Cristóbal Mendoza

After obtaining his law degree, Mendoza moved to Barinas, where he became known for defending local tribal groups and helping invest their profits in several agricultural properties.[1] In January 1807,[2] he was elected Mayor of Barinas by the Council of Barinas. After charges of nepotism in the election process that had led to Mendoza's appointment, the Royal Court ruled in favor of Mendoza retaining the governorship[1] in 1808.[2] On 19 April 1810, Mendoza joined the insurgent movement started by the Caracas elite against the Spanish crown.[1] In May 1810, he was elected the secretary of the newly created Board of Local Government of Barinas,[2][1] and he also led a movement among Caracas' wealthy citizens with the slogan "Peace and tranquility are our desires. Die or be free is our currency." Both Mendoza and his brother Luis Ignacio Mendoza were among those elected to represent the province of Barinas when the Constituent Congress of Venezuela was founded[1] on 2 March 2011.[3] Mendoza was not given the opportunity serve in the congress, however, before he was informed he had been appointed as president of the First Republic of Venezuela as of 5 March 1811. At the time of being appointed to president, he had been preparing to travel to Caracas while also fulfilling his duties with the newly formed Board of Governors.[1]

Official portrait of Cristóbal Mendoza by Martín Tovar y Tovar.

In March 1811 during the Spanish American wars of independence, the first Venezuelan constitutional congress established as the executive power a triumvirate in which three men shared executive power and rotated the presidency every week. At age 39, Mendoza became a member of the triumvirate that headed the First Republic of Venezuela and was unanimously elected by the other two as the first to go in rotation on 5 March 1811.[4] With Manuel Moreno de Mendoza serving as the interim first president in his absence,[2][7] Mendoza arrived in Caracas to begin serving his first week-long term on 25 April 1811.[1] As part of the triumvirate, Mendoza began the war for independence against the parts of Venezuela that still supported the Spanish monarchy. He also was the author of the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence, issued on 5 July 1811. While in office he formed part of the constitutional convention that designed and promulgated the first Constitution of the Republic of Venezuela in December 1811.[4] In March 1812, a second presidential triumvirate was appointed, with Mendoza, Juan Escalona and Baltazar Padron resigning and Fernando Toro, Francisco Javier Ustáriz and Francisco Espejo taking power.[1]

The First Republic fell following a royalist invasion led by Captain Domingo de Monteverde in 1813. After that, Mendoza moved to the island of Grenada.[1] He joined the cause of Brigadier Simon Bolivar, becoming Bolivar's aide as Bolivar was preparing to fight the Spanish for the liberation of Venezuela. Bolivar appointed Mendoza the governor of Mérida, a city that had joined Bolivar's cause that May, with Mendoza entering the city on 23 May 1813.[2] Mendoza also became governor of the province of Mérida.[1] During the War to the Death initiated by Bolivar in Trujillo on 15 June 1813, Mendoza served multiple functions, including "political administration, taxes, provisions, stores and changing rooms for the army, hospitals, civic patrolling and surveillance of spies."[2]

Bolívar appointed Mendoza governor of the province of Caracas, with Mendoza making his entrance into the city of Caracas on 6 August 1813.[1][2] In Caracas,[2] Mendoza formally proposed holding the Open Meeting held on 14 October 1813 where Bolivar was granted the title Liberator. A popular assembly on 2 January 1814 ratified Bolivar as the supreme commander of the Liberation Army (Ejército Libertador) fighting for independence from Spanish rule.[1] In July 1814, the forces of José Tomás Boves conquered Caracas. Mendoza and his family escaped and went into exile, and after touring a number of islands in the West Indies,[2] moved to Trinidad.[1] Between 1819 and 1820,[5] while in Trinidad Mendoza supported the cause of the Republic of Venezuela by writing newspaper articles under the pseudonym "a patriot" for the Correo del Orinoco.[1] Under that pseudonym he also published articles on both civic and international political issues, in particular arguing against efforts to found monarchies in the Americas.[2]

After the Battle of Carabobo assured Venezuelan independence in June 1821,[8] Mendoza returned to Caracas with his family[2] in late 1821. He was designated Justice Minister of Gran Colombia (now Venezuela),[1] a title which can also be translated president of the Superior Court of Justice of the department of Venezuela (Corte Superior de Justicia del departamento de Venezuela).[2] While in this role, Mendoza continued to study law and history, while also editing El Observador Caraqueño along with Francisco Javier Yanes. Mendoza resigned from his role as Justice Minister in 1825 and again went into private practice, his firm meeting with mixed success.[1] He dedicated himself to civic projects as well, for example promoting the construction of a highway between La Guaira and Caracas as an alternative to the railway, although the project failed to materialize.[2] Although not a candidate, he was the most voted person to serve as the vice president of the Department of Venezuela (Vicepresidencia del Departamento de Venezuela)[1] in 1825. In 1826, he[2] and Francisco Javier Yánez published the first major study of Bolivar and his time, with the first edition entitled Collection of documents relating to the public life of the Liberator of Colombia and Peru, Simon Bolivar. Mendoza published 22 volumes overall.[2]

Plaque to Cristobal Mendoza in his birthplace of Trujillo

In April 1826,[2] under the will of Gran Colombia Vice President Francisco de Paula Santander, Mendoza was appointed Mayor of the Department of Venezuela (Intendente del Departamento de Venezuela).[1] His appointment occurred during the time of El Cosiata,[1][2] a separatist movement founded by José Antonio Páez that was opposed to Bolivar's unification movement in South America. While in his new position, Mendoza tried and failed to quell tensions between opposing parties in Venezuela, in an effort to avoid more conflict and civil war. He also failed in convincing Caracas not to join the insurrection plan aimed at dissolving Bolivar's Gran Colombia. Mendoza was exiled from Venezuela by General Jose Antonio Paez, and fled to the island of Saint Thomas[1] on 27 November 1826, with his family remaining in Caracas. Bolivar returned to Caracas at the end of 1826, and peace was restored in the city by January 1827.[2]

After Bolivar again secured power in Caracas and conflict between the factions abated, Bolivar invited Mendoza to return to Venezuela.[1] Bolivar appointed Mendoza Mayor of the Department of Venezuela,[2] a role Medoza kept until resigning[1] in the middle of 1828.[2] According to essayist Luis Britto Garcia, Mendoza's resignation was potentially motivated by new tax measures, with Britto writing "The mere announcement of rigorous tax measures strikes fear into the hearts of civil servants like the Intendant Cristóbal Mendoza, who suddenly tendered his resignation."[9]