Topic summary
Francisco Dueñas
3 December 1810
Francisco Dueñas Díaz (3 December 1810 – 4 March 1884) was a Salvadoran politician and lawyer who served as President of El Salvador on six different occasions between 1851 and 1871. He also served as Vice President of El Salvador from 1856 to 1858 and as President of the Senate in 1855.
Dueñas studied to become a Catholic priest but dropped out of the seminary and studied law at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala City. He was a member of the Central American Federal Congress and later as a magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice of El Salvador. Dueñas served in several Salvadoran ministerial positions in the 1840s. He twice served as acting president in 1851. Dueñas was elected president in 1852 and served until 1854. He was vice president from 1856 to 1858 and served as acting president in 1856.
Dueñas was exiled to Guatemala during the presidency of General Gerardo Barrios. In 1863, Dueñas helped overthrow Barrios and became provisional president. He won the 1864 and 1869 presidential elections. He was overthrown in 1871 by Marshal Santiago González and exiled to the United States. He made several attempts to reenter El Salvador but fled each time. He died in San Francisco in 1884. Dueñas is one of only six Salvadoran presidents to have been re-elected.