RAUL RICARDO ALFONSIN - 1983/10/31

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Argentina Declassification Project - The "Dirty War" (1976-83)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06502182
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: April 3, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 12, 2019
• Publication Date: October 31, 1983

3.3(b)(1)
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3.5(c)
Approved for Release: 2018/10/02 C06502182
,f',gT'�!:
Raul Ricardo ALFONSIN
(Phonetic: ahlfohnSEEN) �
�
President-Elect
Addressed as:
Mr. Alfonsin
\,4
Vi
471
3.5(c)--\
1 NOV
ARGENTINA
On 30 October Radical Civic Union (UCR)
leader Rail Alfonsin, who had widely been
considered to be running slightly behind Peronist
Italo Luder, was elected President of Argentina.
His victory was the first defeat for the Peronists in
a presidential election. A bold political operator
and a charismatic and fiery orator, Alfonsin led an
aggressive campaign that involved extensive travel,
numerous speeches, television advertisements, and
a nationally televised rally. He is generally believed
to have won his following by actively supporting
human rights groups and attacking the military government on a broad range of issues. He
will probably assume office in December
3.5(c)
Alfonsin that his foreign policy goals are to reestablish
Argentina's prominence in Latin America, to maintain its role as a moderate force in the
Nonaligned Movement, and to avoid involvement in East-West disputes. Two days before
the election he publicly condemned the US military intervention in Grenada, rejecting any
interference by the superpowers in Latin American affairs.
Domestic Issues
3.5(c)
Among Alfonsin's greatest challenges will be renegotiating Argentina's enormous
national debt and curbing its spiraling inflation rate. The Argentine press reports that he
will discard the economic management system of the previous, military government and will
take direct control of economic matters himself.
Alfonsin is optimistic that an expansion of agricultural exports will pave the way to
economic recovery, he will immediately deal with the issue of the
desaparecidos, the approximately 7,000 people who disappeared in the late 1970s during a
military anti-insurgency campaign. Alfonsin has expressed opposition to an amnesty law
recently passed by the military absolving itself of responsibility for crimes committed under
military rule, and he has publicly vowed to bring to justice the officials responsible for such
crimes. In addition, he has proposed limiting the role of the military by abolishing the
service commander posts, cutting military spending to 2 percent of the gross national
product, and ending mandatory military service
3.5(c)
Alfonsin is also expected to attempt to democratize
the trade unions by allowing them to elect their own leaders. They say that step would be
intended to remove the entrenched Peronist labor bureaucracy, which he says does not
represent the rank and file. In July 1983 if Alfonsin
were elected, the unions would give him no quarter. Because his policies have alienated both
that powerful sector and the military, we believe he will have great difficulty implementing
his domestic program.
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S3,,GRE'rtr'
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(cont.)
CR M 83-15843
3.5(c)
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Career and Personal Data
3.5(c)
Alfonsin has a doctorate in law and social sciences from the University of Buenos Aires.
He has held positions in the UCR since the 1950s. He has served two terms in the Buenos
Aires provincial Chamber of Deputies, and during the early 1960s he served in the national
Chamber of Deputies. He was the UCR candidate for governor of Buenos Aires Province in
1967, before the then ruling military canceled the election. 3.5(c)
Alfonsin acquired his image in Argentina as a populist
and an activist, reform-minded democrat in the late 1960s, when he published
antigovernment editorials in the UCR monthly and was arrested for participating in an
illegal street demonstration. Once a protege of now deceased UCR leader Ricardo Balbin,
Alfonsin became dissatisfied with Balbin's conservative, accommodative position on military
rule in the early 1970s, They say he became convinced that
the UCR needed to take on a more populist character and to move to the left to challenge
the Peronists and to take advantage of widespread public discontent with the military
government. For over a decade he fought tenaciously for the party leadership. In the year
preceding the presidential election, he organized massive political rallies; backed human
rights marches; and, as an attorney, defended numerous political detainees. He assured his
dominance in the party when his faction won absolute control of the UCR National
Committee in internal party elections in July 1983. 3.5(c)
During the past year Alfonsin has met with European Socialist leaders in Europe,
including French President Francois Mitterrand and Spanish Prime Minister Felipe
Gonzalez Marquez. He has also visited the United States and the Soviet Union and has
traveled throughout Latin America. Alfonsin, 56, is married to the former Maria Lorenza
Barreneche. He has six children and at least 12 grandchildren.
3.5(c)
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31 October 1983