BARRIOS, JUSTO RUFINO

born 1835, San Lorenzo, Guatemala died April 2, 1885, Chalchuapa, El Salvador president of Guatemala from 1873 who carried out liberal domestic policies by dictatorial means and persistently advocated Central American unity, to be imposed by force if diplomacy proved inadequate. Trained for the law, Barrios became Gua- temalan army commander and the power behind the president, Miguel Garca Granados, in 1871, when the Conservative Party government was overthrown. After replacing Granados in 1873, Barrios became known as the Reformer. He subjugated the local aristocracy; expelled the Jesuits and confiscated church property; enlarged and laicized the school system; built highways, railroads, and telegraph lines; encouraged the growing of coffee as the basis of the country's agriculture; and promulgated a new constitution (1876). Barrios intervened repeatedly in the affairs of the other Central American republics in an effort to restore the five-nation federation that had collapsed in 1838. When his political persuasion failed, he invaded neighbouring El Salvador and was killed in battle. His nephew Jos Mara Reina Barrios was president of Guatemala from 1892 until his assassination in 1898.