Luis Conrado Batlle y Berres (26 November 1897 – 15 July 1964) was a Uruguayan political figure.
Background
Batlle Berres was a journalist and prominent member of the Uruguayan Colorado Party. He was selected – in hindsight, with far-reaching effect – to serve as vice presidential running-mate for Luis Tomás Berreta.
The great-great-grandson of Catalan settlers from Sitges, Spain, he was the son of another political figure, Luis Batlle y Ordóñez, brother of ex president José Batlle. His mother, Petrona Berres, was of Irish descent and died when he was still a small child. Then, his father remarried but died soon after, in 1908. As a result, he went to live with his uncle, José Batlle y Ordóñez, the three-time President of Uruguay, and his cousins César, Rafael and Lorenzo Batlle Pacheco on the Piedras Blancas estate in the suburbs of Montevideo. He studied law at the urging of his godfather, Dr. José Irureta Goyena, and also Military Aviation. In 1933, he was expelled from Uruguay by the Terra dictatorship, and participated in the revolutionary preparations of 1934 and 1935, entering the country clandestinely. In 1936 Batlle Berres returned legally and bought Radio "Ariel". He also became Editor-in-Chief of El Día.
In 1927, he married Matilde Ibáñez Tálice, with whom he had three children: the also ex president Jorge Batlle, concert pianist Luis Batlle and Matilde Linda Batlle, the latter born in Argentina.
He was the leader of List 15, a left-leaning faction which was the majority faction of the Colorado Party from 1946 to about 1960. It placed second in the 1966 elections, but regained its majority position by 1970. Jorge Batlle, the son of Luis Batlle Berres, led the faction after his father died in 1964. According to one study, Batlle Berres was a strong-willed executive "who incurred wide criticism for employing his exalted office to advance his own interests." In 1950, he split the Colorado Party be deciding to offer his own ticket under a separate election list. This led to the emergence of his own List 15 faction, and the List 14 faction, led by the Batlle Pacheco brothers. In 1948, he founded in Montevideo the newspaper Acción, which he made the mouthpiece of his political faction.
Vice President of Uruguay
He served as Vice President of Uruguay in 1947, succeeding Alberto Guani and held this office upon the death of President Berreta.
Batlle Berres was the fourth person to hold the office of Vice President of Uruguay. The office dates from 1934, when Alfredo Navarro became Uruguay's first Vice President. He previously served as the President of the Chamber of Deputies of Uruguay from 1943 to 1945.
President of Uruguay (1st period of office) He was President of Uruguay from 1947 to 1951, being succeeded in the office by Andrés Martínez Trueba. In this first period of Presidential office, the Vice President of Uruguay was Alfeo Brum.