José Pedro Montero

Infobox_President
name=José Pedro Montero


nationality=Paraguayan
order= 27th President of Paraguay
term_start= June 6 1919
term_end= August 15 1920
predecessor= Manuel Franco
successor= Eusebio Ayala
birth_date= August 1, 1878
birth_place= Asunción, Paraguay
death_date = June 7, 1927
death_place = Asunción
spouse=
party=
vicepresident=

José Pedro Montero was a President of Paraguay that governed between 1919 and 1920.

His life

He was born in Asunción, in a neighborhood called Villa Aurelia, southeast from the Recoleta, on August 1st, 1878. He was married with Andrea Campos Cervera. He studied in the Colegio Nacional de la Capital (Capital’s National School) with his friend Pastor Ibáñez.

He finished school in 1896 and then moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he studied medicine and became a pediatrician MD. He graduated in 1904 and that same year he presented a thesis about “The proof of the chloride” and like that he started his professional career. He was an eloquent speaker and a talented writer.

His job as a doctor

Back in Paraguay, he was Director of the Hospital de Clínicas and the Maternity too, also a substitute professor of Pediatric. In 1901 he was appointed Paraguay’s delegate in the Pan-American Congress that was celebrated in Buenos Aires. In 1906 he was official delegate from Paraguay to the 4th Medical Congress in Montevideo, Uruguay. From 1905 to 1908 he received a scholarship from the Faculty of Medicine and was professor of the same institution. After that he went back to the active politic, after the events of July 2, 1908. He later became member of the Educational Superior Council and Director of the Public Assistant and founded the maternity services, drugstore, chemicals and bacteriological and the urgency services. In 1910 he started his journey in politics by obtaining a position as a member of the Parliament, but after Gondra was overthrown, he left the country.

In 1911, after the renounce of the President Manuel Gondra, Montero went to Argentina and was an active member of the movement organized by the Partido Liberal Radical (Radical Liberal Party) in 1912. Later in the same year, he was part of the Revolutionary Committee of Pilar. He died on June 7, 1927 and by municipal disposition No. 1766 from June 23 of the same year, the old avenue of the hospital was named after him.

His government

He assumed the first magistracy, in his character of Vice-President, after the dead of Manuel Franco, since June 6, 1919 until August 1920. When finished the World War II, the government of Montero was attacked by the economical crisis that had expanded through the entire region. This crisis affected mostly to the middle and lower classes. It came to the point where the salaries didn’t were paid during three months.

His cabinet was composed by Eusebio Ayala in Foreign Relations, Luis Alberto Riart in the Department of the Interior, Manuel Peña in the Treasury Department, Félix Paiva in the Justice and Culture Department, and Commander Adolfo Chirife in War and Navy.

During his government some forts were founded in Chaco, it was acquired the Caballero State, the municipal constitutional law was modified, the colony Nueva Colombia was founded, the project for postal charges to United States was approved, Paraguay was invited to participate in the International Rural Congress of Peoria (Illinois, USA). The Ministry of Public Works started to promote the acquisitions of small properties in the entire territory of the country.

It was also made the division of pieces of land and the colonization of the fiscal lands, there were processed more than five thousand files related to buying of farming lands and were drawn up more 154 titles of property. In 1919 more than 100.000 pesos were used for building schools in the interior of the country, the agreement about the arbitrage with Uruguay and Eladio Velázquez was appointed member of the Supreme Court.

In April of 1920 the Feminist Center of Paraguay was founded, several schools were also created and the Fortin Dorado in Chaco is settled. On August 15 of the same year, Montero passed the Presidency to Manuel Gondra. Also that year, the commercial agreement with Japan was singed, the law of trial and dismissal of magistrates; sanitary zones in Asunción, Villarica and Caacupé and was created the regulations for the Army.

Some designations were made in the intellectual and artistic field. The people who received this honor were: Narciso R. Colmán, Juan F. Bazán, Arturo Alsina, Juan Sorazábal, Rufo Galeano, José Concepción Ortiz and Eudoro Acosta Flores. Here is important to mention the hiring of the Brazilian Doctor Edgar Roquette Pinto and the retiring of Juan E. O’Leary in the Colegio Nacional and the Escuela Normal.

One of the biggest concerns of Montero was the problem with the land. In 1919 were founded Nueva Colombia, in Altos, with 6,122 hectares and Santiago, in General Delgado, with 1909 hectares. In 1920, Curupaity was founded in Barrero Grande, with a total of 1,111 hectares.

The education suffered some inconvenient and on July 25, 1919 started the execution of the plan for the educational reform in the schools of the capital and Villarrica, the process lasted four years. On September 22 of the same year the plan was also adopted for high school education.

Political Career

He was Representative for the capital and was in that position until 1901. On August 7, 1908 he signed the manifest of the “Radicals” assembly. He was Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior during the government of Eduardo Schaerer. He occupied the position until he joined Manuel Franco, as companion for the upcoming presidential elections for the period 1916-1920.