Manuel Amador Guerrero (30 June 1833 – 2 May 1909), was the first president of Panama from 20 February 1904 to 1 October 1908. He was a member of the Conservative Party. Early life Manuel Amador Guerrero was born on 30 June 1833 in Turbaco, in the Bolívar Department of the Republic of Colombia to María Mercedes Guerrero Córdoba and José María Amador Leguina. Very little is known about his childhood and teenage years, but he studied to be a surgeon and graduated from the Universidad de Magdalena e Istmo in 1854. Career Amador came to Panama in 1855 settling in Colón and started working on the Panama Railroad as a doctor. After a year, he also took a job as the postmaster. After moving to Santiago de Veraguas, Amador began a export business "Amador Hermanos", with his brother, Juan De Dios Amador Guerrero, and continued his work as a doctor and in governmental posts. He acted to the District Administration, working on the Municipal Council, and serving as a deputy to the House of Representatives for the Veraguas State in the Republic of New Granada in Bogotá from 1858 to 1859. During the same period, he began serving in the State Legislature of Veraguas. In 1866, Amador was appointed as the first successor for the Conservative Party, in the elections for the President of the Sovereign State of Panama. When the President Vicente Olarte Galindo died in office in 1868, Amador was to succeed his term as acting president but because he was running in the election, he chose to allow the second successor Juan José Díaz to take the post as acting president. When it became evident that Amador's victory was assured for the presidency, General Fernando Ponce staged a rebellion and drove the Conservative supporters out of the capital and back to Veraguas. In the brief battles that occurred, Amador was captured and sent into exile Cartagena. In 1869, Amador returned to Panama, probably settling again in Santiago de Veraguas, where his son was born to María de Jesús Terreros. He soon moved to Panama City and began working at the Hospital Santo Tomás. The hospital, a charity hospital built in colonial times, suffered from lack of management and funds, and Amador took on the task of managing and reorganizing it without pay for almost two decades of the twenty-nine years in which he worked there. He