Background
José María Obando was born near CaJoto in the lower Cauca Valley on 8 August 1795.
government official military president
José María Obando was born near CaJoto in the lower Cauca Valley on 8 August 1795.
He first emerged as a successful guerrilla leader of blacks and Indians during the Wars for Independence, fighting on the side of the royalists in an area of southern Colombia where the conflict took on a decidedly class and racial character.
Late in 1822 Simón Bolívar arrived in southern Colombia. Obando, sensing that the tide was turning against the royalists, visited Bolivar, who persuaded him to join forces with the army of Gran Colombia. He distinguished himself in subsequent battles and was promoted to colonel.
Obando remained in Popayán. In 1828. following assumption of dictatorial powers by Bolivar, Obando joined with General Francisco de Paula Santander in the struggle against the dictator. When peace was restored, Obando emerged as the principal caudillo of southern Colombia.
During the confusion surrounding Bolivar’s death in 1830, Venezuelan General Rafael Urdaneta seized power in Bogota. In the Cauca, Obando and General José Hilario López joined forces, declared the region annexed to Ecuador, and prepared to march on the capital. When Urdaneta s government collapsed, Obando was named vice president by a constitutional convention and provisional head of state in late 1831.
Although Santander’s supporters made Obando their candidate for president in 1836. civilian opposition to continued rule by military men coalesced around José Ignacio Márquez, who was elected by Congress.
After his defeat, Obando retired to Popayán until 1839. when a popular uprising broke out in neighboring Pasto Province, provoked by an attempt by the central government to close local religious institutions. When President Márquez sent in troops, Obando supported the regional forces against the national government and again gathered a guerrilla army, but when he was finally defeated in July 1841 he fled to Peru.
Only when Liberal General José Hilario López was elected president in 1849, largely with the support of the Democratic Societies made up of artisans and college students, did Obando return home to take up military and diplomatic positions in the administration. With the Democratic Societies behind him, Obando won the presidential election of 1852.
Obando was removed from the presidency. He retired from political life until 1860, when he again joined a federalist revolt, and was killed in a battle near Bogotá.
As president, Obando supported the new federalist constitution of 1853, which expanded civil liberties, and included separation of church and state, universal suffrage, and popular election of provincial governors. However, when the alliance of Democratic Societies and students split apart, civil strife broke out and the specter of class war loomed. On April 17, 1854, General José María Meló seized power in the name of the artisans and offered dictatorial powers to Obando. When Obando refused, Melo assumed them himself. A Liberal-Conservative coalition overthrew Melo after a short but brutal civil war.