Clean Sweep

Working twelve hours a day, Argentina's new President Eduardo Lonardi last week set about the orderly launching of his own administration and dismantling of the police-state trappings and symbolism of the discredited Peron regime.

An "eternal flame" that burned in memory of Eva Peron on an outside wall of the Congress building was snuffed out. A navy cruiser was sent to Uruguay to bring back 450 anti-Peronista exiles. Universities, whose staffs Peron loaded with subservient hacks, were de-Peronized as fast as possible. The new President, a churchgoing Roman Catholic, restored to the calendar five religious holidays canceled by Peron.

In his handling of organized labor--the one area where Peron had a solid base of political support--Lonardi moved with caution and conciliation. Instead of using his state-of-siege power to "intervene," i.e., take over, the powerful General Confederation of Labor (C.G.T.), he announced his confidence that labor could purge its own ranks without government compulsion. The new President also stepped adroitly around the vexed question of La Prensa, the great newspaper that Peron confiscated and turned over to the C.G.T. with an elaborate show of legality. Lonardi explained that he would not hand the paper back to its original owners by arbitrary decree--which left the way open for the de-Peronized courts to settle the matter in good time.

A career soldier, Lonardi naturally leaned heavily on old and trusted friends for his administrative appointments. He made a clean sweep of scores of Peronista governors and mayors; so many senior military men were called on for temporary service in these jobs that Lonardi found himself short of qualified division and regimental commanders. His cabinet, however, was mainly civilian, and Argentines seemed to think it serious and competent.

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