"The Birth of the Federal Republic of Central America"

New York Times History Journal Volume 90, Article written by Dominic Rondeau. Published on February 12th of 2020

"... The history behind the Federal Republic of Central America, one of the most prosperous nations in the Americas, is complicated, to say the least. Today, the FRCA is not unlike the United States in many of its characteristics: a constitutional, presidential federal republic with multiple states and a diverse population. However, when the FRCA was first formed in 1824, it was a bitterly divided nation split between various ethnicities, regions, and political groups. When the FRCA declared independence on July 14th of 1824, the transitional government (the Central American junta) was disarrayed and divided. Out of the seventy representatives that gathered to vote on independence in Tegucigalpa, only thirty-nine of them voted in favor of independence (with the pro-independence faction rapidly assembling a Notice of Independence and sending it to Mexico City before the opposition came together to block said maneuver). Most of the representatives who voted in favor of independence believed that Mexico would neglect the Central American states, which was only reaffirmed when the junta in Mexico City often ignored requests from Central America in favor of requests from local, 'Mexican' states. The pro-independence faction was only emboldened to break away from Mexico after Yucatan's exit from the Mexican Republic, especially as news came that Guerrero would allow Yucatan to secede peacefully. However, the loyalist faction in the FRCA argued that Central America was 'not ready, in any shape or form' to declare independence. The junta was in its infancy when independence was declared, and not a single draft of the future Constitution existed when the independence vote was held. In fact, almost none of the junta members was aware of what the government would even look like, except that it was to be republican.

As such, it was unsurprising why the FRCA experienced instability and uncertainty during its first several years of existence. It took two months for the capital to be decided upon (Guatemala City), and even that decision was contested almost immediately by representatives from Comayagua, San Salvador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. The argument led to a compromise to have Guatemala City house the national Executive while Tegucigalpa housed the Legislative and Judicial Branch. The junta then argued over what type of government the future Central American nation would look like. With rumors spreading about a unitary government in Mexico and Yucatan, the junta quickly declared a federal republic to accommodate the various states within the Central American Republic. However, it wasn't until the late 19th century that the FRCA truly became a 'federal' republic. The various states within the FRCA highly valued their autonomy and intentionally disempowered the federal government to prevent 'federal overreach.' This resulted in the FRCA starting as a 'confederation' more than a 'federal republic' when it was first established. The federal government held just enough power to keep the region together, but not enough to bring about quick reforms and changes (as was by design).

While the junta was finally forming some semblance of a federal government and code of law, the nation was already ripping at the seams from the uncertainty. Border skirmishes occurred between Guatemala and San Salvador, with both sides accusing of escalating the situation first. Secessionists in the liberal parts of western Guatemala stirred up independence sentiments to form their own state to have representation in the junta (which only represented the five 'original' states from the New Spain era). Conservatives battled with Liberals openly in meeting rooms (which, at the time, was located in Guatemala City) and in the streets, with Guatemala City becoming a hotspot of clashing political ideologies. Liberals sought to completely copy the United States: a secular republic with universal suffrage, a powerful federal government, and rapid industrialization. Meanwhile, Conservatives sought to maintain the status quo as much as possible; they sought to enshrine Catholicism as the national religion (much like Mexico), maintain a cash crop economy, and only allow male landowners to vote.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Church wrestled with the junta to seize more political and economic control (especially as rumors of Central America becoming a secular republic became more prevalent), oftentimes inflaming the local population to rebel against the Union. One such attempt started an open revolt in the village of Chiquimula that quickly spread to the edges of Guatemala City. When five indigenous people were found murdered in their homes on October 5th of 1824, the Church quickly accused the junta of creating 'bounties' on Native Americans to clear out the area for foreigners to settle into. For their evidence, the Church pointed out that the junta was dealing with an American businessman even before an official government was established, which raised suspicion that the junta was actually planning to sell out the entirety of Guatemala and the other Central American states to the United States.

In reality, the junta sought aid from foreign powers, especially from the United States, to keep the nation afloat while it experienced severe instability. Samuel Kim, who was invaluable to the success of the United States and Mexico, also offered aid to help the Central American Republic, which the junta graciously accepted. The junta was informed beforehand that Kim's priority remained in Mexico, with only occasional aid sent to aid Central America. As such, there weren't any concrete plans to have Kim arrive in Central America and help develop the nation. However, the Catholic Church across former New Spain despised the liberal, secular republic in the far north and viewed it as a potential threat to their own power. While Mexico was able to keep its own Church in check due to its political and military might, the weak 'government' of Central America had neither. And with many of the indigenous population being illiterate and religious, the Church was able to rile up the peasantry in an armed revolt against the junta. As nearly three thousand rebels, armed with a spare number of firearms and many farm tools, marched onto Guatemala City to bring down the Central American government. With only local militias to suppress the uprising (two of which were quickly defeated by the rebels' superior numbers), many members of the junta prepared to flee from the city before it was besieged.

However, two things prevented an early collapse of the FRCA and brought it back from the brink of extinction: Jose Cecilio del Valle and a coincidental sighting of Spanish ships off the eastern coast of Comayagua.

Now, Jose Cecilio del Valle was not a military genius or an inspiring political leader like Samuel Kim or Vicente Guerrero. Valle came from an upper-middle-class background; his parents were both from distinguished families and held a sizeable amount of wealth from estates and livestock. His father sought to give his son a good education and moved his family to Guatemala City (from Coluteca, Comayagua). After attending the University of San Carlos, Valle decided to journey across the Americas at the young age of 20. The reasons for his journey remains unclear to this day, but it is assumed that he desired to visit other entities and expand his horizons. He journeyed through the other Central American states, Mexico, Venezuela, Haiti, and finally, the United States. For two years, he lived in the United States, attending various seminars and classes in American universities, even encountering the American Secretary of State in a brief meeting in 1806. Unlike many revolutionaries inspired by the American Republic's existence, Valle maintained a firm, neutral stance in his political views. He believed that the United States had a host of excellent ideas and laws that should be imitated. At the same time, he believed that the United States was far too 'radical' for his tastes and believed that the American Constitution and government were only successful because 'they were in America.' However, the idea of independence appealed to him (as he believed that New Spain was shackled by Spain and was unable to fulfill its potential truly). After returning to Guatemala in the year 1808, he quietly advocated for a peaceful separation between the Central American states and Spain. He remained in a small minority until the Mexican War of Independence broke out in 1817. Soon after, Valle's views were supported by a growing number of Guatemalan inhabitants, and he was elected the mayor of Guatemala City in 1819. Eventually, he emerged as a fairly prominent political figure in Guatemala and was appointed as a junta member in May of 1824, when the junta was first created.

Valle was a Moderate, a man who was well-liked by both Conservatives and Liberals. He sought to maintain a balance between the two sides and create a Constitution that appealed to the vast majority of the representatives and public, which was a very tall order at the time. Known as the 'Great Compromiser' by his colleagues, Valle helped prevent an internal civil war between the Conservative and Liberal factions within the junta. His background as a man born in Comayagua and an inhabitant of Guatemala helped establish an uneasy truce between the two rival states. He was not the only Moderate politician in the junta, but he was one of the most well-liked and respectable ones. Like most of the junta during the Chiquimula Rebellion, he was in Guatemala City as he was ironing out the various clauses within the proposed FRCA Constitution. However, unlike other representatives, he was calm and organized when he and the others were informed of the 'rebels' imminent arrival, a group that sought to overthrow the junta and establish a Kingdom or Theocracy.' Instead, he rallied the people of Guatemala City (many of whom that personally knew Valle due to his tenure as a mayor). After he hastily gathered a militia to face off the rebels, he boldly declared in front of a crowd of one thousand individuals, "The Union will not die today, not now, not forever."

While Valle was the one that assembled the militia, the officer leading the militia was one José Rafael Carrera Turcios. He had engaged the indigenous rebels in the two previous battles with several Guatemalan militiamen and barely escaped both times with a small group of followers. Turcios was the one that arrived in Guatemala City to warn the imminent rebel threat to the junta and was quickly appointed as the leader of the thousand or so assembled 'militiamen' (in reality, a mix of artisans and farmers armed with a minimal amount of weapons) upon Valle's request. The new 'general' quickly built up a set of defenses just a kilometer east of Guatemala City within three days and valiantly led a defense against the rebels once they attacked his fortifications on November 2nd of 1824. Despite coming from humble farming backgrounds, he showed immense potential in warfare and led an ill-trained and ill-equipped army to victory. Outnumbered three to one, Turcios personally led several charges to completely break the rebel army, inflicting 1,400 casualties for 700 of his own. He quickly seized the initiative to hunt down the fleeing rebels all the way to Chiquimula, where he arrested the Church officials that incited the rebellion and personally brought them back to Guatemala City. For the time being, the Republic was saved, thanks to the efforts of two men. However, many representatives were offended that Turcios dared to arrest members of the Church and the Church demanded that Turcios be handed over for trial. It seemed as though the Republic would break itself internally, when on November 30th, a fleet of Spanish ships was spotted off the coast of Comayagua. What truly alarmed the junta (and Central America as a whole) was that two of the ships forcefully docked in La Ceiba, with local city officials being threatened to allow the Spanish ships to dock. The news quickly spread throughout the region, and it created something unseen in Central America ever before: a sense of unity. More precisely, a united sense of fear and horror.

In truth, the Spanish ships were there to extract some peninsulars sought to return to Spain due to the instability of Central America and the persecution against the peninsulars (like Mexico, Central America viewed the peninsulars in a negative light, believing that they were the main root of most of Central America's problems). The ships left after two days, but it evoked a sense of fear and urgency within the junta. Central America had no time to bicker and divided itself when Spain loomed in the background. While Spain had no plans to retake its American colonies, the Central American junta believed otherwise and rapidly came together after the 'La Ceiba Incident.' With Valle acting as the mediator between the various interest groups, the Constitution was ironed out in record times and finalized on January 25th of 1825. The Constitution of Central America created a federal republic, with five states and thirty 'provinces.' The Federal Congress of Central America was bicameral, with a Senate and a Federal Assembly. Each state had six provinces, and each province held one Senator. The Federal Assembly was proportionate to the provinces' population, and the first Assembly contained one hundred representatives in total. While this seemed messy to outsiders, it was a 'reasonable' compromise to balance regionalism and federalism. The Executive was the President of Central America, which was allowed to serve two four-year terms. The Judicial Branch was a copy of the American judicial system, with various Circuit Courts and regional courts being established. Surprisingly, Catholicism was not established as the national religion; the Constitution declared that Central America remained a secular republic. The Chiquimula Rebellion greatly delegitimized the Church in the eyes of many political leaders (even conservative ones), and nearly all of them sought to de-fang the Church before its power grew further. As for suffrage, only literate men were allowed to vote, which satisfied the Conservatives. However, like the Mexcian Constitution, the FRCA Constitution guaranteed a 'freedom of education' (which promised that the government would provide free and accessible education when possible), which was enough for the Liberals to accept the compromise. Most importantly, the states held massive amounts of power, more so than their American counterparts. States were allowed to maintain their own militaries (though most of them only maintained a small militia), implement their own tariffs, and maintain laws that were not in conflict with federal laws.

Valle, who wanted to retire from politics after finishing up the FRCA Constitution, was surprised to learn that the junta wanted him to become the first president (as his Moderate stance allowed him to handle both factions effectively). He reluctantly accepted the offer and was appointed as the interim president on February 7th and was elected as the official president on July 1st. Thus began the Federal Republic of Central America's first steps into the annuals of history...