Juan Bautista Ceballos

Who was Juan Bautista Ceballos?

Juan Bautista Ceballos was interim president of Mexico from 6 January to 8 February of 1853. He was a moderate Liberal.

His family moved from Durango to Valladolid when he was very young. He received his education there, culminating in a law degree from the College of San Nicolás in 1835. While at the college, he became friends with Melchor Ocampo and Santos Degollado. In 1842, and again in 1851, he was elected to the Mexican Congress.

From May 1852 to January 1853 he was president of the Mexican Supreme Court. In this position, he succeeded to the presidency when the conservatives forced Mariano Arista from office on 6 January 1853. Shortly after becoming president, he asked Congress for the extraordinary powers it had denied to Arista, and they were granted.

Nevertheless, Congress rejected many of his initiatives, and he dissolved it militarily on 19 January 1853, calling for a constitutional convention. Congress continued to meet in a private house, naming Juan Mújica y Osorio as president, but Mújica did not accept. This led to intervention by the Mexico City garrison under Manuel Robles Pezuela, which removed Ceballos and made General Manuel María Lombardini president.