Domingo Caycedo

Domingo de Caycedo y Sanz de Santamaría (1783–1843) was a Colombian statesman who served as Vice-president of Gran Colombia and the Republic of New Granada, and due to the absence of the presidents, he himself served as President a total of eleven times, making him the person to have served more times as President of Colombia. He is also credited for creating the Republic of New Granada after the division of Venezuela and Ecuador.

Biographic data
Caycedo was born in Santa Fe de Bogotá on August 4, 1783 and died in Puente Aranda, near Bogotá, on July 1, 1843.

Early life
Caycedo studied Law in the Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario (nowadays known as Universidad del Rosario) in Bogotá, where he later became its vice-rector (deputy Headmaster). At an early age, he decided not to practice law, but rather became more interested in military and political activities. He later became a General of the Army and president of the country.

He traveled to Spain, where he joined the army to fight against Napoleon. He also worked as secretary in the Spanish Cortes (Congress).

Military career
Upon realizing the events of July 20, 1810, in his motherland, Caycedo returns to America with Vicente Bolívar, brother of Simón Bolívar, the future “Libertador” and first president of Colombia, and he enlists in the Colombian revolutionary army. He became a member of the Advisory Council to General Antonio Nariño.

He fought in the battles of “la Cuchilla del Tambo” y “la Plata”, where he is arrested by the Spanish troops. He is court martial as prisoner of war, found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. Thanks to the influence of his father-in-law, his wife Juana Jurado y Bertendona and some monetary payments to the Spanish authorities, his life is speared. He is freed under probation and he vanishes from the war theatre until the revolutionary triumph at the Battle of Boyacá (Puente de Boyacá) on August 7, 1819.

Political career
Once again, after the revolutionary triumph of August 7, 1819, Caycedo returns to public life under the protection of Simón Bolívar. In 1827 he is appointed as Governor of Neiva, elected to Congress and ascended to General of the Army. He becomes part of the inner circle of Bolívar, whom in 1829, appoints him, first, as Secretary of the Interior and a year later as Secretary of State. Afterwards, Caycedo is appointed as president of the “Consejo de Estado” (the precursor of the Supreme Court) to replace the retiring José María Castillo y Rada, whom decided to become member of Congress of the Gran Colombia.

The Presidency
On April 1, 1830, when President Bolívar had to take a leave of absence from Bogotá to the Hacienda of Fucha, seeking to recover from an illness, Caycedo assumed the Office of Interim President. This would be the first of several occasions to act as President in this capacity.

Later that same year, when Simón Bolívar, the Founding Father, irrevocably resigned to the presidency, Congress elected don Joaquín de Mosquera as president and Caycedo as vice-president. Because Mosquera was very ill and frail, Caycedo assumed the executive power as acting president on August 2, 1830.

Caycedo was deposed, by the first coup d’état in the country, by the Venezuelan General Rafael Urdaneta on September 5, 1830. Months later, supported by the regrouped constitutional army, Caycedo proclaimed he was the legitimate president on April 11, 1831. He contacted General Urdaneta and invited him to a summit to discuss the future of the nation’s government. Urdaneta accepted, and on April 28, 1831, they met at Junats de Apulo, near the town of Tocaima. They both reach an agreement and sign the Accord of Apulo, by which General Urdaneta recognized Caycedo as acting president. Thus, Caycedo, once again, took office on May 3, 1831.

Caycedo, as acting president, convened Congress. On November 15, 1831, Congress elected General Francisco de Paula Santander as president and General José María Obando as vice-president.

A few years later Caycedo was elected to Congress, appointed Secretary of the Treasury and once again, six more times, Caycedo would act as interim president every time that president José Ignacio de Márquez needed to be absent from office for short periods of time.

Finally, between 1841 and 1845, during the presidency of Pedro Alcántara Herrán, Caycedo once again, acted as interim president twice during temporary absences by the president. As such, General Caycedo became the Colombian to have acted as president the most times, eleven in total.