Paredes, Mariano (c. 1800–1856)

Mariano Paredes (b. ca. 1800; d. 2 December 1856), president of Guatemala (1849–1851). Paredes began his military career as an officer in the army of Governor Mariano Gálvez and later served with distinction under José Rafael Carrera.

Because he was reputed to be relatively apolitical, the Guatemalan National Assembly named him president of Guatemala after the resignation of Bernardo Escobar on 1 January 1849. He served as a transition between the Liberal revolutionaries of 1848 and the return of Conservative Rafael Carrera as president in 1851. Paredes initially resisted Carrera's return but in June 1849 agreed to it and in August commissioned Carrera as commander of the armed forces. The Conservative rule that would last until 1871 was thus established under Paredes. He also permitted the Jesuits to return to Guatemala and promulgated a new, conservative constitution, under which Carrera returned to the presidency. General Paredes was a key officer in Carrera's army and commanded the Guatemalan forces in Nicaragua during the National War against William Walker in 1856 until his death from cholera during the siege of Granada.

See alsoCarrera, José Rafael; Guatemala.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ralph L. Woodward, Jr., Rafael Carrera and the Emergence of the Republic of Guatemala, 1821–1871 (1993).

Additional Bibliography

Grandin, Greg. The Blood of Guatemala: A History of Race and Nation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000.

Gudmundson, Lowell, and Héctor Lindo-Fuentes. Central America, 1821–1871: Liberalism before Liberal Reform. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1995.

                              Ralph Lee Woodward Jr.