Yrigoyen

Hipólito Vicente Ramón Yrigoyen (1852–1933) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who led the Radical Civic Union (Unión Cívica Radical, UCR) and served as president of Argentina in two terms, from 1916 to 1922 and from 1928 to 1930.

Born in Buenos Aires on October 12, 1852, Yrigoyen studied law at the University of Buenos Aires and built a political career within the UCR, a reformist party founded by Leandro N. Alem.

With the passage of the Sáenz Peña Law in 1912, which established secret ballots and universal male suffrage, the UCR won a landmark electoral victory and Yrigoyen became president in 1916, marking a turning point in Argentine democracy.

During his first presidency, Yrigoyen pursued policies aimed at expanding participation of the middle and working classes, promoted social welfare initiatives, and undertook public works, while trying to curb the political power of entrenched elites.

His second term faced economic difficulties of the late 1920s and early 1930s culminating in a military coup in 1930 that ousted him and led to his exile.

Yrigoyen died on August 3, 1933, in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris.

His leadership helped solidify the UCR as a major political force and is viewed as a pivotal, though contested, phase in Argentina's democratic development.