Roberto Marcelino Ortiz

Jaime Gerardo Roberto Marcelino María Ortiz (24 September 1886 – 15 July 1942) was President of Argentina from 1938 until his resignation in 1942. He became president in 1938 following the 1937 presidential election, described as being among the most fraudulent in Argentine history. His main management objective was to end fraud. The attempt to normalize the institutions confronted him with his vice president, Ramón Castillo, leader of the conservative sectors of the government coalition. The president and vice president belonged to different political groupings. Ortiz was a radical antipersonnel and Castillo was a conservative in the National Democratic Party. Both were part of the formula of Concordancia, a coalition that had ruled since 1932.

Life Ortiz was born in Buenos Aires on 24 September 1886. As a student at the University of Buenos Aires, he participated in the unsuccessful Argentine Revolution of 1905. In 1909 he graduated from the university and became a lawyer.

He became active in the Radical Civic Union and was elected to the Argentine National Congress in 1920. Beside his support for the coup d'état, he rejected José Félix Uriburu's attempt to create a "corporatist" government (inspired by Mussolini's fascism in Italy), arguing that this model was not working in Europe.

Presidency In the presidential elections of 1937, Ortiz won as the official government candidate. The opposition accused him of participating in fraud, as irregularities were widespread. Ortiz never denied these charges, but once he took office, he tried to make Argentine politics more open and democratic. He also presided over the passage of a law in September 1939 that introduced a maximum eight-hour workday. Soon after becoming president, Ortiz became seriously ill with diabetes and on 3 July 1940, he delegated his powers to Vice President Ramón Castillo. but because of opposition within the army, he did not break relations with the Axis powers.

Honours