Francisco Javier López (1794 – 24 January 1836) was an Argentine soldier, a leader in the Unitarian Party and several times Governor of Tucumán Province.
[2] During the following months, the province entered a period of violent anarchy, in which the two Aráoz's and Javier López in turned seized the governorship.
In March of that year the governor of Salta, Juan Antonio Álvarez de Arenales, handed Bernabé Aráoz back to López's force, who executed him.
[2] López eliminated competition from Nicolás Laguna, the most important federal civilian leader of the province, and also a relative of Diego Araoz.
López reorganized the legislature, dissolved the council, sent deputies to the General Congress of 1824 (one of them was Colonel Alejandro Heredia), and sent several young people to study in Buenos Aires, including Juan Bautista Alberdi and Marcos Paz.
Suspicious of what would happen in his absence, and also wanting to avenge the death of his relative Bernabé Araoz, in late November Lamadrid took power in a daring surprise attack and the Legislature appointed him governor.
[4] López immediately declared his support for the revolution led by Juan Lavalle, who had overthrown the government of Manuel Dorrego and started a civil war that spread throughout the country.
His province prepared for civil war and joined the Unitarian League of Interior, led by José María Paz from Córdoba.
Then he joined José María Paz's army in Córdoba, and fought under his command in the Battle of la Tablada de Tolomosa.
López invaded Catamarca again and returned the Unitarians to power, and from there attacked La Rioja Province, briefly occupying the capital when it was evacuated by the caudillo Facundo Quiroga.
With the troops he could muster, and with the right wing of his army under Javier Lopez, Lamadrid was defeated by Facundo Quiroga at the Battle of La Ciudadela on 4 November 1831.
[citation needed] On 22 June 1834 General José Jerónimo Helguera, Javier López, and Angel Lopez launched an attempted Unitarian revolution in Tucumán to overthrow the Federalist Heredia.