Pablo Riccheri
| Pablo Riccheri | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Minister of War | |
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In office July 13, 1900 – October 12, 1904 |
|
| President | Julio Roca |
| Preceded by | Rosendo Fraga |
| Succeeded by | Enrique Godoy |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 8, 1859 San Lorenzo, Santa Fe |
| Died | July 29, 1936 (aged 76) Buenos Aires |
| Nationality |
 Argentina
|
| Spouse(s) | Dolores Murature |
Pablo Riccheri (August 8, 1859 – July 29, 1936) was an Argentine army officer and minister of war during the second administration of president Julio Roca.
Riccheri was born in San Lorenzo, Santa Fe to Catalina Ciufardi and Lazzaro Riccheri, both Italian immigrants from the Region of Liguria. He enrolled at the National War College on a scholarship, and graduated with honors in 1879 as a Second Lieutenant. He subsequently completed higher studies at the Royal Military Academy of Belgium, in Brussels. where he presented a thesis on the defense of Belgium and earned an officer's degree in 1883.
Riccheri was promoted to Captain and returned to Argentina in 1886. The following year, he was transferred to the Argentine Embassy in Berlin as a military attaché. He was named director of the European bureau of the Argentine Armaments Commission in 1890 and of the Technical Commission on Armaments in 1895, in which capacity he purchased a large shipment of new Mauser rifles and cannons for 18 artillery batteries, and had a 400 kilometres (250 mi) rail line to Neuquén built for the Argentine Army. He was named Colonel, and in 1898 returned to Argentina as Director General of the National War Arsenal.
Riccheri married Dolores Murature in 1901; she was the granddaughter of Commodore José Félix Murature, a hero of the Cisplatine War of the 1820s. Their family life was marked by tragedy, however. Their first daughter died within hours of birth and a second daughter at age 11, as a result of which Mrs. Riccheri developed clinical depression.
President Julio Roca subsequently appointed Riccheri Army Chief of Staff, and on July 13, 1900, citing his "intelligent furor and single-minded dedication to our military procurement needs," President Roca named him the nation's War Minister. His tenure was marked by ongoing efforts to modernize the Argentine Armed Forces amid tensions in Argentina-Chile relations resulting from the Beagle and Puna de Atacama disputes. Riccheri reorganized the War Department; restored the Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers (protagonists during the Argentine War of Independence and the Cisplatine War, though inactive since 1826); streamlined the National War College and other instructional institutions, enacting standardized testing; commissioned the establishment of Army bases of Campo de Mayo (Greater Buenos Aires), General Paz (Córdoba), Campo de los Andes (Mendoza), Paracao (Paraná), and General Belgrano (Salta); and divided the Army into twenty (later, seven) geographic regions. He also advanced the landmark Law 4.301 (the Ricchieri Act) of 1901, which mandated compulsory military service for a minimum of one year for able-bodied Argentine men at age 18; conscription (colloquially known in Argentina as la colimba) would remain in force until 1995.
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