Álvaro Carlos Alsogaray (June 22, 1913 – April 1, 2005) was an Argentine politician and businessman. Minister of Economy during much of the 1959-62 period, he was one of the principal proponents of economic conservatism in modern Argentina.
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Alsogaray was born in Esperanza, Santa Fe, in 1913, to a prominent local military family. A graduate of Argentina's Military Academy as an infantry officer, Alsogaray learned military engineering in the Army's technical academy and civil and aeronautical engineer in Córdoba University.
He retired from the army with the rank of captain and with two engineering degrees, which led to his being called el capitán ingeniero. He entered business, becoming an important contractor for State enterprises such as FAMA, a predecessor of flag carrier Aerolíneas Argentinas; in this capacity, he briefly held public office during the presidency of Juan Perón, whose populist politics and policies would later be anathema to Alsogaray's thinking.[1]
After the coup that removed Perón in 1955, he held the posts of Under-secretary of Commerce and Minister of Industry, and founded the Independent Civic Party in 1956; the party fared modetly in the 1958 elections.
To placate powerful agrarian interests and other conservatives, the otherwise progressive Arturo Frondizi named Alsogaray Minister of the Economy in early 1959. Inheriting large trade deficits, Alsogaray sharply devalued the peso and imposed severe credit controls on Argentina's large public banks.[2] Declaring that the economy "must go through winter",[3] the austerity measures were a boon to exporters; but, caused consumer prices to double in 1959, and real wages and construction to fall by about 20%.[4] The resulting trade surplus and pro-growth policies pursued by Frondizi's unofficial point man on the economy, Rogelio Frigerio, both contributed to a robust recovery in 1960 and 1961.[1][5][6]
Marginalized in favor of Frigerio after the 1959 recession and deeply unpopular, Alsogaray resigned early in 1961. Indeed, Frigerio had been President Arturo Frondizi's first choice for the critical Economy Ministry, an appointment thwarted by the military; Frondizi and Frigerio later founded a political party centered around the need for accelerated development.[5][6]
Unfortunately, Frondizi's efforts to mediate differences between the United States and Cuba resulted in a March, 1962, coup d'etat and Alvaro Alsogaray was able to use the influence of his brother Gen. Julio Alsogaray to secure several ministerial and planning posts under Frondizi's military-appointed successor, Senate President José María Guido. Reintroducing many of his restrictive 1959 policies, as well as nearly worthless "Ninth of July" bonds, which were issued in lieu of cash payments to public emloyees and government contractors, the economy again slipped into severe recession and, at the cost of depressed business investment, the trade balance again improved.[1][5]
Out of power after the election of Dr. Arturo Illia in 1963, Alsogaray devoted himself to undermining the new administration, even during the vigorous economic recovery that followed. Finding allies in conservative business and media interests, the powerful Roman Catholic Church, and his influential brother Julio, Alsogaray was successful.[7][8] Following the 1966 coup against President Illia (who narrowly prevented a bloodbath), he was designated Ambassador to the United States, a post he held until 1968.[7]
Alsogaray founded the New Force in 1972, though like the Independent Civic party, it fared poorly in the 1973 elections that returned Perón to power. A supporter of the National Reorganization Process that deposed the Peronist government in 1976,[2] he founded the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCeDé) in 1982. Running as a right-wing, economically conservative candidate on the latter ticket, he stood for the Presidency in 1983 and 1989. Alsogaray received two million votes (10%) in his 1989 presidential bid, behind only major party candidates Carlos Menem and Eduardo Angeloz.
Continuing to enjoy a measure of support in Buenos Aires' affluent northside, he and his daughter María Julia Alsogaray were elected the only two national deputies for the UCeDé in 1983, and he served until 1999. A vehement anti-Peronist and anti-socialist, Alsogaray forged an alliance with the late Juan Perón's Justicialist Party in 1989, following their nomination of pro-market Governor Carlos Menem, and endorsed Justicialist candidate Eduardo Vaca that year in a tightly-contested seat in the Argentine Senate representing the City of Buenos Aires; Alsogaray's endorsement in the electoral college gave Vaca the seat, despite the latter's coming in second to centrist UCR candidate Fernando de la Rúa.[9]
A vocal supporter of the era's privatizations, he prevailed on President Menem to appoint his daughter, María Julia, Secretary of the Environment, in which post she served from 1991 to 1999, and himself served in numerous consultative posts during the Menem presidency, endorsing the populist-turned-conservative president in his 1995 re-election bid.[2] Among his most notable roles in this era was as director of a feasibility study in 1995-96 for the replacement of Buenos Aires' two international airports for an island terminal on the Río de la Plata; opposed by de la Rúa, who had been elected Mayor (and would later be President), the project never materialized.[10] His UCedé party languished despite his renewed influence as much due to public mistrust of his policies, as because of rivalries in the party itself – notably between his daughter and Adelina D'Alessio de Viola (whom he had Menem appoint as head of the National Mortgage Bank). Commenting on the dispute, he remarked that "would it be that one's political party could do without affiliates...or women!"[9]
Alsogaray, who perennially sought television airtime, lived out his last few years in seclusion, and died in Buenos Aires in 2005 at the age of 91. Adamantly conservative, he was of the opinion that, if anything, the 1976-83 dictatorship was too moderate. He felt that some of the most brutal torturers during Dirty War, such as Alfredo Astiz, were "heroes," and even once attempted to use his influence over the Menem administration to have a monument built in their honor.[2] In 1985 Universidad Francisco Marroquín granted Alsogaray with an *honorary doctoral degree[11] .