Baltasar Brum Rodríguez, GCTE (18 June 1883 – 31 March 1933) was a Uruguayan political figure. He was President of Uruguay from 1919 to 1923. Background His political convictions closely followed those of liberal President José Batlle y Ordóñez, under whom Brum served as Education Minister 1913–1915. He was Interior Minister from 1915 to 1916. Foreign Minister of Uruguay Brum subsequently served as Foreign Minister under the Presidency of Feliciano Viera; in the latter capacity, Brum was noted for promoting good relations with the United States, which had joined World War I against Germany in 1917. Brum's period of office as Foreign Minister proved to be somewhat controversial. In the autumn of 1917, American warships sailed to the Argentine capital Buenos Aires and a delegation issued threats to the country's President Hipólito Yrigoyen, in relation to the country's neutrality, which the United States insisted should be more clearly focused as being pro-American. Yrigoyen refused to be bowed by such threats from a military delegation, whereupon the American ships sailed to Montevideo, where they were warmly welcomed by Brum, in contrast to the guarded reception which the delegation had received in Buenos Aires. Brum later travelled to the United States and was received by the Secretary of State. President of Uruguay Brum thus came to presidential office in 1919 as one with a reputation as a pro-American facilitator of U.S. interests. During Brum's presidency, he was noted for pursuing economic stability, but on the political front faced significant opposition from both his own Colorado Party, and notably from Luis Alberto de Herrera of the Blanco, or National, Party. The dislike of each other by the two men was strong enough that President Brum actually challenged Herrera to a duel with pistols (legal in Uruguay at the time), which was fought near Montevideo on 14 December 1922, in front of several hundred government officials. Though each man fired two shots and the other from a distance of 25 paces, neither was struck by a bullet. Despite political rivalries, several reforms were realized under President Brum. Various laws were passed by the General Assembly "to contemplate the situation of the tenants punished by the great crisis." A law of 1921 "was in charge of regulating the rental of urban dwellings in the city of Montevideo and in the towns of the country departments." The rent couldn't be raised during the three-year period, and