born May 20, 1780, Buenos Aires, Arg.
died Sept. 2, 1845, Cádiz, Spain
First president of the Argentine republic (1826–27).
Active in the 1810 movement for independence from Spain, he came to dominate the ruling revolutionary triumvirate in 1811. He disbanded the Spanish courts, abolished censorship, and ended the slave trade. Elected president of the United Provinces in 1826, he continued to advance reforms but was unable to extricate his country from a fruitless war with Brazil and was constantly embroiled with provincial caudillo s. Unable to win acceptance for a centralist constitution, he resigned. His cultural initiatives, including the founding of the University of Buenos Aires, were among his greatest achievements. Most of his later years were spent in exile.