LATIN AMERICAN TRENDS: STAFF NOTES JANUARY 8, 1975[SANITIZED] - 1975/01/08

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Argentina Declassification Project - The "Dirty War" (1976-83)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02902660
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 20
• Document Creation Date: April 3, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 12, 2019
• Publication Date: January 8, 1975

Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
rri)L
\lb
10)
3.5(c)
SeC
Latin American American Trends
3.5(c)
jeerer
f
January 8, 1975
No. 0491/75
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
3.5(c)
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
SECRET
LATIN AMERICAN TRENDS
This publication is prepared for regional specialists in the Washington com-
munity by the Western Hemisphere Division, Office of Current Intelligence,
with occasional contributions from other offices within the Directorate of
Intelligence. Comments and queries are welcome. They should be directed to
the authors of the individual articles.
CONTENTS
January 8, 1975
Argentina: Looking Far Ahead?
4
-�-
SEGRET
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
NR
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
NR
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
NR
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
_SgetET
3.5(c)
Argentina; Looking Far Ahead?
"President Maria Estela de Peron will not seek
reelection in 1977." This announcement last week,
by a high government official, was calculated to
divert public attention from Argentina's deepening
economic problems toward elections that are still
more than two years away.
Such tactics are commonplace in a country where
voting has long been considered the panacea for
national ills. Early in this century the Radical
Party rose to power on the sole platform issue of
making the vote compulsory for all men over eighteen.
The last military government, headed by Alejandro
Lanusse, openly admitted its inability to cope with
economic woes of stagnation and rampant inflation,
but retained a measure of popular support by promising
a return to free elections.
In reality, however, there are no likely parlia-
mentary solutions to the major issues that divide
Argentines. The internecine battles in the streets
of Buenos Aires serve as a constant reminder of the
incapacity of successive governments, both military
and Peronist, to solve chronic political and economic
difficulties. Although the combatants--terrorist
and counterterrorist--are few in number, their con-
tinuing presence is the major preoccupation of this
government.
Now, younger officers within the military are
voicing increasing concern that the promises of the
most recent election will not be fulfilled. The
weekly magazine Panorama, a publication generally well
informed on military matters, recently took note of
this dissatisfaction. According to the respected
January 8, 1975
-4 -
SEGR-.Er
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
SEGRET
columnist Jorge Lozano, lieutenants and captains re-
call the overwhelming vote for change communicated
in the Peronist victories of March and September 1973
and are observing that major transformations have
not occurred. Lozano avoids analytical judgments,
but paints instead a picture of disappointment and
frustration over extremist violence and legislative
inattention to social pressures. He states that
there is no talk of a golpe, but notes that junior
army officers, many of whom have been victims of the
terrorists, are becoming highly criticial of this
government. He concludes that: "no one is calling
for a moralistic revolution, but it is wise to take
heed of underlying shifts of sentiment. A captain
is not a youth believing in Utopia. He is about 40
years old, earning a salary similar to a junior
executive in a bank. He shares the intellectual
preoccupations of his contemporaries, and has to
support a family. Above all he is an Argentine, not
a man from another planet, nor an agent from Paris
or the CIA." 3.5(c)
January 8, 1975
-5-
Approved for for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
3.3(b)(1)
NR
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
NR
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
NR
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
NR
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
NR
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
NR
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
NR
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
NR
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
NR
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
NR
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
NR
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
NR
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660
Approved for Release: 2018/10/01 CO2902660