Melo, Leopoldo (1869–1951)

Leopoldo Melo (b. 15 November 1869; d. 6 February 1951), Argentine politician, lawyer, and university professor. Melo was born in Diamante, in the province of Entre Ríos, and graduated from law school in 1891. An expert in maritime and business law, he taught these subjects for over thirty years at the University of Buenos Aires. He served as a national deputy to Congress from Entre Ríos from 1914 to 1916, and as a senator from 1917 to 1930. In the 1928 elections he was the presidential candidate of the conservative wing of the Radical Civic Union (UCR), but he was defeated by Hipólito Yrigoyen, the candidate of the Personalist faction. Melo served as minister of the interior (the political arm of the executive power in Argentina) under the conservative president Agustín P. Justo from 1932 to 1936. He presided over the Argentine delegations to the Inter-American conferences in Panama (1939) and Havana (1940), and wrote extensively on juridical matters. Melo died in Pinamar, in the province of Buenos Aires.

See alsoArgentina, Political Parties: Radical Party (UCR) .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lacoste, Pablo. La Unión Cívica Radical en Mendoza y en la Argentina, 1890–1946: Aportes para el estudio de la inestabilidad política en la Argentina. Mendoza: Ediciones Culturales de Mendoza, 1994.

Persello, Ana Virginia. El partido radical: Gobierno y oposición, 1916–1943. Buenos Aires: Siglo veintiuno editores Argentina, 2004.

                                         Celso RodrÍguez