Drago, Luis María

Drago, Luis María

(lo͞oēs` märē`ä drä`gō), 1859–1921, Argentine statesman, jurist, and writer on international law. As minister of foreign affairs under Julio A. RocaRoca, Julio Argentino
, 1843–1914, general who became president of Argentina (1880–86, 1898–1904). Minister of war under Nicolas Avellaneda, he crushed (1878–79) the Patagonians, bringing the wars against indigenous peoples to a close and opening the
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, he dispatched (Dec. 29, 1902) a note to the Argentine minister at Washington protesting the forcible coercion of Venezuela by Great Britain, Germany, and Italy (see Venezuela ClaimsVenezuela Claims.
In 1902, due to civil strife and to gross mismanagement during the administration of Cipriano Castro, Venezuelan finances were chaotic. Great Britain, Germany, and Italy were determined to seek redress for unpaid loans and sent a joint naval expedition to the
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). This protest set forth the Drago Doctrine, intended as a corollary of the Monroe Doctrine. Drago, apparently under the erroneous impression that the European nations were merely attempting to collect unpaid bonds, maintained that no public debt should be collected from a sovereign American state by armed force or through the occupation of American territory by a foreign power. The doctrine was not new in principle, though its concept is narrower than that of the earlier Calvo Doctrine (see under Calvo, CarlosCalvo, Carlos
, 1824–1906, Argentine diplomat and historian. He spent much of his life in diplomatic service abroad. He edited a collection of Latin American treaties and did other historical work but was most important as a writer on international law.
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), from which it grew. The Drago Doctrine was discussed at the Pan-American Congress of 1906 and was brought before the Hague Conference of 1907, where a modified form offered by Horace PorterPorter, Horace,
1837–1921, American soldier and diplomat, b. Huntingdon, Pa. In the Civil War he saw varied service, mostly as an ordnance officer, before becoming (1864) aide-de-camp to Gen. U. S. Grant.
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 was approved instead.