José María de Achá

President of Bolivia

8 July 1810 Cochabamba, Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata

29 January 1868(1868-01-29) (57) Cochabamba, Bolivia

4 May 1861 – 28 December 1864

14th President of Bolivia This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish. (July 2013) Click for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Spanish article. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 4,494 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary Content in this edit is translated from the existing Spanish Wikipedia article at ]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|es|José María de Achá}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation. In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Achá and the second or maternal family name is Valiente. José María de Achá14th President of BoliviaIn office 4 May 1861 – 28 December 1864Preceded by Himself (as member of the junta) Succeeded by Mariano MelgarejoMember of the Government JuntaIn office 14 January 1861 – 4 May 1861Preceded by José María Linares (as president) Succeeded by Himself (as president) Minister of WarIn office 5 October 1858 – 14 January 1861PresidentJosé María LinaresPreceded by Lorenzo Velasco FlorSucceeded by Pedro Cueto Personal detailsBornJosé María de Achá Valiente (1810-07-08 ) 8 July 1810 Cochabamba, Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (now Bolivia) Died29 January 1868(1868-01-29) (aged 57) Cochabamba, BoliviaNationalityBolivianSpouse(s)Gertrudis Antezana Filomena GuzmánParentsAgapito de Achá Ana María ValienteSignatureMilitary serviceNickname(s)Yellow LegAllegianceBoliviaBranch/serviceBolivian ArmyRankGeneralBattles/warsWar of the Confederation Peruvian-Bolivian War Battle of Ingavi José María de Achá Valiente (8 July 1810, in Cochabamba – 29 January 1868) was a Bolivian general who served as the 14th President of Bolivia from 1861 to 64. He served in the battles of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation and conspired against longtime dictator Manuel Belzu (1848–55). Later, he was appointed Minister of war in the cabinet of another dictator, José María Linares (1857–61). In that capacity, he led the 1861 coup d'état that toppled Linares. Originally he governed as head of Junta, and then as sole leader of the revolutionary government. At first, Achá was quite popular by virtue of having ended the hated Linares' tyrannical rule. He extended a political amnesty, and legitimized his rule by winning the 1862 elections. Soon, however, he was plagued by rebellions, the bane of any Bolivian president during this chaotic period. At that point, Achá invoked a state of emergency and began to suppress civil liberties. In particular, he became unpopular as a result of the 1862 "Matanzas de Yáñez" (Yáñez Bloodbath), when the Achá supporter and military governor of La Paz Province, Plácido Yáñez, massacred dozens of opposition figures, many of them from the pro-Belzu camp. Among those murdered was former president Jorge Córdova. Eventually, discontent became widespread, and Achá found it difficult to govern at all. Indeed, parts of the party were controlled by different caudillos and military warlords. The president was finally overthrown in an 1864 coup d'état led by General Mariano Melgarejo, who would go on to become the most ruthless and brutal dictator of 19th-century Bolivia. After a couple of years in exile, the broken and unpopular Achá returned to Bolivia, where his safety was guaranteed by the now consolidated regime of General Melgarejo. Confined to his home city of Cochabamba, the ailing former President died there in 1868, less than 4 years after being overthrown. He was 57 years old.