Background
Vicente Rocafuerte was born on 1 May 1783 in Guayaquil.
Diplomat military politician president
Vicente Rocafuerte was born on 1 May 1783 in Guayaquil.
He was educated in Madrid and Paris.
In 1814 he was a republican member of the Spanish Cortes, representing Guayaquil. After the restoration of King Ferdinand VII, and the king’s efforts to reestablish an authoritarian regime. Rocafuerte went to Mexico, where he joined those fighting for Spanish-American independence. Between 1824 and 1830 he was secretary of the Mexican Legation in London.
Rocafuerte returned to Ecuador in 1833 and soon became leader of the Liberals in the national legislature. In 1835 he participated in a rebellion in Guayaquil, was captured, but entered into an agreement with the Conservative leader Juan José Flores by which Rocafuerte soon afterward became president.
When Flores returned to power in 1839, he appointed Rocafuerte as governor of Guayas Province. When Flores sought to perpetuate himself in office, however, Rocafuerte led a successful revolt against him. By 1846 he was back in Quito as president of the Senate. He died in Lima, where he had gone on a diplomatic mission.