Uriburu, José Félix (1868–1932)

José Félix Uriburu was a member of the Argentine military and de facto president from September 1930 to February 1932. He was born on July 20, 1868, in Salta and graduated from the Colegio Militar de la Nación. In 1988 he was promoted to lieutenant. He served as director of the Higher School of War beginning in 1907 and was then sent twice to Europe as a military attaché. There he absorbed militarist nationalism, especially the German variety. In 1913 he was elected national deputy for the province of Salta and served until 1914. In 1921 he was promoted to major general. From 1922, having been appointed inspector general of the army, he forged important bonds with the pro-Fascist sectors of the establishment.

With the economic crisis of 1929, the conservative sectors of the ruling class, who had for some time been skeptical of a democracy they had lost control of, closed ranks against President Hipólito Irigoyen—the leader of the Unión Cívica Radical (UCR), or Radical Party, an urban-supported middle class party—claiming he was incapable of maintaining order amid the social instability. General Uriburu, now retired from active military duty and heading this reactionary movement, commanded the September 6, 1930, military-civilian coup that deposed Irigoyen. The supreme court acknowledged him as president, dissolved the congress, and declared a state of siege. Uriburu's regime hounded the opposition and censored the press. Nevertheless, Uriburu's hopes of installing a corporate regime of Fascist-leaning individuals were dashed by the predominance of liberal-conservative sectors. In 1932, in fraudulent elections, General Agustín P. Justo assumed the presidency, which he held until 1938. On April 29 of that year Uriburu died in Paris.

See alsoArgentina: The Twentieth Century; Irigoyen, Hipólito; Justo, José Agustín Pedro.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cantón, Darío, José Luis Romero, and Alberto Ciria. Argentina, la democracia constitucional y su crisis. Buenos Aires: Paidós, 1972.

Halperín Donghi, Tulio, ed. Vida y muerte de la República Verdadera, 1910–1930. Buenos Aires; Ariel, 2000.

Potash, Robert A. The Army and Politics in Argentina, vol. 1: 1928–1945, Yrigoyen to Perón. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1969.

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