Benito Medero (December 17, 1922 – February 14, 2007) was a
Uruguayan
Uruguayans () are people identified with the country of Uruguay, through citizenship or descent. Uruguay is home to people of different ethnic origins. As a result, many Uruguayans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizen ...
politician.
Background
He was a 5th generation cattle
rancher in
Flores
Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Administratively, it forms the largest island in the East Nusa Tenggara Province. The area is 14,250 km2. Including Komodo and Rinca islands ...
.
He served as the department's intendant and as a council member. In 1967 he was elected for the
Uruguayan Parliament.
Agricultural activities
In the 1950s he joined Alberto Gallinal, Carlos Frick and Carlos Pereira Iraola in the creation of the Sociedad de Praderas, an honorary association whose objective was to improve the productivity of Uruguay's natural grassland.
In the 1960s with the support of the World Bank he created and directed the Plan Agropecuario with the objective of improving the productivity of Uruguay's natural pastures using New Zealand technology. The program was very successful until 1972 when the UK joined the EEC and stopped buying Uruguayan beef, which caused prices to fall and the cost of new technology become unprofitable.
From 1962 to 1964 he was the president of the Uruguayan Rural Association.
Minister of Agriculture under President Bordaberry
In 1972 he was designated
Minister of Agriculture
An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...
for the President
Juan María Bordaberry
Juan María Bordaberry Arocena (; 17 June 1928 – 17 July 2011), was an Uruguayan politician and cattle rancher who served as the 34th President of Uruguay from 1972 until his resignation in 1976 and the 1st President of the Civic-Military Dic ...
, himself a rancher.
Death and legacy
Medero died in 2007; he received tribute as State Minister. His remains are buried at
Trinidad Cemetery.
Obituario de Benito Medero
He is remembered mainly as a technocratic politician representing enduring agricultural interests.
See also
* Politics of Uruguay
The politics of Uruguay abide by a presidential system, presidential Representative democracy, representative democratic republic, under which the president of Uruguay is both the head of state and the head of government, as well as a multiform ...
References
1922 births
2007 deaths
Intendants of Flores Department
Ministers of livestock, agriculture, and fisheries of Uruguay
Uruguayan cattlemen
Uruguayan people of Spanish descent
National Party (Uruguay) politicians
Burials at Trinidad Cemetery
People from Flores Department
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