Argentina President. He served as President of Argentina from 1910 to 1914. In 1874, during his last year in law school, the Mitrista Revolution exploded and Sáenz Peña enlisted in the 2nd Regiment. When the war was over he was appointed Second Commander of the National Guard but asked to be relieved. He finished law school and in 1876 was elected Representative to the Buenos Aires Legislature. He excelled in this position and, in spite of his youth, was appointed its President. He opposed the politics of President Nicolás Avellaneda (1874-1880), so in 1878 he resigned his charge and temporarily abandoned his political career. In 1879, when Chile went to war against Perú and Bolivia, he left Buenos Aires to join the battle. As battalion chief in the battle of Tarapacá he was successful in making the Chileans retreat. Shortly thereafter the garrison of Arica was besieged by the Chileans, 1,200 men surrounded by 6,000. The Chileans offered an honorable surrender but Col. Bolognesi declined the offer. They were defeated and Roque became a prisoner. He was taken to Chile where he faced a war trial but, thanks to the intervention of the Argentine government, he was released after 3 months of captivity. He returned to Buenos Aires and was named Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs. He resigned shortly thereafter, however, and went to Europe where he lived for 2 years. In 1887 he was named Argentina's Minister to Uruguay. He represented Argentina in the 1889 Pan-American Congress in Washington and in 1890 he was named Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the middle of a political and economical crisis that shook the country, the path to the Presidency was opened to him. His personality was warmly received, especially by the youth and the Province of Buenos Aires. To destroy his candidacy, Former Presidents Bartolomé Mitre (1862-1868) and Julio Argentino Roca (1898-1904) backed Sáenz Peña's father, Dr. Luis Sáenz Peña. Rather than appear antagonistic towards his father, the younger Sáenz Peña declined the candidacy and his father was elected President in 1892. He was appointed Regimental Chief of the National Guard and in June became attached to the Senate of the Province of Buenos Aires, but resigned both shortly thereafter to retire from public life. He lived in Entre Ríos and returned to Buenos Aires in 1895 where he opened a prestigious law office. On the occasion of Cuba’s war of Independence against Spain and when the United States openly appeared willing to interfere, Sáenz Peña, in a public conference, legally cemented his favorable position of no intervention. In 1905, in recognition of his valiant actions during the War of the Pacific, he was officially invited by Perú to unveil the monument to Col. Bolognesi. In 1906 he was sent as an official envoy to the wedding of King Alfonso XIII of Spain. Upon his return to Buenos Aires in 1907, Sáenz Peña was appointed to head the diplomatic relations in Italy and Switzerland as Ambassador. As soon as he arrived in Rome he received instructions to represent the country in the Second International Peace Conference in La Haya. His diplomatic mission was from April 1907 to September 1910. He was in Italy when he received notice of his proclamation as Presidential Candidate. A Conservative Autonomist, he was elected on October 12, 1910. His administration was significant for electoral reform and it had three central aspects: the mandatory vote, a national instrument to nationalize the children of immigrants; the secret vote to guarantee voter freedom; and the use of military registration to ensure the correction of voter’s lists. Many conservatives covertly dedicated themselves to obstruct these reforms, but they were approved by the Senate on February 10, 1912 and are known as the Sáenz Peña Law. Sáenz Peña died in office and did not live to see the full results of his reforms.