Juan Bautista Paz

Juan Bautista Paz (1772–1844) was an Argentinian jurist and lawyer, a member of the National Congress of 1819 and the General Conference of 1824, and several times cabinet minister and deputy governor of Tucumán Province during the first half of the nineteenth century.

Juan Bautista Paz was born in San Miguel de Tucumán in 1772, the son of a merchant from Santiago del Estero.

He studied law at the University of Charcas and gained a doctorate in jurisprudence shortly before 1800, when he enrolled in the Audiencia of Buenos Aires.

[citation needed] When the council heard about the May Revolution in Buenos Aires on June 26, 1810, Juan Bautista Paz cast the deciding vote for the town to back the patriots' side.

Aráoz's successor, Feliciano de la Mota Botello, appointed him fiscal agent, a position equivalent to that of finance minister of the province.

During the following years, in which the province of Tucumán was shaken by wars between supporters of Bernabé Araoz and Javier López, he held important political positions with both sides.

When the Unitarian League was defeated in 1831, the new governor and Federal warlord, Alejandro Heredia, appointed Paz a minister in the government.

After the crime that killed Heredia, the government appointed Colonel Bernabé Piedrabuena, an officer of weak character who was quickly surrounded by young staff, such as Marco Avellaneda, who did not want an old functionary such as Paz.