Thursday, May 21, 2015

José Pablo Feinmann on Juan Galo Lavalle, Argentina's first coup leader

This is Chapter 4 of the third season of Argentine philosopher José Pablo Feinmann's public TV series Filosofía aquí y ahora, "T3 CAP 4.Cartas a Lavalle," Encuentro n/d YouTube 02/07/2013.



In this installment, he discusses Juan Galo Lavalle (1797–1841), to whom belongs the dubious distinction of being the leader of the first coup in Argentina. In doing so, he executed Manuel Dorrego (1787–1828), the elected governor of Buenos Aires Province.

Dorrego represented the federalist trend in 19th century Argentina. Lavalle represented the centralist "Unitarian" trend, not to be confused with the Unitarian Christian denomination.

Feinmann contrasts Lavalle's behavior in staging a coup and executing the elected government with that of José de San Martín (1778–1850), the great Argentine hero of South American independence from Spain, who "hizo la guerra contra los españoles y nunca intervino con el Ejército Libertador en las luchas intestinas entre federales y unitarios." ("made war against the Spanish and never intervened with the Army of Liberation in the internal struggles between Federalists and Unitarians.")

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