José María Ramón Obando del Campo (August 8,éMarí 1795 – April 29, 1861) was a Neogranadine General and politician who twice served as President of Colombia. As a General, he initially fought for the Royalist Army during the Independence Wars of Colombia, ultimately joining the revolutionary forces of Simón Bolívar towards the end, but once independence was attained he opposed Bolívar's Centralist government.
Personal life
Born out of wedlock to Ana María Crespo on August 8, 1795, in the town of Güengüe, municipality of Corinto, in the then Province of Popayán of the Viceroyalty of New Granada in present-day Colombia, he was baptised José María Ramón Iragorri Crespo just two days later on August 10 in the chapel of the García hacienda. Society, during the times of the colony, was puritanical and the religious authorities did not allow a single mother to raise a child on her own, thus when he was two years old he was given up for adoption and put in the care of a Criollo family in the home of Juan Luis Obando del Castillo y Frías and Antonia del Campo y López who raised him as their own and gave him their last name. His parentage has been of debate among historians, most argue that he was the illegitimate son of Joseph Iragorri, but others argue and have tried to prove that his father was Pedro Vicente Martínez y Cabal, and others have claimed that he was the biological son of his adoptive father Juan Luis Obando as well.
Despite his humble beginnings, Obando received a formal education in the Real Seminario de Popayán thanks to his adoptive family who were well-off merchants from Pasto loyal to the Spanish Empire and who consequently had to escape to Pasto after the Battle of Palacé (1811) during the Wars of Independence. Obando married Dolores Espinosa de los Monteros Mesa in 1824 and together had five children: José María, Cornelia, José Dolores, Simón and Micaela, it would have been six since Mrs. Espinosa was pregnant with another child, but both died during childbirth in 1833 leaving him a widower with five small children at his charge. In 1837 he remarries to Timotea Carvajal Marulanda and of this union has three more children: Soledad, Capitolino and Gratiniano.
The Army and his rise to power
During the Wars of Independence the South was still very loyal to Spain, and specially Pasto were Obando joined the Royalists forces under General Sebastián de la Calzada in 1819 in the rank of Captain fighting for the Spanish against the Revolutionary Forces who aimed to gain independence for New Granada from Spain. Nevertheless, on February 7, 1822, he resigns the Spanish cause and joins the Revolutionary Army and embarks in a successful military career. In 1826 he was appointed Civil and Military leader of Pasto by General Francisco de Paula Santander and was promoted to colonel by Simón Bolívar. In 1827 he resigned his post due to his discomfort with the political establishment which he labelled as undemocratic.
Simón Bolívar dismissed the Convention of Ocaña declared himself Dictator of the New Granada on August 27, 1828, and drafted a new constitution . The new constitution was centralist in nature, and Obando fiercely opposed this and in response launched a joint campaign with José Hilario López, revolting in Timbío against Governor Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, a centralist and Bolívar supporter. Their forces then attacked Popayán on November 12, 1828, seizing the city and ensued to meet and defeated a nearby garrison in the Battle of La Ladera, securing the area and threatening the control of the government in the southwest region of the country forcing Bolívar to sign an armistice with them in order to secure peace. This armistice was favourable for Obando and López, on October 8, 1829, Bolívar ascended Obando to the rank of General and designated him Commandant-General of the Department of Cauca.