José Miguel de Velasco Net Worth

Background and career

José Miguel de Velasco Franco (Spanish pronunciation: [xoˈse miˈɣel de βeˈlasko ˈfɾaŋko] ; 29 September 1795 – 13 October 1859) was a Bolivian military officer and statesman who served as the fourth president of Bolivia on four occasions: 1828, 1829, 1839–1841, and 1848. Velasco also served as the second vice president from 1829 to 1835 under Andrés de Santa Cruz, though the first two of his terms were as vice president-designate, pending Santa Cruz's arrival to the country.

Velasco was involved throughout his life in early Bolivian politics and was the protagonist of two of the moments of greatest instability in the country. A key figure in the continuity of the presidential system in which he played the role of acting president twice, he participated in several uprisings and counted figures such as José Ballivián and Manuel Isidoro Belzu as his political rivals. After having overthrown Santa Cruz, the very president he once served under, in 1839, he began his third government (the longest of his four terms), during which he promulgated a new Political Constitution of the State which replaced the one drafted in 1835.

He was overthrown in the 1841 military coup carried out by General Sebastian Agreda, and was subsequently sent to exile in Argentina. He returned to Bolivia in 1847, briefly seizing power to become President in 1848 before he was defeated in the Battle of Yamparaez by forces led by Manuel Isidoro Belzu.