Trinidad Anastasio de Sales Ruiz Bustamante y Oseguera (; 27 July 1780 – 6 February 1853) was a Mexican medical doctor, general, and politician who served as the 4th President of Mexico three times from 1830 to 1832, 1837 to 1839, and 1839 to 1841. He also served as the 2nd Vice President of Mexico from 1829 to 1832 under Presidents Vicente Guerrero, José María Bocanegra, himself, and Melchor Múzquiz. He participated in the Mexican War of Independence initially as a royalist before siding with Agustín de Iturbide and supporting the Plan of Iguala.
Bustamante was a member of the Provisional Government Junta, the first governing body of Mexico. After the fall of the First Mexican Empire, his support for Emperor Iturbide was pardoned by President Guadalupe Victoria. The controversial 1828 general election sparked riots forcing the results to be nullified, as a result, Congress named him vice president while the liberal Vicente Guerrero was named president. Bustamante's command of a military reserve during the Barradas Expedition in 1829 allowed him to launch a coup d'état ousting Guerrero.
During his first term as president, he expelled U.S. Minister Joel Roberts Poinsett, issued a law prohibiting American immigration to Texas, and produced a budget surplus. His leading minister during this time was the conservative intellectual Lucas Alamán. Opponents of his regime proclaimed the Plan of Veracruz in 1832, leading to almost a year of civil war, ultimately forcing Bustamante into exile.
During his exile, the First Republic collapsed and was replaced by Santa Anna with the Centralist Republic of Mexico. Santa Anna's fall from power during the Texas Revolution in 1836 gave Bustamante the chance to return to Mexico and smoothly reassume the presidency in early 1837. Refusal to compensate French losses in Mexico resulted in the disastrous Pastry War in late 1838. Bustamante briefly stepped down in 1839 to suppress a rebellion led by José de Urrea. Relations with the United States were restored and treaties signed with European powers. Rebellions in favor of restoring the federal system and an ongoing financial crisis was leading to unrest all over the nation. The state of Yucatán broke away in 1839, and in 1840 Bustamante himself was taken hostage in the capital by federalist rebels who were ultimately defeated. A conservative revolt led by Mariano Paredes ultimately forced him into a second exile in 1841. Bustamante returned in 1845 and participated in the Mexican–American War. He spent his last years in San Miguel de Allende where he died in 1853.
Early life Anastasio Bustamante was born on 27 July 1780, in Jiquilpan, Michoacán to Jose Ruiz Bustamante and Francisca Oseguera. His family did not have great wealth and his father was employed transporting snow to Guadalajara, nonetheless they provided the young Anastasio with a good education. At the age of fifteen he enrolled at the Seminary College of Guadalajara, sponsored by Marcelino Figueroa, curate of the village of Tuxpam. He then went to Mexico City to study medicine with Dr. Ligner professor of chemistry at the college of mining. After graduating he accepted an offer to work at San Luis Potosí and was made director of the hospital of San Juan de Dios.
Ever since his college years, Bustamante had also shown an intention of joining the military and after the upheavals suffered by Spain in 1808 as a consequence of the Peninsular War a corp of cavalry was formed in San Luis Potosí made up of the leading families and Bustamante was named a member, but he did not leave his profession as a physician until the Mexican War of Independence broke out in September 1810, at which Bustamante found himself fighting as a Spanish loyalist under the command of Félix María Calleja del Rey.
Military career War of Independence He was promoted to captain in 1812 and found himself at the Siege of Cuautla in which he was commissioned by Calleja to break the siege. He then found himself seeing action in the Valley of Apam where he was wounded in action. He was recruited to the regiments of and sent to repulse the invasion started at Galveston by Javier Mina.
He captured the Fort of Remedios where he took the batteries in spite of being wounded and pursued the fleeing insurgents with cavalry. He helped pacify the entire province of Guanajuato culminating in the battle at the Hacienda de Guanimaro in which he routed the forces of Torres and the American filibuster Gregorio Wolf.
Towards the end of the war Bustamante found himself at the Hacienda de Pantoja in charge of operations at the Valle of Santiago when Captain Quintanilla on behalf of Agustín de Iturbide attempting to recruit him to join the Plan of Iguala to which Bustamante aquieced.
The viceroy had given orders to the commandant general of the province Antonio Linares that Bustamante be withdrawn from his command, but Bustamante intercepted the message, and he proclaimed his support for independence on 19 March 1821. He traveled to Celaya where he offered to Linares the command post which he rejected, he entered Guanajuato without meeting any resistance, and he removed from the Alhondiga the bodies of the insurgents who had been executed for fighting for independence at the start of the war, moving them rather to the cemetery of San Sebastián.
Iturbide designated Bustamante second in command in regards to the revolution, and he accompanied him to a conference with General Cruz at the Hacienda of San Antonio. Bustamante was then declared head of all cavalry, defeating the forces of Bracho and San Julian who marched to the relief of Querétaro.
Iturbide meanwhile travelled to Puebla and Bustamante advanced through Arroyazarco to the outskirts of the capital to prepare the siege and fought at Azcapotzalco. Before occupying Mexico City he was named by Iturbide to the Governmental Junta and after the Regency Field Marshall and captain general of the internal provinces of the West and the East when the territory of the First Mexican Empire was divided into five military districts.
At Huchi he defeated the Ordenes Regiment, a Spanish expeditionary force for which he was recommended to be a part of the Regency. At the capital he was in charge of urgent matters related to the internal provinces of the country.
First Republic After the First Mexican Empire fell he joined Luis de Quintanar at Guadalajara in proclaiming a revolution in favor of the federal system, hoping that in the resulting upheaval Iturbide could find a way back to power. However the uprising was defeated and Bustamante and Quintanar surrendered before General Nicolás Bravo and the pair were banished to South America, a punishment which was never carried out due to the political upheavals afflicting Mexico at the time.
During the early years of the First Republic as politics in Mexico became a struggle between the liberal, federalist Yorkino party and the conservative, centralist Escoses party Bustamante sided with the former due to being offput by the hatred for Iturbide found in the Escoses party. President Victoria gave Bustamante command of the internal provinces, and he began his duties with the rank of Division General. He set out to suppress raids and protect the frontier.
First Presidency
Overthrow of Guerrero In the elections of 1828, Bustamante was chosen to be vice-president under the Yorkino Vicente Guerrero, and he was placed in charge of the reserve forces of Xalapa. President Guerrero had been granted emergency powers in 1829 due to a Spanish Invasion, and did not resign them, which became a point of contention among the opposition. A conspiracy began to brew against the president and it succeeded in gaining the adherence of Bustamante. He was influenced by Jose Antonio Facio, a great opponent of Guerrero, and some Yorkinos disillusioned with the president. On 4 December 1829, Bustamante proclaimed the Plan of Jalapa against the government on the pretext of restoring constitutional order against the president's alleged dictatorial tendencies. Guerrero gathered troops and left the capital to face the rebels, only for the insurrection to flare up in the capital itself, and the government surrendered on 22 December while Guerrero escaped to the south of the country.
Bustamante appoints a new government
Bustamante officially began his presidency on 1 January 1830. He named Lucas Alamán: Minister of Interior and Exterior Relations, : Minister of Finance, Colonel José Antonio Facio: Minister of War and Marine, and Minister of Justice: José Ignacio Espinosa. Congress ratified the Plan of Jalapa, but it did not annul the results of the election of 1828. It rather declared Guerrero unfit to rule, and as a consequence vice-president Bustamante was now president.
The new government, notably Alaman and Facio regretted the expulsion of the Spaniards which had been carried out under previous administrations, but did not attempt to undue such measures due to popular anti-Spanish feeling.
Uprisings against Bustamante Meanwhile, Guerrero remained at large in the south of the country, and the commanders who had previously all fought the Spaniards now found themselves on opposing sides of a civil conflict. On the side of Guerrero were Juan Álvarez, Francisco Mongoy, , and Isidoro Montes de Oca. On the side of Bustamante were Nicolás Bravo, Manuel de Mier y Terán, and Melchor Múzquiz. The conflict flared up in other parts of the country but was suppressed. A brother of the ex-president Guadalupe Victoria was executed for taking arms against the government.
The problem of Texas
On 6 April 1830, the government took action against the crisis that was developing in the state of Coahuila y Tejas. The region had been increasingly settled by American immigrants since the last days of Spanish rule, and the amount of settlers now threatened Mexico's ability to administer the region. Minister Alaman passed a law prohibiting further colonization of Texas by foreigners from countries contiguous to Mexico, and enforcing customs along the frontier. General Teran was ordered to establish a string of forts along the Texas frontier. The colonists who up until this point had been living in virtual independence, to the point of openly owning slaves, which was illegal in Mexico, found the law highly irritating.
Guerrero captured and executed For the first time in Mexican history, official independence day celebrations also occurred on 27 September in addition to 16 September in order to commemorate the entrance of Agustín de Iturbide's Trigarantine Army into Mexico City in addition to the usual commemorations of the Grito de Dolores. On 1 January 1831, General Nicolás Bravo struck a decisive blow against the remaining forces of Vicente Guerrero. The latter attempted to flee aboard the ship Colombo departing from the port of Acapulco, but Captain Picaluga instead docked at Huatulco and turned Guerrero over to the authorities. Guerrero was court martialed and condemned to death, being executed by firing squad on 14 February. The execution of one of the heroes of independence, reminiscent of Agustín de Iturbide's death only seven years earlier, shocked the nation and rumors that the government had paid Picaluga were widespread.
After the end of Guerrero's struggle in the south there was relative peace throughout the nation. Taxes and customs were increasing, and the nation's credit began to improve. At the opening of congress on 1 January 1832, Bustamante reported that the states all now had considerable surplus funds, and that the treasury had enough funds to pay six months' interest on the foreign debt.
Beneath the increasing prosperity however lay unease over the government's increasingly autocratic measures. Freedom of speech was abolished, and the legislature and judiciary grew increasingly subservient to the executive.
Plan of Veracruz