Juan Manuel de Rosas Biography

Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rosas was an Argentinean dictator, who ruled over Buenos Aires Province and Argentine Confederation in the first half of the nineteenth century. Although he had been nicknamed as the Restorer of the Law he was actually a ruthless autocrat, who did not tolerate opposition. Under him, election became a travesty and judiciary became a passive instrument of his dictatorship. Executions were often carried out just to make an example and to terrorize the common people into submission. Indeed, he hardly targeted the lowly; it were the well-known people who came under the line of his fire. However, it does not mean that he did not love his country. It was only that he tried to do everything in his way. For example, he believed that Argentina, with its vast percentage of illiterates, was not yet ready for democracy and for the good of country elections had to be manipulated. However, he could not hold his reign for long and was forced to flee in the middle of the century. He spent his last days farming his land in United Kingdom.