Arturo Umberto Illia

Arturo Umberto Illia (Pargamino, August 4, 1900-Córdoba, January 18, 1983) was an Argentine physician and politician, president of the Argentine Nation between October 12, 1963 and on June 28, 1966, when he was overthrown by a civil-military coup. He also served as provincial senator, national deputy and lieutenant governor of Córdoba and in 1962 he was elected governor of the province, a position that the coup against President Frondizi prevented him from assuming. He was also a leader of the Radical Civic Union and the Radical Civic Union of the People.

Illia became president of the Nation in elections controlled by the Armed Forces in which Peronism and communism were outlawed, and they were held while the previous constitutional president Arturo Frondizi was detained. During his government, he tried to annul the oil contracts signed by former President Frondizi with foreign companies, but he ended up annulling a few agreements, renegotiating some, and most of the companies continued producing. National industry was promoted, 23% of the national budget was allocated to education (the highest figure in the country's history), unemployment fell, foreign debt decreased, a literacy plan was carried out and The Minimum, Vital and Mobile Wage Law and the Medicines Law known as the Oñativia Law were sanctioned. During his government, the approval of Resolution 2065 of the United Nations General Assembly also stands out, which recognizes the existence of the territorial dispute over the Malvinas Islands, this being a key element in the continuity of the Argentine claim in the Malvinas case..

He lived almost all his life in his humble house in Cruz del Eje, where he dedicated himself to medicine, and never used his influence in his favor, to the point of having to sell his car while in command and to refuse to use public funds to finance their medical treatment. After his government, he maintained his active political militancy, rejected the retirement that corresponded to him as former president and returned to his town to continue dedicating himself to medicine.

His critics considered that "he was totally oblivious to contemporary issues and concealed this lack with a constant appeal to a visceral optimism and a certain stubbornness", and they judged him harshly due to his repressive and anti-democratic policy against the labor movement and Peronism, especially for the murders and the maintenance of the proscriptive norms. His austere and calm personality was also used by important media and sectors of power affected by his measures, to install the image of a "slow" president..

In a survey carried out in 2013 to establish the hundred "most honest people" in the world according to Argentines, Illia ranked third, behind Pope Francis and one of the fathers of the country, Manuel Belgrano, surpassing Teresa de Calcutta, Mandela and Gandhi.

Biography

He was born on August 4, 1900 in Pergamino, 220 km north of the city of Buenos Aires, in the province of Buenos Aires. His father, Martin Illia (1861-1948), was a native of Samolaco, Val Chiavenna, province of Sondrio, Lombardy and his mother, Emma Francesconi, from Gratacasolo, province of Brescia, Lombardy, Italy.

He attended elementary school up to fourth grade at the Provincial School no. 18 and fifth and sixth grades at the Mixed Normal School of that city. He completed his secondary studies in Buenos Aires, at the Colegio Salesiano Pío IX, in the Almagro neighborhood, as a pupil.

In 1918 he began his medical studies at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires. That same year, the student movement known as the University Reform broke out in Córdoba, which established the principles of a free, free, and co-governed university and profoundly modified the conception and administration of higher education in Argentina and in much of Latin America.

As part of his medical studies, in 1923 he entered the San Juan de Dios Hospital in the city of La Plata as an intern, graduating with a medical degree in 1927.

In 1928 he had an interview (the only one in his entire life) with the then president Hipólito Yrigoyen, to whom he offered his services as a doctor. Yrigoyen suggested that he work as a railway doctor in different locations and Arturo Illia decided to settle in Cruz del Eje, Córdoba. He carried out his activity as a doctor in that town from 1929 to 1963, interrupted by the three years (1940-1943) in which he was lieutenant governor of Córdoba. They called him the Apostle of the Poor , because of his dedication to the sick without resources, traveling on horseback, in sulky , or on foot, to bring medicines that he himself bought.

House in Cruz del Aje, in Córdoba province, where he served as a doctor for 30 years, today museum.

On February 15, 1939, he married Silvia Martorell (1915-1966), daughter of Arturo Martorell and Mercedes Kaswalder, and with whom he had three children: Emma Silvia Illia (in 1940), Martín Arturo Illia (also in 1940) and Leandro Hipólito Illia (in 1946).

From 1963 to 1966 he held the Presidency of the Nation, and after the military coup of June 28, 1966, known as the Argentine Revolution, he moved to Martínez, Province of Buenos Aires, where he lived alternating with trips to Córdoba. He continued an intense political activity within the Radical Civic Union, until his death, on January 18, 1983.

Political career

Illia joined the Radical Civic Union in 1918, strongly influenced by the active radical militancy of his father and his brother Italo. That same year he began his university studies in the midst of the youth mobilization that accompanied the University Reform. Starting in 1929, the year in which he settled in Cruz del Eje, he began an intense political activity that alternated with his professional activity.

In 1935 he was elected provincial senator for the Cruz del Axis Department in the elections held on November 17. In the provincial Senate, he actively participated in the approval of the Agrarian Reform Law, which was approved by the Córdoba Legislature but rejected in the National Congress. He chaired the Budget and Finance Commission and promoted the construction of the Nuevo San Roque, La Viña, Cruz del Eje and Los Alazanes dams.

In the elections of March 10, 1940, he was elected vice-governor of Córdoba, accompanying Governor Santiago del Castillo, a position he assumed on May 17, 1940, until the province was intervened on June 19, 1943.

On April 20, 1948, he became a national deputy, a position he held until April 30, 1952. He was part of the Public Works and Hygiene and Medical Assistance commissions.

After the death of Amadeo Sabattini, he was recognized as a representative of sabattinismo or Línea Córdoba, an internal current of the Unión Cívica Radical formed in the 1930s, which differed so much from unionism, as well as the Intransigence and Renovation Movement. Being a National deputy for Córdoba, he was part of the civilian commandos that helped the coup d'état of 1955.

Road to the presidency

After the coup d'état of September 16, 1955 that overthrew President Juan Domingo Perón, a long period of political instability began again in Argentina. The military outlawed Peronism and its sympathizers resorted to blank voting to express their rejection of the elections called without their participation.

On the other hand, the Radical Civic Union was divided in two, according to the position that each sector assumed against Peronism, rejecting (intransigent radicals) or accepting (radicals of the people) its proscription. In 1962, President Arturo Frondizi, an intransigent radical, partially legalized Peronism, which largely triumphed in the elections to elect provincial governors on March 18, 1962. Eleven days later Frondizi was overthrown, arrested, and imprisoned on Martín García Island, During the early hours of the morning, José María Guido was named provisional president, who annulled the elections, outlawed Peronism again, dissolved Congress and called for new limited elections controlled by the military. Illia had been elected governor of Córdoba in those elections held during the Frondizi government, but he did not manage to take office due to the coup.

At that time, with Peronism outlawed and Frondizi illegally detained, the elections of July 7, 1963 were held in which Illia was the candidate with the most votes, with 25% of the total.

The current electoral system established the indirect election in an Electoral College by an absolute majority of 476 voters, of which the UCRP had only obtained 168. After an agreement with the Federation of Center Parties, the Democratic Socialist Party, the Christian Democratic Party, the Confederation of Provincial Parties and three UCRI voters, which together totaled 102 voters. In the Electoral College session on July 31, the Illia-Perette formula was elected with 270 votes, 31 votes more than the necessary constitutional minimum. Illia's government was questioned from the inauguration, from different fronts and for reasons diverse. Peronism saw the presidency of an entire party line that had cheered the 1955 coup and had been an accomplice in the 1955-1958 dictatorship, providing civil servants. Denied their participation through the electoral processes, political and union struggle would merge, to challenge the government measures and organize the return of Perón.

Presidency

Arturo Illia with the presidential band.

Assumption of President Arturo Illia by Rafael A. From the Zoppo, 1963, in ink and pencil.

Speech at Comodoro Rivadavia who participated in the acts of the Oil Day, accompanied by the then Governor of Chubut, Mr. Roque Gonzalez, Director of YPF, Dr. Facundo Roberto Suárez and the Administrator of the Comodoro Rivadavia Foundation, Dr. Anselmo

Arturo Illia took office on October 12, 1963. His first act of government consisted of eliminating part of the restrictions that weighed on Peronism. Five days after Illia took office, supporters of Peronism held a commemorative act for October 17 in Plaza Miserere.

Some electoral restrictions were lifted, enabling the Partido Justicialista to participate in the legislative elections of 1965, although the ban on General Perón continued in force. The ban on the Communist Party was also lifted. On October 17, 1964, a crowd of Peronists gathered in Plaza Once; during the decentralization there was a violent police repression ordered by Illia. On October 17, 1965, the radical government prohibited the event scheduled in Parque de los Patricios with the presence of María Estela Martínez de Perón; it ended with police repression and 659 workers arrested. Also, in that year, an act in homage to the fallen of 1956 in Parque Las Heras in the city of Buenos Aires was harshly repressed; because of the CGT's plan of struggle, the union was persecuted.

Oil Policy

During his presidential campaign, Arturo Illia promised to dissolve the Investment Guarantee Agreement, as well as the oil contracts that were made during the government of Arturo Frondizi without complying with legal regulations. Once in power, Illia announced that contracts that had been made illegally would be annulled, but clarified that the affected companies would be compensated and that the government had no intention of kicking out foreign oil companies. of the new radical government ended up undermining relations between Argentina and the United States, and the annulment of the oil contracts cost the country international distrust, apart from 200 million dollars in compensation that was paid to the affected oil companies, and the return to oil imports.

The radical government believed that the decision would not substantially affect international relations with the United States, but although President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his team maintained a position of respect for the Argentine decision as long as it established a mechanism of "equitable compensation", the "hawks" sector, among which was the ambassador on Argentine soil, Robert McClintock, and the envoy Averel Harriman, began pressure actions on the Illia government to force him to maintain the validity of the contracts, even when they were illegal. Pressure from the hard sector on the Argentine government escalated to the point that Illia even expelled the US ambassador from Quinta de Olivos, while Blanco and Harriman the following dialogue, transcribed at that time by the newspaper Clarín:

"Lord," he wanted to know White after a rough dispute: "Who do you represent? President Kennedy or oil companies?" The American answered, "Look, it's really hard to say, since the companies are American."

The government organized an investigative commission in Congress, the results of which were reported in October 1964. Although the hardest wing of the Radical government, headed by Perette, wanted to limit itself to annulling the thirteen contracts, Illia took the position of the moderate sector, which proposed annulling the contracts that had violated the law, recognizing the corresponding compensation and renegotiating them properly.

Thus, President Illia, through decrees 744/63 and 745/63 of November 15, 1963, annulled the contracts that YPF had signed with foreign oil companies during Frondizi's administration. Decree 744/63 declared "nullity of absolute nullity, for vices of illegitimacy and being harmful to the rights and interests of the Nation" to the YPF contracts with the companies C.M. Loeb, Rhoades and Co. (Argentina-Cities Service Development Company at the time of contract cancellation); Astra, Compañía Argentina de Petróleo SA; CADIPSA; Continental Oil Company of Argentina; Esso S.A.P.A-Esso Argentina Inc.; The Ohio Oil Co. (Marathon Petroleum Argentina Ltd.); Pan American Argentina Oil Co.; Shell Production Company of Argentina Ltd.; Tennessee Argentina S.A.; Union Oil Co. California. While Decree 745/63 annulled YPF's agreements with the companies Southeastern Drilling Co.; Kerr-Mc Gee Oil Industries Inc. (Transworld Drilling Company) and SAIPEM (ENI) (SNAM S.P.A. Societá Nazionale Metanodotti at the time of contract cancellation). The major media outlets criticized the decrees that ended the contracts.

The contracting companies rejected the terms used by the government, as they also rejected the tax and punitive clauses of the new agreement, which forced the companies to return the value of the taxes paid by the State -according to contracts on behalf of the companies -, and established compensation to YPF "for having been forced to restrict its production to accept the oil extracted by the companies". Some companies like Esso and Shell refused to give up their legal rights, putting YPF in a position of being unable to negotiate. The state oil company only occupied the areas handed over to Cities Service and Pan American Argentina Oil Company. While the oil companies rejected the extrajudicial pact offered by the Illia government, disagreements and disagreements began to arise within the commission in charge of the renegotiations, and precisely on October 20, 1964, the opinions of the Special Investigative Commission on Petroleum were known., which had been designated by the National Congress. The Commission, which was made up of 16 deputies, worked for 113 days and took statements from 64 witnesses. There were fights during some of the sessions between the members of the Commission and the deponents, some people refused to testify. The divisions among the members of the Commission led to the presentation of six opinions, instead of only one as was scheduled.

A report by the United States Chamber of Commerce from early 1964 detailed that the decline in foreign investment in Argentina was largely a consequence of the failure to ratify the Investment Guarantee Agreement with the United States, which of the annulment of the oil contracts. In detail, foreign investments fell from 100 to 120 million dollars received in 1962, to only 34.6 million in 1963 and just over 33 million in 1964.

As a consequence, YPF lost its self-sufficiency, and in addition, oil production in 1965 was lower than that of the previous year. However, Illia rectified the contract cancellation policy, and the companies continued in the country. Only Shell and Esso, which had signed exploration contracts to increase YPF's reserves, with the mining risk clause, immediately accepted the annulment and recovered the fifty million dollars invested which, due to the mining risk clause, they would have lost by not finding productive deposits. Argentina Cities Service (formerly Banca Loeb) and Amoco (formerly Panamericam) continued extracting the Mendoza and Comodoro Rivadavia deposits.

Oil production, which increased from 1958 to 1963 at a general average of 20% per year, decreased between 1964 and 1966, to the point of barely reaching 2% per year. The rate of well drilling decreased from 1,093 wells drilled annually, during the first cited period, to only 588 average wells per year drilled in the period 1964 to 1966.

The annulment of the oil concessions undermined relations between Argentina and the United States, while the indemnities reached 200 million dollars. Argentina once again imported oil, but at lower prices and with less impact on the balance of payments than what was established by the Frondizi concessions.

The declaration of nullity of the oil contracts signed by Frondizi has been the subject of historical debate. In general, sectors opposed to state intervention in the economy and in favor of reducing or eliminating regulations for foreign investment question Illia's decision and consider it "a strategic error." These sectors cite in their support a statement made in 1987 by the then radical president Raúl Alfonsín, criticizing "statism" of the UCR and considering that the annulment of the oil deals made by Frondizi had been a mistake. On the contrary, the sectors that consider that multinational companies and foreign investments must comply with Argentine laws and are in favor of a determining role of the State in oil production consider Illia's decision as an act of defense of the rule of law and Argentine interests.

The media criticized the decrees that annulled the contracts, in addition to considering them an error that would return the country to shortages, they also demanded respect for the division of powers.

(...) Does the Executive Power have sufficient capacity and powers to proceed, as announced, by decree to cancel these contracts? It is alleged in favour of this that they are concessional and not of location of works and/or services. That, therefore, they are contracts of public law and the executive branch has enough powers to have their nullity together.

Letter from Enrique Figueroa to President Illia.

Thus, when, after a first positive year, the economic situation began to unravel and signs of a frank recession appeared around 1966, criticism began to intensify and -except for some radical sectors, other small parties and a large part of the university media-, a popular majority and almost all social organizations believed a coup was necessary.

At the same time, the criminal trial derived from the investigations of the National Prosecutor for Administrative Investigations and the Investigative Commission of the Chamber of Deputies and of the actions of the Executive Power that inevitably led to the conviction of those most responsible, Arturo Frondizi, is taking place., Rogelio Julio Frigerio and Arturo Sabato. The Federal Criminal and Correctional Chamber, in a decision of July 4, 1967, held that "the facts denounced as criminal offenses would constitute, in principle, the crimes of usurpation of authority, violation of the duties of public officials, bribery, Negotiations incompatible with the exercise of public functions.

Minimum, vital and mobile wage law

On June 15, 1964, Law 16,459 on the minimum, vital and mobile salary was published in the Official Gazette, prior to the constitution of the Salary Council, made up of representatives of the Government, employers and unions, in order to of "avoiding the exploitation of workers in those sectors in which there may be an excess of labor", "ensuring an adequate minimum income" and "improving the wages of the poorest workers".

With the same objectives, the Supply Law was promoted, aimed at controlling the prices of the family basket and the setting of minimum amounts for retirement and pensions.

Medication Law

Law 16,463 —also called the Oñativia Law, in homage to Minister Arturo Oñativia, or simply, of Medicines— sanctioned on July 23, 1964 and promulgated on August 9, 1964, was approved by all the blocs, except UDELPA and the Federation of Center Parties. It established a drug price and control policy that froze prices at those in effect at the end of 1963, set limits for advertising expenses, and imposed limits on the possibility of making payments abroad for royalties and the purchase of inputs. The regulation of the Law through decree 3042/65 also established the obligation for companies to submit a cost analysis by sworn statement and to formalize all existing royalty contracts.

This law arises from a study carried out by a commission created by Illia on 300,000 samples of medicines. Many of these medicines were not manufactured with the formula declared by the laboratory and their price exceeded the cost of production by 100%.^{[citation required]}

Supporters, opponents and impartial observers agreed that this policy had a decisive weight in the political process that culminated in the overthrow of the president at the hands of a military coup.

Other measures in the public health sector were the obligation to incorporate a percentage of iodine in the formulation of table salt, the creation of the National Drinking Water Service, which financed the necessary works to ensure the supply of water to rural localities, and the National Hospital System Reform Law.

Education policy

Illia receiving French President Charles de Gaulle in October 1964.

Illia receiving the Chilean president, Eduardo Frei Montalva.

Illia's educational policy increased the percentage of the national budget dedicated to education, which went from 12% in 1963, to 17% in 1964 and to 23% in 1965. The newspaper Las Voz de Córdoba, maintains that this last percentage was the highest in Argentine history. Researcher Graciela Riquelme came to different conclusions, who has detailed the annual variation of consolidated spending between 1960 and 1999, and established that the years with the highest increase were 1973 (32.2%), 1983 (25.5%), 1962 (25.4%), 1978 (24.4%), 1974 (23.0%), 1984 (19.3%), 1964 (16.2%), 1965 (12.8%) and 1997 (10.4%). In the 1960s, Riquelme's research recorded an increase of 46% in the two years prior to Illia, and during the Illia government an increase of 29% for the remaining two years (1964-1965): 16.2% in 1964 and 12.8% in 1965.

Other sources indicate that public spending on education was below 3% of GDP before the 1980s, and only exceeded that percentage in 1985, 4% in 1999 and 5% in 2007. After, in the 1990s, the non-university educational system was transferred to the provinces, the bulk of educational spending fell on the provincial and municipal budgets and the percentage of the national budget allocated to education was correspondingly reduced, being 7.58% in 2007, 7.02% in 2013, 6.12% in 2014, 6.95% in 2015, 4.93% in 2019 and 5.73% in 2021.

Shortly before the coup, there were large mobilizations to demand an increase in the university budget. The mobilizations were massive and ended with arrests. The slogans against the government were harsh, they beat Illia for being a "turtle" and inefficient, under the slogan "pumpkin, vegetables, Illia to the trash. from the Peronist right, which conspired with a group of soldiers, thus contributing the students to the formation of that chaotic and destabilizing climate.

On November 5, 1964, the National Literacy Plan was launched with the aim of reducing the illiteracy rate, which, according to the 1960 Census, was 8.5% and 7.4%. % in 1970. Illiteracy in Argentina registers a constant downward trend since 1869: 77.4% (1869), 53.3% (1895), 35.9% (1914), 13.6% (1947), 8.5% (1960), 7.4% (1970), 6.1% (1980), 3.7% (1991), 1.9% (2010). In June 1965, the Program it had twelve thousand five hundred literacy centers and its task reached three hundred and fifty thousand students from eighteen to eighty-five years of age.

Economic policy

Under the leadership of Eugenio Blanco, the government of Illia adopted an economic policy of ECLAC-Keynesian orientation that aimed at a global expansion of the economy. Among other measures, the Sindicatura de Empresas del Estado (Sindicatura de Empresas del Estado) was created, in order to have a more effective control of public companies, and the Minimum, Vital and Mobile Wage Law was sanctioned, to guarantee a mandatory income floor for salaried people, from of the worker-employer agreement.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which had fallen for two consecutive years (1962 and 1963) -something that had not happened since the Crisis of 1930-, rose 10.3% in 1964, 9.1% in 1965 and 0.6% in 1966, going from 108 billion pesos in 1963, to 134 billion pesos in 1966. Unemployment, which had reached a historical record in July 1963, dropped to 4.6% in October 1965, and grew a little in 1966, reaching 5.2%. The real hourly wage grew by 9.6% between December 1963 and December 1964. Inflation, which in the previous two months had remained at 26%, fell in 1964 to 22.1%, but rose in 1965 to 28.6% and in 1966 to 31.9% -the highest in the 1990s. 1960.

The balance of payments showed positive figures (more exports than imports): in 1963 it had been 183.8 million dollars and in the following years it was 384.4 in 1964, 293 in 1965 and 468.9 in 1966 The external debt decreased from 3,400 million dollars to 2,600 million. Despite this, the peso devalued considerably: 19.5% in 1963, 13.4% in 1964 and 55.1% -the highest rate of the decade-, remaining stable in 1966.

Due to the strong increase in production, the fiscal deficit fell from 6.79% in 1962 and 6.13% in 1963 to 5.82% in 1964, 3.59% in 1965 and 4.19% in 1966, in relation to GDP, but in real terms, State spending increased by 25%.

Gerchunoff and Llach point out that in 1966, despite the positive numbers shown by the economy, "the feeling, spread by critics, that the economy was headed for a new recession" had prevailed, thus contributing to creating a climate of disqualification of the government, described by public opinion as "Slow, mediocre, anachronistic, improvised, incompetent", which fueled the 1966 coup.

In this context, the recently created Coordinating Action of Free Business Institutions (ACIEL), which brought together the main Argentine business organizations (Sociedad Rural Argentina, the Argentine Industrial Union, the Argentine Chamber of Commerce and the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange), published a memorandum strongly critical of what they called "misguided economic management" formulating a series of questions: a policy of salary increases in the public sector had led the private sector to the same conduct; the unilateral annulment of oil contracts; the restoration of private companies; the reform of article 49 of the Organic Charter of the Central Bank; the increase in taxes; the elimination of tax incentives to increase productive capacity; the inopportune and deficient state commercialization of a part of the crops; the requirement of prior import deposits.

Di Tella and Dornbusch argue that capital formation weakened during the period, with a 20% drop in gross investment between 1961 and 1964. Public investment experienced the same magnitude. The cost of living index was a reflection of inflationary pressures: it increased by almost 40% in 1964 and 29% in 1965, despite the sharp fall in agricultural prices. In the fiscal sector, the expansion of public spending was supported by the deterioration of public investment, especially in the railway sector. At the same time, the fiscal deficit went from 4,715.1 million pesos in 1962 to 2,778.9 million in 1965. The data from Di Tella and Dornbusch do not coincide with those used by Gerchunoff and Llach.

Persecution facts

Illia maintained the political ban on former President Juan Domingo Perón, leader of the main opposition party, who was in exile in Spain. In 1964, he prevented former President Perón from entering Argentina by requesting the Brazilian military dictatorship to stop the plane in which he was traveling to Buenos Aires.

In 1963, he did not accept the request of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) to investigate the disappearance of the militant metallurgical union Felipe Vallese.

In 1964, the government sanctioned the artist Hugo del Carril, excluding him from the Argentine delegation to the Acapulco Film Festival, for having shown the film Buenas noches, Buenos Aires to Perón, who was in exile in Spain.

The Ministry of Labor imposed fines and requested embargoes on the assets of various union leaders due to having approved the Plan to Fight against the government. and Felipe Vallese, and repressed with the police the opposition's attempt to carry out the acts, with numerous injuries and arrests. That same year he suspended the trade union status of the Footwear, Construction, Health and Rubber unions.

In 1966, without prior consultation with the union organizations, as suggested by recommendation no. unions, the law also established that union budgets had to be approved by the Executive Branch, altering union independence and seen as a tool to hinder the actions of opposition unions. Foreign debt was another serious problem. 56.2% of it expired in the next three years, that is, in 1966, for which it was decided to renegotiate it with the Paris Club. While the Executive Branch sent a supply bill to Congress, with the purpose of controlling the increase in the cost of living, businessmen and union members agreed in their criticism, considering that the measures adopted were not enough to solve unemployment and the economic paralysis of the country. Between May 21 and June 24, workers occupied more than 11,000 industrial establishments.

The murders of Mussy, Méndez and Retamar

CGT poster protesting the murders of José Gabriel Mussy, Néstor Méndez and Angel Retamar.

In October and November 1965, the workers José Gabriel Mussy, Néstor Méndez and Ángel Retamar were assassinated by the police, as a consequence of the police repression ordered to suppress the demonstrations called by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) on the 21st of October, prohibited by President Illia.

José Gabriel Mussy, 25, was a Peronist SIAM worker who was assassinated in San Justo while marching in a column of about 50 metal workers. Upon arriving at Mosconi and Camino de Cintura, they found a police van belonging to the Güemes Group, from which four uniformed policemen and two in civilian clothes got out, threatened with their weapons. The workers ran and the police fired, killing Mussy and wounding Manuel Rodríguez.

Néstor Méndez was a bank worker, a member of the Communist Youth Federation. The criminal investigation was closed 18066/65 without convictions. A plaque with his name was placed in his memory in the Plaza La Roche in Morón.

Ángel Retamar was a Peronist metalworker at the SIAM factory. He was heading towards the Plaza San Justo in the company of the factory representative, Amílcar Torres. Shortly before reaching the square, they came across a group of protesters fleeing from the police. As he fled, he was wounded by a burst from a machine gun, as were Torres and two other protesters. He died of his injuries on November 1, 1965. The judicial investigation established the name of the perpetrators but was shelved without trial.

Neither Illia, nor the governor of the province of Buenos Aires in charge of Anselmo Marini, also a radical, called for the resignation of the Buenos Aires police chief, Commissioner López Aguirre.

Foreign Relations

In view of the US invasion of the Dominican Republic and the possible dispatch of Argentine troops, the students led large mobilizations against Illia, which were joined by the CGT, left-wing parties and Peronism. This gave rise to multiple protests. On May 7, there was a massive demonstration of university students around the National Congress. The conflict worsened and stood out for its attendance and wide call for the demonstration on May 12. Convened by the Argentine University Federation, the CGT and the Humanist League, it brought together some 7,000 people, and representatives of the Justicialista Party, the Argentine Socialist Party, the Democratic Party, the Communist Party and the Christian Democracy spoke from the box. Towards the end of the act, an 18-year-old medical student, Daniel Horacio Grinbank, was killed by the police, and shots were directed at Paulino Niembro, a UOM union leader, when he wanted to speak. Twenty people were injured.

Malvinas

Text of resolution 2065.

During Illia's presidency, on December 16, 1965, the United Nations approved resolution 2065 of the General Assembly, which recognized the existence of a sovereignty dispute between the United Kingdom and Argentina over the Malvinas Islands. The then Argentine representative to the United Nations (and later appointed by Illia ambassador to the Soviet Union), Lucio García del Solar, was one of the main promoters of the resolution, along with Bonifacio del Carril, appointed extraordinary ambassador by Illia The resolution was a diplomatic triumph for the Illia government.

In 1964, the government of Illia proposed to achieve through the decolonization process begun in the 1950s that pressure from the United Nations would force the United Kingdom to sit down for the first time at the negotiating table, annulling the British pretensions to validate the status quo through a partial interpretation of the right of self-determination to apply to the Kelpers. The resolution was expressly accepted by both countries and in January 1966, the Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom and Argentina met in Buenos Aires where they expressed their intention to maintain the negotiations recommended by Resolution 2065, beginning the negotiations for the transfer of sovereignty of the islands, interrupted in 1982.

On January 3, 1966, on the 133rd anniversary of the British occupation of the archipelago, Illia decreed the founding of the National Institute of the Malvinas and Adjacencies Islands to deal in depth with the Malvinas Question and chaired by Ernesto J. Fitte. The following year, the Institute was dissolved by Nicanor Costa Méndez by decree of February 14, 1967.

Cabinet

Throughout his presidency he kept the same heads in the cabinet, except for Eugenio Blanco, who died in office, and had to be replaced by Juan Carlos Pugliese in August 1964.

Ministries of the Government of Arturo Umberto Illia
Portfolio	Owner	Period
Ministry of the Interior	Juan Palmero	12 October 1963 – 28 June 1966
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship	Miguel Ángel Zavala Ortiz	12 October 1963 – 28 June 1966
Ministry of Economy	Eugenio Blanco Juan Carlos Pugliese	12 October 1963 – 4 August 1964 19 August 1964 – 28 June 1966
Ministry of Education and Justice	Carlos Alconada Aramburú	12 October 1963 – 28 June 1966
Ministry of Social Welfare and Public Health	Arturo Oñativia	12 October 1963 – 28 June 1966
Ministry of Public Works and Services	Miguel Ferrando	12 October 1963 – 28 June 1966
Ministry of National Defence	Leopoldo Suárez	12 October 1963 – 28 June 1966
Ministry of Labour and Social Security	Fernando Solá	12 October 1963 – 28 June 1966

Causes of the overthrow

Manifestation against Illia. The photo corresponds to the cover of an edition of the Panorama of 1966.

The government of Illia (like that of Frondizi) had to admit the fact of having been elected in unfree elections, due to the proscription of Peronism —many of whose supporters voted blank, obtaining the second minority— and the imprisonment of President Frondizi, who had won the previous elections and had been overthrown by the military.

The lack of recognition of the legitimacy of the government of Illia by the Peronist and frondizista citizens, was aggravated by a plan of struggle of the labor movement, affected by the government's decision to sanction a union legislation without consulting the unions and not to investigate the disappearance of the union militant Felipe Vallese.

The government of Illia reduced the persecution against Peronism, but maintained the prohibition that Perón returned to the country and that the unions -mostly Peronists- supported any political current. In October 1964, the National Congress repealed Decree Law 4161 of 1956, which punished the promotion of Peronist ideas and symbols with imprisonment, and shortly after enacted Law No. 16,652 on Political Parties, without including an explicit prohibition on Peronism, nor communism. Simultaneously, Perón began his return to the country on December 2, 1964, but Illia prevented it by requesting the Brazilian dictatorship to arrest him when he made a stopover in Rio de Janeiro and force him to return to Spain. For its part, the Justicialista Party reorganized itself to participate in the elections, but it was again prohibited at the national level -exceptionally authorized in Mendoza-, this time by the electoral justice, arguing that there was a "vital identity and sociological dependence on the Justicialista Party with the Movement or Peronist Party".

The government then called legislative elections for March 14, 1965. Due to the new proscription at the national level, Peronism presented itself through the Unión Popular party, which triumphed widely in the elections with 3,278,434 votes against 2,734,970 of the Radical Civic Union of the People. Although the UCRP improved its performance with respect to 1963 and achieved considerable success in the competition for the anti-Peronist vote in general and the radical one in particular (with the Unión Cívica Radical Intransigente falling into political irrelevance), the triumph of Peronism stirred up the internal situation. of the armed forces.

Media and business opposition

The Rural Society and the Industrial Union had united in an anti-state association called ACIEL (Coordinated Action of Free Business Institutions). Both persistently attacked the state deficit, the government's penchant for price and exchange controls, its protectionism of public companies such as YPF, and the decision to keep agricultural leases imposed under the Ramírez government in 1943 frozen.

The national press corporation and the foreign press collaborated in the smear campaign that began against the president and members of his cabinet accused of slowness and inactivity. Newspapers like El Mundo and Crónica published cartoons in which Illia was seen represented as a turtle. The General Confederation of Labor of the Argentine Republic (CGT) carried out the "turtle operation" that consisted of sowing the center of Buenos Aires with that animal carrying the words "Illia or government" painted on its shell.

The campaign against Illia was carried out systematically by a group of journalists and media, such as Mariano Grondona in Primera Plana (author after the first coup military communiqués), Bernardo Neustadt in the Todo Magazine and finally, those of Mariano Montemayor. For this, the image of a turtle was used, to characterize the presidential management as timorous and lack of energy. Simultaneously, the personality of military chiefs was highlighted, in particular Juan Carlos Onganía, contrasting him with the image of politicians, encouraging his intervention to "safeguard the Homeland."

International opposition and dirty war

Brindis with the Brig. Gral. Carlos Armanini, on the day of the Argentine Air Force in 1965.

Finally by then, the United States, within the framework of the Cold War, was already beginning to openly promote State terrorism and the installation of permanent military dictatorships in Latin America, promoted from the School of the Americas installed in Panama, within of the so-called National Security Doctrine. As the first step on that path, military forces had installed a permanent military government in Brazil in 1964 by overthrowing President João Goulart.

Planning the coup to overthrow Illia that would later bring Lieutenant General Juan Carlos Onganía to power is the responsibility of the commander of the First Corps of the Army, then Major General Julio Rodolfo Alsogaray, with the consent of the then commander in chief of the Argentine Army, Lieutenant General Pascual Pistarini and the adhesion of the head of the Argentine Navy, Admiral Benigno Varela and that of the Argentine Air Force, Brigadier General Adolfo Álvarez.

The idea of the coup was not only claimed by sectors of the conservative press, but was also supported by some political sectors that had been outlawed, illegalized or violently overthrown.

Minor conflicts during his tenure:

Desert Lagoon Incident:

On November 6, 1965, there was a confrontation between Argentine gendarmes and Chilean police officers in an area of Laguna del Desierto, west of Santa Cruz. A Chilean officer, Hernán Merino Correa, died there, this lagoon was being disputed by both countries.

Guerrilla incursion in Salta:

Shortly after taking office, Illia received a letter from an organization called "The guerrilla army of the people," who asked for his resignation and called for free elections, the group in question was led by Jorge Masseti, a journalist obsessed with the idea of replicating the Cuban revolution in Argentina. His "army" It was made up of Argentines and Cubans, trained and armed in Cuba, they were installed in Salta waiting for Che Guevara, in the end they failed resoundingly, Che never arrived, they did not add more people and practically all the members ended up decimated by the security forces. Masseti disappeared and was never heard from again.

The military sector

Illia at the time of his presidential assumption. At his side, the headlines of the Navy, Eladio Modesto Vázquez and the Army, Juan Carlos Onganía.

Rumors of possible coups harassed the Radical government throughout its administration, and Vice President Perette's sympathies for the colorados military only complicated the situation, since the rise of Juan Carlos Onganía a Lieutenant General gave a resounding triumph to the blues and discouraged the intentions of reincorporation of the retired reds. The blues and colorados were an internal division of the armed forces with respect to Peronism.

The military discontent was combined with a strong smear campaign, promoted by conservative economic sectors that harshly criticized certain policies of the radical government, such as the Drug Law, oil policy and a certain autonomy of the United States in international politics.

In summary, the military had the task of executing a complex right-wing coalition made up of a power group, which contained nuclei of a political-economic nature within it, grouping together various actors. Politically, political parties made excessive opposition; the enmity with the United States due to ideological discrepancies and resentments in oil policy exasperated the military.

Economically, there were national companies (press, medicines, etc.) and multinational oil companies affected by the annulment of million-dollar contracts.

Coup of 1966

Photographs of Illia leaving the Casa Rosada on the day of its overthrow, a crowd accompanies him.

On June 28, 1966, on a cold winter morning, the military coup took place amid the indifference of the citizenry. The military forced Arturo Illia to abandon the presidency and take power again.

General Julio Rodolfo Alsogaray, Brigadier Rodolfo Pío Otero —head of the Casa Rosada Military House—, Colonel Luis Perlinger and a group of officers appeared at the presidential office to ask him to leave the Casa de Government, ensuring their physical integrity at all times. He flatly refused and after a heated discussion he told them: "I am the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces", causing the soldiers to leave the office. Faced with the strong refusal, the police officers entered with gas launchers, while the troops completely surrounded the Casa Rosada. Perlinger once again asked the president to withdraw, assuring him that otherwise "he would not be able to guarantee the safety of the people who accompanied him." Finally, Illia chose to leave the place.

Arturo Illia drinking mate, a widespread drink in Argentina.

Surrounded by his collaborators, he went down the stairs to the ground floor, crossed through the entrance and went to the street, he was able to reach the exit door of the Government House surrounded by a lot of people who he kept screaming... They offered him a car from the presidency, but he rejected it. That's when he saw the one who had been his Minister of Education, Alconada Aramburu, approaching among the people and telling him to go with him. He followed him and they got into his car. Inside were seven people. This is how we arrived at the house of his brother in the Buenos Aires town of Martínez.

The following day, General Juan Carlos Onganía took office, calling himself the coup Argentine Revolution.

Later activity and death

Illia resigned from his retirement as president and remained relatively far from political function, taking into account that there were dictatorships in 14 of the 17 years that followed until his death, although he continued to be linked to the UCR. He returned to Cruz del Eje, where he resumed the practice of medicine.

Some sources maintain that in the last years of his life he fell into poverty and had no property. Other sources also indicate, without further precision, that he worked as an employee in a bakery, that he simply attended the bakery of a friend, or that he treated his patients in said bakery as a doctor.

He died in that town on January 18, 1983, shortly before the return of democracy. His remains were veiled in a radical headquarters in the city of Córdoba and later in the Blue Room of the National Congress.

Radical Pantheon at the Buenos Aires Recoleta Cemetery where Arturo Illia is buried.

His co-religionists consider Illia an exemplary politician, due to his honesty and incorruptible personality. He had only one house, simple and austere, which was the only real estate with which he retired as president of the Nation, which was donated to him.

His critics, such as the radical historian Félix Luna, considered that "he was totally oblivious to contemporary issues and hid this lack with a constant appeal to a visceral optimism and a certain stubbornness", or they judged him harshly due to its repressive and anti-democratic policy against the labor movement and Peronism, especially the assassinations and the maintenance of proscriptive norms.

Despite expressly requesting to be buried in Cruz del Eje, his remains rest in the Pantheon for the Fallen in the Revolution of 1890 (popularly known as the Panteón Radical), of the Recoleta Cemetery, in the city of Buenos Aires. In that mausoleum, in addition to Illia, rest Leandro N. Alem, Hipólito Yrigoyen and Elpidio González, among other leaders of the Radical Civic Union.

Awards

Arturo Illia received the following distinctions:

• Great Cross of the Legion of Honor (October 1964, France).
• Great Necklace of the Order of Pahlaví (May 1965, Iran).
• Grand Cross adorned with the Grand Cord of the Order to Merit (8 September 1965, Italy).
• Collar of the Order to Merit Bernardo O'Higgins (October 1965, Chile).
• Mahatma Gandhi International Prize “for the services provided for the humanization of power” (January 1982).

In popular culture

Argentine actor Luis Brandoni played the role of Arturo Illia in the play Don Arturo Illia (2011). The work narrates both his presidency and his activity as a doctor after the exercise of the highest magistracy. On that occasion, he declared that: "I was invited to do this work in 2009. I declined the invitation, because in my profession I always had the premise of not smuggling politics"; When asked why he changed his mind, he replied: "I was thinking that Illia is beyond, he is a historical character."

Family relations

His son Leandro Illia is a leader of the Radical Civic Union, and one of the initiators, from the Law School of Córdoba, of the student group Franja Morada and of the National Coordinating Board. His grandson Leandro Arturo Ismael Illia he is a journalist. Former Vice President of the Argentine Nation Gabriela Michetti is her maternal great-grandniece.