He was born on Febtuary 26, 1876 in Concepción del Uruguay, Entre Ríos Province. His father, also named Agustín Pedro Justo, had been governor of Corrientes Province and was soon a national deputy. He was active in politics, and soon after his son was born he moved with his family to Buenos Aires. His mother Otilia Rolón, came from a traditional Corrientes family.
When he was 11 Justo went to the Colegio Militar de la Nación (National Military College). As a cadet, and joined with various other students and participated in the Revolución del Parque, taking the weapons off the guards to add to the column of the revolutionaries. Arrested and later given amnesty, he graduated with the rank of ensign.
Without abandoning his military career, he studied engineering at the University of Buenos Aires. He graduated in 1892 as a sublieutenant
After graduation he served in the Colegio as a mathematics professor (1904-1915) and as director (1915-1922), rising to the rank of colonel. As President Marcelo Alvear's war minister (1922-1928), he completely reorganized and reequipped the army, thereby earning lasting favor with politically active officers.
The 1929 Depression soon led to military revolts, and Justo joined former military associates in overthrowing the aged president, Hipólito Irigoyen, in 1930. Gen. José Félix Uriburu served as provisional president until 1932, when conservatives elected Justo to that office. During the worsening economic crisis of 1933, Justo reacted to a radical conspiracy by arresting Irigoyen for 2 months. Local election frauds and violence aggravated the tense political situation, and by 1935 radicals controlled the Chamber of Deputies.
An honest and vigorous executive, Justo fought the Depression with remedial economic legislation and a public works program. These measures slightly improved the economy but did not satisfy radical opponents or increase his popularity.
In international affairs Justo's capable foreign minister, Carlos Saavedra Lamas, helped to end the Chaco War between Peru and Bolivia. A trade agreement with Great Britain guaranteed Argentine beef a market in return for concessions to British investors. With a world war threatening, Justo reactivated Argentine participation in the League of Nations, and Buenos Aires hosted the 1936 Pan American Conference, which Franklin D. Roosevelt attended in an effort to promote hemispheric solidarity against aggressor nations.
Before Justo quietly relinquished the presidency in 1938, his son's death in an airplane accident aroused some public sympathy. After touring Europe, Justo reentered politics. When the European war broke out in 1939, he supported the Allies and offered his personal services to Brazil after that country declared war on the Axis in 1942. He was considered a serious presidential candidate for the coming elections, when he died suddenly in Buenos Aires on January 11, 1943.
Agustin Pedro Justo was an Argentine general and president who instituted vigorous anti-depression measures in the 1930s and favored the democracies during World War II.
Justo took part in the coup of 1930, becoming president two years later thanks to widespread electoral fraud. His presidency was part of the period known as the Infamous Decade, which lasted from 1930 until 1943. He established the country's central bank and introduced a nationwide income tax.
Throughout his life he was respected as an intellectual and bibliophile.
On December 1, 1900, he married Ana Encarnación Bernal Harris (1878-1942) - daughter of General Liborio Bernal and Ana Petronila Mercedes Harris
They had seven children. One of them was the Trotskyist political theorist Liborio Justo (1902-2003).
(1841 - November 26 , 1896 )
She came from a traditional Correntina family.
(1878-1942)
(February 6, 1902 - August 10, 2003)
President of Argentina
