Agustín Pedro Justo

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Agustín P. Justo

Term of Office:	February 20, 1932— February 20, 1938
Predecessor:	J. Félix Uriburu
Successor:	Roberto Ortiz
Vice-president:	Julio Argentino Roca, Jr.
Date of Birth:	February 26, 1876
Place of Birth:	Concepción del Uruguay, Entre Ríos
Date of Death:	January 11, 1943
Place of Death:	Buenos Aires
Profession:	Military
Political Party:	Concordancia (UCR + PAN)

General Agustín Pedro Justo Rolón (1876 - 1943) was President of Argentina from February 20, 1932 to February 20, 1938. He was a military man, diplomat, and politician, and was president during the Infamous Decade.

He was elected president on November 8, 1931, supported by the political sectors that would form shortly after la Concordancia, an alliance created between the National Democratic Party (Partido Demócrata Nacional), the Radical Civic Union (Unión Cívica Radical) (UCR), and the Socialist Independent Party (Partido Socialista Independiente). Around the elections there were accusations of electoral fraud, nevertheless, the name patriotic fraud was used for a system of control established from 1931 to 1943. Conservative groups wanted to use this to prevent any radicals from coming to power. During this period there was persistent opposition from the supporters of Yrigoyen, an earlier president, and from the Radical Civic Union.

The outstanding diplomatic work of his Foreign Minister, Carlos Saavedra Lamas, was one of the greatest accomplishments of his administration, stained by constant accusations of corruption and of delivering the national economy into the hands of foreign interests, the British in particular, with whom his vice-president Julio Argentino Roca, Jr. had signed the Roca-Runciman Treaty. His name was mentioned as a candidate a new period during the unsteady government of Ramón Castillo, but his early death at 66 thwarted his plans. He worked on a preliminar study for the complete works of Bartolomé Mitre, whom he admired profoundly.

Justo took part in the coup of 1930, becoming president two years later thanks to widespread electoral fraud. His presidency was part of the period known as the Infamous Decade, which lasted from 1930 until 1943. He established the country's central bank and introduced a nationwide income tax.

Contents 1 Youth 2 Beginning of Political Career 3 Justo and the 1930 Coup 4 Presidency 4.1 Relationship with the UCR 4.2 Roca-Runciman Treaty 4.3 Debate (de las carnes)

[edit] Youth

Justo was born in Concepción del Uruguay, Entre Ríos Province. His father, also named Agustín, had been governor of Corrientes Province and was soon a national deputy. He was active in politics, and soon after his son was born he moved with his family to Buenos Aires. His mother Otilia Rolón, came from a traditional Corrientes family. When he was 11 Justo went to the Colegio Militar de la Nación (Military College). As a cadet, and joined with various other students and participated in the Revolución del Parque, taking the weapons off the guards to add to the column of the revolutionaries. Arrested and later given amnesty, he graduated with the rank of ensign.

Without abandoning his military career, he studied engineering at the University of Buenos Aires. In 1895 he was promoted to second lieutenant. In 1897 he became first lieutenant. In 1902 he became a captain. Having attained a civil engineering degree at the University of Buenos Aires, a governmental decree validated his title as a military engineer in 1904. He was appointed as teacher at the Escuela de Aplicación para Oficiales. With his promotion to the rank of major two years later he was proposed for the school of mathematics at the Military Academy and for the studies of telemetry and semaphores at the Escuela Nacional de Tiro (National Gunnery School), which would be granted in 1907.

The following year, he received the nomination as executive officer in the Batallón de Ferrocarrileros, at the same time in which they were promoting him to be subdirector at the gunnery school. With the rank of Lieutenant Colonel he completed diplomatic actions, becoming military attaché to the Argentina's envoy at the centennial festivities in Chile in 1910. His return to Argentina was to Córdoba, as commander of the Fourth Artillery Brigade.

[edit] Beginning of Political Career

In 1915, during the term of office of Victorino de la Plaza, he was appointed director of the Military College, a post where he would remain for the following seven years. The great influence of this position helped him to weave contacts in political circles, just as in the military. Pursuant to the radical anti-personalist political branch (those that opposed the party leadership of Hipólito Yrigoyen), he established good relations with Marcelo T. de Alvear. During his tenure he enlarged the curriculum of the college and promoted the formation of the faculty.

During Alvear's administration in 1922 he left the Military College to become the Minister of War. Promoted to the rank of brigadier general on August 25, 1923, Justo requested an increase of the defense budget to get equipment and improve the Army infrastructure. He also fomented the reorganization of the armed forces structure. At the end of 1924 he was sent as plenipotentiary to Peru, where they were celebrating the centennial of the Battle of Ayacucho. During the next few years he temporarily was the Minister of Agriculture and Public Works, besides holding the post at as Minister of War, which he would not abandon until the end of the term of office of Alvear. In 1927 he had received the promotion to General de División (Major General).

With his constant anti-personalist temperament, Justo supported the candidates Leopoldo Melo and Vicente Gallo, of the Alvear Line of the UCR. Before the triumph of the formula of Yrigoyen and Beiró, who began in 1928 their second term of office with massive support of the voters and the majority in the House of Representatives. Justo received invitations of the ever more organized right to join the shock program against the radical caudillo. Although close to the concepts of the publications La Nueva República (The New Republic) — managed by Ernesto Palacios and the brothers Rodolfo and Julio Irazusta — and La Fronda, under the direction of Francisco Uriburu, they stayed close to the need of "order, hierarchy and authority". He did not adhere closely to them, the program of suppression of a republican government and their substitution with a corporativesystem, similar to the fascists in Italy and Spain, went agaist his liberal vocation.

[edit] Justo and the 1930 Coup

Around Justo another faction assembled, not any less intent on taking arms against the constitutional government of Yrigoyen. Actively promoted by general José Luis Meglione, a Justo classmate, and by colonel Luis J. García, who soon would be one of the heads of the Grupo de Oficiales Unidos, he wrote for the newspapers La Nación and Crítica. Declarations made by Justo in July 1930 about the inconvenience of military intervention, which would put the constitutional rule of law in danger, testify to the opposition between the factions. By contrast with the more radicalized Argentine Navy, a significant part of the Army supported the ideas proposed by Justo, with the notable exception of the nationalist core that soon would converge at the Grupo de Oficiales Unidos. Before the promise of José Félix Uriburu, the head of an extremist group, to maintain institutional order, Justo gave his agreement to the coup, which he expressed on the early morning of September 6, thus starting a military government in Argentina for the first time since the signing of the Constitution. He did not join the government's direction nor, in the first instance, the governing group, which was led by Uriburu with a cabinet that was composed largely of local lobbyists of the multinational oil companies.

Justo expressly sought to distance himself from Uriburu, who counted on a large group of supporters among the military officials but could not get the same support from the political parties, which quickly divided themselves after Yrigoyen's death, the focus of the antipathy against him. He rejected the vice-presidency that Uriburu offered him, and he only briefly accepted the command of the army, resigning soon after. In Buenos Aires Province, Uriburu did not manage to implement the corporate model with which he wished to replace the republican system, and this failure cost him the political career of his Interior Minister, Matías Sánchez Sorondo. Justo again rejected the offers of Uriburu to join the government and form a coalition. With the support of an alliance of the conservative National Democratic Party, the Independent Socialist Party, and the most anti-personalist faction of the Radical Party (then to be the Coalition of Parties for Democracy), he ran for presidant on the elections of November 8, 1931. With Yrigoyen's faction banned from the elections and its supporters using the strategy of "revolutionary abstention", Justo easily won against Lisandro de la Torre and Nicolás Repetto, although under suspicion of fraud. Julio Argentino Roca, Jr., from the conservative faction, joined him as Vice-President.

[edit] Presidency

Justo became president on February 20, 1932. In addition to political turmoil caused by the coup, he had to make progress on the problems relating to the Great Depression, which had put an end to commercial profits and the full employment enjoyed by the Yrigoyen and Alvear administrations. His first minister of (Hacienda), Alberto Hueyo, took very restrictive measures against the economy. The independent socialist Antonio de Tomaso (acompañó) him in Agriculture. (Se redujo) the public expense, and (se contrajo) the circulation of (moneda) and (se aplicaron) harsh fiscal measures. An "empréstito patriótico," or patriotic loan, was made, attempting to strengthen the (arcas del fisco). The first (of these measures?) was imposed on (nafta). It was meant to finance the newly-created Dirección Nacional de Vialidad, or the (National Direction of (vialidad)?), which (acometería) the betterment of the (red vial). The difficulies for the Hueyo's program would (finalmente) convince Justo to adopt this model, (de índole dirigista), in (su política económica). In addition (fomentaría este proyecto el intendente de Buenos Aires), Mariano de Vedia y Mitry, who undertook an ambitious project of urban organization, opening the (Diagonales Norte y Sur), paving the avenue General Paz, widening (Corrientes), constructing the first (tramo) of the 9 de Julio Avenue and building the Obelisk of Buenos Aires.

The substitution of Hueyo (por) the socialist Frederico Pinedo would mark a change in the political scene in the government. The intervention of the government in the economy was more significant, (creándose) the Junta Nacional de Granos, or the National (Junta) of (Granos), (la de) Meat, and soon after, with the (asesoramiento) of the (inglés) economist Otto Niemeyer, (se crearía) the Banco Central de la República Argentina, or the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic.

[edit] Relationship with the UCR

The radical opposition was very significant. On April 5 1931 the (radicalismo) of the supporters of Yrigoyen had won the election for governor in the province of Buenos Aires against the (expectativas) of Uriburu and Sánchez Sorondo; though the military government (las anulara), (costaron) the career of the (ministro) and forced Uriburu to give up his power. Before this, (militares) loyal to the constitutional government of Yrigoyen, with the support of armed (civiles), organized insurrections to restore that earlier government. The first of these was directed by the Yrigoyenist general Severino Toranzo in February 1931. In June, in Curuzú Cuatiá in the province of Corrientes, (fue asesinado) the colonel Regino Lescano, who was preparing a yrigoyenist mobilization. In December, before a (asonada) similar to the (teniente) colonel Atilio Cattáneo, Justo decreed (el estado de sitio), and again imprisoned the old Yrigoyen, and also detained Alvear, Ricardo Rojas, Honorio Pueyrredón, and other leaders of the party.

In 1933 the (asonadas) continued. Buenos Aires, Corrientes, Entre Rios, and Misiones would be the stage of radical uprisings, which would not end before more than a thousand people being (detenidos). Seriously ill, Yrigoyen was returned to Buenos Aires and kept under house arrest. He died on June 3, and his burial in La Recoleta Cemetery (sería ocasión de manifestación multitudinaria). In December, (en ocasión de la reunión de) the national convention of the UCR, an uprising (conjunto de militares y políticos) broke loose in Santa Fe, Rosario, and Paso de los Libres. José Benjamin Abalos, who was Yrigoyen's ex-(ministro), and the colonel Roberto Bosch were (detenidos por) the uprising and the (conventionales) and leaders of the party were imprisoned (en) Martín García.

Alvear, Justo's (old/former - antiguo) (padrino), (se exiliaría), while others (serían) detained in the penal de Ushuaia, or the (English version...?).

[edit] Roca-Runciman Treaty

One of the most controversial successes of the presidency of Justo took place in 1933, when the (medidas) of (protección de la producción) that were adopted by the UK led Justo to (enviar al) vice-president, to the head of a (técnica) delegation, (a tratar) the adoption of a commercial agreement that might benefit Argentina. At the Conference of Ottawa (check name) in 1932, The British had adopted (medidas) that favored imports from its own colonies and dominions. The pressure of the Argentine (hacendados para que) the government (restaurase el comercio with the main buyer of Argentine grain and meat had been very large. (Lideradas) by the (presidente del consejo de comercio británico), the (vizconde) Walter Runciman, were intense and resulted in the (firma el) April 27 (del) Roca-Runciman Treaty.

The (tratado) created a scandal because the UK allotted Argentina a quota less than (al de) its other dominions. 390,000 tones of meat per year were allotted to Argentina in exchange for many concessions from the (empresas británicas). 85% of exportation (debía realizarse a través de) British (frigoríficos). The tariffs of the (ferrocarriles operados) by the UK (no se regularían). They (no se fijarían derechos aduaneros sobre el carbón). They (se daría) special (tratamiento) to the British (empresas) with investments in Argentina. They (se reducirían) the prices of their exports. No fewer problems resulted from the declarations of the vice-president Roca, who affirmed after the (firma) of the treaty that (ital) by (its/her) economic importance, Argentina resembles (just?) a (gran) British dominion. (end ital)

De la Torre, was one of his principal and most vociferous opponents; in a session of the Senate, he affirmed that: (see Spanish wikipedia, someone might wanna translate that, but that's not my call.)

In an editorial, mocking the words of Roca, he would write that (ital) in these conditions we wouldn't be able to say (que) Argentina (se haya) converted into a British dominion because England does not take the liberty to impose similar humiliations upon its dominions. (end ital)

In the National Democratic Party, one of those who had supported the nomination of Justo for President, (se dividió) because of this controversy. Finally, the Senate (refrendó) the treaty on July 28. (Varias huelgas jalonaron) the deliberations, especially in the province of Sant Fe, which ended upon government intervention.

[edit] Debate (de las carnes)

De la Torre continued (movilizándose)...

Preceded by José Félix Uriburu

President of Argentina 1932–1938

Succeeded by Roberto M. Ortiz