Presidents of the Second Autearúan Republic
1891-1893: Juan Belén (Partido Colorado)
1893-1906: Ricardo Cedeño (Partido Colorado)
1894 def: Unopposed
1900 def: Tomás Tejera (Partido Intransigente)
1906: Guillermo Gallego Juárez (Partido Colorado)
1906-1912: José Guaidó (Partido Colorado)
1906 def: David Magallanes (Federación Laborista)
1912: Tomás Martínez (Partido Colorado) [1]
1912-1925: Guillermo Mesa (Partido Reformista)
1912 def: Tomás Martínez (Partido Colorado), Pedro Ferreira (Partido Socialista), Guillermo Vázquez (Partido Laborista Unido)
1918 def: José Guaidó (Partido Colorado), Enrique Hernández (Partido Socialista), Carlos Sotomayor (Partido Progresista Moderado)
1924 def: Enrique Hernández (Partido Socialista)
1925: Francisco de León y Bello (Partido Reformista)
1925-1928: Agustín Cortés (Military - Partido Reformista) [2]
1928-1930: José Guaidó (Partido Liberal)
1928 def: Agustín Cortés (Partido Reformista)
1930-1935: Jorge Flores (Convergencia Nacional - Partido Liberal) [3]
1935-1940: Miguel José da Silva (Frente Popular - Partido Radical)
1935 def: Jorge Flores (Convergencia Nacional - Partido Liberal)
1940-1949: Pedro Ferreira (Partido Radical) [4]
1943 def: Saturnino Hernández (Unión Nacional), Juan Alejandro Lira (Partido Socialista), Fernán Patricio Juárez (Partido Comunista)
1949-1956: Saturnino Hernández (Unión Nacional)
1949 def: Pedro Ferreira (Partido Radical), Juan Alejandro Lira (Partido Socialista), Juan Ibáñez (Partido Comunista)
1951 def: Unopposed
1956-1957: Cristian Gallego (Unión Nacional) [5]
1957-1960: Gutierre Núñez (Partido Radical)
1957 def: Cristian Gallego (Unión Nacional), Guifré de Orellana (Falange)
1960-1971: Cristian Gallego (Military - Unión Nacional)
1966 def: Ramón de la Cruz (Partido Socialista), Arnoldo Mejía (Partido Radical), Fernando Carrasquillo (Falange), Lorenzo Frías (Partido Laborista)
1971-1972: Juan Mariscal (Unión Nacional) [6]
1972-1974: Ramón de la Cruz (Alianza Progresista - Partido Socialista)
1972 def: Juan Mariscal (Unión Nacional), Juan Obregón (Falange)
1974: Hugo Huerta (Alianza Progresista - Partido Laborista)
1974-1975: Guillermo Roldán (Alianza Progresista - Partido Radical)
1975-1976: Gen. Roberto Maldonado (Military) [7]
[1] - Autearúa, colonised from Lima in the eighteenth century, was a remote and sparsely populated outpost of the Spanish Empire in the early nineteenth century. Nevertheless, it gained its independence from the Royalist forces and even from the Chilean naval forces sent against the inhabitants in the Wars of Independence, and the First Republic - an undemocratic period of quite literal faction-fighting between the forces of various caudillos - was established in 1822. One of these caudillos, the Uanganúi horseman and newspaper editor Juan Belén, overthrew the fractious old order in the Revolution of 1891. He gave the land a new Constitution but died before anything else could be done, even the holding of elections. Instead, the Chamber of Deputies appointed by Belenista provincial governors in turn a new President, Ricardo Cedeño. President Cedeño, a charismatic and long-winded man of stout frame, is fondly remembered for his progressive legislation: elections (although he was only ever opposed by minor dissident factions of the Colorado Party), votes for women (against his will), labour legislation (mainly the work of Guillermo Pendejo Rivas), and the appointment of mestizo people to high office (such as Jaime Carrillo, who oversaw anti-Indian legislation).
When Cedeño died, the next election was won by his Finance Minister, José Guaidó, who had to deal with the re-emergence of an obvious Opposition, formed of old First Republic conservatives and dissident Colorados opposed to the majority's programmes of agrarian reform, railway nationalisation and endemic corruption. Guaidó was impeached towards the end of his term and replaced with the President of the Senate, but Martínez in turn was overturned by the electorate in the first democratic transfer of power in the nation's history. This election was also notable for witnessing the first serious emergence of ideological parties, namely those of the Left.
[2] - President Mesa was a broad-chested farmer of reactionary opinions but without a clear means of getting them through the heterogenous councils of the Partido Reformista. He was, however, a strong organiser, and passed solid if unimaginative legislation through a very tricky series of Congresses. He is mainly remembered, however, for joining the First World War, with the sole objective of seizing Samoa from the Germans - he would have fought against the British, but considered them too strong in the region. When Samoa was made a League of Nations protectorate at Versailles, the country found a nationalist cause for many decades in the future.
Meanwhile, the Partido Colorado had grown weaker and feared the rise of the Partido Socialista, which they considered to be entirely run by Anarchists and Bolsheviks, which was in fact only partially the case. The Anarchist elements, in particular, had subsided since the failed spate of general strikes and assassination attempts of 1912-13. The Colorados merged with the Reformistas in 1923. However, politics were soon thrown into a disordered state with the death of Mesa and the succession of the aristocratic President of the Senate, who was old and weak and had odd ideas on democratic participation. The military, emboldened by the nationalist wave and their wartime experiences, overthrew de León y Bello in short order, replacing him with the young ex-soldier Cortés as head of a junta. The new President undertook an economically nationalist policy in which the Government took on the role of export agent for the primary products of the farming sector, but the implementation was so ham-fisted that the military lost confidence in their man and Cortés was forced to hold new elections.
[3] - During the military dictatorship, the bulk of the old Colorado Party had left under José Guaidó and merged with the once-feared Socialists with the sole aim of restoring a democratic state with civil liberties for most. But the Great Depression was hitting in a big way, and very little had been achieved by the elderly Guaidó before his death in 1930. By this point, the Communist and the rump Socialist parties had been legalised once more, while the bulk of the Hernández-era Socialists formed the more moderate Partido Radical with some dissident ex-Colorados who did not wish to follow the arid economic policy of the ruling faction. Jorge Flores, a man unequal to the challenges of his time, formed an alliance instead with the Partido Reformista - Cortés was in from the cold far faster than he had expected.
[4] - the Convergencia between Liberals and Reformists did not avail them much in the next presidential ballot, despite giving them the opportunity to delay it using emergency legislation of very dubious constitutional validity (which was to be copied by the next government during the World War). This time, the new Partido Radical emerged the victor - at first in a Popular Front with the Socialists and Communists, but both of these groups were dropped when they demanded that the Government go beyond the absolute minimum in the building of a welfare state. However, over the long Radical administration, during which the country was accused of profiteering from its officially neutral position in the Second World War, the burgeoning Communists proved a helpful aide to Presidents da Silva (a Brazilian immigrant) and Ferreira - at least until after the War, when the old leadership of the Partido Comunista was putsched by a more radical generation and incited a general strike which was crushed by President Ferreira. The Socialists, meanwhile, were largely ignored by the Radicals in the hope that they would go away and stop stealing their votes, although there was limited co-operation on anti-clerical legislation.
[5] - The old-line parties had united in opposition behind the youthful and manly Saturnino Hernández, an principle-free zone who had been born into a Reformista family and yet associated with both the Liberals and the Catholic Action movement in the 1930s. The wily Hernández not only united the conservative forces behind him, he also perpetrated a notorious self-coup in 1951 in order to gain the power to ban the Marxist parties - the Communists were at this time launching yet another general strike. The Radicals, under the old functionary Gutierre Núñez, failed to oppose this and revealed themselves to be even more devoid of ideals or imagination than had been apparent when they'd been voted out. However, with an administration drifting now that it had achieved ultimate power, a declining economy and a need to build up domestic industry to prevent profits from being repatriated to Britain and America, Núñez won the next election against Hernández' successor, and old supporter of Cortés.
[6] - The new Radical administration made itself immediately unpopular by raising taxes - the only way, it was argued, to get a grip on the inflation which was endemic in the country's economy. This lack of progress (and the elderly profile of the Partido Radical's top echelons) led to a surge in youth support for banned left-wing parties, and a guerilla movement sprang out of these bodies. The guerillas, inspired by Che Guevara and the Amerindian heritage of the nation, called themselves Honehechistas and took to the hills. Unwilling to use the murderous counter-insurgency methods advocated by the Generals and the police, Núñez remained inactive, shuffling pieces of paper around on his overburdened desk while matters got out of hand. After a particularly effective campaign from the leftist forces in the interior, the military stepped in and launched a swift coup d'etat against the Radicals, reimposing the Cortesista President Gallego.
Gallego was a competent and consensus-driven man, who pacified the interior with methods which would later be criticised by human rights groups, while also working towards full legality for the Left. He even operated a labour and industrial policy in keeping with the demands of the moderate centre-left. By the mid-1960s, it was possible to restore the constitution to full operation and all that was left was to execute a few mopping-up operations in the mountains. Fresh elections, though, revealed a surprise: despite a factional split in the mainly urban Edén Province, the Socialists emerged as the main opposition party, beating the discredited Partido Colorado as well as the (centre-left in nature if not in name) Falange. Seeing forceful opposition for the first time since 1951, the conservatives began to lose confidence and forced Gallego to resign during an economic downturn - the President of the Senate, the patrician and economically liberal Mariscal, took over for the last few months of the term, but he was less of a strong leader than Gallego, and suffered from extensive factional opposition.
[7] - The 1972 elections, famously, brought into office the radical Socialist Ramón de la Cruz, a larger-than-life activist for the ending of nuclear testing in the Pacific, for nationalisation and industrial development, for a nationalist monetary policy as supported by the old Socialist Juan Alejandro Lira, and for social liberalisation. However, his administration rested on the support of the other parties of the anti-UN coalition, including the moderate Radicals, and, with the already faltering economy going into full crisis mode as the oil shock hit, the control of the Radicals over the Finance Ministry put them in a position to do exactly what they had done under Núñez - they deferred every policy that the people thought they had voted for. In 1974, de la Cruz became so impatient with his partners that he prepared his closest clique of supporters for a self-coup which would bring the Socialists into full ownership of the means of governance. However, the American Embassy learned of this almost as soon as it was thought of, as the radical nationalist economist Guillermo Suárez was later revealed as being firmly on the gringo payroll.
The CIA murdered President de la Cruz only a year and a half into his six-year term, and even his replacement (President of the Senate Hugo Huarte, a big man in the Edén-based Socialist splinter group) was deemed too closely associated with the administration's ostensible policies, and was forced to step aside after six days of nominal rule. The American intervention in Autearúa is one of the darkest chapters in the history of either country. Only the appointment of the Radical President of the Chamber of Deputies, an inoffensive farmer who had been in control of the hard-line orthodox Finance Ministry under de la Cruz, was acceptable to the Americans, and even then, this tepid support only lasted as long as the economy continued to function. Unrest broke out after the coup, unleashing years of pent-up anger at the economic situation, and the country was brought to a halt. Within months, the government was revealed to be utterly ineffective, and was overturned by a new coup - this time organised by the military without reference to any political party. The entire political system of the Second Republic had by now been discredited.
General Maldonado, one of the most divisive figures in Autearúan history, imposed a new Constitution in 1976, bringing the Second Republic to an end. He remained in power until 1984, by which time his murderous tactics against the Left had left a dark and irreparable scar on the citizenry. Since Maldonado, the Third Republic has reflected a populace that, in a very real sense, has lost its innocence.