Sardá, José (?–1834)
Sardá, José (?–1834)
José Sardá (d. 22 October 1834), Colombian military officer and conspirator. Born in Catalonia (or possibly Navarra), José Sardá fought in the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and later joined the 1817 expedition of Francisco Javier Mina in the fight for Mexican independence. Escaping from capture, he eventually joined the patriots in Gran Colombia, where he was a strong supporter of Simón Bolívar and of the short dictatorship of Rafael Urdaneta. With the latter's fall in 1831, liberal supporters of Francisco de Paula Santander purged Sardá from the army. After Santander became president of New Granada in 1832, Sardá and other malcontents turned to plotting against him, but they were discovered and Sardá, along with other ringleaders, was condemned to death. He again escaped but was tracked down and killed by loyal officers, whose alleged "assassination" of Sardá gave rise to bitter criticism of Santander.
See alsoBolívar, Simón; Santander, Francisco de Paula.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Marco Aurelio Vila, Josep Sardá, un general catalá en le independéncia d'América (1980).
Pilar Moreno De Ángel, Santander (1989), pp. 585-608.
Additional Bibliography
Miramón, Alberto. Biografía de Sardá y cronicon del Nuevo Reyno. Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional de Colombia, 1997.