Mariño, Santiago (1788–1854)

Santiago Mariño (b. 25 July 1788; d. 4 September 1854), Venezuelan Independence leader. From 1811 to 1821 the aristocratic General Mariño led patriot forces against Spanish rule, especially in his native eastern Venezuela, where he was the most powerful caudillo. Although he several times sought to assert his independence from Simón Bolívar, Mariño served under him for many years and was Bolívar's chief of staff at the battle of Carabobo (1821), which assured Venezuela's independence from Spain. Later he was elected vice president of the ill-fated Gran Colombia confederation. After he lost the 1834 election for president of Venezuela, he rebelled unsuccessfully against the government of José María Vargas (1835–1836). Defeated for the presidency again in 1850, Mariño closed his career as a caudillo by participating in the Revolution of May (1853) that sought to overthrow José Gregorio Monagas.

See alsoGren Colombia; Venezuela since 1830.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Julio Cárdenas Ramírez and Carlos Saenz De La Calzada, eds., Diccionario biográfico de Venezuela (1953).

Guillermo Morón, A History of Venezuela (1964).

Caracciolo Parra Pérez, Mariño y la independencia de Venezuela, 5 vols. (Madrid, 1954–1957).

Jesús Manuel Subero, En defensa del General Santiago Mariño (1975).

Additional Bibliography

Méndez, Noris, and Pedro Pablo Olivares. "Santiago Mariño y la revolución de las reformas." Revista Iberoame-ricana 82:327 (July-September 1999): 348-360.

Zahler, Reuben. "Honor, Corruption, and Legitimacy: Liberal Projects in the Early Venezuelan Republic, 1821–50." Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 2005.

                              Winfield J. Burggraaff

                                        InÉs Quintero