Alberto Teisaire (20 May 1891 – 11 September 1963) was an
Argentine naval officer and
Vice President of Argentina
The vice president of Argentina ( es, Vicepresidente de Argentina), officially known as the vice president of the Argentine Nation ( es, Vicepresidente de la Nación Argentina), is the second highest political position in Argentina, and first in ...
.
Life and times
Early life and Navy career
Alberto Teisaire was born in 1891 to Clementina Cejas and Eduardo Teisaire, in
Mendoza, Argentina
Mendoza (, ), officially the City of Mendoza ( es, Ciudad de Mendoza) is the capital of the province of Mendoza in Argentina. It is located in the northern-central part of the province, in a region of foothills and high plains, on the eastern si ...
. He enrolled in the Argentine Naval Academy in 1908 and, upon graduation in 1912, was accepted to the
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...
. There, he was commissioned as a
submarine
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
officer in the
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
, during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Returning to Argentina, he married Duilia Fayo Lonne and was eventually named Commander of the Navy's flagship, the historic
Sarmiento Frigate.
[''Quien es quien en la Argentina''. Buenos Aires: Editorial Kraft, 1955.]
Teisaire later taught at the Argentine Naval Academy and held numerous policy-making posts in that service, including ones in the Naval Requisitions Department, the Argentine Naval delegations in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, as head of the Navy's River Fleet (1938), and as assistant director of the important
Navy Mechanics' School, in 1940, where he specialized in the instruction of
navigation
Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...
and
hydrology
Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...
.
[
]
Political career
A power vacuum, caused by the replacement of President Pedro Ramírez by a fellow General ( Edelmiro Farrell), led to Teisaire's 29 February 1944, appointment as Navy Secretary. He became a reliable ally of the new War and Labor Minister, Col. Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine Army general and politician. After serving in several government positions, including Minister of Labour and Vice President of a military dictatorship, he was elected P ...
, whose support of organized labor
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...
and their platform had provoked growing rivalries within the military regime. Teisaire became Perón's most prominent ally in the government when, in July, he was named Interior Minister (at the time, overseeing law enforcement).[Potash, Robert. ''The Army and Politics in Argentina.'' Stanford University Press, 1996.] He retired as Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...
in 1945 to pursue a seat in the Argentine Senate
The Honorable Senate of the Argentine Nation ( es, Honorable Senado de la Nación Argentina) is the upper house of the National Congress of Argentina.
Overview
The National Senate was established by the Argentine Confederation on July 29, 185 ...
, ahead of the February 1946 general elections.[''Los Andes'': Alberto Teisaire, el mendocino vicepresidente de Perón]
Elected as Senator on Perón's Labor Party ticket, Teisaire represented the city of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
, a district normally leaning towards Perón's chief opposition, the centrist UCR. He, however, did not enjoy support from the President's influential First Lady, Eva Perón
María Eva Duarte de Perón (; ; 7 May 1919 – 26 July 1952), better known as just Eva Perón or by the nickname Evita (), was an Argentine politician, activist, actress, and philanthropist who served as First Lady of Argentina from June 194 ...
, who refused his request to take part in her 1947 " Rainbow Tour" because (in her words): ''"I did not want that fruitcake creating a scandal in Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, when for that I already have Paquito Paquito is a given name, may refer to:
*Paquito Cordero (1932–2009), Puerto Rican comedian
*Paquito Diaz, (1937–2011), veteran Filipino actor and movie director
*Paquito D'Rivera (born 1948), Cuban clarinetist and saxophonist
*Paquito Oc ...
, who at least makes me laugh."''
Teisaire did well in his career in the Senate, even so. He was named Provisional President of the Senate in 1947, and was reelected Senator in 1951. He was elected to the Constitutional Assembly of 1949, which drafted a replacement of the 1853 Constitution of Argentina
The Constitution of the Argentine Nation ( es, Constitución de la Nación Argentina) is the basic governing document of Argentina, and the primary source of existing law in Argentina. Its first version was written in 1853 by a constitutional ...
(reinstated in 1957). He was named head of the Peronist Party
The Justicialist Party ( es, Partido Justicialista, ; abbr. PJ) is a major political party in Argentina, and the largest branch within Peronism.
Current president Alberto Fernández belongs to the Justicialist Party (and has, since 2021, served ...
's Superior Council in 1952, effectively making him the third-most powerful member of the administration (after Interior Minister Ángel Borlenghi
Ángel Borlenghi (February 1, 1904 – August 6, 1962) was an Argentine labour leader and politician closely associated with the Peronist movement.
Life and times
Early life and the labor movement
Ángel Gabriel Borlenghi was born in Buenos Aire ...
and Perón, himself).[ Teisaire introduced the ]Lions Club
The International Association of Lions Clubs, more commonly known as Lions Clubs International, is an international non-political service organization established originally in 1916 in Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, ...
into Argentina in 1954, and received the German Order of Merit.[
Controversy surrounding the President's in-laws and political violence both by and against his Peronist movement dominated headlines in the first half of 1953, and Perón took the opportunity of upcoming legislative polls to test his popularity. The Argentine Constitution did not require it at the time, but a special election was announced to replace the late Vice President, Hortensio Quijano, and Perón nominated Teisaire as his candidate for the post.][
The ]April 1954
The following events occurred in April 1954:
April 1, 1954 (Thursday)
*The U.S. Congress and President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized the founding of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.
*South Point School was founded in Kolkata ...
elections increased the Peronists' overwhelming majority in Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
and elected Teisaire Vice President by a 30% margin of victory.[ Following this success, Perón began to dispense with his hitherto warm relations with the ]Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
by banning a number of their organizations and periodicals, and with the unprecedented, December 22 legalization of divorce and prostitution. The Vice President supported these moves, arguing that Argentina's Catholic majority were mostly non-practicing and, by extension, probably amenable to Perón's push to limit their influence.[
The miscalculation proved fateful, however. The dispute damaged Teisaire's influence among the largely conservative Catholic navy commanders, who spitefully referred to the Vice President as "that ]Freemason
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
," [ and soon destroyed military loyalty for the administration itself. A series of violent confrontations from June to September 1955 ended with Perón's September 19 resignation and exile.][
]
Resignation and death
Vice President Teisaire was forced to resign on 23 September 1955, following which he was coerced into reading a 7-page confession of the "fugitive dictator's" alleged abuses. His "confession" was produced into a 12-minute propaganda film
A propaganda film is a film that involves some form of propaganda. Propaganda films spread and promote certain ideas that are usually religious, political, or cultural in nature. A propaganda film is made with the intent that the viewer will ad ...
by the Revolución Libertadora
''Revolución Libertadora'' (; ''Liberating Revolution'') was the coup d'état that ended the second presidential term of Juan Perón in Argentina, on 16 September 1955.
Background
President Perón was first elected in 1946. In 1949, a ...
, which ordered the footage shown in all movie theatres. His coerced 1956 statements remained controversial, perceived as a betrayal by many Peronists even after his death.
Teisaire kept a low profile in retirement. Despite some reports that he was assassinated at a restaurant on 12 October 1962 by left-wing Peronist militants while attending a lunch with his assistants, Tesaire actually died of natural causes on 11 September 1963, at age 72.
References
* Fabián Bosoer: ''La misteriosa muerte del almirante Teisaire'' in ''Lucha armada en la Argentina.'' Year 8. Anuario September 2012-August 2013. Publisher: Ejercitar la memoria editores
Footnotes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teisaire, Alberto
1891 births
1963 deaths
People from Mendoza Province
Argentine Navy admirals
Justicialist Party politicians
Members of the Argentine Senate for Buenos Aires
Vice presidents of Argentina
Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Burials at La Chacarita Cemetery
Argentine Freemasons