Pueyrredón, Honorio (1876–1945)

Honorio Pueyrredón (b. 9 July 1876; d. 23 September 1945), Argentine lawyer, university professor, political leader, and diplomat. Born into a prominent Argentine landholding family, Pueyrredón studied and taught law at the University of Buenos Aires before winning a political appointment in 1916. In recognition of Pueyrredón's strong support for the recently formed Unión Cívica Radical, newly elected president Hipólito Yrigoyen named him agriculture minister

Pueyrredón served as foreign minister between 1917 and 1922, during which time he led his government's diplomatic efforts to chart a leadership role for Argentina in Latin America. Under Pueyrredón's stewardship, Argentina remained neutral after 1916 despite mounting U.S. pressures on Yrigoyen to enter the war. In addition, the foreign minister tried to organize an association of Latin American neutrals, which directly challenged U.S. political influence in the region.

In domestic politics Pueyrredón represented the interests of cattle raisers and other elites within the multiclass-based Unión Cívica. When the movement split in 1922, Pueyrredón sided with the more conservative antipersonalists and was named ambassador to the United States in the administration of President Marcelo T. de Alvear. During the 1920s Pueyrredón abandoned his antagonism toward Washington. He encouraged the growth of U.S. commercial interests in Argentina and offered to assist Washington in negotiating a favorable peace in Nicaragua.

In 1928, however, Pueyrredón did an about-face. As Argentine delegation chief to the Sixth Pan-American Conference, he gained international fame by contravening his government's instructions and publicly attacking U.S. intervention in Latin America. As a result, Pueyrredón was recalled to Buenos Aires. He remained active in politics and private legal practice during the 1930s.

See alsoArgentina: The Twentieth Century; Argentina, Political Parties: Radical Party (UCR).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Luis Alén Lascano, Yrigoyen, Sandino, y el panamericanismo (1986).

Joseph S. Tulchin, Argentina and the United States: A Conflicted Relationship (1990).

David Sheinin, Argentina and the United States at the Sixth Pan-American Conference (Havana 1928) (1991).

Additional Bibliography

Lanús, Juan Archibaldo. Aquel apogeo: Política internacional argentina, 1910–1939. Buenos Aires: Emecé Editores, 2001.

                                        David M. K. Sheinin