Dictatorship & Corruption

The process of delving into governmental iniquity under ex-Dictator Juan Peron came to an official end last week. At a special ceremony, Vice President Isaac Rojas praised the National Investigating Committee-- and as tactfully as possible explained the government's decision that the probe should now stop. A bit unhappy at the decision, Vice Admiral Leonardo McLean, the committee's zealous chief, summed up its work: the staff of about 2,500 had arrested 1,045 suspects, sent 314 cases to the courts, spent only $70,000 in 27 weeks of investigations. Its records will now go to the Wealth Recovery Board (TIME, Dec. 19), which can mine them for leads useful in recovering further ill-gotten gains of the Peronistas, to add to the $35 million the board has already confiscated.

The committee withheld many of its findings (which will become court evidence), and made only partial reports in most cases. But taken together, the reports told a murky story of top-to-bottom official corruption that got its cue from Peron and extended down to such lowly posts as zoo keepers (one of whom appropriated the zoo's imported canaries for his private collection). Some tidbits: P: Peron did his mother-in-law out of half of her bequest from the late Eva Peron, then with a medieval flourish had Evita's brother, Juan Duarte, killed because he knew too much.* P: The dictator lavished $20 million on the clubs of his Union of High School Students, favoring teen-age girls with gold wrist watches and nylons before eventually choosing one 14-year-old, Nelly Rivas, as his special favorite (TIME, Oct. 10). P: Atomic "Scientist" Ronald Richter, who never split an atom, expertly diffused $3,700,000 of Argentina's money in his fumbling attempts. P: Jorge Antonio, Mercedes-Benz tycoon and Peron crony, profiteered on so vast a scale that a subcommittee named exclusively to investigate him seriously recommended a fine of more than $1 billion. P: Defense Minister Jose Humberto Sosa Molina got from Peron 265 car import licenses, each worth more than $5,000. Army Minister Franklin Lucero got 243.

The smell of so much corruption only encouraged the zealous investigators to go on. But already there were hints of favoritism, and signs that continued prying might embarrass the new government. The decree ending investigations seemed to be a prudent recognition that bullying Peronista bullies could eventually get to be too much of a good thing.

* A conclusion the investigators reached after exhuming and examining Duarte's body. It was no great revelation to Argentines, who had long joked that Duarte's last words before his "suicide" were: "Don't shoot, boys--"

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.