Estrada, José María (?–1856)

José María Estrada (d. 13 August 1856), acting president (1854) and president (1855–1856) of Nicaragua. President Fruto Chamorro turned over the presidency to José María Estrada on 27 May 1854 in order to give full attention to leading the Legitimist (Conservative) army against the Democratic (Liberal) insurgents headed by Máximo Jerez. Estrada had earlier served as foreign minister and as a member of the Assembly. After Chamorro died (12 March 1855), the Assembly authorized Estrada to continue in office. When Granada fell to William Walker, Estrada opposed the Walker-backed government of Patricio Rivas, repudiating the treaty of 23 October 1855. He established a government first at Masaya, then at Somotillo, and later at Matagalpa, allying himself with the conservative governments of the other Central American states against Walker in the National War. Democratic guerrillas attacked and killed Estrada at El Ocotal.

See alsoNational War; Rivas, Patricio; Walker, William.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Federico Hernández De León, El libro de las efemérides: Capítulos de la historia de la América Central, vol. 3 (1930), pp. 283-287.

Andrés Vega Bolaños, Gobernantes de Nicaragua: Notas y documentos (1944), pp. 194-222.

José Dolores Gámez, Historia de Nicaragua desde los tiempos prehistóricos hasta 1860, en sus relaciones con España, México y Centro-América (1975).

E. Bradford Burns, Patriarch and Folk: The Emergence of Nicaragua, 1798–1858 (1991).

                              Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr.