Juan Almonte

**Juan Nepomuceno Almonte Ramírez** (May 15, 1803 - March 21, 1893) was a Mexican general and politician who twice served as president of Mexico, first from April 1870 to January 1874, and then from January 1878 to September 1881. Additionally, Almonte briefly served as defence secretary during the First Mexican Revolution and was twice a member of the Congress of Mexico, first from 1874 to 1878, and then for a month in 1881.

Born in 1803, Juan Almonte was the illegitimate child of revolutionary leaders in western Mexico. After partaking in the War of Mexican Independence during his youth, Almonte began a diplomatic career as a member of staff at the Mexican embassy in the United Kingdom, before being moved to the United States in 1830. From 1836 onwards, Almonte served in the Mexican armed forces and was promoted to the rank of general in 1853 for his role in toppling the First Mexican Empire during the Coup of 1852. Amid the First Mexican Revolution, Juan Almonte was appointed as minister of defence by President Félix María Zuloaga in 1869, before assuming the presidency in April 1870 after Zuloaga's resignation.

Almonte's first term as president of Mexico was dominated by the First Mexican Revolution and efforts to establish a new democratic constitution. In September 1871, Almonte negotiated an alliance with rebel leader Pedro Iturbide, who entered into government alongside members of his alliance after the end of the revolution. In alliance with Iturbide, Juan Almonte's government passed a series of reforms and introduced a new constitution which prevented consecutive re-election and sought to break the influence of political parties by prohibiting serving members of the executive branch from being affiliated with parties. In 1874, Almonte transferred power to Iturbide after an election the prior year, marking the first democratic transfer of power in Mexican history.

After a brief retirement from active politics, Juan Almonte returned to the presidency in January 1878 with Pedro Iturbide as his vice president. During his second presidency, Almonte largely acted as a figurehead for Iturbide to continue his rule - however, the pair's relationship collapsed in March 1881 after Iturbide's Restoration Party sought to abolish the Republic of Mexico, leading to a constitutional crisis which culminated with Almonte's impeachment on September 30, 1881 and the establishment of the Second Mexican Empire mere weeks later. After his ouster as president, Juan Almonte retired once again from politics and went into self-imposed exile in Dunsteen until his 1893 death.

## History

Juan Almonte was born in the town of Nocupétaro in the state of Michoacán, the out-of-wedlock son of José María Morelos, a Roman Catholic priest who led the insurgents in the Mexican War of Independence from 1811 to 1815, and Brígida Almonte. In 1815 Morelos sent Almonte to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was educated and learned fluent English. At his trial, Morelos was accused by the Mexican Inquisition following his capture that he had sent his son there to learn the doctrines of "heretical maxims of Protestantism," to which Morelos responded he sent his son there because of his concern about his son's safety in Mexico. While in New Orleans, Almonte worked as a clerk for hardware merchant Puech & Bein. His time in the United States was cut short when his father was executed on December 22, 1815, in the village of San Cristóbal Ecatepec.

Almonte married María Dolores Quesada on March 1, 1840, in Mexico City and they had a daughter named María de Guadalupe Anastacia Aleja Brígida Saturnina.

## Military and Political Career

### Diplomatic Duties

Between 1822 and 1824, Almonte was on the staff of insurgent rebel leader José Félix Trespalacios in Texas and then was sent as a part of the Mexican delegation to London. Almonte assisted Ambassador José Mariano Michelena in negotiating a commercial and amity treaty with England. This was Mexico's first treaty as a new nation. During his time as part of the ambassador's staff, Almonte frequently encountered Emperor Agustín I and was said to have been friends with the emperor's children during their youth. In 1830, Almonte was recalled and posted to the Mexican embassy in the United States.

### Military Career

In 1836, Juan Almonte was recruited into the officer corps of the Royal Mexican Armed Forces as a captain, and progressively worked up through the ranks. After helping put down a rebellion in southern Mexico in 1845, Almonte was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general. During the Coup of 1852, Almonte led forces in securing Mexico City and was placed as the officer in charge of guarding the arrested Emperor Pedro I. After the coup and the proclamation of the Republic of Mexico in 1853, Almonte was promoted to the rank of general by President José Mariano Salas.

### Minister of Defence

Following the fraudulent 1869 presidential election, which saw President José Mariano Salas and the Conservative party proclaim themselves as the victors in spite of an opposition victory, a coalition of rebel groups and opposition militias launched an uprising against the government. During the ensuing First Mexican Revolution, President Salas resigned from office on November 18, 1869 and was succeeded by Félix María Zuloaga as president. Immediately upon assuming office, Zuloaga conducted a reshuffle of government which saw Juan Almonte appointed as Minister of Defence and head of the armed forces.

On April 2, 1870, Félix María Zuloaga and rebel leader Pedro Iturbide met for the first time at a summit in Guanajuato in order to discuss terms of a potential agreement; as part of the terms, Iturbide demanded Zuloaga's resignation and a transition to fair elections in exchange for not prosecuting Salas and Zuloaga for their role in subverting elections. With rebel forces in control of a significant portion of the country, Félix María Zuloaga accepted these terms and on April 18, 1870, resigned as president of Mexico and transferred his position to defence minister Juan Almonte.

## Presidencies

 Vice President
 Election
 Vice President
 Election

### First Presidency

Juan Almonte was inaugurated as the third President of Mexico at midday on April 18, 1870. Having come to power as part of a negotiated agreement between the government and rebel factions, Almonte's first presidency was defined by the First Mexican Revolution and its consequences, as well as the power struggle between establishment and rebel leadership.

#### Government

Upon assuming office as president of Mexico, Juan Almonte enacted a radical reshuffle of government which saw almost all of president Félix María Zuloaga's cabinet fired and replaced with military figures. In September 1871, Almonte renegotiated an agreement with Pedro Iturbide's faction in order to create a government of national unity; the resulting cabinet, which formed on February 2, 1872, saw Iturbide be appointed as vice president and a handful of government positions granted to opposition figures. Additionally, a council of former liberal congressmen was formed as the Committee Representing the Congress of Mexico, which became the formal legislative body of the transitional regime and was later recognised as the seventh congressional session. In March 1873, the Congress of Mexico passed a new republican constitution, which entered into force on January 1, 1874; the 1873 constitution fixed presidential terms at four years, prevented immediate re-election, and banned the formation of political parties. In the November 1873 presidential election, Pedro Iturbide was elected as president and took part in the first democratic transfer of power on January 1, 1874 when Almonte transferred the presidency to Iturbide.

#### First Mexican Revolution

Despite having come to power as a compromise between the governing Conservative party and Pedro Iturbide's revolutionary faction, the First Mexican Revolution continued to escalate following the start of Almonte's presidency. In November 1870, rebel factions based in the north of Mexico separated from Iturbide's faction and launched an attempt to fully overthrow the government. After Iturbide's faction joined with the government and helped put down the rebellion in 1871, the First Mexican Revolution was deemed to end; with the revolution over, the government and Iturbide's factions negotiated a transitional agreement, leading to general elections in 1874.

### Second Presidency

Following the 1877 presidential election, Juan Almonte was inaugurated as the fifth president of Mexico at midday on January 1, 1878 at a ceremony in Mexico City, whilst his deputy Pedro Iturbide was sworn in as the fourth vice president of Mexico immediately afterwards. The start of Almonte's second term coincided with the opening of the ninth Congress of Mexico, which was dominated by Iturbide's Restoration Party.

#### Government

Upon taking office, Juan Almonte largely retained the cabinet of his predecessor with the sole exception of appointing his ally José Ignacio Pavón as minister of defence. Due to vice president Pedro Iturbide's Restoration Party holding a majority in the Congress of Mexico, Iturbide and his allies were able to dominate government proceedings during the second Almonte presidency, and indeed on several occasions passed laws through congress without first informing President Almonte. Few significant policy decisions were taken during the Almonte administration, with much of the term being dedicated to preserving the existing status-quo of Mexican politics. In March 1881, the Restoration Party launched a manifesto supporting the abolition of the republic and the return of the House of Iturbide to the throne - in response, President Juan Almonte signalled his intention to ban the party on constitutional grounds if it did not drop the policy, and called upon congress to rewrite the constitution in order to allow him to run for the presidency again.

#### 1881 Mexican constitutional crisis

Amid the 1881 Mexican constitutional crisis, the Restoration Party-controlled Congress of Mexico initiated impeachment proceedings against President Juan Almonte on June 13, 1881 under charges of attempting to subvert constitutional democracy. During the hearings over the summer of 1881, congress revoked many of Almonte's presidential privileges and appointed president of congress Juan Iturbide as an overseer for the government, with the government being required to achieve his permission in order to pass new laws during the impeachment.

On September 23, 1881, vice president Pedro Iturbide called for a popular uprising to overthrow Almonte and establish a new monarchy, resulting in major street protests during the last weeks of September. With significant popular support for the restoration of the House of Iturbide, the Congress of Mexico formally impeached President Juan Almonte on September 30, 1881 and removed him from office, leaving vice president Pedro Iturbide to assume the presidency. Within a month of the impeachment, the Second Mexican Empire was proclaimed with Pedro Iturbide as emperor Pedro II of Mexico.

## Post presidency

### 1874 - 1878

After handing power to Pedro Iturbide following the 1873 presidential election, Juan Almonte retired from active politics and took up a position as an *ex-offico* member of the Congress of Mexico in his role as a former president. During his retirement, Almonte travelled widely and was given an honorary knighthood in the Order of Alcántara by Spanish president Estanislao Figueras for his role in enhancing democracy in Mexico. In 1873, Juan Almonte returned from retirement to run as the nominee of the Restoration Party with Iturbide as his vice presidential nominee, before going on to be elected as president of Mexico.

### 1881 - 1893

Immediately upon his impeachment as president of Mexico, Juan Almonte returned to his position as an *ex-offico* member of the Congress of Mexico and retired from active politics. After the proclamation of the Second Mexican Empire and the enthronement of Pedro Iturbide as Emperor Pedro II of Mexico in November 1881, Juan Almonte's congressional membership was withdrawn and a warrant was placed for the arrest of Almonte. In January 1882, Juan Almonte fled Mexico for the Republic of Dunsteen in Europe, where he would remain until his death in 1893.

## Titles and Honours

* 1803 - 1870: *Señor* **Juan Nepomuceno Almonte Ramírez**
* 1870 - 1893: *His Excellency* **Juan Nepomuceno Almonte Ramírez**

### Honours

* 1874: Grand Officer of the Mexican Republic
* 1875: Honorary Knight of the Order of Alcántara (Spain)

## Service Summary

* 1824 - 1830: Assistant Chief of Staff, Mexican Embassy in the United Kingdom
* 1830 - 1836: Deputy Chief of Staff, Mexican Embassy in the United States of America
* 1836 - 1847: Commander, Mexican Provisional Brigade in Chiapas
* 1847 - 1852: Commander, Mexican Provisional Brigade in Texas
* 1852 - 1853: Commander, Task Force Mexico City
* 1853 - 1859: Military Governor of Mexico City
* 1859 - 1869: Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defence
 September 18, 1830
 August 24, 1836
 November 2, 1839
 June 19, 1843
 June 3, 1845
 November 4, 1845
 August 18, 1853