José Pedro Montero (1 August 1878 – 7 June 1927) was President of Paraguay from 1919 to 1920. Early life Montero was born in Asunción, in a neighborhood called Villa Aurelia, southeast of the Recoleta, on 1 August 1878. He married Andrea Campos Cervera, and studied in the Colegio Nacional de la Capital (Capital's National School) with his friend Pastor Ibáñez. He finished school in 1896, then moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he studied medicine and became a pediatrician. He graduated in 1904 from the Faculty of Medicine of the UBA University of Buenos Aires, that same year he presented a thesis about "The proof of the chloride". Medical career Back in Paraguay, he became director of the Hospital de Clínicas, and a substitute professor of Pediatrics. In 1901, he was appointed Paraguay's delegate in the Pan-American Congress in Buenos Aires. In 1906, he served as Paraguay's delegate to the fourth Medical Congress in Montevideo, Uruguay. From 1905 to 1908 he received a scholarship from the Faculty of Medicine and taught at the same institution. After the events of July 2, 1908, he became active in politics. He later became a member of the Educational Superior Council and Director of Public Assistance. He founded the maternity services, drugstore, chemical, bacteriological, and urgency services. In 1910, he obtained a position as a member of the Parliament, but after Manuel Gondra was overthrown he left the country. In 1911, after the renouncing of President Gondra, Montero went to Argentina and was an active member of the movement organized by the Partido Liberal Radical (Radical Liberal Party) in 1912. Later in the same year, he was part of the Revolutionary Committee of Pilar. He died on 7 June 1927 and by municipal disposition No. 1766 from June 23 of the same year, the old avenue of the hospital was named after him. Political career He was Minister of Finance of Paraguay from 1915 to 1916. He assumed the first magistracy, in his character of Vice President, after the death of Manuel Franco, a position that he held from June 6, 1919 until August 1920. After World War II, the government of Montero was affected the economical crisis that had expanded through the entire region. This crisis affected mostly the middle and lower classes. His cabinet was composed of Eusebio Ayala in Foreign Relations, Luis Alberto Riart in the Department of the Interior,