Joaquín Crespo
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Family name hatnote Template:Infobox officeholder Joaquín Sinforiano de Jesús Crespo Torres (Template:IPA; 22 August 1841 – 16 April 1898) was a Venezuelan military officer and politician. A member of the Great Liberal Party of Venezuela, he served as the president of Venezuela from 1884 to 1886 and again from 1892 to 1898. He began his career as a soldier during the Federal War.
Presidency
Template:Main Joaquín Crespo became president for the first time in 1884. In 1886 Guzmán Blanco returned as Template:Interlanguage link. Crespo went into exile during the Template:Interlanguage link of Juan Pablo Rojas Paúl which marked a break from Guzmán Blanco's policies.
In 1888 exilated in Trinidad a group of Venezuelans revolutionaries entered the steamer Bolívar, anchored in Port of Spain, to capture it, but were discovered and forced to disembark. Another group, waiting on land, began an assault and battle against the crew. British soldiers, with fixed bayonets, boarded and subdued the Venezuelan revolutionaries. From Trinidad, Crespo fled to Saint Thomas, a Danish colony in the Virgin Islands archipelago. In Charlotte Amalie, Crespo attempted to invade Venezuela aboard the schooner Ana Jacinta. Defeated by the government, he was imprisoned in La Rotunda prison, later pardoned by President Rojas Paúl with the promise of a temporary retirement from politics. He devoted himself to tending his ranch, before going into exile in Peru.
During the Template:Interlanguage link, which began in 1892, a new constitution increased the presidential term. The Venezuelan crisis of 1895 saw Venezuela's longstanding territorial dispute with Great Britain come to a head, with the United States providing diplomatic support to Venezuela. Britain claimed the territory as part of British Guiana while Venezuela saw it as Venezuelan. The disputed border was submitted to international arbitration. The arbitral panel awarded most of the territory to Britain in 1899 after Crespo's death.
Subsequent career
In 1897, Crespo did not campaign for a third presidential term but supported Ignacio Andrade against key opponent Jose Manuel Hernandez. Andrade won the election<ref name="BiografiasyVidas_Ignacio">Template:Cite web</ref> and inaugurated his Template:Interlanguage link on 28 February,Template:Citation needed 1898. Hernandez decried the results as fraudulent and took up arms. Hernandez was quickly defeated, with resultant political turmoil.<ref name="BiografiasyVidas_Ignacio" />
Death
Crespo, who remained a military mainstay of the government, was killed in battle on 16 April 1898<ref name="Obituaries_1898">Template:Cite journal</ref> in the Combat of Mata Carmelera while defending the Template:Interlanguage link.<ref name="Obituaries_1898"/>
He was buried in the Southern General Cemetery. During the crisis in Venezuela, in 2018, the tomb of Crespo and his wife Jacinta was looted and vandalized, leaving their bodies exposed to the elements.<ref name="Pat">Template:Cite web</ref>
Personal life
Crespo was married to Jacinta Parejo,<ref name="Pat" /> who served as First Lady of Venezuela from 1884 to 1886,Template:Citation needed and 1892–1898.Template:Citation needed
See also
References
External links
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