Joaquín Eufrasio Guzmán

Salvadoran politician

Joaquín Eufrasio Guzmán (15 February 1801 – 1875) was a Central American politician and military general who served as acting President of El Salvador on three occasions: from 25 October 1844 to 16 February 1845, from 25 April 1845 to 1 February 1846, and from 19 January 1859 to 15 February 1859, after conducting a coup against General Francisco Malespín after the Guerra de Malespín, an invasion into Nicaragua which he solely started to loot the Nicaraguan metropolis of León.

Guzmán was born in Cartago, Costa Rica, in 1801 into a landowning family. In the dissensions between the Federal and Centralist parties, Guzmán joined the former. A landowner, he was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel. He had married and had a family. His son David Joaquín Guzmán was a politician and doctor, founding director of the National Museum of El Salvador and a museum of anthropology in Nicaragua.

He was elected Vice President of El Salvador in 1844 with General Francisco Malespín as president. That year Malespín invaded Nicaragua and left the capital to command the army in person and handed over power to Guzmán. Guzmán conducted a coup against Malespín on 2 February 1845 and was joined by the greater part of the inhabitants of the capital, and a portion of the general's small army. They deposed Malespin and Guzmán assumed the executive office till the end of the presidential term.

Tensions with the Honduran government led to a Salvadoran invasion which failed miserably, which led to a Honduran invasion. El Salvador won the Battle of La Hacienda of El Obrajuelo, armistice was proposed between both sides. but the Honduran officers didn't care and defeated the Salvadorans in La Union, forcing the Salvadoran government to give officers and prisoners captured during the war .

Guzmán was several times elected to the legislative assembly, the council of state, and the prefecture of the department where he resided. He was later elected as Vice President of El Salvador alongside President Miguel Santín del Castillo, and served from February 1858 to February 1859.

He died in 1875, San Miguel, El Salvador.