Manuel Antonio Sanclemente (19 September 1814-12 March 1902) was President of Colombia from 7 August 1898 to 31 July 1900, succeeding Miguel Antonio Caro and preceding Jose Manuel Marroquin.
Biography[]
Manuel Antonio Sanclemente was born in Buga, Valle del Cauca, Colombia in 1814, and he practiced law before becoming a Supreme Court magistrate in 1854. He served as President Mariano Ospina Rodriguez's Minister of War from 1857 to 1861, and, in 1898, he was selected as the Colombian Conservative Party's nominee for President. He was elected despite initially backing out due to ill health, and, in October 1899, the Colombian Liberal Party took advantage of the political chaos to launch an offensive against Sanclemente's government, starting the Thousand Days' War. Sanclemente was deposed by his own military in the last coup d'etat of the 19th century, and he died two years later.