New Face for a Familiar Ceremony

Another general takes control of a defeated country

For a nation nursing the wounds of war, the inauguration of a new President offered no cause for revelry. The brief, dour ceremony only provided a grim reminder of the instability that has long plagued Argentina: in the presidential palace, Casa Rosada, retired Major General Reynaldo Bignone, 54, was sworn in as the seventh President of the military regime that seized power six years ago.

Bignone took office vowing to return the country to civilian rule by March 1984. His choice of a Cabinet, nine civilians and only one military officer, appeared to offer some hope that he will abide by that promise. The lone military man, Army Major General Llamil Reston, who will be Interior Minister, shares Bignone's conviction that the armed forces must cooperate closely with labor and political leaders. Among the casualties of the reshuffle: Foreign Minister Nicanor Costa Mendez, an intellectual architect of the Falklands fiasco.

Most civilian leaders remained skeptical of the army's intentions. Declared Antonio Troccoli of the centrist Radical Party: "We will not judge names but will wait until concrete steps and policies are set down." Bignone's openness may clash with the tough views of Lieut. General Cristino Nicolaides, 57, who as army Commander in Chief acts as the true fount of authority. "It's difficult to make sense of a situation in which you have a hard-liner swearing in a moderate," reflects a diplomat in Buenos Aires.

Bignone's tenure will be complicated by a gaping schism within the three-man military junta. The air force and navy dropped out of political decision making two weeks ago to protest the army's refusal to appoint a civilian as President. In a deliberate snub, Navy Admiral Jorge Isaac Anaya arrived at Bignone's inauguration only at the last minute. Air Force Chief Basilio Lami Dozo boycotted the ceremony altogether. Nonetheless, the army's enormous edge in manpower (130,000 troops) over the navy (36,000) and the air force (19,500) is likely to ensure Nicolaides' supreme role.

The greatest threat to the government could emerge from smoldering discontent over the Falklands defeat. As thousands of soldiers trudged home, shocking revelations about the military disaster were spreading across the country. A young army captain, close to tears, described what he called "the betrayal of the people by the military." He said that the marines were compelled to subsist on half-rations in order to share their food with the army, whose soldiers were so short of decent drinking water that "they were forced to drink from muddy pools while senior officers were eating like kings." Said an army major: "We lost because of our high command's ineptitude in logistics, and when the living return home they will tell the whole country the truth."

Though Bignone shed his uniform in favor of a simple dark suit for his 24-minute televised inaugural address, he left no doubt about his allegiances. Said he: "I live in the bosom of the armed forces, and to them I give my gratitude." Such effusive fealty may have brought him to the Casa Rosada, but the prime test of his presidency will be how to coax his army patrons into accepting free elections. sb

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