José Santos Guardiola

General José Santos Guardiola Bustillo (1 November 1816 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. – 11 January 1862 in Comayagua, Honduras) was President of Honduras from 17 February 1856 to 11 January 1862, when he became the only President of Honduras to be assassinated while in office in a crime committed by his personal guard.

His parents were Esteban Guardiola and Bibiana Bustillo. He married Ana de Arzibu and their daughter, Genoveva Guardiola Arbizu, married the first President of the Republic of Cuba, Tomas Estrada Palma. He was installed by Guatemalan President Rafael Carrera after the Guatemalan army invaded Honduras and overthrew Trinidad Cabanas.^[1] His administration was one of most liberal in Honduran history, in spite of him belonging to the Conservative Party. His government granted freedom of press, suffrage and movement; it respected and it guaranteed the individual freedom and it regularized the relations between the church and the State. The Vicar of Comayagua, Miguel del Cid, enemy of General Guardiola, excommunicated him, but Pope Pius IX overturned it and named Juan de Jesus Zepeda Zepeda as Bishop of Honduras. He opposed Francisco Morazán in the conflict over whether to have a Central American state. His good relations with the British helped facilitate the incorporation of the Bay Islands and the La Mosquitia region into Honduras. He struck a deal to trade Belize (British Honduras) for the aforementioned territories. He fought against William Walker, who aspired to conquering Central America.

1. ^ Dana Munro. 1918. The Five Republics of Central America, p. 122