Jorge Córdova

Who was Jorge Córdova?

Jorge Córdova was a military officer and constitutional president of Bolivia.

A general, Córdova was longtime dictator Manuel Isidoro Belzu's son-in-law. As such, he was the main support to his despotic regime. When in 1855 Belzu decided to call elections and "retire" from politics in the face of repeated rebellions against his rule, he sponsored Córdova's candidacy. The latter was elected president and proceeded to be sworn-in on August 15, 1855, at age thirty-three. Not surprisingly, Córdova was widely seen as ex-president Belzu's proxy, and merely an instrument of his power. Belzu remained the proverbial "power behind the throne," and this fact only spurred the opposition to continue to conspire against the hated Belzu-Córdova regime, which had run Bolivian politics since 1847. Eventually, the forces arrayed against the president coalesced around the forceful civilian Constitutionalist José María Linares, who in October 1857 at long last succeeded in toppling Córdova from power. Fleeing the country, he eventually returned to Bolivia, eager as always to support his father-in-law's ambitions to return to the Bolivian Government Palace.