Benito Juárez

Biography

Benito Juárez was born in 1806 in San Pablo Guelatao, Oaxaca, into a poor Zapotec family and was orphaned young. At twelve he went to Oaxaca City, where he worked as a domestic servant; his employer sponsored his schooling, and after a spell at a seminary he studied law at the Institute of Sciences and Arts. He entered liberal politics, practised law, became a judge and married Margarita Maza in 1843.

He was governor of Oaxaca from 1847 to 1852. When Santa Anna returned to power Juárez was imprisoned and exiled, living in New Orleans among other liberal exiles. He came back in 1855 to support the revolt under the Plan of Ayutla and, as minister of justice under Juan Álvarez, gave his name to the Juárez Law curbing the separate courts of the clergy and army. He governed Oaxaca again, served as interior minister and became head of the Supreme Court in late 1857.

When President Comonfort resigned at the start of the Reform War in January 1858, Juárez assumed the presidency and led the liberals from Veracruz to victory in 1861. His suspension of foreign debt payments gave France a pretext to invade and install Maximilian as emperor; Juárez kept a republican government in being in the north and, after the French withdrew, defeated and executed Maximilian in 1867. He remained president until his death in Mexico City in 1872 and is remembered as Mexico's first Indigenous president and a champion of liberal reform and national sovereignty.