Luis Irrazábal

The Colonel Luis Irrazábal Barboza was born in Encarnación, in Itapúa Department, Paraguay, on August 8, 1891 and died on March 16, 1958 in Asunción, capital of Paraguay.

He went to elementary school in Encarnación and to high school in Asunción.

On April 1, 1913, at the age of 22, he joined the National Army and from the first moment he remained true to his duty, forces from which Irrazábal was part of.

In the peace that followed after the revolution, Irrazábal was sent to continue his studies in Chile. He came back to the country with a gold medal, the first one given to a foreign officer.

Later, he was sent to the garrison in Paraguarí, where he dedicated to the creation of the cavalry regiment No. 1 “Valois Rivarola”. On February 10, 1926 he was designated to command it.

He was also, the creator of the equitation school and he worried for the intellectual and technical formation of his subordinates.

He also created the Polo club in Paraguarí and the festivities in the near cities were famous with the shows of cavalry he directed.

Being Commandant of the 3rd Branch of the Army, the Colonel Luis Irrazábal was, according to the Coronel Alfredo Ramos, a subaltern in the Chaco War, “one of this people who was born to be leader”.

“The command obeyed with convincement of the superiority of moral or intellect, searching with it the conscientious subordination, is the kind of power that is rarely found”. Much has been said about the Colonel Luis Irrazábal. It is known of his severity and his efforts to be true to his calling of service to his country, as well as his characteristic as a true friend and comrade of the men at his command. It is proverbial the effort he put into caring for his subordinates, being them officers or members of the troop, to make the bearable the hard conditions in the front of the battle. Those characteristics were respected and valued by his subalterns.

In 1928, his unit was sent to cover the area of Bahía Negra when the tension with Bolivia was about to unleash war between the two countries.

Coronel Irrazábal was sent to Belgium in a mission to prosecute the studies of Estado Mayor when the things were calmer, thanks to diplomatic help until July 31, 1932, the day that Bolivian forces took over Fortín Boquerón, which became a casus belli for Paraguay.

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Wikipedia