was again in Europe when he learned in late 1868 of a conservative revolution which had displaced the Falcón regime. Returning to Venezuela, he was soon chief of the liberal, federalist counterrevolution. In early April 1870 he again entered the capital in triumph. This time, however, he would not withdraw from power.

The Caudillo

Assuming the presidency, Guzmán Blanco determined to halt the political instability which had so long hampered the progress of his nation. By 1873, after quelling several revolts and restricting the traditional power of the provincial, landed oligarchy, he became the first truly national ruler, able to implement national programs.

In 1873, with the country pacified and the army now an instrument of the national government, Guzmán Blanco decreed universal manhood suffrage and direct election of the president. As a reward, he was elected president himself by a huge majority in April.

With this fresh and overwhelming mandate, he began to carry forward his ideas, striking first at the Church. Anticlerical like his father, he determined to limit the political and economic power of the Catholic Church in Venezuela. In short order the archbishop and papal nuncio were in exile for resisting his authority, and he established state control of education, civil marriage, and closure of the religious orders, finally closing the seminaries as well. While Guzmán Blanco never carried out his threat to nationalize the Church, he limited its power to its religious duties—a prime liberal goal.

In his first term Guzmán Blanco attempted to build up a personal political party to institutionalize his following but was largely unsuccessful. After allowing a chosen puppet to rule from 1877 to 1879, Guzmán Blanco reassumed the presidency from 1879 to 1884. From 1884 to 1886 he allowed Gen. Joaquín Crespo to be president and again resumed the presidency in 1886, ruling until 1888, when another puppet took over and Guzmán Blanco traveled again to Europe.

With his European contacts and his vision of the future, Guzmán Blanco's iron control of Venezuela began to bear fruit in development, stimulating European investment, loans, and increased trade. The stability he enforced worked economic miracles, and his government enacted good tariffs, built better roads, created a banking system, beautified Caracas, and maintained a glittering, cosmopolitan court.

The costs of this economic progress were high. Political repression, censorship, jailings, and exile were common as Guzmán Blanco enforced his vision upon his country. Prosperity was largely confined to the upper classes; the President himself obviously was prospering.

Bolstered by being named governor of several provinces and president of the National University, the "Illustrious American," as Guzmán Blanco was called, found himself faced—while in Paris in 1889—with a revolution led by his own puppet. Making a realistic estimate, Guzmán Blanco determined to remain in Paris with his sizable fortune rather than confront the rebellion.

While his country backslid into political chaos and much of his work was undone, Guzmán Blanco lived on in Paris, dying there in 1899.

	Body Snatchers. Magazine article from: Latin Trade; 7/1/2000; ; 212 words ; ...will not be the last. Julio C[acute{e}]sar Guzm[acute{a}]n, a technology writer and editor...Internet company, says the 31-year-old Guzm[acute{a}]n, whose recruitment came just...as the region's best online news source. Guzm[acute{a}]n's departure stands as a wake-... Read more
	Pezoa Bissieres, Alvaro (Editor): Etica Empresarial. Enfoques desde la Alta Direccion.(Reseña de libro) Magazine article from: Mensaje; 1/1/2006; ; 700+ words ; ...ponencias de Ricardo Claro y José Antonio Guzmán. La segunda se dedica al...de Segismundo Schulin-Zeuthen, Antonio Recabarren y Renzo Corona. La...menciona. Por su parte, José Antonio Guzmán trata en forma bastante... Read more
	Embate de la ultraderecha.(TT: Attack of the extreme right.) Magazine article from: Proceso; 4/21/2002; ; 700+ words ; ...arzobispo Juan) Sandoval y (el presidente de la Comisión Especial de Seguimiento del Congreso de Jalisco, Fernando Antonio Guzmán) logran que prevalezcan sus 'certezas morales' y sus intereses respaldados por gángsters y criminales de... Read more
	El grupo Tribu musicaliza a Juan Diego. (Teatro).(TT: Tribu group plays the music for the Juan Diego. (Theater).)(Artículo Breve) Magazine article from: Proceso; 6/9/2002; ; 700 words ; ...sencilla del siglo XVI. Nos asesoramos de musicólogos importantes, como Aurelio Tello y nuestro amigo José Antonio Guzmán, que toca clavecín, profesor de la Escuela Nacional de Música en la UNAM, con quien elaboramos un proyecto... Read more
	El juez Juan Guzmán, un conservador.(TT: Judge Juan Guzman, a conservative.) Magazine article from: Proceso; 2/4/2001; ; 700+ words ; ...hasta el final , declaró el juez Juan Guzmán Tapia el 8 de octubre de 1999, refiri...y secuestros. Hasta enero de 1998, Juan Guzmán era un juez desconocido. Pero acogi...n a España, recayó en el juez Guzmán la última posibilidad de llevar... Read more
	Las sombras del caudillo.(La conspiración de la fortuna)(Reseña de libro) Magazine article from: Proceso; 9/11/2005; ; 700+ words ; ...Camín es nuestro Martín Luis Guzmán. En los dos extremos del azaroso...críticas del régimen --la de Guzmán de sus inicios, la de Aguilar Cam...de su convivencia con el poder. Tanto Guzmán como Aguilar Camín iniciaron... Read more
	La defensa de Pinochet: antes muerto que sentenciado.(Augusto Pinochet, dictador, Chile)(TT: Pinochet's defense: death before sentencing.)(TA: Augusto Pinochet, dictator, Chile)(Entrevista) Magazine article from: Proceso; 12/10/2000; ; 700+ words ; La orden del juez Guzmán, un triunfo inesperado Santiago...calificados. La decisión del juez Juan Guzmán Tapia, anunciada el 1 de diciembre...estudiaba una reconvención al juez Guzmán por diversas causas... En Mé... Read more
	El doble juego del gobierno colombiano: las declaraciones del embajador de Colombia en México, Luis Ignacio Guzmán, sobre la presencia en la UNAM de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), son parte de una estrategia del gobierno de Álvaro Uribe: aislar a las FARC y presionar al gobierno de Vicente Fox para que las declare "grupo terrorista". (Relaciones Exteriores). Magazine article from: Proceso; 7/20/2003; ; 700+ words ; ...de Colombia en México, Luis Ignacio Guzmán Ramírez, se comunicó con...protestado por las declaraciones del embajador Guzmán, al que calificó de ignorante...este asunto , comentó el embajador Guzmán. Más: Hasta donde yo sé... Read more
	Aduanas: los deslindes, el miedo ...(investigación por narcotráfico contra el comerciante Zhenli Ye Gon) Magazine article from: Proceso; 8/26/2007; ; 700+ words ; ...exadministrador general de Aduanas, José Guzmán Montalvo, reaparece cada vez que...funcionarios, algunos de los cuales trabajaron con Guzmán Montalvo, tratan de encubrir los...del sistema nacional aduanero, José Guzmán Montalvo, quienes aún ocupan... Read more
	Los Guzmán García, campaneros de abolengo. Magazine article from: Contenido; 6/1/2005; ; 700+ words ; ...225;ntas campanas han fabricado Javier Guzmán García y sus antepasados. En...de 1865, cuando el bisabuelo José Guzmán fundió e instaló una campana...pertenece Tizapán), donde José Guzmán instaló 7 campanas hechas por... Read more