There are a number of examples of continuismo in Hispanic America whereby presidents continue in office beyond the legal term limits, with constitutional revision, plebiscites, and the creation of family dynasties, such as the Somoza family in Nicaragua. Where the . The former president, Jose Miguel de Velasco, executed a coup for the presidency in 1848, promising the position of Minister of War to Belzu. Men characterized as caudillos have ruled in Cuba (Gerardo Machado, Fulgencio Batista, Fidel Castro), Panama (Omar Torrijos, Manuel Noriega), the Dominican Republic (Desiderio Arias, Cipriano Bencosme), Paraguay (Alfredo Stroessner), Argentina (Juan Perón and other military strongmen), and Chile (Augusto Pinochet). During the era of the Mexican Reform and the French intervention in Mexico, there were a number of generals who had regional personal followings. Cuevillas, "A Case for Caudillaje and Juan Perón" in, Domingo F. Sarmiento, "Facundo Quiroga: The Caudillo as Barbarian" in. This kind of dynastic succession is an example of continuismo. Meade, Teresa A. They intervened in national politics to make and unmake governments. Belzu considered to come back to presidency in 1861, however, he was gunned down by one of his rivals by the time he tried to run for presidency again. [1] Spanish conquistadors such as Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro exhibit characteristics of the caudillo, being successful military leaders, having mutual reliance of the leader and their supporters, and rewarding them for their loyalty. The early nineteenth century is sometimes called "The Age of Caudillos,"[2] with Juan Manuel de Rosas, dictator of Argentina,[12] and his contemporary in Mexico, Antonio López de Santa Anna,[13] dominating national politics. [30], One caudillo who was remarkably progressive for his time was Bolivia’s Manuel Isidoro Belzu. The Spanish word caudillo (“leader,” from the Latin capitellum [“small head”]) was used to describe the head of irregular forces who ruled a politically distinct territory. In the twentieth century, Juan Perón and his dynamic and charismatic wife Evita Perón held power. [29], Veterans of the wars of independence assumed the leadership of the newly created nation-states, each with a new constitution. Rosas despised "the principles of political democracy and liberty [and] provided order in a region that had known near-anarchy since independence. Emiliano Zapata peasant leader from the state of Morelos opposed to Díaz and every subsequent Mexican government until his murder in 1919 by agents of Carranza. The model that these nation-states often adopted was federalism, keeping power in the component regions. The Roman Catholic Church as an institution remained strong and the militaries that won victories against royalist forces. Liberalism had an advantage in the post-independence period, drawing on ideas of the liberators, and created the institutional frameworks of the new nation-states via written constitutions. Despite his popularity in many sectors, Belzu had many powerful enemies, which was shown by him surviving 40 assassination attempts. [43] In 1946, Nobel Prize laureate Miguel Ángel Asturias published El Señor Presidente, based on the life of Manuel Estrada Cabrera (1898–1920), which was translated to English in 1975. Paraguay was ruled by General Alfredo Stroessner from 1954 to 1989 and was ousted by military coup in 1989. [14][15] Colombian Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez published two works with strongmen as main characters, The Autumn of the Patriarch[42] and The General in his Labyrinth, a controversial novel about Simón Bolívar.