“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

Corrientes. This effectively nullified López Jordán’s military triumph. The dissident
federalist paper, La Nación Argentina, accused Urquiza of “leaving his friend hanging
[colgados].” The article ominously warned that “his allies in Entre Ríos would no longer
accompany him in this politics of muddied waters.” 37 López Jordán announced his
resignation from his command in disgust. Urquiza was no longer able to restrain the two
warring sides without loosing the complete faith of the radical members of his own party.
Little hope remained for his project of negotiating a solution to the relationship between his
province and the national government. Rather, López Jordán made it clear that their
relationship would have to be determined through force.
Throughout 1869, López Jordán and his allies laid the groundwork for political
revolution in Entre Ríos. In mid-April of 1870, Urquiza’s efforts to reconcile federalist
autonomy with national destinies came to a violent end. On the night of 11 April 1870, a
group of some thirty men entered Urquiza’s residence shouting “viva López Jordán, death to
the traitor Urquiza.” 38 After a few brief moments of confusion, the men located Urquiza
and shot him four or five times as he attempted to arm himself in his study. The leader of
Entre Ríos for the past thirty years was dead. A similar uprising in Concordia resulted in the
murder of two of Urquiza’s sons, Waldino and Justo Carmelo. With the uprising under way,
López Jordán issued a proclamation to local officials advising them that he would maintain
“order and the law until the constitutional authorities in the province could assemble
themselves.” 39
The dramatic decline in Urquiza’s personal reputation had certainly facilitated his
killing. Even at the time of his death, however, the entrerriano leader remained a lynchpin in
37 Ibid., 151.
38 Bosch, Urquiza y Su Tiempo, 713.
39 Ibid.
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