Argentina: A President Again

Almost unnoticed amid the coups and chaos around the hemisphere, one country last week quietly went from military control back into the hands of a constitutional President. In Buenos Aires’ Chamber of Deputies, courtly, white-haired Dr. Arturo Umberto Illia, 63, took the oath of office as Argentina’s 29th President, ending 18 months of military-dominated government that began with the overthrow of President Arturo Frondizi.

While the generals and their puppet President were in the palace, South America’s second biggest nation saw its wheat-and-beef economy riddled by inflation, unemployment and a towering national debt, its daily life punctuated by nasty little fights between warring military factions. Nevertheless Argentina managed to grope its way back to a constitutional government that took office with new hope. Mature and stable, Illia is a small-town doctor whose middle-roading People’s Radicals grew out of a split with Frondizi’s Radicals in 1957. His cabinet is notable for a lack of big names; most of them are calm, dedicated professional men in their 40s or 50s.

Since his election last July, Illia has said next to nothing about how he intends to govern. He is considered pro-West and pro-free enterprise, though he campaigned on a nationalistic platform threatening to annul the controversial oil contracts signed by Frondizi’s government with foreign companies between 1958 and 1960. Last week, a national investigation board ruled that the contracts, in effect, were illegal. Yet Illia has said privately that the whole oil issue has been blown out of proportion, and he is expected only to renegotiate the contracts on terms more favorable to Argentina.