 In March 1811 during the Spanish American wars of independence, the first Venezuelan constitutional congress established as the executive power a triumvirate in which three men shared executive power and rotated the presidency every week.At age 39, 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.With Manuel Moreno de Mendoza serving as the interim first president in his absence, Mendoza arrived in Caracas to begin serving his first week-long term on 25 April 1811.