Juan Manuel de Rosas

Juan Manuel de Rosas dominated Argentina for more than two decades as governor of Buenos Aires, ruling through a mixture of federalist rhetoric, personal loyalty and terror. Born in Buenos Aires in 1793 into a landowning family, he broke with his parents young, made his own fortune in cattle and salted meat, and became a caudillo commanding the loyalty of gauchos and of his own militia, the Colorados del Monte. Argentina after independence was divided between unitarians, who wanted a centralised state run from Buenos Aires, and federalists, who defended provincial autonomy. Rosas led the federalists, though in practice he concentrated power in his own hands. He was first governor from 1829 to 1832, then led a campaign against the indigenous peoples of the south, and returned in 1835 with the suma del poder público — total public power, granted by a plebiscite. His rule required visible conformity. Officials and citizens wore red federalist ribbons, portraits of him were displayed in churches, and documents opened with death to the savage unitarians. The Mazorca, a paramilitary police, killed and intimidated opponents; thousands fled to Montevideo and Chile, among them Sarmiento, who wrote Facundo against him. He kept the customs revenue of Buenos Aires for the province rather than sharing it, which is why the interior stayed poor. He resisted the Anglo-French blockade of the Paraná in the 1840s, and the defence of national sovereignty at Vuelta de Obligado in 1845 is the basis of his rehabilitation by later nationalists. Justo José de Urquiza, a federalist governor, defeated him at Caseros in February 1852. He fled to England and farmed near Southampton until his death in 1877.

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