2023-09-02 09:00:00
He September 2, 1845passed away Bernardino Rivadavia, triumvir, diplomat, minister and first president of the Argentines. We should say lawyer, although he never obtained the enabling title and, nevertheless, he practiced as such, to the complaint and regret of Mariano Moreno.
He died far from his homeland, to which he swore never to return. Paradoxically, died in CadizSpain, a country from which he assisted in making us independent, although he did not do so with much conviction, since when his compatriots declared independence, Bernardino was walking in deals with the ministers of Fernando Vll to continue under the Spanish aegis or a prince of that nationality.
He spent seven years in Europe, where he rubbed shoulders with figures such as the philosopher Jeremy Bentham and established relationships with bankers such as those from the Hullet house and the Baring Brothers. These links were useful to him when the thorny issue of the Famatina mines arose.
He returned to the country following the conflictive year 20 and, thanks to his prestige, he became the factotum of the government of Martín Rodríguez.
It was up to Bernardino to manage the loan with the aforementioned Baring Brothers, a loan with which the long and sad history of Argentina’s foreign debt began. That money destined to modernize the country had a “dubious destination” (to use a benevolent expression) and by 1827 the debt services might not be paid…
Bernardino Rivadavia, the “antediluvian toad”
As a minister, he tried to emulate what he had seen in Europe, creating what the governor Juan Gregorio de Las Heras called “the happy experience”. After years of economic disorder, he favored the progress of the institutions by creating the University of Buenos Aires, the Sociedad de Beneficencia and the La Recoleta cemetery, among other undertakings.
Following the secular example of the Old World, took away from the Church many of its prerogatives and sources of income, which created discomfort among the prelates, although some like Agüero supported the “Mulato” measures. This was one of the nicknames his political enemies called him, which accumulated as his folly became apparent. The most prominent of his opponents was Fray Castañeda, a flamboyant priest who baptized Rivadavia as “the antediluvian toad”.
as minister created the Stock Exchange –which only existed on paper– and also the Discount Bank, an institution dominated by English merchants, although the province had contributed 60% of its funds.
After the wars of independence, almost all the South American nations requested loans from English banks, who thus achieved their mission: taking over the trade of the former Spanish colonies. The Creoles put their blood and the profits were taken by the British. This credit boom It ended in 1825, when the Bank of England raised its rates, generating a stock market crisis that resulted in a debt default in all Latin American nations.
In 1821, Rivadavia sanctioned the Universal Suffrage Lawthe first democratic attempt in Latin America, although it excluded women, low-income people, State debtors, etc., etc.
To pacify the country, he issued the Law of Oblivion that allowed the return of Saavedra, Dorrego, Alvear and Sarratea, among many others, signed the same day that San Martín entered Lima in triumph.
And since we mentioned it, the relationship with the Liberator was tense from the beginning, when in 1812 he participated in a coup that ended with the Triumvirate made up of Rivadavia. Throughout the years more differences were added, especially when Rivadavia refused to support the Campaign of Peru as San Martín claimed.
When Don José returned to the country, Rivadavia wanted to judge him for not having acted during the invasion of López and Ramírez in the year 20. San Martín finally returned to Buenos Aires to bury his “wife and friend” and had an interview with Rivadavia, to whom he gave the bell of the Lima inquisition. Why did don Bernardino behave so kindly? Because he had reached the ears of him that Estanislao López was willing to destroy Buenos Aires in case they touched San Martín.
The general Las Heras proclaimed the capitalization of Buenos Aires, as Rivadavia had proposed. Next, he deposed the then governor and with the support of Congress he was consecrated president of the Argentine Republic.
One of the first measures he took was to modify the Ley de Emphyteusis that had been dictated in the time of Martín Rodríguez, by which 95,000 km2 had been distributed among 583 enfiteutas. Rivadavia had integrated a company that used more than 200,000 hectares.
The Constitution of 1826, unitary and oligarchic, was rejected by governors like Bustos and Quiroga. They were regarding to rebel when the war broke out once morest the Brazilian empire in order to help the Easterners in their attempt to rejoin Argentina. The uprising lost strength and a contingent might be formed to fight once morest the empire.
Rivadavia had integrated a company that used more than 200,000 hectares.
Although the war was won on the battlefield, the unfortunate management of diplomacy blighted the efforts of the army and navy. Despite having given Minister García precise instructions to reach peace at all costs, Rivadavia denied having issued those orders so that García would bear the blame alone. Added to this shameful peace was Rivadavia’s conflictive actions that favored his business on the thorny issue of the Famatina mines, denounced by Dorrego.
Without having reached two years of government, Rivadavia resigned from the first magistracy, leaving an empty chair that had been very uncomfortable for him.
From the shadows, rivadavia hatched the Decembrist revolution of 1828 which it put an end to the Dorrego government and, months later, to his life.
At Cristina’s request, Manuel Dorrego was promoted post mortem
After Lavalle’s management failed, Bernardino lived for a time in Paris, where he “diverted his sadness” by translating works by Tocqueville, and a curious treatise on silkworm breeding.
In 1834, short of resources, he returned to Buenos Aires, where he stayed for a few hours since that same day Governor Viamonte demanded that he leave the city. Curiously, the voice of Facundo Quiroga rose up in defense of his old adversary.
Rivadavia settled in Uruguay where he dedicated himself to agricultural production, but in 1836, in the midst of the conflict between Rivera and Oribe, he was arrested and confined in Santa Catalina where he remained until the end of 1838.
After this ordeal, he went to Rio de Janeiro where his wife, Juana del Pino, daughter of the former viceroy, died, loyal companion who had followed her through glory and adversity. Don Bernardino returned to Europe and he spent the last years of his life in his house in Cádiz dwhere he lived with his adoptive nieces Clara and Gertrudis Michelena, who did not spare him hardships when they found out that they had been excluded from his inheritance. She died of a cerebrovascular accident on September 2, 1845. Before she died, she left in writing the will of that his remains “never return to Buenos Aires and even less to Montevideo.”
However, followers like Salvador Maria del Carril y Bartholomew Miter they wanted to rescue the figure of Rivadavia as that of a unitary martyr. The Benevolent Society that he had created during his presidency urged the return of his remains despite his express prohibition. In 1857, They arrived in Buenos Aires, where they were received by an exultant crowd and the laudatory speeches of Mármol, Sarmiento and Mitre.
Rivadavia was consecrated as “the greatest civil man of Argentines”. This grandiose statement did not withstand the ravages of time or historical facts, and subsequent generations devalued the feat of the proclaimed hero.
Pointing out the outstanding aspects of his management and highlighting the dark episodes of his actions deserve to be evoked in order to form the historical awareness that the country needs, beyond the fanaticism and exaggerations that the founding narrative of nations sometimes requires.
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