Ramón Lorenzo Falcón

Ramón Lorenzo Falcón (; August 30, 1855 – November 14, 1909) was an Argentine Army officer, politician, and Chief of the Argentine Federal Police.

Life and times Early life and career in Army Falcón was born in Buenos Aires. He enrolled at the National Military College and graduated with honors in 1873. He served as aide de camp to President Domingo Sarmiento and was enlisted in the Conquest of the Desert campaign. He co-founded the Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata football club in 1887; CGE would become the oldest association football team in continuous existence in the Americas.

He retired from the Army in 1898 with the rank of Colonel, and was elected to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies for Buenos Aires on the ruling National Autonomist Party ticket. Amid growing civil unrest, President José Figueroa Alcorta appointed Falcón as Chief of the Argentine Federal Police upon taking office in 1906. Figueroa Alcorta believed that, led by a military officer, the Federal Police would be better able to react to and control protests. Accordingly, Falcón established the Cadets' Training Academy, streamlined the force's administration, and had new uniforms designed.

Falcón became known for personally supervising repressive action against protests, and his sabre-wielding officers, as "cossacks."

The carriage that took Falcón after being destroyed by the Simón Radowitzky's bomb. Falcón ordered the dispersal of the crowd of an estimated 60,000 people who had gathered for the funeral cortège for those killed. The 4,000 gathered at Chacarita Cemetery for their burial were likewise dispersed, and the coffins themselves were seized by police. He later ordered La Vanguardia (published by the Socialist Party of Argentina) and La Protesta Humana (published by FORA) closed, and had their printing presses destroyed. FORA and the Socialist UGT were granted an audience with the President of the Argentine Senate, Benito Villanueva, and obtained the commutation of lengthy prison sentences for those arrested (which per municipal statutes carried a term of triple that of similar offenses not committed in the context of a protest). They demanded that Falcón resign, though he refused to do so; members of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange led a rally in his support as President Figueroa Alcorta commended him for his efforts.

The Chief of Police and his executive secretary, Juan Lartigau, attended the funeral of the Director of the National Penitentiary of Buenos Aires, Antonio Ballvé, on November 14, 1909. As their carriage returned from the service, however, a homemade bomb was thrown therein by a Ukrainian Argentine anarchist militant, Simón Radowitzky.