Mitre, BartolomÉ

(born June 26, 1821, Buenos Aires—died Jan. 18, 1906, Buenos Aires) President of Argentina (1862–68).

An exiled critic of the dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas, he helped defeat Rosas by leading Uruguayan forces against him, then led a successful campaign to make Buenos Aires the capital of a united Argentina. Once elected president, he suppressed the rural caudillos, extended mail and telegraph service, organized public finances, established new courts, and founded the newspaper La Nación (1870) and the Argentine Academy of History. &Seealso; Justo José de Urquiza.