Argüello, Leonardo (1875–1947)
Argüello, Leonardo (1875–1947)
Leonardo Argüello (b. 1875; d. 15 December 1947), Nicaraguan physician, writer, and politician. Born in León, the center of Nicaraguan liberalism, Leonardo Argüello participated in the revolutionary movement of 1911–1912. For his efforts Argüello was made a deputy in and the president of the Nicaraguan Congress. In 1925, Argüello was named minister of public instruction, a position in which he distinguished himself by attempting to broaden education to include the rural population and by allocating more money for schools and libraries. During the 1930s and 1940s, Argüello occupied himself with his writing but was brought from academic life back to politics in February 1947, when Anastasio Somoza García arranged to have Argüello succeed him as president of the nation. Argüello, although already over seventy years old, did not prove to be the puppet that Somoza had anticipated, rather, he began to increase the participation of anti-Somocistas in the government. Three months into his term, Argüello was removed from office by a May 1947 coup led by Somoza's National Guard and forced into exile.
See alsoNicaragua .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sara Barquero, Gobernantes de Nicaragua (1937).
Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr., Central America: A Nation Divided (1985).
Karen Racine