Rodolfo Irazusta

Rodolfo Irazusta (5 June 1897 – 1967) was an Argentine writer and politician who was one of the leading lights of the nationalist movement of the 1920s and 1930s. He collaborated closely with his younger brother Julio Irazusta throughout his career.

Right-wing politics Irazusta was born close to the Rincón del Cura area of Gualeguaychú, Entre Ríos into a family noted for its support of radical politics. Irazusta first came to prominence through his association with the journal La Nueva Republica (LNR), of which he became editor soon after its establishment. The aim of LNR was to take the ruling classes away from the prevailing liberalism of the time to more counterrevolutionary, Maurrasian ideals. LNR endorsed corporatism and represented a move away from the traditionalism that had tended to be the hallmark of right wing critics of the system in Argentina to a new, hard-line nationalism. Irazusta was particularly noted as a harsh critic of democracy and he wrote that as a concept it was not in the Constitution and that it led to disorder. Further he denounced it as being anti-Catholic and thus incompatible with the central role that he felt the Catholic Church should hold in Argentina.

As representatives of the semi-fascist right Irazusta and Carulla approached General José Félix Uriburu in 1927 to ask him to lead a coup against the presidency of Hipólito Yrigoyen but he declined. Ultimately Uriburu did lead a coup in 1930 after his retirement from the army and the Irazustas enjoyed high profiles during his government. Indeed they were part of an intellectual movement along with the likes of Carulla, Ernesto Palacio and Bruno Jacovella who wrote in favour of a corporatist, Maurrasian system and so became the ideologues of the Uriburu regime.

Irazusta brothers The Irazustas continued to write prolifically, contributing widely to LNR as well as to the journal Voz del Pueblo which was pro-Nazi in outlook. From 1931 they worked together closely on the journal Acción Republicana and in this developed a strong nativist line in which they argued against foreign economic involvement in Argentina and the liberalism that they believed this engendered. It also played a pivotal role in the development of Argentine claims to the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands by suggesting that taking the Falkland Islands was one of the ways in which the UK had exploited Argentina.

Later years Following the emergence of Juan Perón as President the brothers became involved in the Partido Libertador. The group was initially cautiously pro-Perón but shifted their opinion to one of opposition, accusing Peronism of embracing socialism at the expense of nationalism. Irazusta's 1956 work, Perón y la crisis argentina, was a diatribe against Perón, accusing him of breaking with Argentine political traditions by following a pro-British policy. With Julio he established another political party, the Republican Union, in 1955 but this made little headway, with Julio retiring from politics soon after its formation. The party was wound up in 1957 and Irazusta largely disappeared from public life. He died in 1967.