Díaz Vélez, Eustaquio Antonio (1782–1856)

A military officer and rural entrepreneur, Eustaquio Díaz Vélez was born in Buenos Aires on November 2, 1782. When British forces invaded the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata in 1806, Díaz Vélez enrolled in the regiment commanded by Viceroy Santiago Liniers that drove out the British in 1807. After the May Revolution of 1810, he was commissioned by the junta to bring Upper Peru into the revolutionary movement headed by Buenos Aires. Juan José Castelli sent Díaz Vélez to execute royalist leaders in Potosí. He also served in General Manuel Belgrano's Northern Army.

In 1814 the Directorio government designated Díaz Vélez as lieutenant governor of Santa Fe province. Constantly besieged by forces loyal to José Gervasio Artigas, fighting for province's autonomy against Buenos Aires government control, Díaz Vélez was eventually ousted by caudillo leader Estanislao López in 1816. In 1818 Díaz Vélez was designated as interim governor of Buenos Aires, a position he held until 1820.

Díaz Vélez retired to his estancia in Chascomús, south of Buenos Aires, where in 1839 he was imprisoned for participating in a conspiracy against Governor Juan Manuel de Rosas. When the latter was ousted from power in 1852, Díaz Vélez returned to Buenos Aires, where he died on April 1, 1856.

See alsoArgentina: The Nineteenth Century; Artigas, José Gervasio; Belgrano, Manuel; Castelli, Juan José; López, Estanislao.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rodríguez Bosch, Raúl. Eustoquio Díaz Vélez: Soldado de la independencia y la organización Nacional. Buenos Aires: Editora Selene, 1986.

                                          Klaus Gallo