Atilio Esteban Cattáneo (15 October 1889 – 22 June 1957) was an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

soldier and politician, a pioneer of aviation in his country and who served as a national deputy in opposition to

Peronism Peronism, also known as justicialism, is an Argentine ideology and movement based on the ideas, doctrine and legacy of Juan Perón (1895–1974). It has been an influential movement in 20th- and 21st-century Argentine politics. Since 1946, P ...

Biography

Education and early career

Cattáneo was born 15 October 1889, in

Lobos Lobos is the headquarters city of the Lobos Partido in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It was founded on 2 June 1802 by José Salgado. Background Located from Buenos Aires, Lobos is a fertile agricultural area known mainly because of the d ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and graduated from Argentina's officers' college in 1910 as a Communications Engineer. Shortly after graduated as a military aviator. He was a pilot for Brazilian availtion pioneer

Alberto Santos-Dumont Alberto Santos-Dumont (self-stylised as Alberto Santos=Dumont; 20 July 1873 – 23 July 1932) was a Brazilian aeronaut, sportsman, inventor, and one of the few people to have contributed significantly to the early development of both lighter-t ...

during his 1916 visit to Argentina. After joining the Army General Staff, he joined Argentina's Military Geographic Institute (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).

Political activism

He identified with the

Radical Civic Union The Radical Civic Union (, UCR) is a major political party in Argentina. It has reached the national government on ten occasions, making it one of the most historically important parties in the country. Ideologically, the party has stood for r ...

at the start of Hipólito Yrigoyen's second presidency in 1928 and took part of the army's reorganization. Cattáneo tried to defend Yrigoyen during the

1930 Argentine coup d'état Year 193 ( CXCIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sosius and Ericius (or, less frequently, year 946 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 193 for this y ...

which lead to him being discarged from the military when

José Félix Uriburu José Félix Benito Uriburu (20 July 186829 April 1932) was an Argentine military officer and politician, he was the President of the Provisional Government of Argentina, ousting the successor to President Hipólito Yrigoyen by means of a ...

came to power. In December of the following year, Lieutenant Colonel Gregorio Pomar organized a revolution attempt. This was followed by a secord attempt to recover democracy in 1932 led by Cattáneo and Major Regino Lascano spurred on by election fraud and the banning of some political activity. The plans were discovered two days before they were expected to start, leading to the arrest of Cattáneo, deposed president Yrigoyen, and others. Most of the political leaders were shortly released but Cattáneo was given a long prison sentence. During this period, Cattáneo authored two books which were released in 1935 and 1939. In 1937 he was part of the Argentine League for the Rights of Man, which sought constitutional legality. When the

1943 Argentine coup d'état The 1943 Argentine Revolution (also known as the 1943 Argentine coup d'état, the June Revolution or the Revolution of '43) was a coup d'état on 4 June 1943 that ended the government of Ramón Castillo, who had been fraudulently elected to the ...

broke out, Cattáneo asked to be reinstated into the army with simultaneous retirement. Initially, he aligned with the new dictatorship which he identified as being responsible for ending the

Infamous Decade The Infamous Decade () was a period in Argentine history that began with the 1930 coup d'état against President Hipólito Yrigoyen. This decade was marked on one hand by significant rural exodus, with many small rural landowners ruined b ...

. Refusing to abandon radicalism and being opposed to

Juan Perón Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine military officer and Statesman (politician), statesman who served as the History of Argentina (1946-1955), 29th president of Argentina from 1946 to Revolución Libertad ...

he was elected to the

Argentine Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies (), officially the Honorable Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine Nation, is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress (). It is made up of 257 national deputies who are elected in multi-member constituencies c ...

in 1946 as part of the Block of 44 radicals. At the end of 1949, Cattáneo accused Perón of lying about his assets, offering to buy the president's house for the value that was declared. In response, Cattáneo was expelled from the Chamber of Deputies and was stripped of his military status.

Retirement

Following his expulsion from the Chamber of Deputies, Cattáneo retired from political activity and devoted himself to literature and playwriting. He died in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

on 22 June 1957. Several schools and streets in Argentina are named for him.

References

{{reflist Cattáneo Cattáneo Cattáneo Cattáneo