Ricardo Balbín
Ricardo Balbín (29 July 1904 – 9 September 1981) was an Argentine lawyer and politician, and one of the most important figures of the centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR), for which he was the presidential nominee four times: in 1951, 1958, and twice in 1973.
Ricardo Balbín
Himself (UCRP)
Oscar Alende (UCRI)
29 July 1904
Buenos Aires, Argentina
9 September 1981 (aged 77)
La Plata, Argentina
People's Radical Civic Union (1957–1972)
Early life and career[edit]
Ricardo Balbín was born to Encarnación Morales Balbín and Cipriano Balbín in the city of Buenos Aires, in 1904. The family moved first to Azul and later to Ayacucho when he was still a child. His mother had to be moved to Spain in 1909 to treat a serious illness.
Balbín enrolled in high school in 1916 at the Colegio San José in La Plata. He began his university studies in medicine in 1921; but he left school shortly afterward due to financial difficulties. Balbín joined the ruling Radical Civic Union (UCR) in 1922, and moved to La Plata, where the student atmosphere gave him the incentive to enroll in the National University of La Plata Law School. He obtained a juris doctor in 1927. He married Indalia Ponzetti in 1928, and they had a daughter and two sons: Lía Elena, Osvaldo and Enrique Balbín. The year he married was also one of active political participation for Balbín, who worked on the presidential campaign that returned Hipólito Yrigoyen to the presidency. During Yrigoyen's second term, Balbín was named District Attorney during the federal intervention in Mendoza Province.
Later life and death[edit]
Perón died on July 1, 1974, and Balbín dedicated a warm eulogy to him. He remained focused on avoiding yet another military coup throughout Mrs. Perón's chaotic presidency; but by February 1976 Balbín desisted, confiding in Army Chief of Staff General Jorge Videla, "If you're planning to stage a coup, do so as soon as possible - expect no applause from us, but no obstacles either."[1] The coup took place on 24 March 1976, bringing about the military government known as the National Reorganization Process. During this dictatorship, Balbín was criticized for not denouncing unprecedented human rights violations taking place amid the Dirty War against both violent and non-violent dissidents. Balbín died in La Plata in September 1981; even though political demonstrations were illegal, a crowd gathered at his funeral to give him a last farewell.
A monument in his honor was unveiled near Congress in 1999 and National Route 1 was named after him in 2004; the expressway connects Buenos Aires with his adopted city, La Plata.
