José María Ramón Obando del Campo (August 8, 1795 – April 29, 1861) was a Neogranadine General and politician who twice served as President of Colombia. As a General, he initially fought for the Royalist Army during the Independence Wars of Colombia, ultimately joining the revolutionary forces of Simón Bolívar towards the end, but once independence was attained he opposed Bolívar's Centralist government.
He was overthrown as president in a coup in 1854.
Personal life Born out of wedlock to Ana María Crespo on August 8, 1795, in the town of Güengüé, municipality of Corinto, in the then province of Popayán of the Viceroyalty of New Granada in present-day Colombia,* García, Güengüé, and Corinto are often quoted alternatively in various works as the city of birth, in practice however, the stratification of the place of birth points out to be the municipality of Corinto while the other places have no geopolitical status. Additionally, the Department of Cauca had not been established, and the Province of Popayán was the second-level political division of the Viceroyalty of the New Granada at the time. he was baptised José María Ramón Iragorri Crespo just two days later on August 10 in the chapel of the García hacienda. Society, during the times of the colony, was puritanical and the religious authorities did not allow a single mother to raise a child on her own, thus when he was two years old he was given up for adoption and put in the care of a Criollo family in the home of Juan Luis Obando del Castillo y Frías and Antonia del Campo y López who raised him as their own and gave him their last name. His parentage has been of debate among historians, most argue that he was the illegitimate son of Joseph Iragorri, but others argue and have tried to prove that his father was Pedro Vicente Martínez y Cabal, and others have claimed that he was the biological son of his adoptive father Juan Luis Obando as well.
Despite his humble beginnings, Obando received a formal education in the Real Seminario de Popayán thanks to his adoptive family who were well-off merchants from Pasto loyal to the Spanish Empire and who consequently had to escape to Pasto after the Battle of Palacé (1811) during the Wars of Independence. Obando married Dolores Espinosa de los Monteros Mesa in 1824 and together had five children: José María, Cornelia, José Dolores, Simón and Micaela, it would have been six since Mrs. Espinosa was pregnant with another child, but both died during childbirth in 1833 leaving him a widower with five small children at his charge. In 1837 he remarries to Timotea Carvajal Marulanda and of this union has three more children: Soledad, Capitolino and Gratiniano.
The Army and his rise to power During the Wars of Independence the South was still very loyal to Spain, and specially Pasto were Obando joined the Royalists forces under General Sebastián de la Calzada in 1819 in the rank of Captain fighting for the Spanish against the Revolutionary Forces who aimed to gain independence for New Granada from Spain. Nevertheless, on February 7, 1822, he resigns the Spanish cause and joins the Revolutionary Army and embarks in a successful military career. In 1826 he was appointed Civil and Military leader of Pasto by General Francisco de Paula Santander and was promoted to colonel by Simón Bolívar. In 1827 he resigned his post due to his discomfort with the political establishment which he labelled as undemocratic.
Simón Bolívar dismissed the Convention of Ocaña declared himself Dictator of the New Granada on August 27, 1828, and drafted a new constitution . The new constitution was centralist in nature, and Obando fiercely opposed this and in response launched a joint campaign with José Hilario López, revolting in Timbío against Governor Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, a centralist and Bolívar supporter. Their forces then attacked Popayán on November 12, 1828, seizing the city and ensued to meet and defeated a nearby garrison in the Battle of La Ladera, securing the area and threatening the control of the government in the southwest region of the country forcing Bolívar to sign an armistice with them in order to secure peace. This armistice was favourable for Obando and López, on October 8, 1829, Bolívar ascended Obando to the rank of General and designated him Commandant-General of the Department of Cauca.
Bolívar's actions had angered more than just Obando, the level of opposition was such that he resigned in 1830 after surviving an assassination attempt by his political enemies in the north. The political vacuum and struggle for power left by his resignation led to a coup d'état against the acting President Domingo Caycedo on September 5, 1830, by Venezuelan General Rafael Urdaneta. This new encroachment to the constitution spurred Obando to take action against the government once again, this time in defence of the government left by Bolívar. Obando convened the Assembly of Cauca in Buga on November 10, 1830, to speak out against the dictatorship and organize the armies to fight it. The makeshift military alliance commanded by Obando and Lopéz strike on February 10, 1831, at the Battle of El Papayal in Palmira delivering a devastating blow to the dictatorship forces. From Palmira, Obando's forced moved to Cali, then to Neiva fighting the opposition. This conflict did not escalate further thanks to a compromise reached by Vicepresident Caycedo and Gen. Urdaneta, the Apulo Compromised secured a peaceful change of power with the compromised that key members of both sides would receive promotions. The Exaltados, as the faction which Obando belonged, were unhappy with the compromise as they wanted to purge the government and army from the Bolivarians, some of them even wanted to overthrow Caycedo once again and replace him with Obando, but his good friend José Hilario López prevented them from doing so knowing that Obando, who fought the two previous unconstitutional grabs of power would be against it.
Vice presidency 1831–1832 Following the vacuum of power left by the resignation of Bolívar, the dissolution of the Gran Colombia, the struggle of power between Urdaneta and Caycedo, and the larger contention between federalists and Centralists, a National Constituent Assembly was convened on November 15, 1831, to draft a new constitution for the nation. Vice President Caycedo, who had been the Acting President after the resignation of Bolívar, proceeded to submit his resignation to the assembly on the same day it first convened; the assembly postponed the matter until it was decided whether or not to establish a provisional government. Finally the constituent assembly voted to implement a provisional government while a new constitution was drafted, for this purpose they elected José María Obando as vice president, office which given the absence of a president made him the acting president as well, and Obando was sworn in on November 23, 1831.
As provisional acting president, Obando sanctioned on February 29, 1832, the Constitution of 1832 which among other things, changed the name of the country to Republic of the New Granada and implemented many of the Federalist ideals Obando championed. The Constituent Assembly also elected Santander as president while formal elections were carried out. Obando had once again been a candidate for vice president this time around, but the objections of those who feared having a popular caudillo in power proved too much and the assembly voted to elect a civilian instead; on March 10, 1832 José Ignacio de Márquez was sworn in as the new vice president, succeeding Obando not only as vice president but as acting president as well given that Santander was exiled in New York at the time of the election.
Return to Nariño While the Constituent Assembly was drafting the constitution a conflict was developing in the south, the Congress of Ecuador had issued a Decree annexing the province of Cauca to their territory and sent in President Juan José Flores to enforce it. In response to Ecuador's actions the Neogranadine assembly issued a decree of territorial integrity and dispatched General López to keep Ecuador at bay. López managed to secure the provinces of Choco and Popayán, but the provinces of Cauca and Buenaventura remained under the military control of Ecuador. Obando, who had stayed behind in Bogotá as head of the provisional government was sent immediately by Vice President Márquez upon taking power to defend the territory, and once all the diplomatic options were exhausted, Márquez sent in reinforcements and support to aid Obando who was the commander of the 1st Army Division to take the Cauca by force. From Popayán Obando marched to Pasto with 1,500 soldiers and was able to take the Pasto with no struggle or conflict as the invading army had left in anticipation.
Election of 1837 The presidential election of 1837 stands in contrast to the pattern followed in 19th-century Latin America as the favoured candidate by the president and his administration was defeated. Santander had picked Obando for his strong military background over the popular civilian candidates like José Ignacio de Márquez, his vice president, and Vicente Azuero. Many objected to Obando's candidacy because of his alleged role in the assassination of General Antonio Jose de Sucre, but Santander saw past that for he believed that the country was not yet ready for civilian rule and that Obando's military record cleared his name. In the election, which at the time were held indirectly, Obando received 536 votes falling short of the 616 received by Márquez but still enough votes that prevented Márquez to receive the required majority which forced the task of electing a President to Congress, unfortunately for Obando allegiances fell once the responsibility fell to the congress, some like General Mosquera who had initially lent his support to Obando flattered and voted for Márquez instead, it was the case that Congress was still made up of a lot of members who had been loyal to Bolívar and formed a bloc with the moderate liberals to elect Márquez to presidency leaving Obando in defeat, also unusual in a circumstance like this was the peaceful transition of power, Obando admitted defeat and Márquez became President of New Granada that same year.
War of the Supremes