Núñez, Ignacio

Ignacio Núñez (1792 - 1846) was an Argentine politician, journalist, and historian. In 1806 he joined the military to repel British invaders of the Río de la Plata; still in service in 1809 he fought against the attempted coup of Martín de Álzaga. He was a supporter of the Buenos Aires May Revolution in 1810, but afterwards was expelled from the army due to the First Junta's factionalism. He left for the Banda Oriental (Uruguay) in 1811, where he would participate in the siege of royalist-held Montevideo that year. He returned to Buenos Aires and entered politics, holding an array of bureaucratic positions, but turmoil would send him to take refuge in Montevideo. In 1817 he returned. He participated in the drafting of the abortive 1819 constitution. The 1820s would see him develop as a journalist in support of the minister and future president of Argentina Bernardino Rivadavia; in turn, the minister appointed him chief of staff. He edited several newspapers in support of the government and Rivadavia's party. In 1825 he accompanied Rivadavia to London, thereafter being appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom. During this time he published his 1825 Noticias históricas, geográficas y estadísticas del Río de la Plata, an effort to encourage European recognition of Buenos Aires and gain support against Brazil in the Cisplatine War then underway. He would return to Buenos Aires to become Rivadavia's Minister of the Interior, a post he would retain in successive regimes. From his position in Buenos Aires he lent support to the Uruguayan revolution in 1837, for which he was arrested by the governor of Buenos Aires Juan Manuel de Rosas. His refusal to support the federalists at this point would lead to his political downfall. He died in 1846.