VIDAURRI, Santiago (ve-dah-oor'-ree), Mexican soldier, born in the province of Nuevo Leon in 1S03; died in the city of Mexico, 8 July, 1867. He was descended from a wealthy family of Indian extraction, received a good education, and in 1826 was admitted to the bar, but he soon entered politics, and, after filling some minor offices, took part in the civil wars in Mexico. He had obtained the rank of colonel when, toward the close of 1852, he was elected governor of the state of Nuevo Leon, and when, in April, 1858, Santa-Anna returned to Mexico and declared himself dictator, Vidaurri protested. As he was gathering the militia, Santa-Anna appointed Gen Pedro Ampudia military chief of the northern states; but Vidaurri refused to recognize his authority, and when the revolution of Ayutla began, in March, 1854, he joined in the campaign for the overthrow of Juan Alvarez was contending against the latter in the south, he took the field in the north, acting independently as commanding general. After the downfall of Santa-Anna he was a candidate for the presidency in the junta of Cuernavaca, 4 October, 1855; but Alvarez having been preferred to him, he assumed a semi-independent position and decreed the confiscation of church property in the northern central states. He also refused to submit to Alvarez's successor, Ignacio Comonfort, and decreed, in February, 1856, the union of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon, proclaiming himself their governor. This union was disapproved by Comonfort, who ordered an army of observation under General Parrodi to the north, when Vidaurri, under pretence of protesting against the tariff and the tobacco-privilege, recalled the deputies of Nuevo Leon from congress, and was accused of an intention to form the independent republic of Sierra-Madre, consisting of the northwestern states. Being defeated by the government troops at Mier, he retired to Saltillo" but after resigning the executive of Coahuila, in September, 1856, he was re-elected by a packed legislature. Afterward he was more successful, and Comonfort signed a treaty, on 18 November, 1856, which left Vidaurri in undisputed possession of the two states, which position was sanctioned by the constituent congress of 1857. Vidaurri held the northern states against Zuloaga and Miramon during the war of reform. In the summer of 1861 he entered into friendly relations with the secessionists of Texas, and on the invasion of Mexico by the allied powers in December, 1861, he declared his adhesion to the national cause, and served for some time against the French. But when the Republican government abandoned the capital, on 31 May, 1863, and established itself in San Luis de Potosi, differences arose between Juarez and Vidaurri, and when Juarez, in December of that year, retreated before the advancing French toward Monterey, Vidaurri opposed his entry by force. Soon after the French forces occupied Monterey in 1864, Vidaurri was induced to give his adhesion to the empire, and he was rewarded with honors and appointed a member of the imperial council. In the latter capacity he assisted in the assembly of Orizaba, 26 November, 1866, where he was the leader of the party that opposed Maximilian's abdication, and by his flattering representations induced the emperor to return to Mexico. He accompanied Maximilian to Queretaro, but in March, 1867, was sent to Mexico with Leonardo Marquez as president of the ministry and lieutenant of the empire. Disapproving of Marquez's harsh measures, he resigned, and, unable to escape at the occupation of the capital by the Liberal forces, 21 June, 1867, he remained in hiding, but was discovered and arrested. He was tried by a court-martial, quickly sentenced to death as a traitor, and shot in the square of Santo Domingo.