Juan Pistarini

Juan Pistarini (Victoria, December 23, 1882-Buenos Aires, May 29, 1956) was an Argentine military man and politician, Minister of Public Works during three governments between 1944 and 1952, and vice president of Edelmiro Julián Farrell. He was the main promoter of the international airport located in Ezeiza, which is named after him. He died in prison in 1956.

Beginning of his military career

His family was of Italian origin and in 1895 he entered the National Military College where he graduated among the best students in his class. He studied engineering in Europe and upon returning to Argentina he continued his military career. Juan Pistarini was the uncle of Lieutenant General Pascual Pistarini.

He quickly rose through the ranks and when he was older he formed with other prominent soldiers in 1921 the Centro General San Martín lodge, which opposed the policy of Hipólito Yrigoyen and achieved – already during the presidency of Marcelo T. de Alvear- that Agustín P. Justo was appointed Minister of War. The lodge was dissolved in 1928, when Yrigoyen was elected president for the second time, but the close ties continued between its members, who were participants in the coups d'état of 1930 and 1943. Among the members of that lodge were Luis J. García, its main promoter, Pedro Pablo Ramírez, Manuel A. Rodríguez, Benjamín Menéndez, Arturo Rawson and Rodolfo Márquez. From that time dates Pistarini's close friendship with Carlos von der Becke, who was Rommel's classmate at the Berlin Military Academy and whom he met again in Europe years later.

1930s

After the coup d'état that overthrew President Hipólito Yrigoyen in 1930, Juan Pistarini became the head of the General Directorate of Engineers of the Ministry of War. In the subsequent presidencies of Agustín Pedro Justo, Roberto M. Ortiz and Ramón S. Castillo, large-scale works were carried out for the armed forces, such as the headquarters of the Ministry of War, the Central Military Hospital, the Sergeant Cabral Non-Commissioned Officers Quarter (Campo de Mayo), the Military Aviation School (Córdoba) and the Housing Neighborhood in Portada Covunco (Neuquén), among others.

During this period Pistarini also taught courses at the Higher War School and the Higher Technical School; and between 1937 and 1939 he traveled to Germany to purchase weapons.

He presented the project for the construction of the Ezeiza International Airport (today Ministerio Pistarini), which was approved by Law 12,285 on September 30, 1935, but executed several years later.

Political activity (1943-1952)

He joined the coup d'état that in 1943 overthrew President Ramón Castillo and General Arturo Rawson, who assumed the presidency, offered him the Ministry of Public Works, a division known by its acronym M.O.P. But he did not manage to assume it because Rawson was deposed on June 6 and replaced by General Pedro Pablo Ramírez. On February 24, 1944, Ramírez appointed Pistarini as Minister of Public Works. Although he was a firm supporter of Perón, on July 29, 1945, along with 11 admirals and 28 other generals, he signed a document that requested President Edelmiro J. Farrell - who had replaced Ramírez - to reorganize the cabinet and the voluntary resignation of any official who planned to be a candidate in the next elections, but the president did not make any significant changes and Perón - who was the clear recipient of the document - did not resign. When on October 9, 1945, a group of Campo de Mayo officers led by General Ávalos requested Perón's resignation from his positions, Pistarini was commissioned to let him know what was resolved. On October 10, 1945, Pistarini was appointed Vice President of the Nation by the dictator Edelmiro J. Farrell with retention of his position as minister as well as that of director of the National Postwar Council and he maintained his positions after the massive worker support that determined the liberation. of Perón on the 17th of the same month. When Juan Domingo Perón assumed the presidency on June 4, 1946, Pistarini retired from active military service and was again appointed Minister of Public Works, maintaining him in office until the end of his first term six years later. Although Perón had promised to keep him for his second government, at the last minute he decided to replace him with Eng. Roberto M. Dupeyrón, MCBA official.

The work of Juan Pistarini

From the Ministry, Pistarini ordered major works to alleviate the effects of the San Juan earthquake of 1944; His plans also included thousands of kilometers of routes, in addition to the works required to adapt the circulation - which on June 6, 1945 began to be carried out on the right -, thousands of schools, military barracks, residential neighborhoods for the officers based on the model of the colonial architecture of California, and a large chain of tourist hotels designed by the Peronist government.

To carry out the works at the Ezeiza Airport, Pistarini, who did not hide his sympathies for the Nazi regime then already in power, signed numerous work contracts with the German firm GEOPÉ of Ludwig Freude, closely associated with the network. Nazi spy agency active in South America at the time and threatened to resign when the Allies demanded the deportation of Freude, whose relationship with the German government was suspected.

Pistarini sought to extend the MOP's areas of action and attempted to impose a pragmatic and energetic management style that tended to value speed and efficiency over bureaucracy, nullifying or ignoring the coordination and control powers exercised by various professionals. which produced several confrontations with the ministry's engineers.

During his administration, works aimed at the construction of the Ezeiza International Airport and those that favored the nascent State River Fleet (created in 1946) were prioritized, demonstrating that his interest was focused on the sectors where the government occupied a leading role in production, in contrast to the type of works carried out mainly in the 1930s, where the State was only limited to building the necessary infrastructure to benefit the development of private exploitation. Pistarini also placed emphasis on the Government's social programs, such as housing, spas and vacation colonies, works that until then were not part of the MOP tradition. His nationalism and his admiration for Germany did not prevent him from affirming that the United States had become the center of modern technology after the Second World War and one of his greatest concerns was that ministry professionals would travel to the northern country to learn about the new techniques.

As interim Minister of the Navy, he designed the expansion project that would make the Argentine river fleet the largest in Latin America and the fourth in the world. He planned the construction of a subfluvial tunnel under the Riachuelo, between Avellaneda and the Federal Capital, approved in 1948 as a replacement for the old Pueyrredón Bridge. The fastest and most economical option was the construction of a new bridge, however, Pistarini did not want to hinder the navigation of the Riachuelo. The economic restrictions imposed in 1949 left the tunnel project forgotten, until the 1960s when the New Pueyrredón Bridge was finally built. The commitment to develop river transport, although it had been long discussed and was still supported by some professionals, it turned out to have no future in the face of an already consolidated railway network and the flourishing automobile transport.

For its part, the implementation of social programs caused a neglect of functions that had traditionally been central to the MOP, such as water works or the road network. In turn, the advance of the Eva Perón Foundation meant that a large part of the technical structure of Pistarini's ministry ended up being placed at its disposal, with the Foundation taking political credit for many of the works that had been carried out by the MOP. From the Ministry of Public Works, between 1944 and 1952, it built thousands of kilometers of routes, carried out works for the change of hand (as of June 10, 1945, circulation began on the right); Tourism hotels in all Provincial Capitals and National Territories. Paso de los Libres, Bariloche, among other cities in the interior, and Social Tourism complexes in Chapadmalal and Embalse de Río Tercero, recreational spaces and popular spas such as Costanera Norte. Exequiel Bustillo's prolific task of equipping the National Parks continued. The Embalse Tourist Unit, in Córdoba, which he built between 1946 and 1955, was made up of seven hotels and 51 bungalows with a capacity to accommodate 3,000 people.

The complexity of the state apparatus and the multiplication of infrastructure works led to a progressive reduction in the functions of Pistarini's ministry, which were transferred to other organizations.

The Ezeiza Airport and the intervention of the surrounding territory remained Pistarini's great legacy, a project that condensed diverse programs such as the construction of the airport itself, the access highway to the city, a large number of housing and social services and the forestation of the environment. Pistarini's undisputed prominence was reflected in the name of the airport itself, which when it was inaugurated in 1949 was called 'Minister Pistarini', an unusual fact for an acting minister.

Recent years

Pistarini was arrested in 1955 after the coup d'état that marked the end of the second government of Juan Domingo Perón, and he died on May 29 - Argentine Army Day - of the following year in the Military Hospital, still being detained and inhibited. its few assets. At that time, the Investigation Commission was analyzing the multiple management and project irregularities that had characterized the territorial operation of Ezeiza, one of the main symbols of the deposed government.

The remains of Juan Pistarini rest in the Nuestra Señora de Loreto Parish in the City of Embalse (Córdoba).