Background
Rafael Urdaneta was born on 24 October 1789.
government official military politician
Rafael Urdaneta was born on 24 October 1789.
Educated in Venezuela.
In 1804 he went to Bogota, where he held posts in the bureaucracy of the viceroyalty.
When the independence struggle began in 1810, Urdaneta joined it and by age 26 was a general. In 1819, he was a deputy in the Congress of Guayana and commander of the Colombia Guard. In 1821 he was a senator and member of the Cucutá Constituent Assembly. In 1823 he was president of the Senate of Gran Colombia. He was commander of the army in Zulia and then in Cundi- namarca in 1824-1828. Between 1828 and 1830 he was secretary of war and navy of Gran Colombia.
A member of the 1830 Constituent Assembly of Gran Colombia, he was made provisional chief of government by a coup on September 5. He offered the supreme command to Bolivar, who refused it. In May 1831 he resigned the presidency and went to Venezuela.
In Venezuela, Urdaneta served as deputy, senator, and twice as secretary of war and marine. He died in Paris, on the way to seek Spanish recognition of Venezuela’s independence.