Liborio Mejía
| Liborio Mejía Gutiérrez | |
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| President of the United Provinces of the New Granada* | |
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In office June 22, 1816 – June 30, 1816 |
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| Preceded by | José Fernández Madrid |
| Succeeded by | Custodio García Rovira |
| Vice President of the United Provinces of the New Granada | |
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In office June 30, 1816 – July 10, 1816 |
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| President | Custodio García Rovira |
| Personal details | |
| Born | July 28, 1792 Rionegro, Antioquia |
| Died | September 3, 1816 Bogotá, Cundinamarca |
| Alma mater | Colegio Mayor de San Bartolomé |
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Liborio Mejía Gutiérrez (July 28, 1792 – September 3, 1816) was a Colombian colonel and politician during the struggle for Independence from Spain, and in 1816 Liborio Mejía became president of the United Provinces of the New Granada making him the youngest person to ever hold the presidency of Colombia at the age of 24. He was executed three months later during the Reconquista led by the Spaniard Pablo Morillo.
Mejía, son of José Antonio Mejía y María Gutiérrez, was born on July 28, 1792, in Rio Negro, in the province of Antioquia, in the Viceroyalty of New Granada in what is now Colombia. He studied in the Colegio Mayor de San Bartolomé between 1808 and 1812 in Santafé de Bogotá. Upon his return to Medellín, he taught philosophy in the Colegio Provincial, in what is now the University of Antioquia. He studied and worked with Francisco José de Caldas on the defense plans for Antioquia from the royalist’s Reconquista.
Since 1813 he got involved in the fight for independence, joining in the army assembled by the colonel José María Gutiérrez. In short time he was made colonel and put in charge of the garrison unit in Popayán.
Facing the resignation of president José Fernández Madrid on June 22, 1816, the Permanent Commission of Congress, then assembled in Popayán, named in his place, general Custodio García Rovira as president of the United Provinces, and colonel Mejía as vice-president. Mejía, however, had to assume the Presidency with the dictatorship powers bestowed to the president by Congress, because García Rovira was unable to assume the presidency at the moment.
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