After successive defeats suffered in the revolutions of 1890 and 1893, and not having achieved free and fair elections, the Radical Civic Union entered a serious crisis, which deepened after 1896 with the suicide of Leandro N. Alem and the death of Aristóbulo del Valle.

In 1897, Hipólito Yrigoyen, profoundly disagreeing with the direction of agreements imposed by Bernardo de Irigoyen, dissolved the Committee of the RCU in the province of Buenos Aires, due to which the radical party practically ceased to exist.

Onto this core - composed of young men, recruited from the middle class, professionals, businessmen, employees, ranchers of the old federal tradition, settlers and laborers from the countryside - was Yrigoyen able to impose discipline and enthusiasm.

On February 4, 1905, in the federal capital (Buenos Aires), Campo de Mayo, Bahía Blanca, Mendoza, Cordoba, and Santa Fe, saw the armed uprising that had been coming, with almost the same flags as in 1890 and 1893.

After the events of the month of February, Quintana went to Congress and said, "Since receiving me, the government has known about the conspiracy that was brewing in the army and therefore directed that incitement to unrest in order to maintain external the political agitations, at the same time invoking the example of their ancestors and the glory of their arms.

The president's coach continued on, and the custody officers arrested the perpetrator, who was a Catalan laborer named Salvador Planas y Virelles, sympathetic anarchist who acted on his own initiative.

Julio Roca's followers were divided, and both Carlos Pellegrini and Roque Sáenz Peña understood the need for deep institutional changes to contain the increasing social and political conflict.