Amador Guerrero, Manuel (1833–1909)

Manuel Amador Guerrero (b. 30 June 1833; d. 2 May 1909), physician and politician, first president of Panama (1904–1908). Born in Turbaco, Colombia, Amador Guerrero was a member of a distinguished Colombian family. In 1855 he began studying medicine and became a successful physician. Beginning his political career as a Conservative, he was named president of the department of Panama in 1867, but a revolution prevented him from assuming the post. After a year in exile, he returned to become chief physician of the Panama Railroad. In 1903 he traveled to the United States to secure support for the independence movement. (French engineer Philippe Jean Bunau-Varilla arranged for financial and military support for the cause in return for an appointment as ambassador to the United States.) The price Amador paid for support was the unfavorable Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903, which dominated U.S.-Panamanian relations for years to come. Amador became the first president of the independent republic of Panama in 1904 and immediately embarked on a vigorous public-works program. His term ended a year before his death.

See alsoHay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty (1903)xml .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Manual María Alba C., Cronología de los gobernantes de Panamá, 1510–1967 (1967), pp. 249-254.

David G. Mc Cullough, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914 (1977), pp. 341-402.

Eduardo Lemaitre, Panamá y su separación de Colombia (1980), pp. 480-558.

                                        Sara Fleming