Ezequiel Gutiérrez Iglesias (August 23, 1840 - August 22, 1920) was a

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

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. Ezequiel Gutiérrez Iglesias was born in Cartago,

, on 23 August 1840. He was the son of Francisco de Paula Gutiérrez y La Peña-Monje and Ramona Iglesias Llorente. He married Josefina Braun Bonilla. Gutiérrez Iglesias pursued secondary studies in

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and graduated with a bachelor's degree in law (''Licenciado en Leyes'') from the University of St. Thomas (Universidad de Santo Tomás), where he was also a professor of grammar and philosophy. He held numerous public offices, especially in the educational, diplomatic, and judiciary fields: a teacher at the Cartago Liceo de Niñas (Girls' School), functionary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and associated portfolios (1862–1864), Attaché (1864–1866) and Chargé d'affaires (1866–1869) for Costa Rica in the

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, Secretary of the Costa Rican Legation in

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(1868–1869), Inspector General of Schools (1869–1870), Representative for Cartago in the National Constitutional Convention (1870), and Counselor for the Costa Rican Legation in

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and

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(1870–1871). Gutiérrez Iglesias began his work in the Supreme Court of Justice of Costa Rica as a minister (1871) and from 1876 to 1877 was a magistrate, an office from which he resigned to serve as the Costa Rican chargé d'affaires in

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from 1877 to 1878. For his opposition to the dictatorship of President Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez, he was exiled from 1879 to 1882. After that, he was interim Judge of the National Treasury (1883), Minister Plenipotentiary of Costa Rica in the United States of America (1884), Financial Agent in Great Britain and Minister Plenipotentiary in

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

(1885). In 1886, he was newly elected as a magistrate, an office which he again resigned in August 1889 to fulfill the office of Secretary of Foreign Affairs and associated portfolios, from which he in turn resigned the next month and then again fulfilled from 1890 to 1891. In 1886, he was a member of the San José Charities Board and in 1893 Minister Plenipotentiary of Costa Rica in

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and

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

. The Democratic Union party proposed him as a candidate for the presidency in the elections of 1906. From 1910 to 1914, he was Representative for Cartago and Third Designate to the presidency. He presided over the Constitutional Congress from 1910 to 1913 and in the fulfillment of this office he was chosen in 1912 to be the Costa Rican delegate at the centennial celebration of the Constitution of Cadiz ( Spanish Constitution of 1812). From 1913 to 1918, he was the alternate magistrate for Costa Rica on the

Central American Court of Justice The Central American Integration System (, or SICA) has been the economic and political organization of Central American states since 1 February 1993. On 13 December 1991, the ODECA countries (Spanish: ''Organización de Estados Centroamericano ...

and from 1914 to 1916 he directed the National Archives. In 1916, Congress elected him to be President of the Supreme Court of Justice for the 1916-1920 period, which was to be interrupted in April 1917 when it named a new court as a result of the military coup that occurred in January of that year and the subsequent election of Federico Alberto Tinoco Granados. From 1917 to 1919, he was Third Designate to the presidency.

Death

Gutiérrez Iglesias died in

San José, Costa Rica San José (; meaning "Saint Joseph") is the capital city, capital and largest city of Costa Rica, and the capital of San José Province. It is in the center of the country, in the mid-west of the Costa Rican Central Valley, Central Valley, wi ...

, on 22 August 1920.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gutierrez Iglesias, Ezequiel 1840 births 1920 deaths People from Cartago Province Vice presidents of Costa Rica Government ministers of Costa Rica 20th-century Costa Rican judges Supreme Court of Justice of Costa Rica judges Ministers of foreign affairs of Costa Rica 19th-century Costa Rican judges