José Santos Guardiola

Who was José Santos Guardiola?

General José Santos Guardiola Bustillo was a two-term President of Honduras from 17 February 1856 to 7 February 1860 and from 7 February 1860 to his death on 11 January 1862, when he became the only President of Honduras to be assassinated while in office in a crime committed by his personal guard.

His parents were the Catalan miner Esteban Guardiola and Bibiana Bustillo. He married Ana de Arzibu and one of their many daughters, Genoveva Guardiola Arbizu, married the first President of the Republic of Cuba, Tomas Estrada Palma. For his first term, he was elected president by Congress after the overthrow of Trinidad Cabanas . His second term came through the way of free elections in which he won easily. His administration was one of most liberal in Honduran history, in spite of him belonging to the Conservative Party. His government granted freedom of press, suffrage and movement; it respected and it guaranteed the individual freedom and it regularized the relations between the church and the State. He opposed Francisco Morazán in the conflict over whether to have a Central American state.