Norberto Quirno Costa

Norberto Camilo Quirno Costa (July 18, 1844 – March 2, 1915) was an Argentine lawyer, politician, and diplomat.

Life and times Quirno Costa was born in Buenos Aires to Fernanda Costa and Gregorio Quirno. He received a juris doctor at the University of Buenos Aires, and married Alcira Albarracín Pacheco, with whom he had four children.

He formed part of a commission on the reform of the Buenos Aires Province Constitution in 1871, and was elected to Congress in 1878 for the newly formed National Autonomist Party. The election of that party's nominee, Miguel Juárez Celman, to the presidency in 1886 resulted in his appointment as Foreign Minister, during which he pursued regional international law agreements and negotiated a treaty with Chile to help settle the Puna de Atacama dispute, in which Argentine claims over Tarija, Bolivia were dropped for a greater share of the Puna de Atacama region (prized for its copper deposits).

Quirno Costa returned briefly to government as Interior Minister (Home Secretary) to President José Figueroa Alcorta in 1906, but retired shortly afterward. He died in San Fernando, Buenos Aires, in 1915.