Rojas, Pedro José (1818–1874)

Pedro José Rojas (b. 1818; d. 1874), Venezuelan politician and journalist. Rojas began his journalistic career as an editor for the weekly El Manzanares (1843–1845). He traveled to Caracas in 1846 and was chosen representative to Congress from Cumaná in 1848. He opposed President José Tadeo Monagas and left the country for the United States, where he connected with General José Antonio Páez, whom he served as personal secretary. With the fall of Monagas in 1858, Rojas returned to Venezuela. After another period of exile, he returned during the days of the Federal War (1859–1863). Rojas promoted the dictatorship of General Páez and, together with Antonio Guzmán Blanco, was one of the principal protagonists of the 1863 Treaty of Coche, which ended the Federal War. After yet another period of exile in the United States and Europe, he returned to Venezuela, where he was imprisoned in 1871 by Guzmán Blanco and later expelled from the country once again. He died in exile.

See alsoFederal War (Venezuela 1859–1863); Monagas, José Tadeo.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

See Pedro José Rojas, Pedro José Rojas o una pasión al servicio de la política (1966). A selection of Pedro José Rojas's writings can be found in Congress of the Republic in Venezuela, Pensamiento político venezolano del siglo XIX, vols. 7 and 8, Pedro José Rojas (1983).

Additional Bibliography

Machado Guzmán, Gustavo. Historia gráfica de la Guerra Federal de Venezuela: Período de la federación. Caracas: s.n., 2002.

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