Background
Antonio Leocadio Guzmán was born in Caracas on 5 Nivember 1801.
government official politician
Antonio Leocadio Guzmán was born in Caracas on 5 Nivember 1801.
In 1846 Guzmán was Liberal candidate for president against the victorious General José Tadeo Mongas, backed by Páez. When a feeble attempt at military insurrection was made in Guzmán’s name, but probably without his support, he was arrested and sentenced to death. However, President Monagas commuted his sentence to permanent exile.
Although backed by Páez, Monagas soon formed an alliance with the Liberals, as a consequence of which Guzmán was soon allowed to return and was shortly afterward chosen vice president. He again ran for president in the election of 1850, this time against the president’s brother, José Gregorio Monagas, who was victorious. However, the Monagas brothers soon quarreled, and Guzmán, who continued to be vice president, became the closest adviser of President José Gregorio Monagas while seeking to reunify the Liberal Party.
In April 1852 Guzmán went to Peru, on a private mission, returning only in December, after his vice presidential term had expired. Soon afterward. President José Gregorio Monagas named him minister to Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.
Ex-president José Tadeo Monagas was reelected in 1855 but was overthrown by a military coup led by General Julián Castro and backed by the Conservatives and dissident Liberals in March 1858. Soon, the five-year-long civil war(1859- 1863), the Federal War, began between the Conservatives of General Páez, and the Liberals, renamed the Federal Party.
The government of Julián Castro exiled Guzmán in June 1858. In St. Thomas, in the Danish Virgin Islands, he joined several other Liberal exiles to establish the Patriotic Junta of Venezuela. This became the nucleus of the Federal Party, which gave political leadership to the struggle against José Antonio Páez and the Conservatives.
By the end of the Federal War, however, Guzmán had been superseded as the principal figure in the Liberal ranks by his son, Antonio Guzmán Blanco. Although Antonio Leocadio Guzmán was elected to Congress after the victory of the Federales in the war, it was his son who became vice president.
For some years, the situation remained turbulent. In August 1869 a physical attack on Guzmán Blanco’s home resulted in his seeking diplomatic asylum in the U.S. Legation and Antonio Leocadio Guzmán seeking refuge in the Brazilian legation. When the legations were attacked, the Guzmáns fled to La Guaira and from there were able to get to Curaçao. In the following year, they returned with an armed force, were able to overthrow the incumbent government, and Antonio Leocadio Guzmán’s son became president.