Santiago Derqui

Santiago Derqui

Term of Office:	March 5 1860— November 5 1861
Predecessor:	Justo José de Urquiza
Successor:	Juan E. Pedernera
Vice-president:	Juan E. Pedernera
Date of Birth:	June 21 1809
Place of Birth:	Córdoba
Date of Death:	November 5 1867
Place of Death:	Corrientes
Profession:	Lawyer
Political Party:	Federalist

Santiago Rafael Luis Manuel José María Derqui Rodríguez (born in Córdoba on June 21 1809 - November 5 1867) was president of Argentina from March 5 1860 to November 5 1861. He is featured on the 10 Australes note, which is now obsolete.

Derqui studied at the Córdoba National University receiving a degree in law in 1831. In the university he was professor of law, then of philosophy, and finally vice-dean. In 1845 he married Modesta Garcia de Cossio with whom he had 3 boy and 3 girls.

He was first assistant and then Ministry of the government of Corrientes Province José María Paz. Justo José de Urquiza named him Business administrator and sent him to Paraguay on a foreign business mission. He became deputy for the Córdoba Province. In 1854 Urquiza named him head of the Ministry of Justice, Cult and Public Instruction, were he worked the 6 years of Urquiza's mandate, pushing forward the still emerging nation.

After Urquiza's mandate, Derqui assumed as constitutional president. Being from Córdoba and not from Buenos Aires, it was expected that under his rule, the continuous revolts of the provincial goverments against the federal one would end.

Derqui accepted the revised national constitution with the changes that would favour Buenos Aires, and named the country República Argentina. This and other unfavoured policies towards the rest of the country set a general discontent in the provinces that led to the battle of Pavón. Unable to maintain the authority, Derqui resigned and left to Montevideo.

In ruin, Bartolomé Mitre helped him to go back to his wife's Corrientes, were he would die few years later.