Person
Rus Ortega, José Domingo (1768-1835)Other forms
Maracaibo (Zulia, Venezuela) 1764-08-04 - Ciudad de México (México) 1835
He was a Venezuelan lawyer, politician and government representative who intervened in the Mexican independence.
José Domingo Rus was born into one of Maracaibo's wealthiest families. His parents were Juan Manuel Rus Tubíñez and Juana Catalina Ortega de Azarraullía. He was orphaned at a young age and his paternal uncle took care of him. He married María Mercedes Lezama y Suárez Medrano, with whom he had seven children.
He studied at the universities of Caracas and Santo Tomás de Aquino in Santo Domingo, obtaining degrees in philosophy and canons. The Royal Audience of Caracas granted him the title of lawyer and he was admitted to the Caracas Bar Association in 1793. He held various positions in the municipal and provincial administration of Maracaibo (alderman of the City Hall, representative of Maracaibo in the Royal Consulate of Caracas, prosecutor of the Royal Audience of Santa Fe, prosecutor of the Royal Treasury of Maracaibo) and was in charge of investigating the uprising of the mulattoes of Maracaibo in 1799.
On February 18, 1811, he was elected Government Representative at the Cortes (parliament) by the political authorities of Maracaibo after they had refused to support the pro-independence Supreme Board of Caracas. Rus took the oath as Representative at the Cortes on March 5, 1812 and was appointed its secretary on February 24, 1813. He was also a member of the commissions of honor and justice, as well as the one in charge of studying the situation in Maracaibo. He actively intervened in the Cortes, especially in the debates and resolutions on the situation of Spanish America and especially Venezuela. He was re-elected Representative of Maracaibo in the Cortes of 1813.
Once absolutism was restored, he was appointed judge of the Court of Guadalajara (Mexico), taking office in 1816. He was appointed to the provisional Governing Board of Mexico, which led to the proclamation in February 1821 of the "Plan de Iguala" by Agustín de Iturbide.
Date of the event: 1810 - 1813
Date of the event: 1813 - 1814
Diccionario biográfico de parlamentarios españoles. 1, Cortes de Cádiz, 1810-1814 [Madrid]: Cortes Generales, Servicios de Publicaciones. 1 disco (CD-ROM). 978-84-7943-386-4 .
García León, José María. Los diputados doceañistas : una aproximación al estudio de los diputados de las Cortes Generales y Extraordinarias (1810-1813). José Mª García León. [Cádiz]: Ayuntamiento de Cádiz. 2 v. (808 p.). 84-89736-51-0.