Jorge Meléndez
Jorge Meléndez | |
---|---|
![]() Meléndez in 1919 | |
51st President of El Salvador | |
In office 1 March 1919 – 1 March 1923 | |
Vice President | Alfonso Quiñónez Molina |
Preceded by | Alfonso Quiñónez Molina (provisional) |
Succeeded by | Alfonso Quiñónez Molina |
Personal details | |
Born | Jorge Meléndez Ramírez 15 April 1871 San Salvador, El Salvador |
Died | 22 November 1953 San Salvador, El Salvador | (aged 82)
Political party | National Democratic Party |
Spouse | Tula Mazzini |
Children | 3 |
Parent(s) | Rafael Meléndez Mercedes Ramírez |
Relatives | Norberto Ramírez (grandfather) Carlos Meléndez (brother) Alfonso Quiñónez Molina (brother-in-law) |
Occupation | Politician, businessman |
Jorge Meléndez Ramírez (15 April 1871 – 22 November 1953) was a Salvadoran politician and businessman who served as President of El Salvador from 1919 to 1923. The presidency was the only political office Meléndez ever held.[1] He was the younger brother of President Carlos Meléndez.
Meléndez became the 1919 presidential candidate for the National Democratic Party (PND) after Carlos resigned as President and the election's frontrunners, Alfonso Quiñónez Molina and Tomás Palomo, dropped out. Meléndez won the election with almost 97 percent of the vote and assumed office on 1 March 1919. During his presidency, the PND centralized power and monopolized local patronage networks. Meléndez suppressed several coups against his rule. Meléndez was by succeeded by Quiñónez (his Vice President) in 1923. Meléndez's presidency was a part of the broader Meléndez–Quiñónez dynasty that ruled El Salvador from 1913 to 1927. Meléndez attempted to overthrow President Pío Romero Bosque in 1927 as he attempted to curb the dynasty's influence, but the coup failed and Meléndez left El Salvador for exile in Costa Rica.
Early life
[edit]Jorge Meléndez Ramírez was born on 15 April 1871 in San Salvador, El Salvador. His parents were Rafael Meléndez and Mercedes Ramírez. Meléndez was one of nine children.[2][3] Through Meléndez's mother, he was a grandson of Norberto Ramírez, the president of El Salvador in from 1840 to 1841.[2]
Early political career
[edit]Entry to politics
[edit]On 9 February 1913, Salvadoran president Manuel Enrique Araujo was assassinated and Meléndez's older brother Carlos Meléndez became the country's provisional president.[4] At the time, Meléndez was a political novice and had never held public office unlike Carlos who had served on the municipal council of San Salvador and ran for president on several occassions during the 1890s and 1900s.[1] Carlos was inaugurated as President on 1 March 1915; his and Meléndez's brother-in-law, Alfonso Quiñónez Molina, was Vice President.[4] Carlos' presidency began a period in Salvadoran history known as the Meléndez–Quiñónez dynasty.[5][6]
"Why would capitalists risk their money by investing it in a transport business, for example, when in the morning, General X, jefe of a revolutionary band, expropriates it? Why would they put their money into useful enterprises when just as quickly it is extracted by an exaggerated tribute decreed by some irresponsible government born in the clamor of gunfire? [...] It is necessary that politics be guided along a path that little by little dispenses with the gangrene of personalism, the primordial cause of our instability."
Meléndez supported Carlos' presidency. In 1917, Meléndez wrote a pamphlet wrote a booklet titled Economic Orientations of President Meléndez praising Carlos' presidency as a victory of "civilized society" over caudillismo. He argued that Carlos' centralization of power was preferable to the factionalized violence and military uprisings that were common in 19th century Salvadoran politics.[8]
1919 presidential campaign
[edit]Ahead of the 1919 presidential election, Quiñónez and Minister of Governance and Finance Tomás García Palomo were the election's frontrunners.[9] On 21 December 1918, Carlos resigned as President as he suffered a stroke or heart attack ten days prior and Quiñónez succeeded him as provisional president. Palomo dropped out of the race as he did not want to run against the incumbent president, and now that Quiñónez was provisional president, he was constitutionally prohibited from running in the election as he was in the office six months prior to the next presidential term.[10]
In January 1919, one week before the election, Quiñónez selected Meléndez to replace him as the presidential candidate for the National Democratic Party (PND),[11] the party Quiñónez established to initially get himself elected before he became ineligible.[12] Landowner Arturo Araujo of the Salvadoran Laborist Party announced that he would challenge Meléndez's campaign.[11] In response, Meléndez and Quiñónez ordered Pío Romero Bosque, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Justice, to run in the election so that they could humiliate Araujo by making him finish in third place behind Meléndez and Romero. Polling stations were ordered to prevent Araujo's supporters from voting and to also tabulate most votes in favor of Meléndez, the second most in Romero's favor, and allocate whatever was left to Araujo.[13] The final results declared that Meléndez won 166,441 votes (96.86%), Romero won 4,370 votes (2.54%), and Araujo won 1,022 votes (0.59%).[14]
President of El Salvador
[edit]Meléndez was inaugurated as President of El Salvador on 1 March 1919.[2] Quiñónez was his Vice President.[15] Meléndez's cabinet consisted of Miguel Tomás Molina (a cousin of Quiñónez) as Minister of Government, Promotion, and Agriculture; José Esperanza Suay as Minister of Finance and Public Credit; Juan José Paredes as Minister of External Relations, Public Instruction, Justice, and Charity; and Romero as Minister of War and the Navy.[2] During Meléndez's presidency, the PND centralized power and all political patronage networks[16] and used the Red League paramilitary to enforce government control.[17]
Social and economic policies
[edit]
Before becoming president, Meléndez promised to allowed trade unions to organize.[18] This did occur and Meléndez's government actively encouraged urban laborers and artisans to unionize.[19] These unions led to the spread of ideologies such as socialism among Salvadoran workers.[20] In 1920, tailors held the first urban strike in Salvadoran history.[21] While unions were allowed to form, Meléndez did not implement wider social reforms.[22] He also only allowed urban unions to form and not rural unions.[21]
During the Recession of 1920–1921, Meléndez's government acquired loans from several United States banks that led to an increase in American investments in El Salvador.[23][24] Corruption and embezzlement were common during Meléndez's presidency.[25]
Attempted coups
[edit]In 1919, Meléndez suspended wages of the Salvadoran Army and the National Guard to address an economy crisis stemming from the end of World War I.[26] Throughout Meléndez's presidency, army pay was frequently suspended, or when it was paid, it was not paid in full.[27] The army also accused Meléndez of allocating army duties to the National Guard and making the gendarmerie more important than the army.[26] In 1920, Meléndez proposed implementing reforms that would make the military accountable to civilian courts. Although he never went through with this proposal, the announcement strained government–military relations.[28]
In March 1920, the Salvadoran government discovered a plot by Araujo to overthrow Meléndez, and subsequently, government forces clashed with Araujo's supporters at Araujo's El Sunza hacienda while attempting to arrest Araujo. Araujo fled El Salvador to Honduras, and in May 1920, he led an army of around 300 to 1,000 militiamen across the El Salvador–Honduras border. He captured the city of Arcatao, but Meléndez's soldiers forced Araujo back across the border. Araujo remained in exile until 1923.[29] At the same time as Araujo's invasion, two army barracks mutinied but both were suppressed.[30]
In February 1922, 63 cadets of the Polytechnic School attempted to overthrow Meléndez. They attacked loyalist soldiers in San Salvador resulting in around 50 casualties. The government suppressed the coup within one day and Meléndez shut down the Polytechnic School for four years. Another coup attempt occurred on 22 May 1922 when 200 soldiers of the 6th Infantry Barracks revolted and declared Oliverio Cromwell Valle, an exiled opponent of Meléndez, as President. They attempted to capture the El Zapote barracks but failed.[31]
Central America union
[edit]El Salvador briefly joined the Federation of Central America.[2] In January 1921, El Salvador sent a delegation to San José, Costa Rica to negotiate the establishment of a new Central American union. They drafted the Pact of Union of Central America,[32] and on 9 September 1921, El Salvador ratified the Central American constitution.[2] The union collapsed in December 1921 after a coup d'état in Guatemala.[33]
Post-presidency and death
[edit]
Meléndez left office on 1 March 1923 and was succeeded by Quiñónez who unanimously won the 1923 presidential election.[34] His victory came after the Red League massacred dozens of Molina's supporters (who challenged Quiñónez) at a political rally on 25 December 1922.[35]
In 1927, Quiñónez was succeeded as President by Romero.[36] Quiñónez intended to continue ruling through Romero who would serve as a puppet ruler,[37] but Romero sought to distance himself from the dynasty and forced several of Quiñónez's government officials to resign.[38] He also lifted press censorship leading to protests against Quiñónez's occupation of the office of First Presidential Designate (second in line to the presidency after the vice president). Quiñónez left the country for exile in France, but he and Meléndez plotted a coup to overthrow Romero and preserve the dynasty's political influence.[39]
Meléndez, the coup's primary organizer, recruited several allies to executed the coup and raised an army of 500 militiamen at his Valencia hacienda.[40] On 7 December 1927, Colonel Juan Enrique Aberle and Major Manuel Alfaro Noguera (participants of the coup) told Chief of Police Colonel Enrique Leitzelar that a military junta proclaimed Aberle as the country's president, but Leitzelar demanded confirmation from General Carlos Carmona Tadey, the commander of the 1st Infantry Regiment. Carmona was supposed to be involved in the coup but denied any knowledge of such a junta existing. Aberle and Noguera surrendered but later told Romero himself that he was overthrown and offered him safe passage out of El Salvador. Romero had Aberle and Noguera arrested and the coup collapsed. Meléndez never mobilized his militiamen and subsequently fled the country to Costa Rica after the United States embassy in San Salvador denied his asylum request.[41][42]
Meléndez died in San Salvador on 22 November 1953.[2]
Personal life
[edit]
Meléndez married Tula Mazzini and the couple had 3 children: Jorge, María de los Ángeles, and Ricardo.[2]
Meléndez was an agriculturalist. He owned at lest three haciendas named Prusia, Valencia, and Venecia; some raised cattle and others produced sugar.[2][43][44] Meléndez and Carlos were El Salvador's largest sugar producers during the Meléndez–Quiñónez dynasty. According to a 1929 agricultural census, Meléndez owned over half of the land in the city of Soyapango.[45] Meléndez also owned shares of the Central American Insurance Company and the Artesian Well Drilling Company of Salvador.[43] American agronomist described Meléndez as a "very wealthy man with all sorts of activities going on".[46]
Meléndez was a pragmatic liberal.[47]
Electoral history
[edit]Year | Office | Type | Party | Main opponent | Party | Votes for Meléndez | Result | Swing | Ref. | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | % | P. | ±% | ||||||||||||
1919 | President of El Salvador | General | PDN | Pío Romero Bosque | PDN | 166,441 | 96.86 | 1st | N/A | Won | Hold | [14] |
References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ a b Ching 1997, pp. 237–238.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Leistenschneider & Leistenschneider 1980, p. 175.
- ^ Estrada 2025.
- ^ a b Leistenschneider & Leistenschneider 1980, p. 171.
- ^ Ching 1997, p. 2.
- ^ Bernal Ramírez & Quijano de Batres 2009, pp. 56 & 106.
- ^ Ching 1997, p. 243.
- ^ Ching 1997, pp. 244–245.
- ^ Ching 1997, p. 244.
- ^ Ching 1997, pp. 248–249.
- ^ a b Ching 1997, p. 249.
- ^ Ching 1997, p. 246.
- ^ Ching 1997, pp. 250–251.
- ^ a b Ching 1997, p. 251.
- ^ Leistenschneider & Leistenschneider 1980, p. 179.
- ^ Ching 1997, p. 253.
- ^ Ching 1997, pp. 246–247.
- ^ White 1973, p. 91.
- ^ Bernal Ramírez & Quijano de Batres 2009, p. 56.
- ^ Bernal Ramírez & Quijano de Batres 2009, p. 62.
- ^ a b Bernal Ramírez & Quijano de Batres 2009, p. 63.
- ^ Bernal Ramírez & Quijano de Batres 2009, p. 57.
- ^ Lauria-Santiago & Gould 2008, p. 6.
- ^ Artiga-González 2015, p. 58.
- ^ Lindo 2016.
- ^ a b Ching 1997, p. 260.
- ^ Ching 1997, p. 261.
- ^ Ching 1997, pp. 261–262.
- ^ Ching 1997, pp. 251–252.
- ^ Ching 1997, pp. 262–263.
- ^ Ching 1997, pp. 263–264.
- ^ Tipografía Nacional 1921, pp. 3–4.
- ^ Perry 1922, p. 48.
- ^ Ching 1997, p. 280.
- ^ Ching 1997, p. 278.
- ^ Ching 1997, p. 286.
- ^ White 1973, pp. 94–95.
- ^ Ching 1997, p. 305.
- ^ Ching 1997, pp. 306–308.
- ^ Ching 1997, p. 309.
- ^ Ching 1997, pp. 310–311.
- ^ Castellanos 2001, p. 58.
- ^ a b c Ward 1916, p. 222.
- ^ Ching, pp. 238 & 310.
- ^ Ching, p. 238.
- ^ Ching, p. 239.
- ^ White 1973, p. 88.
Bibliography
[edit]Books
[edit]- Artiga-González, Álvaro (2015). Sztarkman Aráuz, Hana & Castillo Deras, Valmore (eds.). El Sistema Político Salvadoreño [The Salvadoran Political System] (PDF) (in Spanish). El Salvador: United Nations Program for Development in El Salvador. ISBN 9789992355565. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
- Bernal Ramírez, Luis Guillermo & Quijano de Batres, Ana Elia, eds. (2009). Historia 2 El Salvador [History 2 El Salvador] (PDF). Historia El Salvador (in Spanish). San Salvador, El Salvador: Ministry of Education. ISBN 9789992363683. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 January 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2025.
- Castellanos, Juan Mario (2001). El Salvador, 1930–1960: Antecendentes Históricos de la Guerra Civil [El Salvador, 1930–1960: Historical Background of the Civil War] (in Spanish). San Salvador, El Salvador: Dirección de Publicaciones e Impresos. ISBN 9789992300480. OCLC 759775114. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
- Ching, Erik K. (1997). From Clientelism to Militarism: The State, Politics and Authoritarianism in El Salvador, 1840–1940. Santa Barbara, California: University of California, Santa Barbara. OCLC 39326756. ProQuest 304330235. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
- Lauria-Santiago, Aldo A. & Gould, Jeffrey L. (2008). To Rise in Darkness: Revolution, Repression, and Memory in El Salvador, 1920–1932. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. doi:10.1215/9780822381242. ISBN 9780822342076. JSTOR j.ctv11sn0j8. OCLC 174501636. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
- Leistenschneider, María & Leistenschneider, Freddy (1980). Gobernantes de El Salvador: Biografías [Governors of El Salvador: Biographies] (in Spanish). Ministry of the Interior. OCLC 7876291. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
- Protocolo de la Conferencia de Plenipotenciarios Centroamericanos Reunida en San José de Costa Rica el 4 de Diciembre de 1920 [Protocol of the Conference of Central American Plenipotentiaries in San José of Costa Rica on 4 December 1920] (in Spanish). Vol. 42. Tegucigalpa, Honduras: Tipografía Nacional. 1921. LCCN 33034532. OCLC 1051757299. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
- Ward, L.A., ed. (1916). Libro Azul de El Salvador: Histórico y Descriptivo, Comercio e Industrías, Hechos Datos y Recursos [Blue Book of Salvador: Historical and Descriptive, Commercial and Industrial, Facts Figures and Resources] (PDF) (in Spanish). San Salvador, El Salvador: Latin American Publicity Bureau. OCLC 16103876. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
- White, Alastair (1973). El Salvador. Nations of the Modern World. London and Tonbridge: Ernest Benn Limited. ISBN 0510395236. LCCN 73175341. OCLC 1391406624. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
Journals
[edit]- Perry, Edward (February 1922). "Central American Union". The Hispanic American Historical Review. 5 (1). Duke University Press: 30–51. doi:10.2307/2505979. ISSN 0018-2168. JSTOR 2505979. OCLC 5791727517.
Web sources
[edit]- Estrada, T. (22 May 2025). "Ellos son los Expresidentes Meléndez Conectados a Antigua Casa en Vente en el Centro Histórico" [These are the Former Presidents Meléndez Connected to the Old House for Sale in the Historic Center]. El Diario de Hoy (in Spanish). Retrieved 28 July 2025.
- Lindo, Héctor (10 November 2016). "Corrupción Gubernamental en El Salvador de 1922" [Government Corruption in El Salvador in 1922]. El Faro (in Spanish). Retrieved 28 July 2025.
External links
[edit]- "Dinastía Meléndez Quiñónez – Parte I y II (2004)" [Meléndez Quiñónez Dynasty – Parts I and II (2004)]. YouTube (in Spanish). University of Central America. 22 April 2004. Retrieved 21 May 2025.