Ortiz, Roberto Maria

Ortiz was born in Buenos Aires in a family of immigrants from Spain. Father, Fermin Manuel Ortiz, was originally from Salha , Bizkaia ; mother, Josef Lizard, originally from Yancy , Navarra . As a student at the University of Buenos Aires, Ortiz participated in the failed 1905 revolution. In 1909 he graduated from university and became a lawyer. In 1912, he married Maria Luisa Iribarne (1887-1940), they had three children: Maria Angelica (1914), Roberto Fermin (1915) and Jorge Luis (1918).

Ortiz was an activist in the Civil Radical Union and was elected to the Argentine National Congress in 1920. In the Civil Radical Union, he was an opponent of Ippolito Yrigoyen in connection with the authoritarian positions of the latter. In 1925, Ortiz resigned from the Civil Radical Union to establish, together with other radicals, the Civil Radical Antisubjective Union . In the years 1925-1928 he served as Minister of Public Works under President Marcelo Alvear . Ortiz actively supported the coup in September 1930, directed against President Hippolytus Yrigoyen. In 1931, he helped shape the Concordance : a coalition of the National Democratic Party, the Civil Radical Anti-Subjective Union, and the Independent Socialist Party. This alliance was ruling in the country until 1943, and the period of its power in Argentina was called the “inglorious decade. Ortiz served as Minister of Finance from 1935 to 1937 in the government of General Agustin Justo .

In the 1937 presidential election, he was an official government candidate and won, although the opposition accused him of participating in fraud, as abuses were widespread. Ortiz never denied these allegations, but as soon as he took office, he tried to make Argentine politics more open and truly democratic. This activity earned him widespread support from the population. Ortiz was a supporter of the anti-Hitler coalition , but because of opposition in the army, he did not break relations with the Axis countries .

Soon after assuming the presidency of Argentina, Ortiz became seriously ill with diabetes and in August 1940 transferred his powers to Vice President Ramon Casillo . Ortiz resigned on June 27, 1942 a few weeks before his death. The new president was Ramon Castillo.

• Argentina in World War II

• Biography (Spanish)
• Presidency (Spanish)