He joined in the early revolt against Spain in 1810, first fighting alongside José María Morelos and then taking command over those troops after Morelos's death. The valiant resistance he displayed against the Spanish armies made him a hero among the Mexicans.
Once Mexico achieved independence he at first collaborated with Agustín de Iturbide (he even accepted his Grand Cross of the Order of Guadalupe and the rank of General in his Imperial Army). However, soon after Iturbide was prolaimed himself Emperor of Mexico, Guerrero came out in favor of a Republic with the Plan of Casa Mata.
When the conservative Manuel Gómez Pedraza seemed set to succeed Guadalupe Victoria as president of Mexico, Guerrero, with the aid of General Antonio López de Santa Anna, staged a coup and took the presidency on 1 April1829. (The violent nature of the coup displeased some Latin American liberals of the time who otherwise sympathised with Guerrero's goals, and his actions were condemned by Simón Bolívar.) The most notable achievement of Guerrero's short term as president was ordering an immediate abolition of slavery and emancipation of all slaves.
Guerrero was deposed in a counter-coup on 4 December1829. He hoped to come back to power, but conservative General Anastasio Bustamante captured him through bribery and had him killed.
The state of Guerrero is named after him, and his birthplace was renamed Tixtla de Guerrero in his honor.
The unit that became the Guerrero Battalion was formed in 1823 as part of the Republic of Mexico's national army, and named for the Mexican revolutionary hero VincenteGuerrero in 1833.
The Guerrero Battalion was a unit in Santa Anna's army that invaded Texas in 1836.
This is a Mexican tricolor inscribed "Batallon Matamoros Permanente." Named for a hero of the Mexican Revolution, Mariano Matamoros, the battalion served with Santa Anna in his invasion of Texas.
Vicente Guerrero, a mulatto ex-slave, was the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln combined of Mexico.
Guerrero's rise to the presidency increased the position of the wealthy and the landed classes and they used every means in their power to pull him down.
Guerrero, as in the days when he was fighting for independence, took once more to the mountains, where for the next four years he defeated every force sent against him even though his strength had been determined by a bullet that had lodged in his chest while fighting Iturbide.
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