Jose Francisco Barrundia, a Central American statesman, born in Guatemala about 1780, died in New York, Aug. 4, 1854. Many members of his family had acquired eminence in the service of Spain, but he early opposed the mother country, and in 1813 was sentenced to death for treason. He and his fellow conspirators hid themselves in the mountains for six years, when Barrundia placed himself at the head of the revolutionary party of Guatemala. He took a conspicuous part in the struggle for independence, and was a member of the first republican constituent assembly. On April 10, 1824, he introduced and carried a decree for the immediate abolition of slavery throughout the republic, and he subsequently procured the adoption of a code modelled after that of Livingston for the state of Louisiana, which he had translated into Spanish. In 1825 he declined the office of vice president, but in 1829 accepted that of president, and devoted himself to educational and other reforms. When in 1852 three of the live states which had composed the old republic again united, he was unanimously chosen president; but two of the states withdrawing their adhesion, he also withdrew, and employed himself in preparing a narrative of Central American events.

In the hope of regaining his ascendancy in Guatemala through American influence, he set out in 1854 for Washington as minister of Honduras, with the alleged design of negotiating for its annexation to the United States; but apoplexy ended his life soon after landing in New York.