No. 31

The armed forces, whose duty it is to protect the nation's liberties, cannot stand aside and watch our patient and generous people suffer a state of anarchy. This revolution will strive to heal the divisions of our people as well as restore our deserved grandeur in the eyes of the world.

Thus last week did Argentina's military announce the overthrow of President Arturo Umberto Illia, 64, the quiet, courtly country doctor who took office in 1963 and proceeded to do almost nothing for 32 months. The military sent Illia packing, off to his brother's home twelve miles north of Buenos Aires, dissolved Congress, the Supreme Court and all political parties, and announced the formation of a three-man junta. It is headed by Provisional President Juan Carlos Ongania, Illia's one-time army commander in chief who, until his resignation last November, was considered his country's guardian of constitutional government and the military mainstay that kept Illia in power.

Pileup of Problems. Sheer disgust was Ongania's motive. From the moment Illia took over, his philosophy had been to sit quietly back and let the land of beef and wheat run itself. The only place it ran was downhill. Prices, wages, national debt and unemployment soared, and Illia's one really concrete action--cancellation of all foreign oil contracts--proved a disaster. Argentina, which has been almost self-sufficient in oil, must now import $100 million worth annually.

Equally irksome to the military was the gathering momentum of the Peronistas, the 3,000,000 diehard followers of Juan PerOn who, through their strikes, demonstrations and exorbitant pay demands, have helped trigger the overthrow of three of the five Presidents (including Illia) who followed the deposed dictator. Under Illia, the Peronistas won 61 of Congress' 238 seats, triumphed in two of the last four provincial elections, and were an odds-on favorite to win the key provincial elections in Buenos Aires next March.

First Hints. The beginning of the end came last November, when Illia and Ongania had a falling out. A tough professional soldier who sticks rigidly to the traditional army code, Ongania is a man of quiet authority and determination. After President Arturo Frondizi's overthrow in 1962, it was Ongania as commander of the army's crack motorized cavalry corps who routed a military faction favoring old-style, jack-booted dictatorship, and who later paved the way for Illia's election in 1963. For his pains, Ongania was made a lieutenant general and named army commander in chief. But as his country's problems piled higher and higher, Ongania gradually lost patience with Illia, particularly after Illia refused to send a contingent of troops to join the OAS force in the Dominican Republic. Last November, in a rare public huff, Ongania resigned. "The real question," as one officer put it prophetically at the time, "is whether Ongania will be more trouble out than in."

The first hints came last May. In a pointed Army Day speech in Buenos Aires' Plaza San Martin, Ongania's successor and close friend, Army Commander in Chief Pascual Angel Pistarini, attacked Illia's casual style of government and all but warned that a coup was on the way. "Liberty," said Pistarini, "does not exist when a lack of authority opens the road to insecurity and disintegration." Yielding to mounting pressures for change, Illia called a Cabinet meeting, his second since assuming power, but could really think of nothing much to do about the drift. So the military cast around for any excuse to move, and last week they found it. Hearing that the commander of Argentina's II Corps had dined with some Peronista leaders, Pistarini arrested the officer, stationed 400 troops outside the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace, and announced a "revolution" in Ongania's name. Defiantly, Illia "dismissed" Pistarini. But Pistarini would not quit, and after nine hours of huddling with Cabinet ministers and military advisers Illia finally caved in.

Grateful Peronistas. At his "inauguration" in the mirrored White Hall of the presidential palace, Ongania swore himself in as Argentina's 31st President and assumed virtually dictatorial powers, amid unofficial reports that he planned a complete revamping of the country's political and economic structure. As for the Peronistas, the government promised that there would be no harsh crackdown; Peronista unions could remain intact--though not in politics. In turn, the Peronistas gratefully promised to "work for the rebirth of Argentina."

Though hardly enthusiastic about Illia's government, Washington deplores military takeovers in Latin America. Hence, for the record, the U.S. temporarily suspended diplomatic relations and foreign aid, and urged other members of the Organization of American States to follow suit. It seemed a pointless gesture, for Illia had failed to meet the nation's basic needs. What Argentina lacks is a figure with the old Peron charisma and magic who can somehow unify the country--and remain a democrat besides. Any politician who fails that test will be at the mercy of military regimes indefinitely.

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