Manuel Taboada
Manuel Baldomero Taboada was an Argentine politician, general, governor of Santiago del Estero for more than 20 years, and an ally of President Bartolomé Mitre.
Early life and family
Origins
The Taboada family hailed from a noble landowning ancestry originating in Lugo, Navarre and, Castile. Of note are members of the Spanish nobility —such as the counts Taboada y Castro— who fought for the Spanish Grandees, while individuals such as Francisco Gil de Taboada were known for commanding colonial expeditions and administration in Peru.Manuel was the son of Águeda Ibarra Paz y Figueroa, younger sister of brigadier general Juan Felipe Ibarra, who founded Santiago del Estero Province and governed it for 30 years, until his death. His father was Leandro Taboada, who served in the Patricios Santiagueños Battalion commanded by Juan Francisco Borges. On his father's side, Manuel was the nephew of Tomás Juan de Taboada, lieutenant governor of Santiago del Estero in 1815.
His older brother was Antonino Taboada, an officer who fought under Juan Lavalle against Juan Manuel de Rosas, thereafter becoming a general. Among his eight younger brothers, of note, were Gaspar Taboada, a businessman, and Felipe Taboada, the first painter and sculptor of importance in Santiago del Estero.
Childhood and youth
Little is known of Manuel's childhood, except that he travelled with his brother Antonino to Buenos Aires in the 1830s and returned in the 1840s. From an early age, he stood out as a political man among his brothers.Around 1840 he was appointed governor Absalón Ibarra's adjutant and, from 1843, his private secretary. While he did not befriend Ibarra's inner circle, he managed to surround himself with a group of like-minded young people who yearned for change.
Around ten years later, in 1850, Manuel Taboada distanced himself from Ibarra due to a disagreement over the use of certain funds sent to him by Juan Manuel de Rosas. He was, nevertheless, considered to be the most suitable leader to succeed Ibarra as province governor.
On the same day that Ibarra died, 15 July 1851, Mauro Carranza, Manuel's cousin, was elected interim governor. Carranza, in an effort to organise his government, called for elections to reinstall the legislative body in the province, which had not existed for the last fifteen years. Taboada, meanwhile, set about organising the elections, leading to many of the candidates on the ballot being his relatives and friends.
Elections were held on 26 September 1851, with the results favouring Taboada and his party significantly. However, the interim governor declared the elections null and void, arguing that fraud had been committed, that laws had been violated, and that Taboada had trampled on the freedom of suffrage. Carranza convoked elections anew and, in order to ensure his victory, removed the those candidates loyal to the Taboada family. Thusly, Mauro Carranza was elected governor, with only 38 votes out of the 200 citizens who were eligible.
Political career
First Term
Power struggle
Manuel and his brother, Antonino, gathered a montonera of gauchos in the interior of the province, with which they laid siege to the provincial capital. Confronted with this threat, Carranza delegated leadership to Pío Achával and left for Tucumán Province to seek military support. Manuel managed to occupy the capital on 5 October 1851, convening the legislature on the same day. The representatives elected according to the results annulled by Carranza were sworn in, and they appointed Manuel Toboada provincial governor.Meanwhile, general Celedonio Gutiérrez answered Carranza's call for military aid, and assembled forces to reinstate him as governor. There were two small battles against the raised provincial army of Antonino Taboada, both ending in defeat for Gutiérrez's forces: on 10 December 1851, Antonino defeated Manuel Ibarra's forces in the Battle of Tronco Rabón; then in the Battle of Gramilla, he defeated Pío Achaval's militia on 17 January 1852.
Support for Urquiza
During the confrontation between Juan Manuel de Rosas and general Justo José de Urquiza, Manuel initially showed his support for the former. A few days after taking office as governor, he sent a letter to Rosas, in which he explained the details of the revolt against Carranza, the causes of the uprising and the endorsement of Rosas as national leader. At the same time, he appointed Eduardo Lahitte as his representative in Buenos Aires.However, when the news of the Battle of Caseros and Rosas' fall arrived on 3 February 1852, it caused a radical change in the political orientation of Taboada's government. Manuel and Antonino Taboada pronounced themselves in favour of Urquiza and on 13 March, consequently with the change of political orientation, a law was passed by which all of ex-governor Absalón Ibarra's assets were confiscated. The decision, rather than having been motivated by the economic significance of the assets, was driven by the fact that the heirs to them were allies of Carranza. In addition, Ibarra was accused of having arbitrarily administered the province's funds and of failing to render accounts. Ibarra's former home, located in what is now Avellaneda Street, became the Government Building, while his assets were placed at the disposal of the provincial executive.
On 31 May 1852 Manuel travelled to San Nicolás de los Arroyos, where he signed the San Nicolás Agreement, which laid the foundations for organising the institutions of the republic and sanctioning the National Constitution of 1853. Taboada was the youngest governor present.
Civil war in the north
On his return, Manuel Taboada gave his support to the unitarians of Tucumán, who had overthrown the pro-Rosas governor Celedonio Gutiérrez. However, despite Antonino Taboada's assistance, Gutiérrez managed to regain power in January 1853, ousting Manuel Alejandro Espinosa, who went into exile in Santiago del Estero. Antonino, together with Espinosa and the priest José María del Campo, reorganised his forces, but was defeated by Gutiérrez's troops at the Battle of Arroyo del Rey on 21 February 1853. Espinosa was killed in battle.Despite the defeat, Manuel Taboada refused to recognise Gutiérrez's authority as governor of Tucumán Province. The provisional head of the Argentine Confederation, Justo José de Urquiza, initially refrained from taking sides. However, in seeking to consolidate his influence over the provinces, he considered pacifying the north a priority. To that end, he sent communications to the northern provinces urging them to recognise Gutiérrez and refrain from military action. The governors of the provinces of Catamarca and Jujuy officially complied with the directive and the governor of Salta, for his part, partially complied by withdrawing his troops from the Tucumán frontier. Only Manuel Taboada maintained a belligerent stance, arguing that Gutiérrez's presence was a threat to order in Santiago del Estero, as he tried to convince Urquiza of the legitimacy of his position.
Urquiza appointed Miguel Rueda and colonel Manuel Puch to mediate in the provinces of Córdoba, Santiago del Estero, Salta and Tucumán, with the aim of restoring peace in the region. The mission failed due to Gutiérrez's refusal to meet Manuel Taboada without prior recognition from his administration. Other attempts at mediation, promoted by the administrations of Salta and Jujuy, also failed. Even a new initiative, promoted by the governor of Santiago del Estero and involving general Rudecindo Alvarado, was unsuccessful.
Faced with this diplomatic stalemate, in June 1853, forces from Santiago del Estero invaded the province of Tucumán, in open violation of the ratified 1853 Constitution. In response, in early October, Gutiérrez counterattacked by invading Santiago del Estero through the Río Hondo Department, advancing in two columns: one commanded by Manuel Ibarra and the other by José S. Coronel. After defeating Taboada's forces, Gutiérrez occupied the provincial capital with a contingent of three thousand men. The Taboada forces retreated south, and Manuel delegated command to Pedro P. Olaechea, who ruled interim from 4 October 1853 to March 1854.
The climactic confrontation took place at the Battle of Tacanitas on 21 October. During the battle, the leader of the Tucumán forces, Tomás Lobo, challenged Manuel Taboada to a duel. The latter accepted, and in the ensuing melee he struck Lobo in the head with a sabre blow. With this victory, Gutiérrez's vanguard was defeated, and he was forced to abandon Santiago del Estero in the face of the Taboada's renewed invasion of his province. Simultaneously, José María del Campo organised an uprising in Tucumán and assumed de facto governorship. When Gutiérrez returned to the Tucumán capital, Campo withdrew to Monteros, where he agreed to military aid from Santiago del Estero.
In order to mediate the conflict, the national government appointed a commission composed of Presbyter Benjamin Lavaysse and colonel Marcos Paz. However, the two commissioners' unitarian affiliation generated mistrust, and the negotiations failed. As a result, Gutiérrez was declared a usurper and a rebel. Finally, on 25 December 1853, the Taboada forces defeated Gutiérrez at the Battle of Los Laureles. Gutiérrez fled to Bolivia.
From then on, Manuel Taboada emerged as the leader of the Liberal Party —successor to the Unitarian Party– in northern Argentina. Although he managed to establish alliances in Salta and other provinces, these did not achieve the same level of success.
On 25 November 1853, Manuel Taboada was elected governor by the provincial legislature for a new term.
Second Term
Education
On July 1, 1854, Taboada informed the Minister of Public Instruction of the Confederation, Santiago Derqui, that the province had only the following schools: that of Fray Grande in the Dominican convent, that of Mrs. Inés Urrejola and two more in Loreto.In order to improve this situation, several schools were subsidized during his mandate, such as that of Loreto, Sumamao and Villa La Punta. In 1856, he made Urrejola's school official and granted the teacher a monthly governmental stipend. Additionally, this policy of educational improvement in the province was accompanied by the creation of an elementary school in El Bracho, along with other projects to create schools in Salavina, Choya and Capital departments. The latter was planned according to Amédée Jacques' project presented to the legislature, although it could not be carried out due to lack of funds. During this period, military expenditures outpaced those in other areas of government.