José Segundo Decoud: Difference between revisions

| term_start1 = 152 AprilMarch 18981899

| term_end1 = 48 JuneMarch 18981899

| successor1 = [[BenjamínVenancio AcevalVíctor (diplomat)|Benjamín AcevalLópez]]

| predecessor1 = José Mateo CollarCaminos

| term_start2 = 2515 NovemberApril 18781898

| term_end2 = 94 JulyJune 18791898

| successor2 = José[[Benjamín BazárasAceval (diplomat)|Benjamín Aceval]]

| predecessor2 = AgustínJosé CañeteMateo Collar

| term_start3 = 1125 JulyNovember 18711878

| term_end3 = 119 NovemberJuly 18711879

| successor3 = DomingoJosé A. OrtizBazáras

| predecessor3 = José[[Agustín Mateo CollarCañete]]

| term_start4term_end4 = 911 JuneNovember 18951871

| term_end4 successor4 = 19[[Domingo JuneAntonio 1900Ortiz]]

| term_start5 = 29 MarchJune 18911895

| term_end5 = 1419 AprilJune 18911900

| successor5 = Benjamín[[Fabio AcevalQueirolo]]

| predecessor5 = Venancio[[Héctor LópezVelázquez Carrillo(physician)|Héctor Velázquez]]

| term_start6 = 292 DecemberMarch 18871891

| term_end6 = 2814 SeptemberApril 18881891

| predecessor6 = AgustínVenancio CañeteVictor López

| term_start7 = 929 JulyDecember 18791887

| term_end7 = 2528 NovemberSeptember 18861888

| predecessor7 = BenjamínAgustín AcevalCañete

| successor7 = Benjamín[[Juan AcevalCrisóstomo Centurión]]

| term_start8 = 179 MayJuly 18711879

| term_end8 = 1125 JulyNovember 18711886

| predecessor8 = [[CarlosBenjamín Loizaga]]Aceval

| successor8 = [[BernardinoBenjamín Caballero]]Aceval

| term_start9term_end9 = 2511 NovemberJuly 18901871

| term_start10term_end10 = 1417 DecemberJuly 18761891

| term_end10 predecessor10 = 11José JulyTomás 1878Sosa

| successor10 = JoséOtoniel González GranadoPeña

* [[Juan Francisco Decoud|Juan Francisco Decoud Berazategui]]

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1909|3|3|18451848|5|14}}

| resting_place = La [[Recoleta Cemetery, AsunciónAsuncion]]

'''José Segundo Decoud Domecq''' (14 May 1848 – 3 March 1909) was a Paraguayan politician, journalist, diplomat and military officer. He is often considered one of the foremost intellectuals of his generation,{{sfn|Warren|Warren|2014|pp= 302-303}}{{sfn|Prado|2022|p= 97-98}} and was also one of the first liberals of the country. Decoud was one of the founders of the long-standing [[Colorado Party (Paraguay)|Colorado Party]], having been its first vice-president and having written its founding instrument.{{sfn|Warren|Warren|2014|pp= 73-77}}

Segundo Decoud was born in [[Asunción]] on 14 May 1848 to [[Juan Francisco Decoud]] and Maria Luisa Concepción Domecq during [[Carlos Antonio López]]'s rule. The Decouds were historically strong opponents to the López regime, and in the early 1850s the execution of his uncles Teodoro and Gregorio due to treason forced his family into exile.

Months before the war was over, and with the chief Brazilian diplomat [[José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco|Silva Paranhos]]' approval, the new Paraguayan politics began to form. On 26 June 1869, the ''Club del Pueblo'' was created with Segundo as a secretary. The club was a liberal political organization mostly composed by former membermembers of the Paraguayan Legion and other dissenters to the López regime.{{sfn|Decoud|1925|p= 123}} Already being an important figure in postwar Asunción due to his name and ideas, Decoud was named one of the members of the constitutional assembly that created the [[Constitution of Paraguay#Constitution of 1870|1870 Constitution]],<ref>{{cite web|title=José Segundo Decoud|url=https://www.anr.org.py/el-partido/lideres-del-partido/jose-segundo-decoud/|website=anr.org.py|publisher= ANR - Partido Colorado|language=es|access-date=31 October 2022|archive-date=16 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516180427/https://www.anr.org.py/el-partido/lideres-del-partido/jose-segundo-decoud/|url-status=live}}</ref> and in 1871 was made minister of Foreign Affairs for [[Cirilo Antonio Rivarola|Cirilo Rivarola]]'s government, having previously been Rivarola's secretary while the latter served as [[triumvirate|triumvir]].{{sfn|Aquino|1985|p= 48}} Afterwards, as Paraguayan politics took a violent turn,{{sfn|Prado|2022|pp=41-45}} Decoud withdrew temporarily from them to focus on his career as a journalist, and returned only in 1878 as minister for the [[Candido Bareiro]] government. The 1880s were the years in which he was the most active and had the greatest impact upon Paraguayan politics.

One of his most important feats was achieved in 1885, when he went to [[London]] as an extraordinary envoy and managed to renegotiate Paraguay’s debt there from little short of 3 million pounds sterling to 850 thousand, though the country had to cede 8,700 km² of land to the bondholders in exchange.{{sfn|Prado|2022|p= 45}} As a diplomat, he also represented Paraguay as ambassador to the [[Empire of Brazil]] and to the Uruguayan government. Besides this, he was one of the founders, alongside ex-president [[Bernardino Caballero]] and others, of the Colorado Party in 1887, to which he contributed many years as its main ideologue.{{sfn|Warren|Warren|2014|p= 73}} The foundation of the country’s first university, the [[Universidad Nacional de Asunción]], was in good part motivated by him, as well.{{sfn|Warren|Warren|2014|pp= 299-300}}<ref name="auto11">{{Cite web |url=https://una.py/images/stories/Investigacion/revistas/vol2.pdf |title=UNA 120 años de historia - Volumen II |access-date=2020-04-04 |archive-date=2021-05-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519032809/https://una.py/images/stories/Investigacion/revistas/vol2.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

José Segundo Decoud began his career in press soon after his return to Paraguay. Together with his brother Héctor Decoud, he started to work as editor and writer for the newspaper ''[[La Regeneración (Paraguay)|La Regeneración]]'' in 1869, which lasted until September 1870. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s he contributed to other newspapers such as ''La Reforma'' and ''La Opinión Pública''.{{sfn|Calzada|1913|p= 61}} His impactful texts were frequently republished in Argentine newspapers. Decoud also translated [[Joseph Alden]]'s ''The Science of Government in Connection with American Institutions'' to Spanish,<ref name="biblioteca paraguaya">{{cite book|title=Catálogo de la Biblioteca Paraguaya "Solano López"|date=1906|publisher=H. Kraus|isbn=9780274437306|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b90vAAAAYAAJ|access-date=2022-10-30}}</ref> and wrote books and articles such as ''Recuerdos históricos'', ''La amistad,'' ''Cuestiones Políticas y Económicas'', edited in 1876, and ''El patriotismo'', published in 1905.{{sfn|Calzada|1913|pp= 62-63}} When he died, in 1909, it is said that he had been preparing for some years to write a book that would discuss Paraguayan history from the colonial era to his time.{{sfn|Calzada|1913|p= 61}}

Disillusioned with the direction of post-war Paraguayan politics, Decoud committed suicide in 1909, leaving a letter to his wife, in which he stated:{{Sfn|Doratioto|2005|p=84}}

{{Blockquote|text=The citizens of classical antiquity preferred death to a sterile life cut short by the low passions of men. I have thus conceived the idea of ​​anan immolation, as a personal sacrifice before the sacred area of ​​thethe Homeland. Hopefully this holocaust closes the list of those who, having given their whole lives, also succumb offering their own death! Let the dead bury their dead!}}

His suicide letter to his wife can be read in {{illm|[[Francisco Doratioto|pt|lt=Francisco Doratioto's}}]] ''Una relación compleja, Paraguay y Brasil 1889-1954''.

* {{cite journal|last=Doratioto|first=Francisco|year=2005|title=Guerra e regeneração: três estudos sobre o Paraguai|volume=9|issue=2|journal=Diálogos|publisher=Universidade Católica de Brasília|doi=10.4025/dialogos.v9i2.157 |url=https://periodicos.uem.br/ojs/index.php/Dialogos/article/view/41398/21714|language=pt|doi-access=free}}

[[Category:PeoplePoliticians from Asunción]]

[[Category:ParaguayanPresidents judgesof the Supreme Court of Paraguay]]

[[Category:Finance Ministers of finance of Paraguay]]