Roque José Antonio del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Sáenz Peña Lahitte (19 March 1851 – 9 August 1914) was an Argentine politician and lawyer who served as
President of Argentina
The president of Argentina ( es, Presidente de Argentina), officially known as the president of the Argentine Nation ( es, Presidente de la Nación Argentina), is both head of state and head of government of Argentina. Under Constitution of Ar ...
from 12 October 1910 to his death in office on 9 August 1914.
He was the son of former president
Luis Sáenz Peña
Luis Sáenz Peña Dávila (2 April 1822 – 4 December 1907) was a lawyer and President of Argentina. He was the father of president Roque Sáenz Peña.
*
Biography
Luis Saenz Peña was born on 2 April 1822 to Roque Julián Sáenz Peña ...
.
He was a candidate for an internal line called "modernist" within the
National Autonomist Party
The National Autonomist Party ( es, Partido Autonomista Nacional; PAN) was the ruling political party of Argentina from 1874 to 1916.
In 1880, Julio Argentino Roca assumed the presidency under the motto "peace and administration".
History
The ...
.
He was responsible for passing Law 8871, known as "
Sáenz Peña Law
The Sáenz Peña Law () was Law 8871 of Argentina, sanctioned by the National Congress on 10 February 1912, which established the universal, secret and compulsory male suffrage though the creation of an electoral list (''Padrón Electoral''). It w ...
", which greatly reformed the Argentine electoral system, making the vote secret, universal and compulsory for males over 18. This effectively ended the rule by electoral fraud of the conservative Argentine oligarchy, and paved the way for the rise of the
Radical Civic Union
The Radical Civic Union ( es, Unión Cívica Radical, UCR) is a centrist and social-liberal political party in Argentina. It has been ideologically heterogeneous, ranging from social liberalism to social democracy. The UCR is a member of the So ...
in the first free elections of the country.
Early life
Roque Sáenz Peña was the son of
Luis Sáenz Peña
Luis Sáenz Peña Dávila (2 April 1822 – 4 December 1907) was a lawyer and President of Argentina. He was the father of president Roque Sáenz Peña.
*
Biography
Luis Saenz Peña was born on 2 April 1822 to Roque Julián Sáenz Peña ...
and
Cipriana Lahitte. He came from a family of supporters of
Rosas: his paternal and maternal grandparents,
Roque Julián Sáenz Peña
Roque is an American variant of croquet played on a hard, smooth surface. Popular in the first quarter of the 20th century and billed "the Game of the Century" by its enthusiasts, it was an Olympic sport in the 1904 Summer Games, replacing cr ...
and
Eduardo Lahitte
Eduardo is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the male given name Edward. Another version is Duarte. It may refer to:
Association football
* Eduardo Bonvallet, Chilean football player and sports commentator
* Eduardo Carvalho, Portuguese football ...
, had been deputies of the Legislature during his government. After the defeat of Rosas in the
Battle of Caseros, the federal tradition of the grandparents and the father, who did not change their convictions, kept them away from public service. He completed his secondary studies at the
National School of Buenos Aires
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
, under the direction of Amadeo Jacques. In 1875 he graduated as a doctor of law, with a thesis on "Legal status of foundlings."
During the Revolution of 1874 he defended the authorities of the nation as Captain of Regiment, under the command of
Luis María Campos
Luis María Campos (born in Buenos Aires, June 1838, died in the same city, October 1907) was an Argentine general and founder of the Argentine '' Escuela Superior de Guerra'', which is now named after him.
He initially joined the army of the St ...
. After the revolution, he was promoted to Second Commander of National Guards, but requested to be relieved of the ranks. Opponent of
Bartolomé Mitre
Bartolomé Mitre Martínez (26 June 1821 – 19 January 1906) was an Argentine statesman, soldier and author. He was President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868 and the first president of unified Argentina.
Mitre is known as the most versatile ...
, he was a member of the
Autonomist Party
The Autonomist Party ( it, Partito Autonomista; hr, Autonomaška stranka) was an Italian-Dalmatianist political party in the Dalmatian political scene, that existed for around 70 years of the 19th century and until World War I. Its goal was ...
headed by
Adolfo Alsina
Adolfo Alsina Maza (January 4, 1829 – December 29, 1877) was an Argentine lawyer and Unitarian politician, who was one of the founders of the Autonomist Party and the National Autonomist Party.Ione S. Wright and Lisa M. Nekhom, ''Histori ...
and in 1876 he was elected to a Deputy seat in the Legislature of the
Province of Buenos Aires. He came to serve as president of the body at the age of 26, thus being one of the youngest presidents of the House. In 1877 he founded the
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
, together with
Leandro Alem
Leandro Nicéforo Alem (born Leandro Alén; 11 March 1841 – 1 July 1896) was an Argentine politician, founder and leader of the Radical Civic Union. He was the uncle and political teacher of Hipólito Yrigoyen. He was also an active Freema ...
,
Aristóbulo del Valle
Aristóbulo del Valle (15 March 1845 – 29 January 1896) was a lawyer and politician born in Dolores, . He was, together with Leandro Alem, one of the founders of the Radical Civic Union.
Del Valle studied in the Faculty of Law of ...
,
Hipólito Yrigoyen
Juan Hipólito del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Yrigoyen (; 12 July 1852 – 3 July 1933) was an Argentine politician of the Radical Civic Union and two-time President of Argentina, who served his first term from 1916 to 1922 and his second ...
,
Lucio Vicente López
Lucio is an Italian and Spanish male given name derived from the Latin name ''Lucius''. In Portuguese, the given name is accented Lúcio.
Lucio is also an Italian surname.
Given name
* Lúcio (Lucimar Ferreira da Silva) (born 1978), Brazilian f ...
,
Pedro Goyena
Pedro Goyena (July 24, 1843, Buenos Aires – May 17, 1892) was an Argentine jurist, politician and writer.
Pedro Goyena, along with other thinkers and politicians, followers of the ''Catholic Thinking'', as José Manuel Estrada and Emilio La ...
,
José Manuel Estrada
José Manuel Estrada (born in Buenos Aires el 13 July 1842; died in Asunción, Paraguay, 17 September 1894) was an Argentine lawyer, writer, politician, eminent speaker and representative of Catholic thought.
Biography
José Manuel Estrada, w ...
and
Francisco Uriburu.
In 1878, as a result of the dissidents produced within the autonomism due to the conciliation policy initiated by President
Nicolás Avellaneda to which Sáenz Peña was opposed, he resigned from his position and ended up temporarily abandoning politics.
On 4 February 1887, he married Rosa Isidora González Delgado, daughter of the Mendoza politician Lucas González and Rosa Delgado ibarbaltz, in the
Basilica of Our Lady of Pilar (Buenos Aires).
War of the Pacific
The
War of the Pacific (La Guerra del Pacífico) pitted Chile against an allied Bolivia and Peru. Later, Argentina secretly joined the alliance.
The dispute was over territory on the Pacific coast that had never been resolved, specifically control of a part of the Atacama Desert. The area contained high amounts of sodium nitrate which is a valuable mineral resource.
During the war, Sáenz Peña left Argentina to fight with the Peruvians. His main motivation was not patriotic or to show solidarity, but rather to escape Buenos Aires due to an unrequited love affair. After his superior officers had been killed in the Battle of Arica he assumed their roles and commanded a very weak Peruvian division. Sáenz Peña was captured after the Peruvians' defeat at the battle and imprisoned briefly by the Chileans.
He also served in the
War of the Pacific as a
lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...
of the
Peruvian Army, and was made prisoner by Chile for six months following the
Battle of Arica.
Rise to power
When Sáenz Peña returned to Buenos Aires he was appointed sub-secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Relations under Minister of Foreign Relations
Bernardo de Irigoyen in 1880. He soon left politics only to return in 1887 when he accepted the ministership to Uruguay. He represented Argentina at the
1888 Montevideo Congress. Sáenz Peña held firm to his legal and political doctrines and definitively stated that Argentine was immune to any action taken by the assembly.
Along with
Manuel Quintana
Manuel Pedro Quintana Sáenz (October 19, 1835 – March 12, 1906) was the President of Argentina from 12 October 1904 to 12 March 1906. He died in office.
Biography
Manuel Quintana was born on October 19, 1835, son of Eladio de la Quintan ...
, Sáenz Peña represented Argentina in the first Pan American Conference in 1889. The two delegates made a 40-day journey to New York and then a four-day trip to Washington for the meeting that was taking placed in the State Department building. The Argentine delegation boycotted the opening meeting over, as they saw it, a violation of diplomatic custom. Custom requires a delegate from an invited country to preside over the conference, but the U.S. Secretary of State was elected to be the permanent chair of the conference.
The delegates attended the second session. Throughout the conference Sáenz Peña advocated against an American free trade area. Nevertheless, the United States and twelve nations voted for a “recommendation to work for inter-American reciprocity treaties.” Only Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia voted against it.
During Sáenz Peña's tenure as foreign minister, he traveled the world and effectively argued for policies that benefited Argentina. He also performed traditional ceremonial duties, like in 1906 when he attended the wedding of Spanish king
Alfonso XIII. He worked with the Italian government to increase trade while providing them with official cables from Argentina telling of the economic developments within the country. He distributed these cables to other European governments and businessmen as well. Before his presidency, Sáenz Peña served as ambassador to Spain (1906–1907) and Italy (1907–1910).
Presidency
The electoral act that led Roque Sáenz Peña to the presidency of Argentina took place on 13 March 1910, with a large number of irregularities common at that time. The new president had not even participated in the electoral campaign: he was the Argentine ambassador to Italy. A single list of elector candidates participated in the elections, of which ten - out of 273 - did not vote for Sáenz Peña.
Days before assuming the presidency, Sáenz Peña met with President
Figueroa Alcorta and with the leader of the opposition,
Hipólito Yrigoyen
Juan Hipólito del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Yrigoyen (; 12 July 1852 – 3 July 1933) was an Argentine politician of the Radical Civic Union and two-time President of Argentina, who served his first term from 1916 to 1922 and his second ...
. In this last interview, the radical leader promised to abandon the revolutionary path, and Sáenz Peña to promulgate an electoral law that would modernize the elections and prevent electoral fraud. Yrigoyen requested the intervention of the provinces to prevent their governors from interfering with said process, Sáenz Peña refused but allowed radicalism to be part of the government.
Governance management
On 12 October 1910, Roque Sáenz Peña assumed the presidency of Argentina.
In his first inaugural address he declared: “My international policy if known to you. It will be friendship for Europe and fraternity for America.” He came into power without the support of his own party, like his father. Sáenz Peña was elected while tensions were high in 1910 while promising electoral reform to curb the power of the oligarchy and to prevent a revolution.
In 1912 - at the initiative of the Minister of Agriculture, Ezequiel Ramos Mexía - Law 5,599, on the Promotion of National Territories, was enacted. Most of the national territories had the vast majority of their population concentrated on their maritime or fluvial coastline; For this reason, the law provided - and to a great extent succeeded - the construction of a large number of railway branches, which would allow the establishment of its population towards the interior. Branches were built in the national territories of
Chaco,
Formosa
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country located in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, formerly known in the Western political circles, press and literature as Formosa, makes up 99% of the land area of the territorie ...
,
Río Negro,
Chubut Chubut may refer to:
* Chubut Province, Argentina
* Chubut River in the Chubut Province
* Chubut steamer duck
The Chubut steamer duck or white-headed flightless steamer duck (''Tachyeres leucocephalus'') is a flightless duck endemic to Argenti ...
and
Santa Cruz; and a railroad branch even reached
Posadas, the capital of
Misiones
Misiones (, ''Missions'') is one of the 23 provinces of Argentina, located in the northeastern corner of the country in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by Paraguay to the northwest, Brazil to the north, east and south, and Corrientes P ...
.
On 10 August 1912, he signed the decree for the creation of the Military Aviation School (EMA), together with G. Vélez, according to the official bulletin 692-2 part). In the same it was established that in the meantime there would be no military personnel trained in Aerostation and Aviation, the Technical Directorate would be in charge of the Argentine Aeroclub and the Military Directorate in charge of the Chief of the Argentine Army with the title of Director of the School of Military Aviation .
The cry of Alcorta
In June 1912 a great protest movement broke out among the tenant farmers against the worsening of the conditions of their contracts with the owners of the fields they worked, known as the
Grito de Alcorta
The Cry of Alcorta ( es, Grito de Alcorta) was an agrarian rebellion that took place in 1912 in Alcorta, Argentina. The rebels were primarily immigrants from Spain or from Italy. It began at the south of the Santa Fe Province, with requests of bett ...
. It spread throughout the Pampas region and ended with a massive drop in rents. It marked the irruption of a portion of the rural middle class, formed by the farmers, in the national politics of the 20th century. But at the same time, a gradual trend towards the owners' own administration of the fields began, who began to consider the presence of tenants dangerous.
The Sáenz Peña Law
Sáenz Peña was a convinced democrat; He thought that, freed from professional politicians, the people would elect the best for their government. He was also concerned about the social question, that is, about the possibility that - apart from politics - the workers could adhere to
anarchism
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessa ...
or
socialism. Finally, he feared that the huge proportion of the foreign population, who did not participate in any way in politics, could fall into maximalist positions or remain a foreign body in society. For all these reasons he supported political reform based on universal and free voting.
Given the history of pressure on the voters - who voted aloud - the only possibility of electoral freedom was
secret suffrage
The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote ...
, through ballots written in sealed envelopes. And to ensure that no one was prevented from voting, he also made it
universal
Universal is the adjective for universe.
Universal may also refer to:
Companies
* NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company
** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal
** Universal TV, a t ...
and
mandatory
Mandate most often refers to:
* League of Nations mandates, quasi-colonial territories established under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, 28 June 1919
* Mandate (politics)
In representative democracies, a mandate (or seat) ...
. The military registry would be used as the electoral roll. On the other hand, the participation of the population in the elections was very low, barely exceeding 20% of potential voters.
Sáenz Peña presented the project in Congress with these words: "I have told my country all my thoughts, my convictions and my hopes. May my country listen to the word and the advice of its first president, let the people vote."
The person in charge of designing the project and defending it in Congress was the Minister of the Interior, the Catholic
Indalecio Gómez. He had to face stiff resistance from conservative deputies, whose privileges were clearly threatened by the reform, and who did not know any other way of doing politics. Thus, many legislators from the conservative sectors, still not openly opposing it, obstruct the reform. After a month of discussion in the Chamber of Deputies and a week in the Senate, the
Sáenz Peña Law
The Sáenz Peña Law () was Law 8871 of Argentina, sanctioned by the National Congress on 10 February 1912, which established the universal, secret and compulsory male suffrage though the creation of an electoral list (''Padrón Electoral''). It w ...
was approved and promulgated on 13 February 1912.
The law was a great advance in its time since it allowed large masses of the population to participate in the electoral act, although it was still far from being completely universal: women and foreigners - who at that time were a large part of society - still had no right to vote. Although they did not vote, they were instead taken into account when determining the population of the districts and the number of deputies that could be elected by each one.
The first test of the Law in operation was in a provincial election: the
Province of Santa Fe
The Province of Santa Fe ( es, Provincia de Santa Fe, ) is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco (divided by the 28th parallel south), Corrientes, Entre R ...
was intervened by the government, which ordered the holding of the governor's elections in accordance with the Sáenz Peña Law; the
UCR abandoned abstentionism and participated, achieving victory. Shortly after, he obtained a new victory in the deputy elections in the
City of Buenos Aires, in an election in which popular participation amounted to 62.85% of the electoral roll; the
Socialist Party also obtained a notable growth in them.
Death
From the time of the assumption of Roque Sáenz Peña as president, his health was not good, but it worsened significantly from the year 1913. The version that circulated at the time was that the president suffered the neurological consequences of
syphilis
Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, an ...
that was it would have been infected during the
War of the Pacific. Starting in 1913, Sáenz Peña took a leave of absence, internally delegating the mandate to
Victorino de la Plaza.
Sáenz Peña was the only president who lived in the
Casa Rosada because of his sensitive health that prevented him from traveling with his cart from home. He adopted a sector as his home and had heating, rugs, rocking chairs and stained glass installed. During the last days of his life, Sáenz Peña remarked “I have lost almost all my friends, but I have governed for the Republic.”
He died 3 years and 301 days after assuming the presidency, on 9 August 1914. He was buried the next day in the
Recoleta Cemetery
La Recoleta Cemetery ( es, Cementerio de la Recoleta) is a cemetery located in the Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It contains the graves of notable people, including Eva Perón, presidents of Argentina, Nobel Prize winners, ...
in Buenos Aires.
Legacy
Sáenz Peña is known today for his electoral reform and his fierce determination to protect the interests of Argentina abroad. In Argentina, mainly in
Buenos Aires, he is also very honored, having streets, avenues and towns with his name. An example of this is:
* The
President Roque Sáenz Peña Avenue
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
in
Buenos Aires.
* The subway station Sáenz Peña in
Buenos Aires, Province.
* City
Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña
Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña (normally known as Sáenz Peña) is a city in the . It is the second largest in the province. It is located west-northwest of the provincial capital Resistencia, on the main rail and road route across northern Arg ...
in Chaco.
* Department
Presidente Roque Sáenz Peña Presidente Roque Sáenz Peña is a neighbourhood of the ''barrio'' of Saavedra, in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, named after President of Argentina, Roque Sáenz Peña.
It is located around Valdenegro street with many single-storey houses.
...
in Córdoba.
''among others.''
The figure of Roque Sáenz Peña -as a soldier- is very remembered in
Peru, where many cities in this country have a street with the name of Sáenz Peña and there are monuments to his memory. In
Rio de Janeiro, his name is remembered in
Plaza Sáenz Peña.
Honours
Decorations
* :
**
Grand Cross of the
Legion of Honour (6 May 1913)
References
Bibliography
* Botana, Natalio R., Ezequiel Gallo, and Ian Barnett. 2013. ''Liberal Thought In Argentina, 1837-1940''. 1st ed. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.
*
*
* Cibotti, Ema. 2011. ''Historias Mínimas De Nuestra Historia''. 1st ed. Buenos Aires: Aguilar, Alfaguara, Altea, Taurus.
* McSpadden, Joseph Walker. 1912. ''Official Digest Of The World: American Statesman's Year-Book, A Supplement To All Encyclopedias, Embracing The Latest Statistics, Records, And Current History Of Every State And Current History Of Every State And Country''. P.F. Collier & Son.
* "Presidencia De Roque Saenz Peña". 2017. Accessed 1 March.
http://www.todo-argentina.net/historia/gen80/SaenzPena(1910-1916)/index.html.
* "Revolución De 1874". 2017. ''Es.Wikipedia.Org''.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolución_de_1874.
* Rock, David. 1985. ''Argentina, 1516-1982''. 1st ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.
* "Roque Sáenz Peña". 2017. ''Britannica Academic''. Encyclopædia Britannica.
* "Roque Sáenz Peña". 2017. ''Biografías Y Vidas''. La Enciclopedia Biografía en Línea.
* The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. "War Of The Pacific". ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.
External links
index.html La presidencia de Roque Sáenz Peña 1910-1914.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Saenz Pena, Roque
Presidents of Argentina
1851 births
1914 deaths
19th-century Argentine lawyers
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Ambassadors of Argentina to Uruguay
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University of Buenos Aires alumni
Burials at La Recoleta Cemetery
20th-century Argentine politicians
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