in which three men shared executive power and rotated the presidency every week. Cristóbal Mendoza became a member of the triumvirate that headed the First Republic of Venezuela and was unanimously elected by the other two as the first to go in rotation on 5 March 1811. Mendoza was author of the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence, formally issued on 5 July 1811, on which date the presidential designation also took effect. The first Constitution of the Republic of Venezuela was designed in December 1811. The Congress established a Confederation called the United States of Venezuela in the Constitution, crafted mostly by lawyer Juan Germán Roscio, that it ratified on 21 December 1811. The Constitution created a strong bicameral legislature and, as also happened in neighboring New Granada, the Congress kept the weak executive consisting of a triumvirate. A second triumvirate followed on April 3, 1812. The presidency was disestablished in 1813, when Simon Bolivar established the Third Republic of Venezuela (1817–1819). In 1830, José Antonio Páez declared Venezuela independent from Gran Colombia and became president, taking office on January 13, 1830. Presidents of Venezuela who served under the 1864 constitution (starting with Juan Crisóstomo Falcón) bore the title of "President of the Union", instead of the usual "President of the Republic" still used today. Aside from that, all heads of state of the country since 1811 have held the title of "President of Venezuela." 1900–1989: First democratic elections El Trienio Adeco was a period in Venezuelan history from 1945 to 1948 under the government of Democratic Action, a party which gained office via the 1945 Venezuelan coup d'état against President Isaías Medina Angarita of the two-year-old Venezuelan Democratic Party. El Trienio Adeco saw the first democratic elections in Venezuelan history, beginning with the Constituent Assembly elections held in Venezuela on 27 October 1946, Democratic Action, which won 137 of the 160 seats in the Assembly. Voter turnout was 86.6%. General elections held in Venezuela on 14 December 1947 are described as the first honest elections in Venezuela. At the time, there were 110 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 46 seats in the Senate, with Democratic Action winning a majority of both. The 1948 Venezuelan coup d'état took place on 24 November 1948, when elected president Rómulo Gallegos was overthrown a year after his election. Democracy would not be restored until the 1958 Venezuelan coup d'état overthrew the dictator