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Lic. Benito Juárez García
President of Mexico
In office 15 January 1858 – 10 April 1864
Preceded by	Ignacio Comonfort
Succeeded by	Maximilian I of Mexico
In office 15 May 1867 – 18 July 1872
Preceded by	Maximilian I of Mexico
Succeeded by	Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada
Prime Minister of Mexico
In office 10 April 1864 – 15 May 1867
Monarch	Maximilian I
Preceded by	Himself as President of Mexico
Succeeded by	Himself as President of Mexico
Personal details
Born	(1806-03-21)21 March 1806 San Pablo Guelatao, Oaxaca
Died	18 July 1872(1872-07-18) (aged 66) Mexico City, Federal District
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Margarita Maza
Domestic partner	Juana Rosa Chagoya

Benito Juárez (Spanish pronunciation: [beˈnito ˈxwaɾes]; 21 March 1806 – 18 July 1872)^[1][2] born Benito Pablo Juárez García, was a Mexican lawyer and politician of Zapotec origin from Oaxaca who served five terms as president of Mexico: 1858–1861 as interim, then 1861–1865, 1865–1867, 1867–1871 and 1871–1872.^[3] He resisted the French occupation of Mexico, overthrew the Second Mexican Empire, restored the Republic, and used liberal efforts to modernize the country.

Early life[link]

Juárez was born on 21 March 1806 in a small adobe home in the village of San Pablo Guelatao, Oaxaca, located in the mountain range now known as the "Sierra Juárez". His parents, Marcelino Juárez and Brígida García, were peasants who both died of complications of diabetes when he was three years old. Shortly after, his grandparents died as well , and his uncle then raised him.^[4][5] He described his parents as "indios de la raza primitiva del país," that is, "Indians of the original race of the country."^[5] He worked in the corn fields and as a shepherd until the age of 12, when he walked to the city of Oaxaca de Juárez to attend school.^[3] At the time, he was illiterate and could not speak Spanish, only Zapotec.

In the city, where his sister worked as a cook, he took a job as a domestic servant for Antonio Maza.^[3] A lay Franciscan, Antonio Salanueva, was impressed with young Benito's intelligence and thirst for learning, and arranged for his placement at the city's seminary. In 1843 Benito married Margarita Maza.

Political career[link]

Benito Juárez with his sister Nela (left) and his wife Margarita (right), 1843

Juárez became a lawyer in 1834 and a judge in 1841.^[6] He was governor of the state of Oaxaca from 1847 to 1852; in 1853, he went into exile because of his objections to the corrupt military dictatorship of Antonio López de Santa Anna.^[7] He spent his exile in New Orleans, Louisiana, working in a cigar factory.^[8] In 1854 he helped draft the Plan of Ayutla as the basis for a liberal revolution in Mexico.^[7]

Faced with groin pains, Santa Anna resigned in 1855 and Juárez returned to Mexico. The winning party, the liberales (liberals) formed a provisional government under General Juan Álvarez, inaugurating the period known as La Reforma. The Reform laws sponsored by the puro (pure) wing of the Liberal Party curtailed the power of the Catholic Church and the military, while trying to create a modern civil society and capitalist economy based on the model of the United States. The Ley Juárez (Law of Juárez) of 1855 declared all citizens equal before the law and severely restricted the privileges of the Catholic Church. All the efforts ended on the promulgation of the new federalist Constitution of 1857. Juárez became Chief Justice, under moderado (moderate) president Ignacio Comonfort.

The conservatives led by General Félix Zuloaga, with the backing of the military and the clergy, launched a revolt under the Plan of Tacubaya on 17 December 1857. Comonfort did not want to start a bloody civil war, so he contrived an auto-coup d'état, dissolved the congress and appointed a new cabinet in which the conservative party would have some influence, assuming in real terms the Tacubaya plan. Juárez, Ignacio Olvera, and many other deputies and ministers were arrested. The rebels wanted the constitution revoked completely and another all-conservative government formed, so they launched another revolt on 11 January 1858 that proclaimed Zuloaga as president. Comonfort re-established the congress, freed all prisoners and resigned as president. Under the old constitution, the chief justice immediately became interim president until proper elections could be made. By this means, Juárez took office in late January 1858. Juárez then led the liberal side in the Mexican War of the Reform, first from Querétaro and later from Veracruz. In 1859, Juárez took the radical step of declaring the confiscation of church properties. In spite of the conservatives' initial military advantage, the liberals drew on support of regionalist forces. They had U.S. help under some terms of the controversial and never approved McLane–Ocampo Treaty. This turned the tide in 1860; the liberals recaptured Mexico City in January 1861. Juárez was finally properly elected president in March for another four-year term under the Constitution of 1857.

Spain, Great Britain, and France reacted with a joint seizure of the Veracruz customs house in December 1861. Spain and Britain soon withdrew after realizing that the French Emperor Napoleon III used the episode as a pretext to launch the French intervention in Mexico in 1862, with plans to establish a conservative regime. The Mexicans won an initial victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862, celebrated annually as Cinco de Mayo (May 5). The French advanced again in 1863, forcing Juárez and his elected government to retreat to the north, first to San Luis Potosí, then to the arid northern city of El Paso del Norte, present day Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and finally to the capital of the state, Chihuahua City, where he set up his cabinet and government-in-exile. There he would remain for the next two and a half years. Meanwhile Maximilian von Habsburg, a younger brother of the Emperor of Austria, was proclaimed Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico on 20 April 1864 with the backing of Napoleon III and a group of Mexican conservatives. Before Juárez fled, Congress granted him an emergency extension of his presidency, which would go into effect in 1865, when his term expired, and last until 1867, when the last of Maximilian's forces were defeated.

Monument to Benito Juarez.

Mosaic chronicling the life & challenges of Benito Juárez. Oaxaca, Mexico.

In response to the French invasion and the elevation of Maximilian, Juárez sent General Plácido Vega y Daza to the U.S. State of California to gather Mexican American sympathy for Mexico's plight. Maximilian, who personally harbored liberal and Mexican nationalist sympathies, offered Juárez amnesty, and later the post of prime minister, but Juárez refused to accept either a government "imposed by foreigners" or a monarchy. A Mexican throne had existed long before him, founded by Emperor Augustin I of Mexico after independence had been achieved in 1821, but was abolished only a year later during a domestic crisis. With the American Civil War now over, President Andrew Johnson invoked the Monroe Doctrine to give diplomatic recognition to the Juárez government and supply weapons and funding to the Republican forces. When he could get no support in Congress, he supposedly had the Army "lose" some supplies (including rifles) "near" (across) the border with Mexico (Gen. Philip Sheridan wrote in his journal about how he "misplaced" about 30,000 muskets).^[9] Johnson would not even meet with representatives sent from Maximilian. Faced with this and a growing threat from Prussia, the French troops began pulling out of Mexico in late 1866. Mexican conservatism was a spent force and was less than pleased with the liberal Maximilian. In 1867 the last of the Emperor's forces were defeated and Maximilian was sentenced to death by a military court. Despite national and international pleas for amnesty, Juárez refused to commute the sentence, and Maximilian was executed by firing squad on 19 June 1867 at Cerro de las Campanas in Querétaro. His body was returned to Europe for burial. His last words had been, '¡Viva México!'

Juárez was controversially re-elected President in 1867 and 1871, using the office of the presidency to ensure electoral success and suppressing revolts by opponents such as Porfirio Díaz. Benito Juárez died of a heart attack in 1872 while reading a newspaper social section at his desk in the National Palace in Mexico City. He was succeeded by Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, his foreign minister.

Legacy[link]

Today Benito Juárez is remembered as being a progressive reformer dedicated to democracy, equal rights for his nation's indigenous peoples, his antipathy toward organized religion, especially the Catholic Church, and what he regarded as defense of national sovereignty. The period of his leadership is known in Mexican history as La Reforma del Norte (The Reform of the North), and constituted a liberal political and social revolution with major institutional consequences: the expropriation of church lands, the subordination of army to civilian control, liquidation of peasant communal land holdings, the separation of church and state in public affairs, and also the almost-complete disenfranchisement of bishops, priests, nuns and lay brothers.^{[citation needed]}

Tomb of Benito Juárez

La Reforma represented the triumph of Mexico's liberal, federalist, anti-clerical, and pro-capitalist forces over the conservative, centralist, corporatist, and theocratic elements that sought to reconstitute a locally-run version of the old colonial system. It replaced a semi-feudal social system with a more market-driven one, but following Juárez's death, the lack of adequate democratic and institutional stability soon led to a return to centralized autocracy and economic exploitation under the regime of Porfirio Díaz. The Porfiriato (Porfirist era), in turn, collapsed at the beginning of the Mexican Revolution.

21 March is a day set to commemorate Juárez. This date has become a national holiday in Mexico, which has continued to grow in acceptance within Mexican culture.

In Washington, D.C., there is a monument by Enrique Alciati, a gift to the US from Mexico.^[10]

Quotations[link]

Monument to Juárez, Mexico City.

Juárez's famous quotation continues to be well-remembered in Mexico: "Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz", meaning "Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace." The portion of this motto in bold is inscribed on the coat of arms of Oaxaca.

"Law has always been my shield and my sword" is a phrase often reproduced as decoration inside court and tribunals buildings.^{[citation needed]}

People and Places named after Juárez

• A great number of cities, towns, streets, institutions, and other things are named after Benito Juárez, including the former El Paso del Norte, now called Ciudad Juárez; see Juárez (disambiguation) for a partial list.
• Mexico City International Airport is better known in Mexico by its first official name Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez, or internationally often as Mexico City Juárez.
• Benito Juárez Partido is an Argentinian provincial subdivision in Buenos Aires Province and its capital city is also named Benito Juárez Town after Juárez, as a gesture of friendship between Argentina and Mexico.
• The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was named after Juárez.^[11]
• Benito Juárez Marg is a major road in South Delhi near Dhaula Kuan.

See also[link]

	Mexico portal
	Biography portal

• José María Jesús Carbajal Supporter of Juarez
• History of Mexico
• Statues of the Liberators
• U.S. Constitution, international leader

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Benito Juárez

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Benito Juárez

• Mexico's Lincoln: The Ecstasy and Agony of Benito Juarez
• Historical Text Archive: Juarez, Benito, on La Reforma
• Timeline
• Juarez Photos - Planeta.com
• Benito Juarez at Find-A-Grave

v t e Presidents of the United Mexican States Guadalupe Victoria Vicente Guerrero José María Bocanegra Pedro Vélez Anastasio Bustamante Melchor Múzquiz Manuel Gómez Pedraza Valentín Gómez Farías Antonio López de Santa Anna Miguel Barragán José Justo Corro Nicolás Bravo Francisco Javier Echeverría Valentín Canalizo José Joaquín de Herrera Mariano Paredes José Mariano Salas Pedro María de Anaya Manuel de la Peña Mariano Arista Juan Bautista Ceballos Manuel María Lombardini Martín Carrera Rómulo Díaz Juan Álvarez Hurtado Ignacio Comonfort Félix María Zuloaga Manuel Robles Pezuela Miguel Miramón José Ignacio Pavón Benito Juárez Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada José María Iglesias Juan N. Méndez Porfirio Díaz Manuel González Flores Francisco León de la Barra Francisco I. Madero Pedro Lascuráin Victoriano Huerta Francisco S. Carvajal Venustiano Carranza Eulalio Gutiérrez Roque González Garza Francisco Lagos Cházaro Adolfo de la Huerta Álvaro Obregón Plutarco Elías Calles Emilio Portes Gil Pascual Ortiz Rubio Abelardo Luján Rodríguez Lázaro Cárdenas Manuel Ávila Camacho Miguel Alemán Valdés Adolfo Ruiz Cortines Adolfo López Mateos Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Luis Echeverría José López Portillo Miguel de la Madrid Carlos Salinas de Gortari Ernesto Zedillo Vicente Fox Felipe Calderón Vice President of Mexico

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