Victorino de la Plaza

President of Argentina

November 2, 1840 Salta

October 2, 1919(1919-10-02) (78) Buenos Aires

August 10, 1914 – October 11, 1916

13th President of Argentina Victorino de la Plaza y Palacios (November 2, 1840 – October 2, 1919) was, the interim President of Argentina from 9 August 1914 to 11 October 1916. As the second son of José Roque Mariano de la Plaza Elejalde and Manuela de la Silva Palacios; his older brother, Rafael de la Plaza, was also a politician and acted as governor of Santiago del Estero Province. He studied law in Buenos Aires and obtained his doctorate in 1868, became secretary of Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield and collaborated on the writing of the Argentine Civil Code, and was Treasury Minister under Nicolás Avellaneda (1876), later Interventor in Corrientes Province (1878) and Foreign Minister (1882) and Treasury (1883–1885) during the first Julio Argentino Roca administration. He was elected vice president for the National Union presided by Roque Sáenz Peña in 1910, and assumed the presidency after the death of Sáenz Peña and governed between 1914 and 1916. He died of pneumonia after retiring from politics. He was the last president of what was called the conservative period of Argentinean history. This period began in 1880 and culminated with La Plaza's loss of the presidency to the Radical Civic Union. This was all thanks to the Sáenz Peña Law, which established secret, compulsory voting for all those on the electoral register, thanks to Compulsory military service.