Biography

Guzman Blanco was the Venezuelan President from 1873 until 1889. He embodied "the typical Latin American caudillo" or military dictator. In 1867, Frederick Seward wrote to his cousin Clarence Seward that Guzman Blanco had been appointed as the Venezuelan Commissioner to London. In the same letter, Frederick Seward mentions that David M. Talmadge had recently assumed the role of U.S. Commissioner to Venezuela. Only three years after Frederick Seward's letter, Guzman Blanco would stage a coup and rule absolutely over Venezuela for over a decade.