Joaquín Eufrasio Guzmán

Joaquín Eufrasio Guzmán (1801 to 1875) was a politician and briefly President of El Salvador 15 February 1845 – 1 February 1846, after conducting a coup against General Malespin during the war with Guatemala.
Guzman was born in Cartago, Costa Rica, in 1801 into a landowning family. In the dissensions between the Federal and Centralist parties, Guzman joined the former. A landowner, he was commissioned as a lieutenant-colonel.
He was elected vice president of El Salvador in 1844 with General Francisco Malespin as president. That year Malespin declared war against Guatemala and left the capital to command the army in person. Guzman became acting president.
Guzman conducted a coup against Malespin on 2 February 1845, and was joined by the greater part of the inhabitants of the capital, and a portion of the general's small army. They deposed Malespin and Guzman assumed the executive office till the end of the presidential term.
Backed by a force from Honduras, Malespin invaded El Salvador, but was defeated and assassinated. Guzman was rewarded by the Assembly with the rank of general of division. He favored free elections and in 1848 delivered the office to his successor, Aguilar.
Guzman was several times elected to the legislative assembly, the council of state, and the prefecture of the department where he resided.
He died in San Miguel, El Salvador, about 1875.
He had married and had a family. His son David Joaquín Guzmán was a politician and doctor, founding director of the National Museum of El Salavador and a museum of anthropology in Nicaragua.