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Leopoldo Melo
Leopoldo Melo (18691951) was an Argentine lawyer, diplomat and politician. He was a leading figure in the Radical Civic Union, a nominee for President, and later Minister of Internal Affairs.
Following General Jose Felix Uriburu's 1930 coup against President Yrigoyen, Melo endorsed the conservative candidate (and Uriburu's pick), General Agustin Justo, on the hrounds that the UCR nominee, former President Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear had been reunited with the Yrigoyen faction. Amid widespread irregularities, the Concordance formed by Melo and Justo won the 1931 elections, for which Melo was rewarded with an appointment to the powerful post of Interior Minister. Under his aegis the special branch of the Federal Police was created, implementing a policy of systematic torture of opposition figures.Feitlowitz, Marguerite. A Lexicon of Terror: Argentina and the Legacies of Torture. Oxford University Press, 2002.
Melo was dismissed as Interior Minister in 1936. In 1939, he was named representative to the Pan-American Union, where he participated in a mutual defense treaty entered into by the United States and most of the other nations of the Americas in 1940 as a response to World War II.
Related websites
Union Civica Radical (Capital Federal) Evolucion del radicalismo Parte I (1893-1928)
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