Amézaga, Juan José de (1881–1956)

Juan José de Amézaga (b. 28 January 1881; d. 21 August 1956), president of Uruguay (1943–1947). Amézaga was born in Montevideo. After receiving his law degree in 1905, he was a professor of philosophy, director of the Labor Office, twice a representative for the department of Durazno, minister of industry, ambassador to Argentina (1916), adviser on secondary education, president of the State Insurance Bank (1918), and attorney for the Central Railroad of Uruguay. Amézaga was elected president as Uruguay emerged from a decade of institutional changes initiated in 1933 by President Gabriel Terra's coup d'état and culminating with the coup of his successor, General Alfredo Baldomir, in 1942. Greatly influenced by international trends, Baldomir guaranteed free elections and a restoration of democracy. From that new electoral process, the Colorado Party and Amézaga emerged triumphant by promoting Batllismo, the ideology based on the political, economic, and social ideas of the former president, José Batlle y Ordóñez. With its exports of meat and wool, Uruguay prospered economically during World War II. Amézaga's election guaranteed that Uruguay would be aligned with the Allied cause during the war.

Amézaga was the author of numerous legal texts, including Enseñanza del derecho civil (1908) and Un capítulo de historia internacional (1942).

See alsoUruguay, Political Parties: Colorado Party .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arturo Scarone, Uruguayos contemporáneos (1937).

Benjamin Nahum et al., Crisis política y recuperación económica, 1930–1950 (1984).

Juan Carlos Pedemonte, Los presidentes del Uruguay (1984).

                            JosÉ de Torres Wilson