Biography of Francisco Cruz
He was born in Santa Ana, El Salvador (1820) and died in La Esperanza (1895). He was a diplomat, writer, and physician. During Juan Lindo’s government, he was appointed Special Commissioner to negotiate the English claims regarding the payment of the Federal debt, resulting in the signing of the Chatfield-Cruz Agreement in 1852.
He held various positions during the Cabañas and Guardiola administrations. During Guardiola’s presidency, he negotiated the Cerna-Cruz Agreement, which prevented hostilities between the Salvadoran ruler Gerardo Barrios and Guardiola. He also signed the Cruz-Lennox Wyke treaty, through which Great Britain returned the Bay Islands and the Mosquito Coast to Honduras in 1559. He served as the Political Chief of Comayagua, publishing the work titled «Statistical Data of Comayagua» in 1859.
José María Medina appointed him Minister of Foreign Affairs and Governance. In that capacity, he signed the decree that severed relations between Honduras and Costa Rica, as well as the ratification of the Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation Treaty between Honduras and the United States in 1865. He also signed the decree in February 1866 that created the National Banana Company and the Coat of Arms. He served as President of the Republic from September 1869 to January 1870, to facilitate the re-election of José María Medina, who temporarily stepped down from power. During President Marco Aurelio Soto’s administration, the National Statistics Department was created in 1880, and Cruz was appointed as its Director General.
In the same year, he represented Honduras in the Saco Conferences, which aimed to settle territorial disputes between the two countries, but no agreement was reached. In 1884, the Cruz-Letona Treaty was signed between the two countries, which, according to historian José Reina Valencuela, «constituted the most notorious diplomatic failure and perhaps the only one suffered by Mr. Cruz.»
Protests from the people of Opatoro, who believed their rights to the Dolores site had been relinquished to El Salvador, led the National Congress to disapprove the aforementioned treaty. In 1885, Cruz left the country and resided in El Salvador for some time. His best-known scientific work is «The People’s Pharmacy,» first published in 1867. According to Reina Valenzuela, Cruz was «the first scientist of 19th-century Honduras.»
