Benito Pablo Juárez García (21 March 1806 – 18 July 1872) was a Mexican politician, military officer, and lawyer who served as the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in 1872. A Zapotec, he was the first Indigenous president of Mexico and the first democratically elected Indigenous president in postcolonial America. A member of the Liberal Party, he previously held a number of offices, including the governorship of Oaxaca and the presidency of the Supreme Court.
Education and a legal career
Benito Juárez was born on 21 March 1806, in the village of San Pablo Guelatao, Oaxaca, located in the mountain range since named for him, the Sierra Juárez. It was a small settlement of about two hundred inhabitants, made up of straw huts, and a small church, the village being located at the edge of a mountain pond known for its picturesque transparent waters and called La Laguna Encantada, the enchanted pond. His parents, Brígida García and Marcelino Juárez, were Zapotec peasants. He described his parents as "Indians from the primitive race of the country" (Spanish: indios de la raza primitiva del país). He had two older sisters, Josefa and Rosa. From the very beginning of his legal career, Juárez became an active partisan of the Liberal Party. As a lawyer, Juárez took cases of Indigenous villagers.
Community members of Loxicha, Oaxaca hired him for their denunciation of a priest, whom they accused of abuses. He did not win the case, and was thrown into jail along with community members, "thanks to the collusion between Church and the state," writing later that it "strengthened in me the goal of working constantly to destroy the pernicious power of the privileged classes." Juárez took on the goal of fighting for equality before the law in the face of the lingering legal privileges that remained in Mexico from the colonial legal system, as were accorded to the Mexican Catholic Church, the army, and Indigenous communities.
Liberal reform and civil conflict
The Plan of Ayutla had inaugurated what would come to be known as La Reforma, a period of unprecedented constitutional change for Mexico, and Juárez was to be a key figure throughout this era. Before La Reforma, and dating back to the legal system of New Spain, neither clerics nor soldiers were under the jurisdiction of the civil judiciary, and could only be tried for all offenses under their own respective, independent court systems. In the face of increasing opposition however and with civil conflict already erupting in the state of Puebla, the moderate President Comonfort sought to distance himself from the Constitution of 1857 and by December was already announcing that the Constitution ought to be reformed.
Chief Justice Juárez rebuffed Comonfort's invitation to join him in abandoning the constitution. On 17 December, Conservatives led by Felix Zuloaga proclaimed the Plan of Tacubaya, which dissolved congress and invited Comonfort to accept the presidency with extraordinary powers in a self-coup. The year 1860 was one of increasing Liberal victories and Miramon once again indecisively attacked Veracruz in March. In September, the Juárez government suffered a scandal when the Liberal General Santos Degollado raided a mule train of money being sent to European merchants. Juárez made efforts to recover the money and gave orders for restitution.
A republic resists foreign intervention
Foreign Minister Manuel Doblado invited the commissioners to travel to Orizaba and there the three powers proceeded to officially recognize the government of Juárez along with Mexican sovereignty. On 9 April 1862, agreements at Orizaba between the allies broke down, as France made it increasingly clear that it intended to violate Mexican sovereignty in violation of previous agreements. In early 1864, Juárez faced opposition from Manuel Doblado and Jesús González Ortega, who accused him of taking autocratic actions that were against the constitution. Juárez defended himself by appealing to necessity, and the opposition was defused. On 29 March, Juárez established his new capital in Monterrey after having faced the mutiny of Governor Santiago Vidaurri, who had declared his loyalty to the French, but was then defeated by Republican forces and fled into Texas.
On 1 October 1865, the Juárez government received a thirty million dollar loan from the United States. American volunteers also began to enlist in the army of the Mexican Republic. On 30 November 1865, Juárez's term expired, and according to the Constitution, due to the inability of holding elections, the office of the president was to pass down to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, which was then Jesús González Ortega. Juárez reentered the capital on the morning of 15 July, with Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, José María Iglesias, and Ignacio Mejía, to public acclaim, the ringing of bells, and ceremonial artillery fire.