Conservative forces dominated Argentine politics until 1916, when their traditional rivals, the Radicals, led by Hipólito Yrigoyen, won control of the government through the first national elections made at universal male suffrage, due to the 1912 Sáenz Peña Law.
[2] Despite this conservative opposition, the Radical Civic Union (UCR), with their emphasis on fair elections and democratic institutions, opened their doors to Argentina's expanding middle class as well as to social groups previously excluded from power.
[4] Thus, on one hand, the Tragic Week of January 1919, during which the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA, founded in 1901) had called for a general strike after a police shooting, ended up in 700 killed and 4,000 injured.
Social movements thereafter continued in the Forestal British company, where about 600 people (workers and their families) were massacred,[6] and in Patagonia, where Hector Varela headed the military repression, assisted by the Argentine Patriotic League, killing 1,500.
Germany sank two Argentine civilian ships, Monte Protegido on April 4, 1917 and the Toro, but the diplomatic incident ended only with the expulsion of the German ambassador, Karl von Luxburg.
[10] The same year, Yrigoyen was replaced by his rival inside the UCR, Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear, an aristocrat, who defeated Norberto Piñero's Concentración Nacional (conservatives) with 458,457 votes against 200,080.
[11] On the other hand, of the political spectrum, the Italian anarchist Severino Di Giovanni headed a propaganda of the deed campaign in support of Sacco and Vanzetti, as well as directing bombings against Fascist Italy's interests in Argentina.