President of Panama (1856?1942)
In this
Spanish name
, the first or paternal
surname
is
Porras
and the second or maternal family name is
Barahona
.
Belisario Porras Barahona
(28 November 1856 – 28 August 1942) was a
Panamanian
journalist
and
politician
. He served three terms as
President of Panama
between 1912 and 1924.
Porras was born in
Las Tablas
, on the thirty-fifth anniversary of Panama's declaration of independence from
Spain
. Raised by his grandmother, his early education was paid for by his father in
Bogota
, the capital of Colombia, which Panama was a province of at the time. He joined his father when he went to secondary school, went on to study law at the National University in 1874, and won a scholarship from the Colombian government to study in
Belgium
from where he later returned to Panama.
Working as a reporter, he aligned himself with the local
Colombian Liberal Party
, and was soon the target of persecution by the reigning
Conservative
government in Bogota. Exiled to
Nicaragua
and
El Salvador
, he took jobs as a professor and a reporter.
As the
Thousand Days War
began in Colombia, the Liberals in Panama sent for Porras to lead the invasion of the
Isthmus
in 1900. Working with General
Victoriano Lorenzo
and others, he began his struggle from
Costa Rica
in the West. He organized a volunteer army and reached the capital where he was defeated in the Battle of Calidonia Bridge. Porras returned to exile until 1904, after his homeland had acquired its independence, and became a diplomat until becoming president in 1912. The
Panama Canal
was finished during his first term in office.
He was elected as
the first presidential designate
by the
National Assembly
in September 1918.
[1]
He died in
Panama City
.
Belisario Porras Barahoma was born to Demetrio Porras Cavero and Juana Gumersinda Barahona. Belisario married twice. First, in 1881 he married Eva Paniza Arosemena and they had 5 children: Belisario Roberto, Demetrio, Camilo, Maria Teresa, Leticia Antonia. In 1906 he married Alicia Castro and had 4 children: Rodrigo, Hernan, Alicia y Alvaro. He also had children outside of both marriages: Demetrio Augusto, Silvia, Julieta y Emilia.
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