MONAGAS, Jose Tadeo (mo-nah'-gas), Venezuelan soldier, born in Maturin, 28 October, 1784; died in El Valle, near Caracas, 18 November, 1868. When General Marino (q. v.) invaded the coast of Guiria, Monagas joined his forces. During 1814 he took part in the campaign of the east, and made a remarkable retreat from Valencia to the llanos of Barcelona. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel, and when Bolivar and Marino left Venezuela he kept up a guerilla warfare in the plains of Barcelona and Maturin. After the arrival of the expedition of Morillo (q. v.) he passed the Orinoco to the province of Guayana, but was defeated at La Mesa, and, recrossing the river to the province of Barcelona, was appointed by the junta of San Diego, 26 May, 1816, to the supreme command of the Orient, and recognized by all the independent chiefs. On the arrival of Bolivar at Carupano he promoted Monagas brigadier, lie fought in September the battles of Alacran, Piritu, and Juncal, and in 1817 marched with Bolivar to Guayana, and was appointed governor of Barcelona; but on 31 January, 1818, he joined the army at San Juan de Pavara and participated in the subsequent battles. After the march of Bolivar to Colombia in 1819, Monagas returned to Pao and co-operated in the eastern campaign. In 1823 he marched with the auxiliary forces to Peru, and in 1826 checked a revolutionary movement in Cunana. On 6 May, 1830, he occupied a seat in congress, but after Bollvar's death he returned to his estates, and was appointed, on 22 May, 183l, commander-in-chief of the Orient. In 1835 he entered the revolutionary movement of "La Reforma," but on 3 November made his submission to the government. In 1847 he was elected president, and, although he commited the sen-relates of twenty-nine persons that had been condemned to death by the preceding government and practically abolished that penalty for political offences, he soon began arbitrary measures, and, after impeachment by congress, dissolved that body on 24 January, 1848, by military force, eleven persons, of whom four were deputies, being killed. General Pacz (q. , v, .) now took arms against the government, and, after being several times defeated, signed a capitulation at Macapo Abajo, 15 August, 1849, the terms of which were violated by Mona-gas, and Paez was sent as a prisioner to Mumana, where he remained till May, 1850. This unjust treatment will always remain as a stain on Mona-gas's name. In 1855 he succeeded his brother Gregorio in the executive power" but his arbitrary rule provoked a general revolution, and in January, 1858, seeing the hopelessness of resistance, he took refuge in the British legation, and, after signing his abdication, left the country. In 1864 he returned from banishment and took part in some of the battles in the Orient, but after peace had been made went to his estates. In 1868 Monagas collected a force to uphold the constitution of 1864, according to his proclamation, and, marching against Caracas, occupied it on 25 June after fighting three days, established a provisional government, and laid siege to Puerto Cabello, which he occupied on 15 October There he fell ill, and was transported to La Guayra and thence to El Valle. On 4 October he was elected president, but he died before assuming the executive.--His brother, Jose Gregorio, Venezuelan soldier, born in Maturin in 1795" died in Maracaibo in 1858, also joined the republican forces at an early age, defended Maturin in March and May, 1813, and fought against Bores in Cachipo on 11 September of the same year. During the years 1814-'18 he fought in fourteen battles, several times under the immediate orders of Bolivar, who called him the first lancer of the Orient. He followed that general in his campaign of Colombia, and, after that republic had been firmly established, marched in 1824 to Peru with the rank of colonel. After the termination of that campaign, Monagas, with the rank of brigadier, returned to private life and did not enter the service again till the political disturbances of 1831 and 1835. in 1846 he was a candidate for the presidency of the republic of Venezuela, and in 1851 was elected. At his recommendation, congress granted freedom to the slaves on 23 March, 1854. In 1855, after the termination of his presidential term, he retired again to his property, and in March, 1858, when the government of his brother, Jose Tadeo, was overthrown by a revolution, he collected a force in Barcelona to sustain the legitimate authorities; but after his brother's surrender and by his command he disbanded his forces. It e was then arrested and sent as a prisoner to Puerto Cabello and later to Maracaibo, where he died in the same year. In 1872 his remains were placed in the national pantheon of Caracas.