Zelaya, José Santos (1853–1919)

Nicaraguan politician, leader of the Liberal Party, president 1893–1909. He ended 30 years of political dominance by the Conservatives and established an effective dictatorship. In 1894 Zelaya seized the Mosquito Coast, in the northwest, by force from the UK.

He promoted extended railway and steamer transportation, coffee planting, and modernization of the army. Influenced by his earlier studies in France, he also sought greater separation of church and state and secularization and expansion of education, but his regime was also characterized by corruption. He also attempted to re-establish a Central American Federation and to install in power sympathetic regimes in neighbouring states. These efforts were opposed by the USA and by Manuel Estrada Cabrera, Guatemala's dictatorial ruler 1898–1920. In 1909 Zelaya was overthrown in a revolution supported from the USA, and was forced into exile.