ORLANDO RAMON AGOSTI ECHENIQUE - ARGENTINA - 1977/11/16

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Argentina Declassification Project - The "Dirty War" (1976-83)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06628368
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: April 3, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 12, 2019
• Publication Date: November 16, 1977

Approved for Release: 2018/10/02 C06628368
MED
Orlando RamOn AGOSTI E cli!e3nCiqf FO.
(Phonetic: ahGOstee)
Commander in Chief of the
Air Force; Member, Ruling
Junta
Addressed as:
General Agosti
Commander in Chief
of the Air Force since
December 1975, Brig. Gen.
Orlando Agosti became a
member of the three-man
military junta after the
coup that overthrew
President Maria de Per6n's
government in March 1976.
Agosti has enjoyed a long personal relationship
with President Jorge Videla. Reared in the same
small town in Buenos Aires Province and friends
since childhood, the two men were both assigned to
Washington, D.C., in the early 1960s.
ARGENTINA
Speaking to a group of businessmen in October
1977, Agosti declared his complete confidence in
the aims and methodology of the military-led na-
tional reorganization. Denying the charge that
the regime is a dictatorship, he pointed out that
the junta, as a plural executive, has a built-in
system of checks and balances, which should pre-
vent the formation of personality cults. He
viewed likely periodic changes in the top-level
military commanders, occasioned by eventual retire-
ments, as an implicit safeguard against the con-
centration of power in the hands of a single
strongman. Praising the "iron-clad unity" among
the three armed services, he called it the country's
guarantee of continuity and stability. He appealed
to the business community to &tits part in national
reorganization by increasing productivity, rather
than by demanding unreasonable public support at
the expense of an impoverished nation.
Agosti, 53, is a golfing enthusiast. He
speaks English. He is married and has a son and a
daughter.
CR M 77-15823 (4074e
16 November 1977
Approved for Release: 2018/10/02 C06628368