Rogelio Frigerio
Encyclopedia
Rogelio Frigerio was an Argentine economist, journalist and politician.
in 1914 to Gerónimo Frigerio and Carmen Guanzaroli. One of eight brothers, he grew up in the quiet residential neighborhood of Villa del Parque
and enrolled at the prestigious University of Buenos Aires
.
Pursuing higher studies at the university's School of Economics, he helped found Insurrexit, a Marxist student association and, as one of its leaders, he edited the group's newsletter, Claridad. Graduating in 1935, he soon distanced himself from the Argentine left, however, believing them to harbor an elitist disposition.
Establishing a wholesale distributorship with diversified interests in lumber, textiles, leather and minerals, in 1940 he married Noemí Blanco, with whom he had five children. A talented businessman, Frigerio nonetheless remained politically active, involving himself in intellectual circles and establishing a newsweekly in 1946, Qué pasó en siete dias ("What Happened in Seven Days"). Alienated by the magazine's staunch opposition to the new populist Administration of Juan Perón
, however, Frigerio left its editorial board shortly before Perón had the magazine shuttered in 1947.
Though he did not seek public office during the Perón era, Frigerio became a highly visible proponent of accelerated industrial growth and social progress, a combination of policies he described as developmentalism
. Inspired by recent efforts in that direction such as Brazilian President Getulio Vargas
' Estado Novo
and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
's New Deal
, Frigerio's concern that Perón's similar policies might be reversed following the populist leader's violent 1955 overthrow
led him to re-open his former newsmagazine in 1956, naming it simply Qué. Qué soon attracted prestigious contributors from Argentine intellectual life such as Arturo Jauretche
, Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz
, Jorge Sabato
and Arturo Frondizi
. Frondizi, the centrist Radical Civic Union
(UCR)'s 1951 Vice Presidential nominee, soon developed a close friendship with Frigerio.
prison cell.
Exiled in Venezuela
and subjected to numerous assassination attempts ordered by the new regime in Argentina, Perón continued to exert considerable political influence in his homeland; as Argentine voters geared for the 1958 elections
, the exiled leader's Justicialist Party
was barred from fielding even local candidates (the mere mention of Perón's name was illegal). Following the secret meeting in Caracas
, however, Perón endorsed Arturo Frondizi, instructing his supporters to vote for their former opponent and forego casting blank ballots, as a number of Peronists were advocating. Failing to secure the UCR nomination, Frondizi ran on a splinter ticket, whose party he named the Intransigent Radical Civic Union
(UCRI). Enjoying Perón's support, Frondizi's UCRI handily defeated the mainstream UCR candidate, Ricardo Balbín
, by about 1.5 million votes out of 9 million cast.
Arturo Frondizi was inaugurated President of Argentina
on May 1, 1958 and designated Frigerio Secretary of Socio-Economic Affairs, a secondary post in the critical Economics Ministry the new president was forced to offer Frigerio due to steadfast opposition from the Argentine military and the U.S. Embassy, both of whom saw Frigerio as a veiled Marxist because of his activities as a young man. President Frondizi, even so, gave Frigerio informal say over a broad swath of economic policy.
Frondizi and Frigerio inherited a difficult economic situation: following a 1946-48 boom, GDP had grown by a modest 3% a year in the decade since. Declining exports and a growing need for costly imported motor vehicles, machinery and fuel, moreover, had caused Argentina to run trade deficits in seven out the past ten years. Unable to finance these easily, Frondizi's two predecessors, Perón and Pedro Aramburu, resorted to "printing" money to cover the nation's yawning current account
deficits, causing prices to rise around sixfold. Frigerio, whom U.S. interests in Argentina suspected of being a Communist, believed that the only sustainable remedy for this was the encouragement of foreign direct investment
into Argentina, particularly in energy and industry the sectors accounting for most of the country's trade deficits.
Almost upon his appointment, Frigerio drafted the Law of Foreign Investment, promptly signed by the president. This law gave incentives and tax benefits to both local and foreign corporations willing to develop Argentina's energy and industry sectors and created the Department and Commission of Foreign Investments, which was designed to give foreign investors more legal recourse. Frigerio's plans were ambitious, calling for greatly expanded public lending for homebuilders and local industry, and public works investment.
Frigerio also promulgated large petroleum
exploration and drilling contracts with foreign oil companies. These gave interested participants a generous share of the profits from such activities, provided these were carried out in conjunction with the Argentine state oil concern, YPF. As a consequence of investments initiated during the next four years, the profile of a number of sectors in the Argentine economy were revolutionized by the early 1960s:
The availability of consumer durables like washing machines, refrigerators, ovens, appliances and television sets all also increased sharply, as local and foreign investors soon broke ground on factories making all these goods and many more. One fourth of all foreign direct investment
into Argentina between 1912 and 1975 took place in the Frondizi years, and the nation's chronic trade deficits, for their part, vanished by 1963.
Partly the victim of bad timing, these policies did not earn either Frondizi or Frigerio the respect of the most powerful institution in Argentina at the time: the armed forces and in December, Frondizi was forced to remove Frigerio from his post. One of the policy makers behind this was a relatively unknown defense contractor named Alvaro Alsogaray
, whose austerity plan Frondizi was forced to implement, causing a sudden doubling of consumer prices and, consequently, a fall in GDP and widespread protest. Alsogaray made frequent television appearances publicizing his plan; during the first of these, he declared that the Argentine people "must go through winter."
Relegated to informal adviser to the president, Frigerio opposed Alsogaray's belt-tightening measures and increasingly unpopular, Alsogaray's influence quickly waned; in early 1961, he resigned. Again influencing economic policy from his informal role, Frigerio's close working relationship with the president continued until, on March 28, 1962, Arturo Frondizi was deposed while attending a Western Hemisphere summit in Montevideo, Uruguay in hopes of mediating the conflict between the U.S. and Fidel Castro
's Cuba
. Arrested upon his return to the Casa Rosada
the following morning, Frondizi defiantly pronounced that he would "not resign, nor commit suicide, or leave the country," the president was imprisoned and Frigerio, exiled in Uruguay.
(MID). MID was barred from the 1963 elections
due to military opposition and serious differences over strategy resulted in an open enmity between UCRI candidate Oscar Alende
(the progressive former governor of the Province of Buenos Aires and Frondizi ally) and the MID, which opted to encourage its supporters to cast blank ballots. but Many of Frigerio's policies were reinstated by the newly elected President Arturo Illia. Policy differences over Frondizi-era oil contracts, which Illia rescinded, led the MID to actively oppose him, however. Many of their policies endured following the 1966 coup
, particularly during the 1970-71 tenure of Economy Minister Aldo Ferrer
. Frigerio became a significant shareholder in Argentina's largest newsdaily Clarín
following a 1971 deal made with the newsdaily's owner, Ernestina Herrera de Noble
, whose late husband, Clarín founder Roberto Noble
, had supported Frondizi. Perón's return from exile imminent, the MID opted to endorse the aging leader for the 1973 elections
, believing Perón would give them a meaningful say in the nation's economic policy.
Given little say by the new Peronist government, which, instead saw its policy shift from populism to erratic crisis management measures, Frigerio initially supported the 1976 coup against Perón's successor (his hapless widow, Isabel Perón); what ensued, however, was unlike the last military regime in that this dictatorship
adopted policies largely anathema to Frigerio's. Freezing wages for prolonged stretches, deregulating financial markets and encouraging a flood of foreign debt and of imports, these policies all helped undo much of what Frondizi and Frigerio had accomplished twenty years earlier. Though Frigerio and his supporters were not targeted in the way left-wing dissidents were, the MID's opposition to the regime's chief economist, José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz
and his policies earned a number of party officials death threats and forced exile.
Allowing elections in 1983, the dictatorship left an insolvent Argentina, its business and consumer confidence almost shattered and its international prestige damaged following the 1982 Falklands War
, an invasion Frigerio opposed. Taking up the MID's nomination for President in his first campaign for high office, Frigerio, however, refused to condemn the regime's human rights atrocities
, something which deprived his longshot 1983 MID candidacy of needed support. Rogelio Frigerio fared poorly on election night
, October 30, 1983 and, elected by an ample margin, UCR leader Raúl Alfonsín
left Frigerio out of the economic policy discussions he held before taking office on December 10. Frigerio succeeded Frondizi as President of the MID in 1986.
Lacking representation in Congress, the MID maintained a considerable following in a number of Argentine provinces. In the Province of Formosa
, where voters had fond memories of the Frondizi Administration's development projects, Frigerio leveraged this influence into an agreement with Justicialist Governor Floro Bogado
for his support of developmentalist policies and a MID candidate for Congress in exchange for the MID's alliance with them in Formosa and in nearby Misiones Province
, helping the Peronists wrest control of the Misiones Governor's office from the UCR in 1987. Frigerio negotiated something similar in the other end of the country, the Province of Santa Cruz; electing two MID councilwomen to the Río Gallegos City Council, Frigerio advised them to support Peronist candidates. These two city districts gave Justicialist Mayoral candidate Néstor Kirchner
the deciding margin of victory in local elections in 1987 and Mayor Kirchner went on become governor and, in 2003, President of Argentina.
Having written thirty books and numerous articles concerning the Argentine economy, he was sidestepped by the Administration of Raúl Alfonsín and his policies were only partly adopted by the Administration of Carlos Menem
and by Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo
, whose reforms attracted foreign investment and helped lead to a sorely needed modernization of Argentine industry; Menem-era privatizations, however, yielded very mixed results and the combination of downsizing and higher productivity led to an increase in unemployment after 1992 that Frigerio felt was not being addressed. He became distanced from the MID leadership, though he continued to contribute as a commentator (particularly in Clarín
, Argentina's leading newsdaily). Frigerio lost his friend, Arturo Frondizi, to Parkinson's disease
in 1995, and his own health declined subsequently. Many of his ideas became national policy after a profound economic crisis bottomed out in 2002.
Possessing an affable, self-effacing personality, he was known for his taste for whisky and broccoli and affectionately referred to as the "tapir
", for his robust, compact frame. The Buenos Aires City Legislature
, on August 31, 2006, voted to bestow on him the title of Illustrious Citizen of the City for his contributions to national development, the public discourse and the common cause. Scheduled to receive the recognition later that month, Rogelio Frigerio died in his Belgrano
neighborhood home on September 13, 2006, at the age of ninety-one. His widow, Noemí, and his son, Octávio, accepted the recognition the following day and the renowned economist's body lay in state at the City Legislature.
Background and early career
Rogelio Frigerio was born in Buenos AiresBuenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
in 1914 to Gerónimo Frigerio and Carmen Guanzaroli. One of eight brothers, he grew up in the quiet residential neighborhood of Villa del Parque
Villa del Parque
Villa del Parque is a barrio or district within the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Its name translates as Village of the Park and was derived from its earliest beginnings, when several haciendas were all that existed, alongside a growing agricultural park in this section of Buenos Aires...
and enrolled at the prestigious University of Buenos Aires
University of Buenos Aires
The University of Buenos Aires is the largest university in Argentina and the largest university by enrollment in Latin America. Founded on August 12, 1821 in the city of Buenos Aires, it consists of 13 faculties, 6 hospitals, 10 museums and is linked to 4 high schools: Colegio Nacional de Buenos...
.
Pursuing higher studies at the university's School of Economics, he helped found Insurrexit, a Marxist student association and, as one of its leaders, he edited the group's newsletter, Claridad. Graduating in 1935, he soon distanced himself from the Argentine left, however, believing them to harbor an elitist disposition.
Establishing a wholesale distributorship with diversified interests in lumber, textiles, leather and minerals, in 1940 he married Noemí Blanco, with whom he had five children. A talented businessman, Frigerio nonetheless remained politically active, involving himself in intellectual circles and establishing a newsweekly in 1946, Qué pasó en siete dias ("What Happened in Seven Days"). Alienated by the magazine's staunch opposition to the new populist Administration of Juan Perón
Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón was an Argentine military officer, and politician. Perón was three times elected as President of Argentina though he only managed to serve one full term, after serving in several government positions, including the Secretary of Labor and the Vice Presidency...
, however, Frigerio left its editorial board shortly before Perón had the magazine shuttered in 1947.
Though he did not seek public office during the Perón era, Frigerio became a highly visible proponent of accelerated industrial growth and social progress, a combination of policies he described as developmentalism
Developmentalism
Developmentalism is an economic theory which states that the best way for Third World countries to develop is through fostering a strong and varied internal market and to impose high tariffs on imported goods....
. Inspired by recent efforts in that direction such as Brazilian President Getulio Vargas
Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas served as President of Brazil, first as dictator, from 1930 to 1945, and in a democratically elected term from 1951 until his suicide in 1954. Vargas led Brazil for 18 years, the most for any President, and second in Brazilian history to Emperor Pedro II...
' Estado Novo
Estado Novo (Brazil)
Vargas Era is the period in the history of Brazil that lasted from 1930 to 1945, when the country was under the leadership of Getúlio Dornelles Vargas....
and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
's New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
, Frigerio's concern that Perón's similar policies might be reversed following the populist leader's violent 1955 overthrow
Revolución Libertadora
The Revolución Libertadora was a military uprising that ended the second presidential term of Juan Perón in Argentina, on September 16, 1955.-History:...
led him to re-open his former newsmagazine in 1956, naming it simply Qué. Qué soon attracted prestigious contributors from Argentine intellectual life such as Arturo Jauretche
Arturo Jauretche
Arturo Martín Jauretche was an Argentine writer, politician, and philosopher.-Early years:...
, Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz
Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz
Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz was an Argentine writer, journalist, essayist and poet, friend of Arturo Jauretche and Homero Manzi, and loosely associated with the political group Fuerza de Orientación Radical de la Joven Argentina .Scalabrini Ortiz was born in Corrientes, the son of the naturalist Pedro...
, Jorge Sabato
Jorge Sábato
Jorge Alberto Sábato Argentine physics and technologist.In 1955 he created the Metallurgy department at CNEA, which was its director up to 1968 when he became Technology manager of the CNEA....
and Arturo Frondizi
Arturo Frondizi
Arturo Frondizi Ercoli was the President of Argentina between May 1, 1958, and March 29, 1962, for the Intransigent Radical Civic Union.-Early life:Frondizi was born in Paso de los Libres, Corrientes Province...
. Frondizi, the centrist Radical Civic Union
Radical Civic Union
The Radical Civic Union is a political party in Argentina. The party's positions on issues range from liberal to social democratic. The UCR is a member of the Socialist International. Founded in 1891 by radical liberals, it is the oldest political party active in Argentina...
(UCR)'s 1951 Vice Presidential nominee, soon developed a close friendship with Frigerio.
Developmentalism and Arturo Frondizi
Frigerio, in 1956, secretly arranged a meeting with Perón and his closest adviser at the time, John William Cooke, an erstwhile Communist who, imprisoned for his prominence in the Perón government, had recently escaped his remote PatagoniaPatagonia
Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...
prison cell.
Exiled in Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
and subjected to numerous assassination attempts ordered by the new regime in Argentina, Perón continued to exert considerable political influence in his homeland; as Argentine voters geared for the 1958 elections
Argentine general election, 1958
The Argentine general election of 1958 was held on 23 February. Voters chose both the President and their legislators and with a turnout of 90.9% , it produced the following results:-President:aAbstentions....
, the exiled leader's Justicialist Party
Justicialist Party
The Justicialist Party , or PJ, is a Peronist political party in Argentina, and the largest component of the Peronist movement.The party was led by Néstor Kirchner, President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, until his death on October 27, 2010. The current Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de...
was barred from fielding even local candidates (the mere mention of Perón's name was illegal). Following the secret meeting in Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, however, Perón endorsed Arturo Frondizi, instructing his supporters to vote for their former opponent and forego casting blank ballots, as a number of Peronists were advocating. Failing to secure the UCR nomination, Frondizi ran on a splinter ticket, whose party he named the Intransigent Radical Civic Union
Intransigent Radical Civic Union
The Intransigent Radical Civic Union or UCRI is a defunct political party of Argentina.The UCRI developed from the centrist Radical Civic Union in 1956, following a split at the party's convention in Tucumán...
(UCRI). Enjoying Perón's support, Frondizi's UCRI handily defeated the mainstream UCR candidate, Ricardo Balbín
Ricardo Balbín
Ricardo Balbín was an Argentine lawyer and politician, and one of the most important figures of the centrist Radical Civic Union , for which he was the presidential nominee four times: in 1951, 1958, and twice in 1973....
, by about 1.5 million votes out of 9 million cast.
Arturo Frondizi was inaugurated President of Argentina
President of Argentina
The President of the Argentine Nation , usually known as the President of Argentina, is the head of state of Argentina. Under the national Constitution, the President is also the chief executive of the federal government and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.Through Argentine history, the...
on May 1, 1958 and designated Frigerio Secretary of Socio-Economic Affairs, a secondary post in the critical Economics Ministry the new president was forced to offer Frigerio due to steadfast opposition from the Argentine military and the U.S. Embassy, both of whom saw Frigerio as a veiled Marxist because of his activities as a young man. President Frondizi, even so, gave Frigerio informal say over a broad swath of economic policy.
Frondizi and Frigerio inherited a difficult economic situation: following a 1946-48 boom, GDP had grown by a modest 3% a year in the decade since. Declining exports and a growing need for costly imported motor vehicles, machinery and fuel, moreover, had caused Argentina to run trade deficits in seven out the past ten years. Unable to finance these easily, Frondizi's two predecessors, Perón and Pedro Aramburu, resorted to "printing" money to cover the nation's yawning current account
Current account
In economics, the current account is one of the two primary components of the balance of payments, the other being the capital account. The current account is the sum of the balance of trade , net factor income and net transfer payments .The current account balance is one of two major...
deficits, causing prices to rise around sixfold. Frigerio, whom U.S. interests in Argentina suspected of being a Communist, believed that the only sustainable remedy for this was the encouragement of foreign direct investment
Foreign direct investment
Foreign direct investment or foreign investment refers to the net inflows of investment to acquire a lasting management interest in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor.. It is the sum of equity capital,other long-term capital, and short-term capital as shown in...
into Argentina, particularly in energy and industry the sectors accounting for most of the country's trade deficits.
Almost upon his appointment, Frigerio drafted the Law of Foreign Investment, promptly signed by the president. This law gave incentives and tax benefits to both local and foreign corporations willing to develop Argentina's energy and industry sectors and created the Department and Commission of Foreign Investments, which was designed to give foreign investors more legal recourse. Frigerio's plans were ambitious, calling for greatly expanded public lending for homebuilders and local industry, and public works investment.
Frigerio also promulgated large petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
exploration and drilling contracts with foreign oil companies. These gave interested participants a generous share of the profits from such activities, provided these were carried out in conjunction with the Argentine state oil concern, YPF. As a consequence of investments initiated during the next four years, the profile of a number of sectors in the Argentine economy were revolutionized by the early 1960s:
- oil production which, in the 1950s, covered less than half of Argentina's oil needs tripled to 16 million m³, almost eliminating the need for imports, while refining capacity more than doubled and synthetic rubber output leapt by fivefold.
- auto production which had covered about half of Argentina's new auto market of about 40,000 units yearly leapt to 136,000 units in 1961, eliminating the need for imports (save for luxury vehicles). Tractor production more than doubled.
- steel and cement almost all of which still had to be imported grew to a million tons of annual steel production (half the market at the time) and five million tons of cement (the entire market).
- electric output which, though increasing, was so inadequate most industrial production depended on generators nearly doubled.
- access to indoor plumbing and running water which, despite Perón's efforts, covered only half of all households increased to about two-thirds in a few years.
- paved roads covering no more than 10,000 km (6,000 mi) doubled in length in four years. Ten regional airports were also opened.
The availability of consumer durables like washing machines, refrigerators, ovens, appliances and television sets all also increased sharply, as local and foreign investors soon broke ground on factories making all these goods and many more. One fourth of all foreign direct investment
Foreign direct investment
Foreign direct investment or foreign investment refers to the net inflows of investment to acquire a lasting management interest in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor.. It is the sum of equity capital,other long-term capital, and short-term capital as shown in...
into Argentina between 1912 and 1975 took place in the Frondizi years, and the nation's chronic trade deficits, for their part, vanished by 1963.
Partly the victim of bad timing, these policies did not earn either Frondizi or Frigerio the respect of the most powerful institution in Argentina at the time: the armed forces and in December, Frondizi was forced to remove Frigerio from his post. One of the policy makers behind this was a relatively unknown defense contractor named Alvaro Alsogaray
Álvaro Alsogaray
Álvaro Carlos Alsogaray 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.-Early career:...
, whose austerity plan Frondizi was forced to implement, causing a sudden doubling of consumer prices and, consequently, a fall in GDP and widespread protest. Alsogaray made frequent television appearances publicizing his plan; during the first of these, he declared that the Argentine people "must go through winter."
Relegated to informal adviser to the president, Frigerio opposed Alsogaray's belt-tightening measures and increasingly unpopular, Alsogaray's influence quickly waned; in early 1961, he resigned. Again influencing economic policy from his informal role, Frigerio's close working relationship with the president continued until, on March 28, 1962, Arturo Frondizi was deposed while attending a Western Hemisphere summit in Montevideo, Uruguay in hopes of mediating the conflict between the U.S. and Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
's Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. Arrested upon his return to the Casa Rosada
Casa Rosada
La Casa Rosada is the official seat of the executive branch of the government of Argentina, and of the offices of the President. The President normally lives at the Quinta de Olivos, a compound in Olivos, Buenos Aires Province. Its characteristic color is pink, and is considered one of the most...
the following morning, Frondizi defiantly pronounced that he would "not resign, nor commit suicide, or leave the country," the president was imprisoned and Frigerio, exiled in Uruguay.
Frigerio and politics
Returning to Buenos Aires in 1963, Frigerio was reunited with Arturo Frondizi, now free. Believing that their past economic accomplishments had made a return to politics possible, the two friends founded the Integration and Development MovementIntegration and Development Movement
The Integration and Development Movement or MID is a political party in Argentina.-Historical overview:Flying to Caracas, Venezuela in 1956, Argentine wholesaler and publisher Rogelio Frigerio secretly negotiated an agreement between his friend, the centrist UCR's 1951 vice-presidential nominee...
(MID). MID was barred from the 1963 elections
Argentine general election, 1963
The Argentine general election of 1963 was held on 7 July. Voters chose both the President and their legislators and with a turnout of 85.6%, it produced the following results:-President:aAbstentions.-Argentine Chamber of Deputies:...
due to military opposition and serious differences over strategy resulted in an open enmity between UCRI candidate Oscar Alende
Oscar Alende
Oscar Eduardo Alende was an Argentine politician who founded the Intransigent Party.Alende was born in Maipú, Buenos Aires Province. He studied medicine at the University of La Plata, where he led the student union, and completed his medical studies at the University of Buenos Aires in 1933...
(the progressive former governor of the Province of Buenos Aires and Frondizi ally) and the MID, which opted to encourage its supporters to cast blank ballots. but Many of Frigerio's policies were reinstated by the newly elected President Arturo Illia. Policy differences over Frondizi-era oil contracts, which Illia rescinded, led the MID to actively oppose him, however. Many of their policies endured following the 1966 coup
Juan Carlos Onganía
Juan Carlos Onganía Carballo was de facto president of Argentina from 29 June 1966 to 8 June 1970. He rose to power as military dictator after toppling, in a coup d’état self-named Revolución Argentina , the democratically elected president Arturo Illia .-Economic and social...
, particularly during the 1970-71 tenure of Economy Minister Aldo Ferrer
Aldo Ferrer
Aldo Ferrer is a prominent Argentine economist and policy maker.-Early career:Aldo Ferrer was born in Buenos Aires in 1927, and enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires School of Economics, where he received a Doctorate in 1949...
. Frigerio became a significant shareholder in Argentina's largest newsdaily Clarín
Clarín (newspaper)
Clarín is the largest newspaper in Argentina, published by the Grupo Clarín media group. It was founded by Roberto Noble on 28 August 1945. It is politically centrist but popularly understood to oppose the Kirchner government...
following a 1971 deal made with the newsdaily's owner, Ernestina Herrera de Noble
Ernestina Herrera de Noble
Ernestina Herrera de Noble is a prominent Argentine publisher and executive. She is the largest shareholder of the Grupo Clarín media conglomerate and director of the flagship Clarín newspaper.-Life and times:...
, whose late husband, Clarín founder Roberto Noble
Roberto Noble
Roberto Noble was an Argentine politician, journalist and publisher, perhaps best known for having founded Clarín, long Argentina's leading newsdaily and the most or second-most circulated in the Spanish-speaking world....
, had supported Frondizi. Perón's return from exile imminent, the MID opted to endorse the aging leader for the 1973 elections
Argentine general election, March 1973
The first Argentine general election of 1973 was held on 11 March. Voters chose both the President and their legislators and with a turnout of 85.5%, it produced the following results:-President:...
, believing Perón would give them a meaningful say in the nation's economic policy.
Given little say by the new Peronist government, which, instead saw its policy shift from populism to erratic crisis management measures, Frigerio initially supported the 1976 coup against Perón's successor (his hapless widow, Isabel Perón); what ensued, however, was unlike the last military regime in that this dictatorship
National Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...
adopted policies largely anathema to Frigerio's. Freezing wages for prolonged stretches, deregulating financial markets and encouraging a flood of foreign debt and of imports, these policies all helped undo much of what Frondizi and Frigerio had accomplished twenty years earlier. Though Frigerio and his supporters were not targeted in the way left-wing dissidents were, the MID's opposition to the regime's chief economist, José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz
José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz
José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz was an Argentine executive and policy maker. He served as Minister of the Economy under de facto President Jorge Rafael Videla between 1976 and 1981, and shaped economic policy during the self-styled National Reorganization Process military dictatorship.-Early...
and his policies earned a number of party officials death threats and forced exile.
Allowing elections in 1983, the dictatorship left an insolvent Argentina, its business and consumer confidence almost shattered and its international prestige damaged following the 1982 Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
, an invasion Frigerio opposed. Taking up the MID's nomination for President in his first campaign for high office, Frigerio, however, refused to condemn the regime's human rights atrocities
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
, something which deprived his longshot 1983 MID candidacy of needed support. Rogelio Frigerio fared poorly on election night
Argentine general election, 1983
The Argentine general election of 1983 was held on 30 October and marked the return of Democracy after the 1976's dictatorship self-known as National Reorganization Process...
, October 30, 1983 and, elected by an ample margin, UCR leader Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín was an Argentine lawyer, politician and statesman, who served as the President of Argentina from December 10, 1983, to July 8, 1989. Alfonsín was the first democratically-elected president of Argentina following the military government known as the National Reorganization...
left Frigerio out of the economic policy discussions he held before taking office on December 10. Frigerio succeeded Frondizi as President of the MID in 1986.
Lacking representation in Congress, the MID maintained a considerable following in a number of Argentine provinces. In the Province of Formosa
Formosa Province
Formosa Province is in northeastern Argentina, part of the Gran Chaco Region. Its northeast end touches Asunción, Paraguay, and borders the provinces of Chaco and Salta to its south and west, respectively...
, where voters had fond memories of the Frondizi Administration's development projects, Frigerio leveraged this influence into an agreement with Justicialist Governor Floro Bogado
Floro Bogado
Floro Eleuterio Bogado , is an Argentine Justicialist Party politician, lawyer and diplomat. He has served as Vice-Governor of Formosa Province under Gildo Insfrán since 1995, and was Governor from 1983 to 1987, as well as a national legislator.Bogado was born in Formosa, Argentina, and educated in...
for his support of developmentalist policies and a MID candidate for Congress in exchange for the MID's alliance with them in Formosa and in nearby Misiones Province
Misiones Province
Misiones is one of the 23 provinces of Argentina, located in the northeastern corner of the country in the Mesopotamiсa region. It is surrounded by Paraguay to the northwest, Brazil to the north, east and south, and Corrientes Province of Argentina to the southwest.- History :The province was...
, helping the Peronists wrest control of the Misiones Governor's office from the UCR in 1987. Frigerio negotiated something similar in the other end of the country, the Province of Santa Cruz; electing two MID councilwomen to the Río Gallegos City Council, Frigerio advised them to support Peronist candidates. These two city districts gave Justicialist Mayoral candidate Néstor Kirchner
Néstor Kirchner
Néstor Carlos Kirchner was an Argentine politician who served as the 54th President of Argentina from 25 May 2003 until 10 December 2007. Previously, he was Governor of Santa Cruz Province since 10 December 1991. He briefly served as Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations ...
the deciding margin of victory in local elections in 1987 and Mayor Kirchner went on become governor and, in 2003, President of Argentina.
Having written thirty books and numerous articles concerning the Argentine economy, he was sidestepped by the Administration of Raúl Alfonsín and his policies were only partly adopted by the Administration of Carlos Menem
Carlos Menem
Carlos Saúl Menem is an Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. He is currently an Argentine National Senator for La Rioja Province.-Early life:...
and by Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo
Domingo Cavallo
Domingo Felipe "Mingo" Cavallo is an Argentine economist and politician. He has a long history of public service and is known for implementing the Convertibilidad plan, which fixed the dollar-peso exchange rate at 1:1 between 1991 and 2001, which brought the Argentine inflation rate down from over...
, whose reforms attracted foreign investment and helped lead to a sorely needed modernization of Argentine industry; Menem-era privatizations, however, yielded very mixed results and the combination of downsizing and higher productivity led to an increase in unemployment after 1992 that Frigerio felt was not being addressed. He became distanced from the MID leadership, though he continued to contribute as a commentator (particularly in Clarín
Clarín (newspaper)
Clarín is the largest newspaper in Argentina, published by the Grupo Clarín media group. It was founded by Roberto Noble on 28 August 1945. It is politically centrist but popularly understood to oppose the Kirchner government...
, Argentina's leading newsdaily). Frigerio lost his friend, Arturo Frondizi, to Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
in 1995, and his own health declined subsequently. Many of his ideas became national policy after a profound economic crisis bottomed out in 2002.
Possessing an affable, self-effacing personality, he was known for his taste for whisky and broccoli and affectionately referred to as the "tapir
Tapir
A Tapir is a large browsing mammal, similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile snout. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. There are four species of Tapirs: the Brazilian Tapir, the Malayan Tapir, Baird's Tapir and the Mountain...
", for his robust, compact frame. The Buenos Aires City Legislature
Buenos Aires City Legislature
The Buenos Aires City Legislature is a central part of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, as well as an architectural landmark in the city's Montserrat section.-History:...
, on August 31, 2006, voted to bestow on him the title of Illustrious Citizen of the City for his contributions to national development, the public discourse and the common cause. Scheduled to receive the recognition later that month, Rogelio Frigerio died in his Belgrano
Belgrano, Buenos Aires
Belgrano is a leafy, northern barrio or neighborhood of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.- Location :The barrio of Palermo is to the southeast; Nuñez is to the northwest; Coghlan, Villa Urquiza, Villa Ortúzar and Colegiales are to the southwest....
neighborhood home on September 13, 2006, at the age of ninety-one. His widow, Noemí, and his son, Octávio, accepted the recognition the following day and the renowned economist's body lay in state at the City Legislature.