Hipolito Yrigoyen
Juan Hipolito del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus Irigoyen Alem was twice President of Argentina (from 1916 to 1922 and again from 1928 to 1930). Yrigoyen (he signed that way to differ from Bernardo de Irigoyen's poitical ideas) was popularly known as el peludo (The mole) due to his beady eyes. Pro-Yrigoyen political supporters were known as "personalistas", a rude suggestion that they were sycophants of Yrigoyen, anti-Yrigoyen elements, not surprisingly, were known as "anti-personalistas". One of the tragedies of Argentina is that Argentina reached its pinnacle of world political power during the Yrigoyen years, and has not approached that level of world influence since those times. He was a schoolteacher before turning to politics, Irigoyen in 1896 became the leader of the Radical Party, putting his personal stamp on it for the next four decades. He fought electoral corruption by boycotting elections until after reforms were carried out in 1912. Four years later he was elected president. Most popular with the middle class, which for the first time felt it was part of the political process, Irigoyen kept Argentina out of World War I, allowing it to profit from the high beef prices on the world market. He was elected president by a large margin in 1928, but his inability to deal with the crisis brought on by the worldwide depression caused his removal from office by an army coup in 1930.
Born in Buenos Aires, Yrigoyen worked as a school teacher before entering politics. In 1891 he co-founded the Radical Civic Union (Union Civica Radical), together with his uncle, Leandro Alem. Following Alem's suicide in 1896, Hipolito Yrigoyen assumed sole leadership of the Radical Civic Union. It adopted a policy of intransigency, a position of total opposition to the regime known as "The Agreement". Established by electoral fraud, this was an agreed formula among the political parties of that time for alternating in power. The Radical Civic Union took up arms in 1893 and again in 1905. Later, however, Yrigoyen adopted a policy of nonviolence, pursuing instead the strategy of "revolutionary abstention", a total boycott of all polls until 1912, when President Roque Saenz Pena was forced to agree to the passage of the Saenz Pena Law, which established secret, universal, and compulsory male suffrage.
Yrigoyen was elected President of Argentina in 1916. He frequently found himself hemmed in, however, as the Senate was appointed by the legislatures of the provinces, most of which were controlled by the opposition. Several times, Yrigoyen resorted to federal intervention by declaring a state of emergency, which deepened the confrontation with the establishment. Yrigoyen was popular, however, among middle class voters, who felt integrated for the first time in political process, and the Argentinian economy prospered under his leadership. Yrigoyen preserved Argentine neutrality during World War I, which turned out to be a boon, owing to higher beef prices and the opening up of many new markets to Argentina's primary exports (meat and cereals). Argentina was known as the barn of the world, and its gross domestic product placed it among the wealthiest nations on earth. Constitutionally barred from re-election, Yrigoyen was succeeded by Marcelo T. de Alvear.
Related websites
National Hipolito Yrigoyen Institute
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