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During the next 13 years, which have often been termed “the Infamous Decade,” the armed forces sponsored a conservative restoration. After expelling Irigoyen they installed General José Félix Uriburu in the presidency (1930–32). Uriburu was a descendent of an old, conservative northern family, and he leaned toward fascism. His influence with the army, however, was not as great as that of General Agustín Pedro Justo, a former minister of war under Alvear, who favoured a gradual conservative reorientation of the country. The Radicals, who had been reorganized under the leadership of Alvear, won an unexpected victory in trial elections held in the province of Buenos Aires in April 1931, but the Radicals’ activities were then severely restricted (including the arrest or exile of their leaders), and their members either boycotted or were barred from the national election of 1931. General Justo, in contrast, had the backing of the Concordancia (a coalition of conservatives, a faction of the Radicals, and independent socialists), and, with only limited electoral fraud, he was elected by a large majority.
The new president, facing a difficult economic situation, instituted several controversial reforms and initiatives. In 1933 he signed the Roca-Runciman Agreement with Great Britain, which guaranteed Argentina a fixed share in the British meat market and eliminated tariffs on Argentine cereals. In return, Argentina agreed to restrictions with regard to trade and currency exchange, and it preserved Britain’s commercial interests in the country. Many Argentines saw the treaty as a sellout to Britain, although from the British point of view the pact accorded privileges not given to any other country outside their empire. Other unpopular reforms included restructuring the monetary system and establishing agencies to control exports. After 1935 the economic climate improved.
The election of 1937, in which the government retained its power, was marked by fraud and violence; however, the next president, Roberto M. Ortiz, returned to more proper electoral procedures, calling for federal intervention in the province of Buenos Aires, where a corrupt conservative machine had been in control. Ortiz’s poor health obliged him to resign in 1940, and his successor, Ramón S. Castillo, restored the conservative coalition to power and gained the support of General Justo.
At the outbreak of World War II, Argentina declared its neutrality, and it remained neutral even after the United States entered the conflict in 1941. Castillo’s motives for this stance were largely economic, and he attempted to court trade agreements with both the United States and the Axis powers while maintaining a significant commerce with Britain; however, his policies were only partly successful, and Argentina struggled to arm and equip its military while other Latin American nations received generous lend-lease shipments from the United States. In the face of opposition from both pro-Allied and pro-Axis groups, as well as concerns over the increasing strength of the United States-supplied Brazilian military, Castillo imposed a state of siege. General Justo died in January 1943, leaving the president without his most influential supporter, and Castillo was overthrown in June.
The Perón era, 1943–55
Transitional period
The military government faced several urgent and difficult problems, including the decision of whether to remain neutral or choose sides in the war. It also had to decide between the restoration of a representative system and the installation of a long-term military dictatorship. General Arturo Rawson was made president but resigned after two days when his anticonservative stance and his advocacy of the United Nations won no military support.
General Pedro P. Ramírez replaced Rawson as president. He maintained neutrality in the war but faced increasing opposition from all political groups except the nationalist right wing and the fascist sympathizers. The government, reflecting an emergent authoritarianism, censored the press and dissolved political parties. Under pressure from the United States, the regime broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, but this deed was not favoured by many military officers, and Ramírez was removed by a coup. The presidency was turned over to General Edelmiro J. Farrell (1944–46), who led a military junta, but, under threat of international sanctions, his regime prepared for a return to representative democracy.
The search for a solution ended in the rise of Colonel Juan Perón to the office of president. From 1941 Perón had led the United Officers Group (Grupo de Oficiales Unidos; GOU), a secret military lodge that had engineered the 1943 coup. In October 1943 he secured the minor job of running the labour department and began building a political empire based in the labour unions. He helped the unions win favourable settlements from employers and pushed through a welfare program that provided vacations, retirement benefits, and severance pay. By 1945 Perón was also vice president and minister of war. His changes included giving autonomy to universities, reconstructing political parties (including the Communist Party, prohibited since 1936), and declaring war on Germany, thereby facilitating Argentina’s admittance to the United Nations. But with the return of political freedom came renewed opposition, culminating in a mass demonstration in Buenos Aires in September 1945. Emergency measures were enacted. Seizing the opportunity, Perón’s enemies in the navy reacted, and he was removed from office and arrested on October 9. At that point, however, Perón’s adversaries in the military and the political sphere failed to agree on a further course of action. Perón’s adherents in the unions organized a strike that found enthusiastic support among the people. He was released on October 17—a date still celebrated by Peronists as Loyalty Day—and his foes were forced to resign.
Perón in power
Perón campaigned for the presidency in the elections of 1946. He organized the Labour Party, which was resisted by all the old parties and by the major vested-interest groups. His victory, though narrow, gave him control of both houses of Congress and all the provincial governorships. Perón’s political strategy and tactics were authoritarian and personalistic. He politically “purified” the schools and courts, declared a state of internal war in order to expand his executive authority, redistributed revenues in favour of the workers, nationalized public services, and gave preferential treatment to urban and industrial areas over their rural counterparts. He rewarded the organized workers for their support by enforcing labour legislation, improving wages and working conditions, controlling rents, and introducing the aguinaldo (13th-month bonus). Perón was a charismatic figure who spoke to working people in a language that they could understand. His appeal among the descamisados (“shirtless ones,” underprivileged workers) was reinforced and further dramatized by his wife, Eva Duarte de Perón (Evita), who unofficially led the Department of Social Welfare and presided over an extraordinary distribution of money, apartments, and jobs.
Until 1949 Perón’s economic policies were successful, largely because exporters were so successful during and just after the war. However, as inflation increased and trade became less profitable, it became more difficult to finance imports of vital raw materials. The constitutional reform of 1949 allowed Perón to be reelected in 1951, but his next government took on a more conservative hue, hastened by the death of his wife in July 1952. Evita had become a powerful political figure in her own right, burnishing the regime’s image of popular democracy, although she had been obliged by the military to rescind her acceptance of the vice-presidential nomination in 1951. After 1952 Perón incurred the increasing hostility of the church and the students. His efforts to eliminate the political influence of the church provoked disaffection in the officer corps, and in September 1955 he was overthrown by General Eduardo Lonardi and fled the country.
Attempts to restore constitutionalism, 1955–66
Lonardi recognized the strength of Peronism and sought a compromise, but he was displaced in November 1955 by General Pedro Eugenio Aramburu. The new administration was a military dictatorship that sought to restore constitutional government. Taking a fiercely anti-Peronist stance, it dissolved Perón’s old party and placed the labour unions under state administration. The Peronists wielded considerable influence on the factions that were competing for power, and in 1958 they supported Arturo Frondizi, a Radical leader who promised to readmit them to political life in return for their support. Frondizi won the presidency and majorities in both houses of Congress.
President Frondizi focused on economic development and showed a keen interest in reviving the flow of foreign investment. He devalued the currency to favour exporters and foreign investors; however, this had adverse effects on the middle and lower classes. Rapidly accelerating inflation and the campaign against it brought restrictions on credit, which increased the difficulties of industry, and Frondizi had to use the military to uphold his unpopular policies.
In March 1962 the reorganized Peronists gained control of important districts, among them the province of Buenos Aires. The armed forces withdrew support from Frondizi, dissolved Congress, and set up a government in the name of José María Guido, president pro tempore of the Senate. Guido’s 18-month administration was one of confusion as two military factions fought for control. The Colorados (“Reds”) sought a dictatorship that would deal strongly with the Peronists and extreme leftists. The Azules (“Blues”), who prevailed, favoured a constitutional government by a coalition including the Peronists, who would be confined to a weaker role than that indicated by their voting strength.
The elections of July 1963 resulted in victory for Arturo Illia, the candidate of the Radical Civic Union. President Illia inherited Frondizi’s economic problems, although the drastic reorientation of the economy had begun to show signs of success. Illia tried without success to split the resurgent Peronists, who now controlled the labour unions, from their exiled leader. The antagonized Peronists supported a coup in June 1966 that brought to power General Juan Carlos Onganía, a former Azul leader and commander in chief of the army.