Juan de Casas y Barrera (b. 1740, Valencia) was a Peninsulare who was the Captain General of Venezuela from 1807 to 1809. He was dismissed from this role by the Supreme Central Junta, which appointed Vicente Emparán in his place. He presided over the beginnings of the Peninsular War, which put him and his governance in an unstable position.
Biography
[edit]Juan de Casas y Barrera was born in Valencia to José Couret de Casas and María de Barrera in 1740. He joined the military in 1762 and became a captain in New Spain. In 1772 he was transferred to Venezuela and fought in the Revolt of the Comuneros in 1781, during which he became a lieutenant colonel. In 1801 he married María Josefa Blanco y Plata. He was named successor to Captain General Manuel de Guevara y Vasconcelos, who died in 1807 after an illness. [1]
Juan de Casas appears as the commander of a Caracas Veteran's Battalion in 1810, after which he disappears from the record.[1]
Career as Captain General
[edit]Juan de Casas succeeded Manuel de Guevara Vasconcelos as Captain General in 1807. On July 14 1808, Juan de Casas was confronted first by the French brig Serpent which wanted the Captain General to accept Joseph Bonaparte as the King of Spain, who had replaced Ferdinand VII. Andrés Bello served to translate the French reports. According to him, Juan de Casas cried when the French officers departed from him. After hearing the news, a riot formed in Caracas. They demanded that Juan de Casas form a junta and maintain recognition of Ferdinand VII's legitimacy.[2] Caracas held a city hall meeting, which ended in a pronunciation of its "fidelity and love to Our King Lord Don Fernando VII" (Spanish: fidelidad y amor al rey Nuestro Señor Don Fernando VII). When the town hall met again on July 16, the French were captured by the British HMS Acasta. The British advised Juan de Casas to form a junta, which he finally ratified, although did not activate, on July 29.[3][1]
Juan de Casas initially left the influential Mantuano creoles out of the junta's government, but after pressure from powerful Mantuano families, he relented, promising them power once the junta activated. Meanwhile, he punished and ordered the arrests of Mantuanos who worked to assert power. His troubles with them persisted, as on November 24, when he was presented with a document by Mantuanos who again sought a place in the governing of a junta. He began prosecuting, although unsuccessfully, those who presented the document to him.[2]
On October 24 1808, Juan de Casas ordered a printing press in Trinidad moved to Caracas to create the Gazeta de Caracas, a pro-government newspaper edited by Andrés Bello.[1][2]
In 1809 Juan de Casas was removed as Captain General by the Supreme Central Junta and succeeded by Vicente Emparán.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e "Real Academia de la Historia". dbe.rah.es. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
- ^ a b c Peters, Hendrik. Simon Bolivar and the South American Wars of Independence. Outlook Verlag. pp. 11, 12. ISBN 9783752460568.
- ^ José Rodríguez Iturbe. Bolívar y la gestación de la patria criolla. Editorial Alfa. p. Section 6. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
- ^ Arráiz Lucca, Rafael (2013). Historia política de Venezuela: 1498 a nuestros días. Bogotá: Editorial Universidad del Rosario. p. 162. ISBN 9587383117. Retrieved 17 March 2024.