General José Federico Alberto de Jesús Tinoco Granados (21 November 1868 – 7 September 1931) was a politician, soldier, and the

Dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in times ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

from 1917 to 1919.

Biography

Tinoco was born in 1868. On 5 June 1898 in San José, he married María de las Mercedes Elodia Fernández Le Cappellain. The couple had no children. After a career in the army, he was appointed Minister of War in the cabinet of President Alfredo González. On 27 January 1917 he and his brother José Joaquín seized power in a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

and established a repressive

military dictatorship A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...

that attempted to crush all opposition. Though his government won support from the upper classes because it turned back the austerity measures adopted by President González, and declared war on the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

in May 1918, it failed to win the recognition of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, where President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

supported the deposed government. Popular sentiment against Tinoco, which began on 13 June 1919, quickly came to a head, and his brother was assassinated in early August. On August 13 Tinoco resigned in favor of Juan Bautista Quirós and went into exile in Europe. He died in Paris in 1931. Due to a dispute over the legitimacy of the government of Tinoco, Costa Rica was not a party to the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

and did not unilaterally end the state of war between itself and Germany. The technical state of war ended after World War II only after they were included in the

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement (german: Potsdamer Abkommen) was the agreement between three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union on 1 August 1945. A product of the Potsdam Conference, it concerned th ...

. Costa Rica did issue a declaration of war against Germany again on 11 August 1941.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Granados, Federico Tinoco Tinoco Granados, Federico Tinoco Granados, Federico People from San José, Costa Rica Tinoco Granados, Federico Costa Rican liberals