Ovidio Lagos was an Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 journalist, businessman and politician.

Lagos was born in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

 in a country torn apart by internal strife. Federalists

Federales (Argentina)

Federales was the name under which the supporters of federalism in Argentina were known, opposing the Unitarios that claimed a centralised government of Buenos Aires Province, with no participation of the other provinces of the custom taxes benefits of the Buenos Aires port...

, who supported the view of Argentina as a confederation of self-ruled provincial states, fought Unitarians

Unitarian Party

Unitarianists or Unitarians were the proponents of the concept of a Unitary state in Buenos Aires during the civil wars which shortly followed the Declaration of Independence of Argentina in 1816. They were opposed to the Argentine Federalists, who wanted a federation of independent provinces...

, who wanted a national government centralized in and controlled from Buenos Aires.

Lagos worked as a clerk and then as a typographist in a state printing press, under the government of Juan Manuel de Rosas

Juan Manuel de Rosas

Juan Manuel de Rosas , was an argentine militar and politician, who was elected governor of the province of Buenos Aires in 1829 to 1835, and then of the Argentine Confederation from 1835 until 1852...

. Though nominally federalist, Rosas worked mainly to secure power for himself (and by extension, for Buenos Aires). Lagos, a supporter of the federalist cause, got into trouble and was forced to flee to Paraná, Entre Ríos

Entre Ríos Province

Entre Ríos is a northeastern province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires , Corrientes and Santa Fe , and Uruguay in the east....

. Rosas was ousted by a former ally, Justo José de Urquiza

Justo José de Urquiza

Justo José de Urquiza y García was an Argentine general and politician. He was president of the Argentine Confederation from 1854 to 1860.He was governor of Entre Ríos during the government of Juan Manuel de Rosas, governor of Buenos Aires with powers delegated from the other provinces...

, in 1852.

Lagos came back to Buenos Aires and advocated the re-joining of the city with the Argentine Confederation

Argentine Confederation

The Argentine Confederation is one of the official names of Argentina, according to the Argentine Constitution, Article 35...

. He then became an editor and columnist in a newspaper, and wrote supporting the proposal, launched by Buenos Aires Deputy Manuel Quintana

Manuel Quintana

Manuel Pedro Quintana y Sáenz de Gaona was the President of Argentina from 12 October 1904 to 12 March 1906. He died in office....

 on 1 July 1867, to move the seat of the federal authorities to the city of Rosario

Rosario

Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....

, 300 km away from Buenos Aires, on the Paraná River

Paraná River

The Paraná River is a river in south Central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina for some . It is second in length only to the Amazon River among South American rivers. The name Paraná is an abbreviation of the phrase "para rehe onáva", which comes from the Tupi language...

. President Urquiza, interviewed by Lagos, sponsored the idea and provided funding for a newspaper to advocate this cause in Rosario. On November 15 of that year the first edition of the La Capital

La Capital

La Capital is a daily Spanish-language newspaper edited and published in Rosario, province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It was founded in 1867 , and it is the oldest Argentine newspaper still in circulation, which has gained it the title of Decano de la Prensa Argentina...

newspaper was published.

Lagos defended his political convictions vehemently, which caused La Capital to be shut down by the authorities on several occasions. On 13 May 1877 Lagos was arrested for ten days.

In 1887 Lagos was elected as a national representative (diputado) for the province of Santa Fe

Santa Fe Province

The Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...

. He died in 1891, a few days before his 66th birthday.

Legacy

In Rosario, now a major urban center, Lagos is acknowledged as a champion of the cause of federalism and against the concentration of political power in Buenos Aires. One of the main avenues in the city carries Lagos's name, and a monument is dedicated to him.

La Capital, which he founded, is the oldest newspaper in the country that is still being published. The Lagos family controlled it for 130 years, until 1997, when the share majority was acquired by media group Grupo Uno

Grupo Uno

Grupo Uno was a group of organizers from an East Havana district cultural center. They brainstormed the radical idea of a Cuban rap festival in 1995. One of the principal organizers, Rodolfo Rensoli, contributed largely to the event by anticipating the need for social and governmental support...

 (controlled by businessman Daniel Vila and former Menem

Carlos Menem

Carlos Saúl Menem is an Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. He is currently an Argentine National Senator for La Rioja Province.-Early life:...

-administration Interior Minister José Luis Manzano

Jose Luis Manzano

José Luis Manzano is an Argentine medical doctor, politician and businessman. Born in the Mendoza’s district of Tupungato, he studied medicine in Universidad Nacional de Cuyo...

).

Source

• Short biography from La Capital
  La Capital
  La Capital is a daily Spanish-language newspaper edited and published in Rosario, province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It was founded in 1867 , and it is the oldest Argentine newspaper still in circulation, which has gained it the title of Decano de la Prensa Argentina...
  
  newspaper, online edition, commemorating the 180th anniversary of the birth of its founder.