Looking for Supermen

No Latin American country had ever seen anything quite like it. Summoned to the presidential villa in the Buenos Aires suburb of Olivos, 161 top officials and military men in President Juan Carlos Ongania's government appeared as ordered and took their seats in the villa's cavernous recreation hall. When everyone had settled down, Ongania walked briskly to a lectern at the front of the room. He fixed his audience with a steely glare.

"The self-evaluation to be carried out here," Ongania said, "is not an evaluation of accomplishment." With that, he lashed out at a whole host of governmental demons: inefficiency, featherbedding, lack of cooperation and coordination, an absence of planning and all-around administrative malaise. "The functioning of our state is chaotic," he said. "Argentina, a nation whose great destiny no one doubts because of its riches, lies in the shadows of neglect." The officials were shocked by the stern lecture.

Restlessness & Frustration. Almost two years after seizing power, ex-army general Ongania, 53, thus recognized the sad condition into which Argentina has fallen--and moved to stop the decline. Thirty years ago, his country was ranked among the world's developed nations; today, the World Bank classifies it as underdeveloped. The economy is only inching along, and unemployment is up to 8%. The state-owned railroads are losing $1,000,000 a day. To pay its bills and meet its huge deficits, the government is constantly printing more money and, in turn, inflating an already bloated cost of living--now rising by 28% a year. Only the second lowest population growth rate in Latin America (1.6%) and one of the highest abortion rates (one in three pregnancies) keep the economy from complete collapse.

The growing problems have created a new restlessness among Argentina's people. Not even the country's few bargains--3-c- subway rides, 1 1/2 pay phones, 300-per-lb. beefsteak--have been able to ease the feelings of frustration and disquiet. The middle class grumbles constantly about soaring prices, which seem to hit it hardest. The lower classes are slightly better off, mainly because Ongania, who started out as a union buster, has turned kindly toward the unions and consults with them regularly in an effort to win some kind of popular support. "Ongania is an orphan," says Labor Leader Jose Alonso, head of the powerful 150,000-member Textile Workers Union. "He wants support. He wants to be less of a de facto government."

Muffled Opposition. However much he may try, Ongania has been unable to paper over the autocratic nature of his regime. The great ornate building that housed the Congress remains empty. The press pussyfoots; politicians keep silent. The Supreme Court, having been forced to declare the military government legal, carefully keeps the lesser courts in line. Opposition voices are quickly muffled. When Army General Adolfo Candido Lopez began calling for elections and claiming that Ongania "does not represent the revolution," he was locked up for 25 days, then forced to retire; last week Lopez was arrested once again. With puritanical zeal, Ongania exercises the same heavy hand on any art form in Argentina that violates his personal code of decency (TIME, Aug. 18). The country's swinging Barbara and Dick, modeled on the U.S.'s Sonny and Cher, prudently publicize the fact that there is really no protest in their protest songs.

Ongania himself, of course, realizes that there is plenty of protest, and is honestly trying to correct the problems that plague his country. To help the economy, he is launching a $1 billion development program and hopes to expand foreign investment more than 50% this year, to $120 million. He has even invited foreign oilmen back to Argentina--the first such invitation since President Arturo Illia canceled the contracts of nine U.S. companies in 1964 and put 98% of the country's oil production under state control. Last week the government awarded inland and offshore concessions to nine foreign companies, including three American producers that lost their contracts in 1964.

A Warning. Even more than economic expansion, Ongania stresses the need for a national "transformation" of attitudes and values. He intends to begin with his own government. At last week's chewing-out session, he called for a new type of man--or superman--to help run his administration. "This revolution," he said, "must be carried out by extraordinary men who use imagination and creative spirit, detect and solve problems fast and feel a special revulsion toward the pernicious practices that damage Argentine life. Those of you who don't feel yourselves up to this task," he warned, "should ask to be retired." Those who do not ask, Ongania indicated, will simply be told.

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