1870 Costa Rican coup d'état

[3] While Montealegre and Jiménez both belonged to the group of antimoristas who had overthrown and executed the hero of the Filibuster War, Juan Rafael Mora Porras, as well as sought to erase his memory of Costa Rican history, Guardia on the contrary had been Morista himself and after the coup he took enormous efforts to connect his own figure and government with that of Mora.

[3] Guard did not belong to the powerful Costa Rican coffee oligarchy, a political elite that had ruled continuously until then.

Immediately after the coup, Guardia would convene a Constituent Assembly that drafted a new constitution, highly progressive for the time and with strong liberal roots.

He abolished the death penalty and torture, "desoligarquized" the political system and carried out many infrastructure works.

[3] The date of the coup was commemorated every year under his regime using music bands that roamed the country, with civic acts in the municipal councils of each provincial capital, military parades, a mass and banquet.