Alejandro Olmos

Alejandro Olmos (San Miguel de Tucumán, May 1, 1924 – April 24, 2000) was an Argentine politician, journalist and historian, one of the greatest authorities on the study of debt external. With a strongly nationalist ideology, he mobilized during his long political life against numerous projects for the privatization of national assets, and carried out a long legal process denouncing the illegitimacy of the debt contracted with international credit organizations by several Argentine governments considering which is the biggest scam against Argentines since that external debt is an illegitimate debt or odious debt.

Biography

Youth

Olmos, born in Tucumán, studied in Buenos Aires. Still a high school student, at the age of 13 he began his journalistic career with a program on LRA1 Radio Nacional; Already then he was participating in the activities of the nationalist groups grouped around José Luis Torres.

Unlike the fundamentalist and Catholic-style nationalisms of previous decades, which had focused on defending national identity against the cosmopolitan influence of immigrants and promoting traditional forms of organization of agricultural production against the secular and factory developmentalism of the Generation of '80, the nationalist movements of the thirties took shape from the Yrigoyenista initiative to make room for the masses in the political sphere, and its program of national strengthening had as its axis the demolition of the urban and estanciera oligarchies where fundamentalist nationalism had its main foothold.

In the political context of the Infamous Decade —a concept elaborated by Torres— this implied active militancy against foreign interference in the national economy, whether through credit agencies or through direct investment in strategic sectors, both channels used extensively during the government of José Félix Uriburu. Olmos, a member of the National Union of Secondary Students, carried out intense political activism outside party lines; During his studies at the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires, he continued his contact with the anti-imperialist intelligentsia, especially that grouped around Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz and close to FORJA, which preluded the workerist discourse that would later characterize Peronism..

The historical-political studies of FORJA highlighted the British influence in the diminished evolution of the economic capacity of the South American countries, above all based on the complicity of Buenos Aires commercial interests. Olmos and the movement lobbied intensely against the granting of further privileges to foreign powers and the revocation of those granted until a very recent date, such as those agreed upon by the Roca-Runciman Pact.

During the first Peronism

In 1943 Olmos supported the self-styled Revolution of 1943, which overthrew the government of Ramón Castillo —elected fraudulently— to place General Arturo Rawson in government. Although there were important ideological differences between the Grupo de Oficiales Unidos (GOU), the main actor in the coup, and the nationalism of Scalabrini Ortiz and Arturo Jauretche —especially with regard to the verticalism, Catholic affiliation and Germanophilia of the former—, the The nationalist character of the GOU and its willingness not to give in to the North American and British pressure that promoted Argentina's entry into World War II were reasons for an unstable but lasting alliance.

When, by the Treaty of Chapultepec, Argentina finally declared war on the Axis forces, Olmos filed an appeal before the federal courts trying to challenge it. His action had support within the Single Party of the National Revolution —the alliance formed by the Junta Renovadora of the UCR, the Labor Party and the Independent Party that would give rise to the Justicialista Party— and a group of deputies headed by John William Cooke voted against party discipline, arguing that the Treaty condemned Argentina to the loss of its national sovereignty.

Olmos's difficult relations with the Peronist movement would continue in the following years; When, in 1947, the general director of Military Fabrications, Manuel Savio, presented the draft of the National Steel Plan —which would eventually become Law 12,987, called the "Savio Law"—, Olmos protested energetically against the participation of Eximbank —the official credit agency of the United States government— in the undertaking and the guarantee of profitability that was offered to him. Deputy Cipriano Reyes echoed Olmos' challenge and presented it to the Chamber of Deputies, giving rise to a heated debate.

Olmos took legal action against Perón, which landed him in jail. It would not be until 1950 when Cooke^{[citation required]}, who, like Olmos, was part of the Juan Manuel de Rosas Historical Society, would mediate to reestablish relations between the two. That same year, Olmos and Cooke were among the founders of the Popular Commission for the Repatriation of the Remains of Rosas, which sought to obtain the transfer of the remains of the Buenos Aires caudillo as part of its strategy to rehabilitate the his historical nationalism.

The Liberating Revolution, the return of Peronism and the Process

On September 16, 1955, the Revolución Libertadora, a military coup led by Eduardo Lonardi, overthrew the constitutional government of Juan Domingo Perón and outlawed Peronism, also severely restricting union militancy. Olmos, who should not have gone into hiding as he had not been part of Peronism, did not take long to organize opposition to the Lonardi regime and his immediate ultraliberal successor, Pedro Eugenio Aramburu.

On November 13 of that same year, the first issue of Palabra Argentina saw the light of day, a newspaper that vindicated the rights of the outlawed Peronism, denounced the complicity of the United States ambassador, Spruille Braden, with the dictator Pedro Eugenio Aramburu, and systematically denounced the excesses committed by his de facto government. The weekly Palabra Argentina would be closed repeatedly by the Aramburu regime.

In 1956, after the firing squad of Peronist militants on June 9 in the so-called massacre of José León Suárez, Olmos organized a march of silence in homage to those executed. By virtue of Decree-Law 4161/56 of Prohibition of elements of ideological affirmation or Peronist propaganda , the government ordered his capture, and Olmos had to go into hiding. He was arrested, and remained in jail until the triumph of Arturo Illia in the 1963 elections.

In 1970 Olmos founded the newspaper Tercer Frente, related to the left wing of the Peronist movement, which was highly radicalized during Perón's exile. In 1975 he was appointed advisor to the Minister of the Interior Roberto Ares, a position he would occupy, his first participation in the national government, until March 24, 1976, when the government was deposed by a junta, giving rise to the Process of National Reorganization.

Research on Argentina's foreign debt

Towards the end of the Process, on April 4, 1982, he filed a complaint against José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz and other civic-military government officials for taking on foreign debt. He would carry the cause forward for 18 years, founding the Foro Argentino de la Deuda Externa to promote it.

During the presidency of Raúl Alfonsín, the creation of an Illicit Commission in the Senate was due to his initiative; he was adviser to it and to the senate economic commission until 1989. In the interim, he was a member of the Argentine delegation to the International Labor Organization in Geneva between 1986 and 1987. In 1990 he published his argument in book form with the title Everything you wanted to know about foreign debt and was always hidden from you.

Federal criminal judge Jorge Ballesteros definitively terminated the criminal case on July 13, 2000, proving more than 470 illegal acts. Among the proven facts is the taking of debt by companies public, such as YPF, which were later allocated by the government for other purposes. Also the illegitimate nationalization of the private debt that was carried out in 1982. Despite acknowledging the commission of crimes, Ballesteros declared that they were prescribed, so none of those involved faced any penalty. Although this ruling qualified the external debt as "illegitimate and fraudulent", no measure was taken to remedy the situation (contrary to the provisions of the Procedural Code) and only He decided to send a copy of his sentence to the Legislative Branch so that it could take care of the matter.

After Carlos Menem assumed the presidency in 1989, he dedicated himself to private action until his death on April 24, 2000. His son, Alejandro Olmos Gaona, continues to investigate the national foreign debt, considering that the origin of the It is itself in the commissions of the intermediaries and its renegotiations constitute a clear fraud.