Felipe Echazú

José Felipe de Echazu (born in Tarija, Alto Perú, May 1790 - August 1875), lawyer and politician from Alto Peru, who participated in the resolution of the question of Tarija, whereby this city and its zone of influence ended up joining present-day Bolivia, separating itself from the United Provinces of the River Plate. Biography

He was the son of Dr. Mariano Antonio de Echazú, one of the organizers of Independence in his hometown. He studied in Chuquisaca, where he tried to become a priest, but finally he decided to study the law, and he received his lawyer in 1813.

He supported the activities of his father and, like him, settled in Salta. There he supported the governments of Gorriti and Arenales. He helped Arenales to form the army with which he attempted the campaign to Upper Peru of 1825, which did not result in the dissolution of the royalist regime after the battle of Ayacucho. He supported the efforts of Arenales to rejoin Tarija to the province of Salta, to which he had been a member since 1807, and he appointed him lieutenant governor of the Province of Tarija. He was removed from his post by order of Antonio Jose de Sucre, who intended to incorporate Tarija to Upper Peru in a definitive way.

He was elected deputy by Tarija to the Congress of Buenos Aires in January of 1826, reason why it had no paper some in the failure of the efforts to avoid the incorporation of Tarija to Bolivia. Participated in the discussions on the unitary constitution of that year, and on the War of Brazil. In November he succeeded in having the congress sanction the declaration of Tarija as an Argentine province, separate from Salta. The refusal of Salta to accept this decision contributed to the loss of that region for the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata.

In April of 1827, definitively failed the management by Tarija, traveled to its city with license of the Congress, but with the intention of not rejoining it. For many years he was a judge and prosecutor in Bolivia, and became president of the Supreme Court of that country until the date of his death.

He died in Tarija in August 1875. Bibliography

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