Juan José Flores Biography

Juan Jose Flores was the first President of Ecuador and served the country in his capacity as president three times. Flores was an illegitimate child of a Spanish merchant who abandoned him and his mother when he was still a child and his childhood was spent in poverty. Flores was born in Venezuela and due to the abject poverty in which he grew up; he did not have any opportunity to get an education. He worked in a hospital till he was 14 years old but then decided to enter the Spanish Royalist Army. His stint at the army was a successful one but after being captured by the patriot army he decided to join them and again showed his remarkable skills as heroic soldier as he helped the army in winning key battles against the Spanish Royalist Army. However, his life changed completely when he was installed as the supreme leader of Ecuador in 1830 and later on that year, he became the country’s first president. During his three terms as president, he had plenty of conflicts with other members of the congress and it was due to these conflicts, among other things, that his government was overthrown following a rebellion.