Manuel Ceferino Oribe y Viana (26 August 1792-12 November 1857) was President of Uruguay from 1 March 1835 to 24 October 1838, succeeding Carlos Anaya and preceding Gabriel Antonio Pereira. He was the founder of the conservative National Party of Uruguay.
Biography[]
Manuel Ceferino Oribe y Viana was born in Montevideo, Uruguay on 26 August 1792, and he fought in the Argentine War of Independence and served under Jose Gervasio Artigas during his resistance to the Portuguese invasion in 1820. He fled to Buenos Aires after Montevideo's fall and joined the Freemasons, and he came to lead a faction of Uruguayans who supported reintegration into the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata as soon as possible; this made him rivals with the pro-Portuguese leader Fructuoso Rivera. Oribe had his followers wear white, earning them the nickname "Blancos", while Rivera's followers earned the nickname "Colorados" for their use of red as a symbol. Hoping to keep the peace with Oribe, Rivera named Oribe his successor in 1834, but the two soon fell out. Oribe's Blancos fought against Rivera's Colorados in the Uruguayan Civil War, which lasted for several decades. Oribe resigned in 1838 after Rivera forced his resignation, and he later besieged Montevideo for eight years with the help of the Argentine president Juan Manuel de Rosas. He was finally defeated by Brazil and Argentine rebels in 1851 during the Platine War, and he died in 1857.