Félix María Zuloaga

Félix María Zuloaga Trillo (1813-1898) was a Mexican conservative general and politician who played a key role in the outbreak of the Reform War in early 1860, a war which would see him elevated to the presidency of the nation. President Zuloaga was unrecognized by and fought against the liberals supporters of President Benito Juarez.

Zuloaga's forces quickly gained control over the capital, and the central states of the nation, winning every major engagement during the first year of the war, and even temporarily capturing Juarez and his entire cabinet, but in the end, the liberals were not decisively defeated, still controlled large parts of the nation's periphery, and Juarez remained securely entrenched in the strategic port of Veracruz.

In December 1858, a moderate faction of the conservatives overthrew Zuloaga, hoping to come to a compromise with Juarez. Manuel Robles Pezuela then ascended to the presidency. The liberal government rejected all offers of compromise, and the conservatives then elected Miguel Miramon as president. The ousted Zuloaga, still clinging to his claims of the presidency, endorsed Miramon's election and officially passed the presidency on to him.

Zuloaga remained somewhat active in Miramon's government but eventually retired from the scene. He emerged after the war ended to claim the presidency while conservative guerillas were still active in the countryside, but this came to nothing, and Zuloaga subsequently left the country. He would return during the Second Mexican Empire, but unlike many of his conservative colleagues, Zuloaga played no political or military role within the Empire. After the fall of the Empire in 1867, Zuloaga was exiled to Cuba and returned to civilian life, eventually returning to Mexico, where he lived until his death in 1895.