Manuel Vicente Maza

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Manuel Vicente Maza (Born in 1779 in Buenos Aires - died June 27, 1839) was an Argentine lawyer and federal politician.

Even though Maza was born in Argentina, he finished his university studies in Law at the Universidad de Santiago in Chile.

As the independence movement from Spain grew in South America, Maza was taken prisoner in Lima, by that time the centre of the Viceroyalty of Peru, and later spent time in reclusion in Buenos Aires, released in 1815. That year he started his political activity as head of the Civil Commission of Justice of Buenos Aires, bringing about the justice administration regulation named after him. In 1816 he served as mayor at the Buenos Aires Cabildo. In the following years he developed a friendship and political relationship with Juan Manuel de Rosas.

During the 1820s Maza became widely involved in political activity. He was sent to exile for the first time in 1823 because of his participation in the uprising against Martín Rodríguez, and then again in 1829 to Bahía Blanca for rising up against Juan Lavalle.

When Rosas returned to power, Maza assumed an important role in Rosas' government. At the meeting with José María Paz in Córdoba, Maza accompanied Rosas, when they suffered an assassination attempt.

With Rosas gone in 1832, Maza was named Chief Minister by Juan Ramón Balcarce, but a year later he took part in the movement that demanded Balcarce's resignation. He also took part in the following brief administration of Juan José Viamonte.

In 1834, and after several potential candidates refused to take the government of the Buenos Aires Province, Maza, as president of the legislature, was designated interim governor. In February 1835 he sent Facundo Quiroga as mediator in the conflict between the governors of the provinces of Salta and Tucumán. As Quiroga was assassinated on his way back to Buenos Aires, Maza was forced to resign on March 7; Rosas once again became governor on April 13.

Maza went back to the legislature in spite of the growing confrontations with Rosas that started during Maza's term in the government. He was also designated as judge in the trial to the Reinafé brothers, accused of Quiroga's assassination.

In June 1839 Maza's son, coronel Ramón Maza, was taken prisoner, suspected of a conspiracy against Rosas. Manuel Vicente Maza was assassinated on June 27 by a group of men armed with knives who surprised him in his office, presumed to be while Maza was writing a letter to Rosas, begging for his son's life. Hours after Manuel Vicente Maza's assassination, his son Ramón was executed in his cell under Rosas' orders. Ramon's mother, Manuel Vicente's wife, committed suicided short after.

Manuel Vicente Maza's assassination is often considered the first of a series of crimes by La Mazorca, in an attempt to eliminate Rosas' potential enemies.