Fall of a Corporate Planner

"I have a vast plan in my pocket," boasted Lieut. General Juan Carlos On-gania to his countrymen four years ago after an army coup had installed him as President of Argentina. It became increasingly clear that Ongania's chief aim was to perpetuate his own authoritarian rule. To do so, he sought to create a corporate state in the style of Italy's Mussolini or Spain's Franco. Instead of holding elections, Ongania planned to establish a "three-pillared state" by appointing representatives of the unions, business interests and the technical-professional class to new executive advisory councils.

In pursuit of this goal, Ongania began to solicit the support of the labor unions, many of which are still dominated by the totalitarian principles of the long-deposed Juan Peron. Ongania's appeal to the unions and entrepreneurs angered the army generals, who consider themselves the guardians of Argentina's welfare. At a meeting last month the generals barraged the President with complaints about his dictatorial designs. When one young general complained of a "lack of dialogue," Ongania replied, "But we are having a dialogue now." "We are not," snapped the general. "You are lecturing us, and besides I doubt if the people would consider us their just representatives." The generals sought to persuade Ongania to set a date for the election of a representative civilian government, but Ongania refused. Last week, in Argentina's sixth military coup in 40 years, the army surrounded Buenos Aires' Government House with troops. After holding out for twelve hours, the stubborn Ongania stepped into a Mercedes and drove 21 blocks to the junta's headquarters. "Gentlemen, I have come to present my resignation," he announced.

Ongania was unpopular with civilians and military alike for his stubborn authoritarianism. His generals called him "El Cano" (The Pipe), because, as one officer explained it, "He is very straight, but also very hollow." He did manage to curb Argentina's dangerous inflation, which dropped from 26.7% in 1966 to 6.5% last year. He won the gratitude of foreign businessmen by allowing repatriation of profits and by inviting the return of foreign oil companies whose exploration contracts had been canceled by his civilian predecessor, President Arturo Umberto Illia.

But after the bloody labor rioting last year at the industrial city of Cordoba in which 22 persons were killed, Ongania's power began to crumble. While the country was beset by a wave of crime and violence and a gradual return of inflation, Ongania's only prescription was to tighten censorship and complain that Argentines suffered from "an excess of freedom." The final blow may well have been the loss of prestige that Ongania suffered by the kidnaping two weeks ago of a former President, Lieut. General Pedro Eugenio Aramburu, who ruled the country for 2 1/2 years following Peron's ouster. The kidnapers claimed to be Peronistas avenging the execution of 27 of their compatriots who were executed during Aramburu's period in office. Some observers theorize, on the other hand, that the culprits could have been either ultra-right militarists or leftist revolutionaries seeking to prevent any liaison between Ongania and the Peronista-dominated trade unions. In any case, there appeared to be little doubt that the kidnapers, whoever they might be, had carried out their threat to murder Aramburu. Early one morning they placed his watch, keys and medallion in the night deposit box of a suburban Buenos Aires bank. But they kept his body, apparently burying it in secret.

Waiting Out Peron. At week's end, the new junta whose members are Admiral Alberto J. Gnavi, Army Lieut. General Alejandro A. Lanusse and Air

Force Brig. General Carlos A. Rey, appointed a brother officer to the Presidency. He is Brig. General Roberto Marcelo Levingston, who has been serving as Argentina's representative on the InterAmerican Defense Board, headquartered in Washington.

The junta has also stressed the need for free elections. But this will hardly happen soon. The generals' dilemma, like that of the government they ousted, is that one of the two most powerful groups in the country remains the Peronistas, who still agitate for the return of El Eider from exile in Madrid. The military may be afraid to risk holding elections until after the death of the ailing 74-year-old Peron.

Only two weeks after the kidnaping of General Aramburu in Argentina, West Germany's Ambassador to Brazil, Ehrenfried von Holleben, was seized by terrorists in Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian government, which had released 15 political prisoners in return for the life of U.S. Ambassador C. Burke El-brick last September, agreed to release 40 prisoners for Von Holleben.

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