Agustín Pedro Justo

Agustín Pedro Justo (Concepción del Uruguay, February 26, 1876-Buenos Aires, January 11, 1943) was an Argentine engineer, military man, diplomat and radical politician. He was president of his country between 1932 and 1938. His government occurred during the Infamous Decade, named for the high corruption and electoral fraud that characterized it. He was elected in the 1931 elections, supported by the ruling military dictatorship and the political sectors that would soon make up the Concordancia. The accusation of electoral fraud and banning of the candidacy of Marcelo T. de Alvear, leader of the non-coup wing of radicalism, weighed on his election.During his government he had persistent opposition from the Yrigoyenista sectors of the Radical Civic Union.

One of the greatest achievements of his mandate was the outstanding diplomatic work of his chancellor, Carlos Saavedra Lamas, which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize. But this work was marred by constant accusations of corruption and by having signed the Roca-Runciman Pact, for which he was accused of having mis-negotiated Argentine interests against the United Kingdom. His name was raised as a candidate for a new period during the eventful government of Ramón Castillo, but his death, at 66 years of age, frustrated his hopes. He left to history a Preliminary study for the complete works of Bartolomé Miter , a character whom he admired.

Youth

Justo was born in Concepción del Uruguay, then capital of the province of Entre Ríos. His father, also named Agustín Pedro Justo, had been governor of the province of Corrientes and then national deputy in Buenos Aires; He was still active in politics, and shortly after his son was born, he moved with his family to Buenos Aires. His mother, Otilia Rolón Onieva, came from a traditional Corrientes family. At the age of 11, Justo entered the National Military College for Artillery Weapons. As a cadet, and along with several of his fellow students, he participated in the Park Revolution, taking up the arms of the guard to join the column of revolutionaries. Arrested and then amnestied, he graduated in 1892 with the rank of second lieutenant.

Without abandoning his military career, he studied engineering at the University of Buenos Aires. In 1895 he received promotion to the rank of second lieutenant, in 1897 to first lieutenant, and in 1902 to captain. Graduated as a civil engineer at the UBA, a government decree homologated his title to that of military engineer in 1904. He was appointed professor at the School of Application for Officers; With his promotion to the rank of major two years later he was proposed for the chairs of mathematics at the Military College and of telemetry and optical telegraphy at the National Shooting School, which would be granted to him in 1907. He would have a fruitful academic career on this base. On December 1, 1900, he married Ana Encarnación Bernal Harris (1878-1942), daughter of General Liborio Bernal and Ana Petronila Mercedes Harris, with whom he had seven children. One of them was the Trotskyist political theorist Liborio Justo (1902-2003).

The following year he received the appointment of second chief in the Railway Battalion, while he was promoted to deputy director in the Shooting School. With the rank of lieutenant colonel, he fulfilled diplomatic functions for the first time, being a military attaché to the commission sent to represent Argentina in the festivities of the centenary of Chile in 1910. Upon his return he was assigned to Córdoba, as commander of the IV Brigade of Artillery.

Beginnings of political career

In 1915, during the term of Victorino de la Plaza, he was appointed head of the Military College of the Nation, where he would remain for the following seven years. The enormous influence of the position helped him establish contacts in political circles, as well as in the military. Affiliated with the anti-personalist branch of radicalism (those who opposed the party leadership of Hipólito Yrigoyen), he established good relations with Marcelo T. de Alvear. During his tenure he expanded the school's curriculum and promoted the training of the teaching staff.

While Alvear was president, in 1922 he left the Military College to occupy the Ministry of War. Promoted to the rank of brigadier general on August 25, 1923, Justo requested an increase in the defense budget to acquire equipment and improve Army facilities; He also encouraged the reorganization of the structure of the armed forces. At the end of 1924 he was sent as plenipotentiary to Peru, where the centenary of the battle of Ayacucho was being celebrated. During the following years he temporarily held the Ministries of Agriculture and Public Works, in addition to the Ministry of War, which he would not abandon until the conclusion of Alvear's mandate. In 1927 he had received promotion to major general.

Due to his invariable anti-personalist temperament, Justo supported the candidacy of Leopoldo Melo and Vicente Gallo, of the Radical Anti-personalist Civic Union. Given the triumph of the Yrigoyen and Beiró formula - which began its second term in 1928 with the massive support of voters and the majority in the Chamber of Deputies - Justo received invitations from the increasingly organized national right to join the program. shock against the radical leader. Although close to the concepts that the nationalist newspapers La Nueva República ―directed by Ernesto Palacio and the brothers Rodolfo and Julio Irazusta― and La Fronda ―under the direction of Francisco Uriburu (son)― talked about the need for “order, hierarchy and authority”, he did not adhere closely to them; The program of suppression of the republican form of government and its replacement by a corporate system, in the style of fascist Italy and Spain, went against his liberal vocation.

Justo and the coup of 1930

Another faction gathered around Justo, however no less determined to take up arms against the constitutional government of Yrigoyen. Actively promoted by General José Luis Maglione, Justo's classmate, and by Colonel Luis J. García - who had led the San Martín Lodge and would later be one of the heads of the GOU -, it was expressed in the pages of < i>La Nación and Crítica. Justo's statements in July 1930 about the inadvisability of intervening militarily so as not to endanger "constitutional legality" testify to the confrontation between the factions.

Unlike the more radicalized Navy, a good part of the Army supported Justo's option, with the notable exception of the nationalist core that would later converge in the GOU. Given the promise of José Félix Uriburu, head of the extremist faction, to maintain institutional order, Justo agreed to the coup, which took place in the early hours of September 6, establishing a military government for the first time since the signing of the Constitution. (1853). He did not join his leadership nor, in the first instance, the ruling group, which Uriburu would lead with a cabinet made up, in large part, of the local leaders of the oil multinationals, who had ultimately been the ideologues of the coup. State.

Justo expressly sought to distance himself from Uriburu, who had a wide reputation among the officers, but who could not obtain the support of the political parties, which quickly divided after the disappearance of Yrigoyen, the focus of their common antipathy. He rejected the vice presidency that Uriburu offered him, and only briefly agreed to command the armed forces, resigning shortly afterwards. Furthermore, he sought a constitutional order as quickly as possible and to avoid the Uriburu project.

Constitutional normalization: Justo's candidacy

When Uriburu's failure to implement in the province of Buenos Aires the corporate model with which he wanted to replace the republican system cost him the political career of his Minister of the Interior, Matías Sánchez Sorondo, Justo again rejected the offers of Uriburu to arrange a coalition government. The majority of the officers of the Argentine Army, gathered behind the figure of the former Minister of War of Alvear, the Independent Socialist Party, some conservative leaders of the Province of Buenos Aires and the failed presidential candidate of the Radical Antipersonalist Civic Union Leopoldo Melo were now pressing to the president to call elections.

From those first coincidences, Justo wove a network of support on which to build his political capital and a future presidential candidacy. For this purpose, he had military personnel and leaders of anti-personalist radicalism he trusted who, from their positions of hierarchy in the intervened provinces, fulfilled the double purpose of providing him with regional political information and negotiating support in his name for a future national political project.. Among these officials stand out: Lieutenant Colonel Francisco S. Torres, Colonel Justiniano de la Zerda, Silvio Carrera, Pablo Calatayud, Colonel Rosendo Hermelo, doctor Sebastián Figueroa, and others.

For his part, the de facto president continued to seek support among politicians and called on his former friend, former president Marcelo T. de Alvear; that, for a time, he seems to be the successor to vote in a future presidential election. Around him, anti-personalist radicals and some Yrigoyenistas are now regrouping. The annulment of the Buenos Aires elections distances them. In May 1931, the provisional government finally called for the election of president and vice president of the Republic, and under pressure from its co-provincial, the industrialist Robustiano Patrón Costas, gave way to Justo's candidacy. The second decision proscribes Alvear's candidacy because the six-year period required by the Constitution of 1853 has not elapsed.

The non-Yrigoyenist forces, with the exception of the progressive democrats of Santa Fe and the socialists of the Capital, pour, one by one, their support for a Justo candidacy. The National Convention of Antipersonalists on September 10 proclaims the Agustín Justo/José Nicolás Matienzo formula and rejects the possibility of a single list with the conservative National Democratic Party.

The Independent Socialist Party raises a four-point requirement:
a) that the Armed Forces remain independent of any direct or indirect interference in the government;
b) that the president would respect the prerogatives of Congress, without attempting to attack or dominate it;
c) that the ministers would recover their role as constitutionally responsible officials and that the president would govern for the Nation and not for a party; and
d) respect for federal institutions to end illegal interventions.

Justo accepted the program and the Second Congress of the Independent Socialist Party on September 19, 1931 formalized his adherence to the anti-personalist binomial.

The Democratic National Convention, under the presidency of Cevallos, voted for the Agustín Justo/Julio Argentino Roca (son) formula in the face of the snub of the anti-personalist radicals; turning General Justo into the "bigamist candidate", as he was later called.

He stood in the elections of November 8, 1931 as a candidate for president; Radicalism was outlawed in the candidacy of Alvear, who had taken the path of "revolutionary abstention", he comfortably triumphed in them with 237 voters against 122 for the formula of Lisandro de la Torre and Nicolás Repetto, although suspicions of fraud were notorious. both in Buenos Aires and in the interior. The National Democratic Party managed to impose its candidate for vice president.

The presidency

Justo took office on February 20, 1932. In addition to the political upheaval due to the coup, he had to face the results of the Great Depression, which put in crisis the agro-export model oriented towards England in force since the middle of the century XIX.

Its first Minister of Finance, Alberto Hueyo, took extremely restrictive measures on the economy. The independent socialist Antonio de Tomaso, in Agriculture, accompanied him; Public spending was reduced, currency circulation contracted and fiscal austerity measures were applied. A "patriotic loan" seeks to strengthen the treasury's coffers. The first tax on gasoline served to finance the newly created National Road Directorate. The difficulties of the Hueyo program would finally convince Justo to adopt this model, of a dirigiste nature, in his economic policy. The mayor of Buenos Aires, Mariano de Vedia y Mitre, would also promote this project, who undertook an ambitious urban organization project, opening the North and South Diagonals, paving General Paz Avenue, widening Corrientes Street, building the first section of the avenue Ninth of July and erecting the Obelisk.

The replacement of Hueyo by the dissident socialist Federico Pinedo (Independent Socialist Party) would mark a change in government policy. Government intervention in the economy became more marked, creating the National Grain Board, the Meat Board, and a short time later, with the advice of the English economist Otto Niemeyer, the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic would be created.

Public and private works plan

Due to the economic crisis of 1929, Justo opted for a new policy similar to that applied in the United States of America by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which consisted of stimulating public spending through investment in infrastructure. During his government he executed several projects:

The main public and private works that were planned, started or carried out during the Justo government were

• Avellaneda Bridge, Uriburu Bridge and La Noria Bridge (the three on the Riachuelo in Buenos Aires);^{[chuckles]required]}
• the Obelisk of Buenos Aires;
• the construction of subterranean lines C and D, and the initiation of the works of line E;
• the Ministry of Public Works (Argentina) Building (now Ministry of Social Development);
• the Cordoba Air Garrison;
• Central Military Hospital;
• the modernization of the Hospital Fernández;
• the Hospital Materno Infantil Ramón Sardá;
• the buildings of the faculties of Medicine, Biochemistry and Pharmacy, Dentistry and Law of the University of Buenos Aires;
• the Monumental Stadium, River Plate football club and
• the stadium La Bombonera, of the football club Boca Juniors;
• the paving of the route to Córdoba;
• paving the way to Mar del Plata; and
• the International Bridge Augustine P. Justo - Getúlio Vargas, between Paso de los Libres (Corrientes) and Uruguayan (Brazil).
• the Public Library of the National University of La Plata.
• The Observatory of Cosmic Physics of San Miguel.

Collaborators such as Mariano de Vedia y Mitre, Alberto Prebisch, Juan M. Obarrio, Carlos Thays, Justiniano Allende Posse and Domingo Selva, among others, participated in the planning and execution of these works. The works plan was executed by its Minister of Public Works, Manuel R. Alvarado. Alvarado continued his task during the following presidency with Roberto M. Ortiz in charge of the National Executive Branch.

Relationship with the UCR

The radical opposition was very marked. On April 5, 1931, Yrigoyenista radicalism had won the elections for governor in the province of Buenos Aires against the expectations of Uriburu and Sánchez Sorondo; Although the military government annulled them, they cost the minister his career and forced Uriburu to leave power. Already before, soldiers loyal to the constitutional government of Yrigoyen, with the support of armed civilians, organized insurrectional projects to restore it. The first of these was led by the Yrigoyenist general Severino Toranzo, in February 1931. In the month of June, in Curuzú Cuatiá, province of Corrientes, Colonel Regino Lescano, who was planning a Yrigoyenist mobilization, was assassinated. In December, faced with a similar attack by Lieutenant Colonel Atilio Cattáneo, Justo decreed a state of siege, imprisoned the elderly Yrigoyen again, and also detained Alvear, Ricardo Rojas, Honorio Pueyrredon and other party leaders.

In 1933 there were radical uprisings in Buenos Aires, Corrientes, Entre Ríos and Misiones, which resulted in more than a thousand arrests. Yrigoyen, seriously ill, was returned to Buenos Aires and kept under house arrest; He died on July 3, and his burial in the Recoleta cemetery generated a massive demonstration. In December, during the meeting of the national convention of the UCR, a joint uprising of soldiers and politicians broke out in Santa Fe, Rosario and Paso de los Libres. José Benjamín Ábalos, former minister of Yrigoyen, and Colonel Roberto Bosch were arrested for the uprising, and the party members and leaders were imprisoned on Martín García Island.

Alvear, Justo's former godfather, went into exile, while others were detained in homes in Ushuaia, such as the radical deputy of Dolores, Néstor Ignacio Aparicio, who managed to escape with another person, according to his book The prisoners of "Chaco" and the escape from Tierra del Fuego. The imprisoned politicians were never confined with the prisoners for common crimes in the Ushuaia Prison.

At the same time, the Justo government encouraged the provincial factions of the U.C.R. to disobey the electoral abstention decreed by the National Committee due to the banning of the Alvear-Güemes formula in 1932. The most notorious case was that of the Tucumán radicals, who separated from the National Committee of the U.C.R. in 1934 to become the U.C.R. Contender who would remain in power until 1943.

Roca-Runciman Pact

One of the most controversial events of Justo's mandate took place in 1933, when the production protection measures adopted by the United Kingdom led Justo to send the vice president, at the head of a technical delegation, to discuss the adoption of a trade agreement that would obtain advantageous conditions for Argentina. The British had adopted, at the Ottawa Conference of 1932, measures to encourage imports from their colonies and dominions; The pressure from Argentine planters for the government to restore trade with the main buyer of Argentine grains and meat had been enormous. The negotiations, led by the president of the British Trade Council, Viscount Walter Runciman, were intense, and resulted in the signing on April 27 of the Roca-Runciman pact.

The treaty aroused scandal, as the United Kingdom assured Argentina only a quota lower than that of its dominions, of 390,000 tons of meat per year, in exchange for large concessions for British companies. 85% of export was to be via foreign meatpackers (mostly American and English), tariffs on UK operated railways would not be regulated, no customs duties on coal, special treatment given to British companies with investments in Argentina and export prices would be reduced. No less problematic were the statements of Vice President Roca, who stated after the signing of the pact that "due to its economic importance, Argentina resembles a great British dominion."

Lisandro de la Torre was one of his main and most vociferous opponents; In a Senate session, he stated that

[e]the agreement does not guarantee any advantage, and the reason that it inclines to vote to those who vote it and to excuse it—not to defend it—to those who excuse it, is fear. It is feared that Albión, imprudently provoked to make a treaty, is disturbed if he refuses, takes reprisals and puts Argentina in worse condition than before (...) there are 350 000 tonnes assured because the treaty says that Britain can reduce the share of meat cooled in unforeseen circumstances (...) The mission abode to an impossible one, by pure imprudence of the Chancellery, after having accepted everything that England requested, accepted that nothing should be given to Argentina.

Lisandro de la Torre

In an editorial he would write - mocking Roca's words - that

under these conditions it could not be said that Argentina has become a British domain, because England does not take the freedom to impose such humiliation on its domains.

Lisandro de la Torre

The National Democratic Party, one of those that had supported Justo's candidacy, was divided due to the event. Finally, the Senate endorsed the pact on July 28. Several strikes punctuated the deliberations, especially in the province of Santa Fe, which ended up being intervened by the central government.

Meat debate

De la Torre continued to mobilize against the pact, presenting on September 1, 1934 a project that proposed creating an investigative commission to establish the extent to which the Argentine meat trade favored exporting meat processing plants, suspecting that the prices paid to The producers had no relationship with the sales price abroad. The investigation in this regard would give rise to the most famous debate of the period, revealing the connections between the British meat processing companies, the ranchers of the Argentine Rural Society, and the officials of the National Meat Board created ad hoc after the signing of the pact.

The investigative commission was formed, including De la Torre; Finally, he presented two reports, one for the majority, which stated that the prices were fair, and one for the minority, which De la Torre presented on June 18, 1935. De la Torre's report led to the discovery of serious frauds against the treasury by from some companies; In a spectacular event, de la Torre managed to arrest the manager of the Anglo meat processing plant, who had refused to provide the justice system with fundamental data for the investigation and kept double accounting. Disguised as packages of chilled meat for export, the police seized huge amounts of documentation that Anglo was hiding. He also demonstrated that they evaded the exchange controls set by the Central Bank - created the previous year to regulate the monetary flow - by reserving foreign currency to sell it on the free market, where it reached higher prices than the official one. De la Torre accused Federico Pinedo (Minister of Finance), and Luis Duhau (Minister of Agriculture), of distorting information in exchange for economic favors.

The investigation would have a tragic outcome on July 23, 1935, when the democratic-progressive senator Enzo Bordabehere - who had approached de la Torre during his speech to keep Minister Duhau, who was insulting him, at bay -, he was murdered by three bullets in the back from former commissioner Ramón Valdés. The press suggested the reason for the incident would have been Valdés' relationship with Duhau and Pinedo. Bordabehere was buried three days later, accompanied by a huge funeral procession.

Foreign policy

In 1933, Justo ordered the reinstatement of Argentina to the League of Nations, from which Yrigoyen had withdrawn it. That same year he would travel abroad, something unusual at the time for leaders, to meet Getúlio Vargas in Brazil, trying to strengthen commercial ties with the enormous neighbor. He also visited the Uruguayan president, Gabriel Terra, on his return to Argentina. ^{[ citation needed ]}

Saavedra Lamas, as chancellor, tried to mobilize the governments of the region against the Monroe doctrine, promoted by the United States government, managing a regional treaty called Pact of Non-Aggression and Conciliation. Argentine reluctance to American intervention had led the government to distance itself from the Commission of Neutrals that was trying to mediate in the Chaco War, in which Paraguay and Bolivia were at odds. As an alternative, Saavedra Lamas and his Brazilian counterpart organized the so-called ABeCePé group (Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru, the four countries bordering the contenders). On August 6, 1932, the ABCP sent the contenders an invitation to lay down their arms, at the same time separating itself in the harshest terms from the formal demand that a few days before the Commission of Neutrals had sent, considering it an intolerable interference in the politics of countries in conflict. The failure of the Neutrals Commission's proposal, rejected by Paraguay, left Saavedra Lamas free to lead a conciliation process organized by the ABCP, but Bolivia's reluctance to accept his proposal made negotiations difficult. After two unsuccessful proposals, in February 1933 the Argentine and Chilean foreign ministries jointly developed a negotiation plan, formalized in the Mendoza Act, which seemed to have the support of both governments. However, Bolivia presented a series of reservations, observing what it considered an undue favor towards the Paraguayan position. The failure of the Argentine government to comply with them finally put an end to the project.

The Non-Aggression and Conciliation Pact was a further effort in that sense. Relying on several pre-existing treaties, it sought to establish a universal mechanism for the peaceful resolution of conflicts among its members. It was signed in October 1933 in Rio de Janeiro, signed by Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay. The Act of Rio de Janeiro, signed the following day, once again attempted to offer a solution to the Bolivian-Paraguayan conflict, which since May had acquired a warlike character. It was, however, rejected once again. A subsequent effort by the League of Nations was wrecked by the Paraguayan opposition, endorsed by Saavedra Lamas. Only in 1935 could a mediating group be formed, in which the United States participated in addition to members of the ABCP and Uruguay. On June 7, they finally signed two protocols ending the war; The Paraguayan position, in favor of deferring the arbitral establishment of borders as much as possible, had the support of the mediators. The negotiations would take several more years, until the signing in 1938 of the Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Limits, but the management would earn Saavedra Lamas the Nobel Peace Prize in 1936.

On the political level, fraud dominated the electoral scene. Almost all elections suffered irregularities and episodes of violence.

Economic policy

The intervention of the federal government in economic activity became increasingly intense; In 1934, the centralized collection of taxes was legislated, which would then be redistributed to the provinces on a co-participation basis, instead of allowing them to collect them and remit the corresponding part to the central government, as had been the norm until then. A Wine Regulatory Board was created, which was added to those of Grains and Meats, and the National Directorate of National Parks, the immediate predecessor of the National Parks Administration. Congress approves the law that creates the Transportation Corporation of the City of Buenos Aires in order to protect English investments in the face of the growth of bus companies.

On June 6, 1935, the preparations of several years came to an end and, with a design by the British Otto Niemeyer, the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic was created; Made up of the State and private credit institutions, it would be in charge of managing the value of the currency and controlling changes. The organization plan was based on that applied in India by the British; Raúl Prebisch was its first director.

That same year, the first industrial census was carried out, which established the number of workers employed in the activity at 600,000. Laws were passed regulating banking activity and investments. The conditions offered for the settlement of foreign capital encouraged industrialization, especially in the provinces of Buenos Aires and Santa Fe, where food companies (Adams, Royal, Suchard, Quaker), rubber companies (Firestone), electrical companies (Eveready, Osram, Philco) and textiles (Ducilo, Sudamtex). The first large Argentine companies begin to gain importance, such as Di Tella, which will manufacture household appliances and automobiles.^{[citation required]}

The Roca-Runciman pact was unilaterally denounced in 1936 by the United Kingdom; The negotiations to support it led to the signing of another treaty, the Malbrán-Eden, which established heavy tariffs on the import of Argentine meat into Great Britain. However, Argentine defense of British commercial and industrial interests continued; That same year, a law gave shape to the Transport Corporation, intended to protect railway and tram services in British hands from the competition planted by the groups.

In 1934 the first elections took place since Justo took office; The abstentionism of the radicals favored the Socialist Party, but massive fraud ensured that all the provinces, except Santa Fe and San Juan, remained in the hands of the ruling coalition.

Political situation

In 1935 the end of the exile of former president Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear determined the end of the revolutionary abstention of the U.C.R.; The decision caused the withdrawal of FORJA from the UCR, and would force the Concordancia to appeal again to fraud to avoid defeat at the polls. The triumph of Manuel Fresco in Buenos Aires was visibly orchestrated, and in Córdoba it was impossible to avoid the election of the radical Yrigoyenista Amadeo Sabattini despite the bloody incidents that marked the vote. Santa Fe, in the hands of the progressive democrat Luciano Molinas, was intervened. However, the triumph of the dissident radicals in Santiago del Estero in 1932 and in Tucumán, in 1935, was taken advantage of by the Justo government to establish negotiations and pacts with the competing governments of Miguel Mario Campero and Juan Bautista Castro from Santiago, counteracting the accusations of fraud by the Concordancia government, by presenting these examples as a sign of respect for the provincial autonomies, at the same time, which strained Alvear's opposition leadership.

In 1936, worker mobilizations led to a congress that constituted the CGT (General Confederation of Labor) in its definitive form. The new leadership, in support of construction workers, declared the first mass strike in years. Faced with the formation of pickets that limit public circulation and organize rallies to mobilize the undecided, the police were ordered to intervene and acted harshly. In Plaza Once, where the main concentration took place, the actions resulted in deaths, injuries and more than 2,000 arrests. The construction workers, at the center of the dispute, organized themselves into the Workers' Federation of the Construction Industry, related to the Communist Party. An old bill by Sánchez Sorondo was put forward to obtain the outlawing of the Communist Party, which De la Torre fiercely opposed. On May 1, 1936, the CGT called a massive event, in which for the first time all the opposition parties and the labor movement met. That same year, union pressure obtained the sanction of Law 11,729 on employment contracts for the service sector.

That same year, divisions within radicalism were accentuated by the influence of the scandal over the renewal of the concession of the Compañía Hispano-Americana de Electricidad (CHADE), which had bribed the councilors to obtain it, despite having has been the subject of numerous criticisms for non-compliance with concession conditions, the explosive increase in rates and the deficient or non-existent provision of service in the least profitable areas. FORJA denounced the events, and bitter debates arose about them, which had the approval of the president of the National Committee of the U.C.R., former president Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear. In incidents related to them, the young Yrigoyenista leader Arturo Frondizi was attacked by gunfire.^{[citation required]}

Despite Alvear's discredit, he represented the main obstacle to the continuation of the Concordancia government. In 1937, the U.C.R. proclaimed the in-person formula Marcelo T. de Alvear-Enrique Mosca, sweeping the country, and ensuring that not even fraud will be able to stop them. La Concordancia opposed them with the candidacy of the anti-personalist radical Roberto M. Ortiz and the conservative Ramón Castillo. In September the elections were held, in which incidents with deaths and injuries occurred in numerous provincial districts, as well as police intervention against opposition prosecutors. Several provinces were intervened, among them Catamarca, at the head of which Justo had placed the ultra-nationalist and phil-Nazi Gustavo Martínez Zuviría. Even so, the victory went to the radicals in the city of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, La Rioja and Tucumán, but the crucial provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and Mendoza remained in the hands of the Concordancia, which finally consecrated Ortiz as president.

Cabinet of Ministers

Ministries of the Government of Agustín Pedro Justo
Portfolio	Owner	Period
Ministry of the Interior	Leopoldo Melo Ramón S. Castillo Manuel Ramón Alvarado	20 February 1932 - 29 April 1936 6 August 1936 - 21 June 1937 21 June 1937 - 20 February 1938
Ministry of External Relations and Worship	Carlos Saavedra Lamas	20 February 1932 - 20 February 1938
Ministry of Finance	Alberto Hueyo Federico Pinedo Roberto M. Ortiz Carlos Alberto Acevedo	20 February 1932 - 20 August 1933 24 August 1933 - 30 December 1935 4 January 1936 - 21 June 1937 21 June 1937 - 20 February 1938
Ministry of Justice and Public Instruction	Manuel M. de Iriondo Ramón S. Castillo Jorge de la Torre	20 February 1932 - 26 December 1935 4 January 1936 - 6 August 1937 6 August 1936 - 20 February 1938
Ministry of Agriculture	Antonio de Tomaso Luis Duhau Miguel Angel Cárcano	20 February 1932 - 3 August 1933 24 August 1933 - 13 August 1935 4 January 1936 - 20 February 1938
Ministry of Public Works	Manuel Ramón Alvarado Eleazar Videla	20 February 1932 - 1936 1936 - 20 February 1938
Ministry of War	Manuel A. Rodríguez Basil Pertiné	20 February 1932 - 24 February 1936 30 March 1936 - 20 February 1938
Ministerio de Marina	Pedro Segundo Casal Manuel A. Rodríguez Eleazar Videla	20 February 1932 - 7 November 1933 7 November 1933 - 29 January 1934 (int.) 29 January 1934 - 20 February 1938

After the presidency

On February 20, 1938, he handed over the presidential sash to Roberto M. Ortiz, and retired to private life. A great bibliophile, he dedicated a good part of these years to writing an introduction to the work of Mitre, of whom he was an admirer and a determined supporter of his political postulates.

After Ortiz's resignation and death, his differences with Castillo's neutrality policy became increasingly tangible. Justo publicly announced his opinion that Argentina should declare war on the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis, an issue that also bitterly divided the Army. Aspiring for re-election at the end of Castillo's term, it was Justo who notified his Minister of War, General Juan N. Tonazzi, of the coup d'état attempts that were brewing against him, one led by General Ramón Molina. ―among whose leaders were Colonel Eduardo Lonardi and Lieutenant Colonels Urbano de la Vega and Roberto Dalton― and another by General Benjamín Menéndez, supported by Generals Pedro P. Ramírez and Ángel María Zuloaga. Tonazzi dismantled both plans with limited public repercussion.

The figure of Justo, the only one capable of arranging massive support in an army divided between Anglophiles and Germanophiles, worried Castillo, who wanted the election of Robustiano Patrón Costas as his successor. His figure began to be considered the most conducive to leading a Popular Front, made up of the Radical Civic Union, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party and the Progressive Democratic Party, this possibility being debated in the second half of 1942. This support implied the "rehabilitation" definitive of his figure by the sectors that had fought him in the previous decade, arguing that by 1943, Justo & # 34; was far away & # 34; from previous positions and supported "democratic methods" and the "freedom of the individual". However, a cerebral hemorrhage ended his life unexpectedly on January 11, 1943. He was 66 years old. His disappearance cut short the negotiations between the radicals, socialists, communists and progressive democrats to form an electoral front that would confront the conservatives, with the support of the Army and other sectors of the Armed Forces. His death also changed the distribution of influence in the Army and the positions within its ranks in relation to the global armed conflict. The main beneficiaries would actually be the supporters of neutrality, the neutralist sector was perhaps the most important within the Armed Forces, whose most organized group, the GOU, emerged in 1943, would overthrow Castillo a little later, the Germanophile sector took the opportunity to support This movement, although it was a minority in the Armed Forces.

Works

• Just Augustine P. (1939). Preliminary study for the complete works of Bartolomé Mitre. Buenos Aires: La Nación.