Malespín, Francisco (1790–1846)

Francisco MalespÍn (b. 1790; d. 25 November 1846), president of El Salvador (1844–1845). Following Rafael Carrera's defeat of Francisco Morazán, Carrera imposed Malespín as commander of El Salvador's army in March 1840. Regarded as Carrera's puppet, Malespín effectively resisted Morazán's attempt to return to El Salvador in 1842. Collaborating with Bishop Jorge Viteri y Ungo, Malespín broke with Salvadoran President Juan José Guzmán in December 1843 and took over the presidency on 1 February 1844. He stopped ex-President Manuel José Arce's attempt to return to El Salvador to regain office, but his involvement in the liberal-conservative intrigues of the period led him into war with Nicaragua in October 1844. He captured León on 24 January 1845, but Gerardo Barrios and Trinidad Cabañas meanwhile pressured Acting President Joaquín Guzmán to depose Malespín on 2 February 1845. When Malespín ordered a priest executed later that year, Bishop Viteri y Ungo excommunicated him. Malespín's efforts to regain power led to war between Honduras and El Salvador in mid-1845. Malespín launched a new invasion of El Salvador in November 1846, but was murdered in a personal dispute at San Fernando, Chalatenango.

See alsoEl Salvador .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Philip Flemion, Historical Dictionary of El Salvador (1972), pp. 83-84.

Carlos C. Haeussler Yela, Diccionario general de Guatemala, vol. 2 (1983), pp. 950-951.

Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr., Rafael Carrera and the Emergence of the Republic of Guatemala, 1821–1871 (1992). Translated into Spanish as Rafael Carrera y la creación de la República de Guatemala, 1821–1871. La Antigua, Guatemala: Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica, 2002.

Additional Bibliography

Sullivan-González, Douglass. Piety, Power, and Politics: Religion and Nation Formation in Guatemala, 1821–1871. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998.

                                Ralph Lee Woodward Jr.