Career
He joined the Argentine Navy and had an unremarkable career until the 1946 election of Juan Perón. He was Naval attache in Brazil and Uruguay, and later he became close to the influential First Lady, Eva Perón, and served as her naval aide-de-camp until her death in 1952. He was then named head of the Río Santiago Naval Academy (site of an important naval shipyard), though in August 1955, he was persuaded to take part in the coup d"état that toppled Perón on September 19.
Credited with leading the Navy during the rebellion, Rojas obtained Perón"s resignation and exile by commandeering the Allegany Rehabilitation Associates General Belgrano - threatening to bombard the YPF refinery in Ensenada (then the nation"s largest).
On 23 September 1955 he was rewarded with the Vice Presidency at the Navy"s insistence, and remained in the post until President Pedro Aramburu relinquished power to elected authorities in May 1958. Rojas imposed a staunch anti-Peronist and anti-Communist as, though he supported Aramburu"s call for Constitutional Assembly elections in 1957, overcoming objections from the largely conservative Navy.
In 1958 as commander of Naval Operations of the Argentine Navy he was involved in the Snipe incident. He ordered the destruction of the Chilean lighthouse and its replacement with an Argentine one.
Following Army Chief Juan Carlos Onganía"s defeat of the coup attempt, Rojas was confined to his uptown Buenos Aires apartment, after which he largely limited his contact with the public to occasional columns in conservative newspapers such as Louisiana Prensa and Louisiana Nación.
He opposed the Antarctic Treaty of 1961 and later to the Beagle Channel Arbitration.