GUARDIA, Tomas, president of Costa Rica, born in Bagaces, province of Guanacaste, 17 December, 1832; died in San Jose, Costa Rica, 6 July, 1882. He entered the army in 1850, fought against William Walker's filibusters in 1855, and was promoted captain. He afterward became colonel, and in 1866 military commander of the province of Alujuela, but being persecuted on account of his political opinion by the administration of Jesus Jimenez, he resigned in 1869, and soon put himself at the head of other malcontents. On 27 April, 1870, he took the government palace by surprise, and made the president prisoner. Dr. Bruno Carranza was appointed provisional president, with Guardia as commander-in-chief of the military. Carranza resigned on 8 August, and Guaralia was chosen provisional president, but, as the national assembly continued hostile, he abdicated and retired to Alajuela. On 7 October the garrison of that city pronounced in his favor, and he was proclaimed dictator, and subsequently chosen president. In 1874 and 1878 he was re-elected, and was in fact the irresponsible ruler of the republic, but notwithstanding this, and his strenuous opposition to Central American union, his government did much for the country, fostering public schools, and protected agriculture. He began the building of an interoceanic railway, against the advice of engineers, and at the time of his death the republic was about $20,000,000 in debt, with the road still unfinished. He also built telegraph-lines over the republic and left over 400 miles established. He was defeated in the elections of 1882, but died a few weeks before the end of his term. GUARDIOLA, Santos (war-de'-o-lah), president of Honduras, born in Tegucigalpa in 1812; died there in 1862. He entered the army at an early age, and his daring and cruelty in the civil wars of Central America earned for him the name of the " Tiger of Honduras." In an effort to overthrow the government of his native state in 1850, he was defeated and banished. In 1856 he joined the Nicaraguan forces as general of division, was defeated first by Walker, then by Munoz, and returned to Honduras, where, by a revolutionary movement, aided by Guatemala, he was elevated to the presidency. He crushed all revolutionary movements with an iron hand, and the republic enjoyed comparative peace under his rule; but he made some liberal laws, and thereby became obnoxious to his former supporters, the clergy. They openly preached dissension from the pulpit, and in 1862 Guardiola was overthrown by a new insurrection and assassinated.