Last February 23 marked the 66th anniversary of Arturo Frondizi's electoral victory, opening one of the periods of greatest prosperity, especially oriented towards national development.
Already in 1950 he had said from his seat as a National Deputy that “
for a constitutional regime to exist in the Republic, the existence of a building called the National Congress, nor those seats, is not enough.
It is essential that representatives of the political parties sit here, and above all that representatives of the people sit here,” and he added: “A poor and hopeless people is not a free people.
On the contrary, it is a favorable field for anarchy and dictatorship.”
President Frondizi's proposal can be summarized in these terms: balanced integration of agriculture, industry and mining, accepting that industrialization is a complex social process that involves decisions, capacity, experience, organization, infrastructure and legal order.
Thus, it managed to triple oil production, achieving energy self-sufficiency, double rubber production, promote the petrochemical and automotive industries, gas pipelines, oil pipelines, metallurgy, machinery, and modernize agriculture in an unprecedented expansion.
It took full advantage of natural resources and rejected for moral reasons any economic solution based on causing unemployment or misery in any social sector.
As Don Arturo says, “the effects of the economy fall on human beings, and if the effect is negative it should be read as helplessness and suffering, instead of joy and well-being.”
The educational policy gave encouragement to the National Universities, and to the INTI, the INTA and the CONICET, refounded in February 1958 under the direction of Dr. Bernardo Houssay, Nobel Prize winner in Medicine.
Science and technology advanced with gigantic steps, from aerospace activity to the novelty of nuclear weapons in the midst of tensions between Washington and Moscow that would move from the military field to the economic and political field.
Precisely, international relations were another model to follow based on the lucid perception that it should establish a “mature” relationship with the United States and at the same time forge good relations with all countries, including those in the East.
His government program was prepared by a great team, the “Usina” in the jargon of the intimates, headed by Rogelio Frigerio, whose performance was fundamental both in the preparation of the proposals and in the development of the government's policies.
Today, all of us, but especially those of us who grew up and learned from them, must have the courage to make a self-criticism that incorporates developmental faith, rationality of thought and courage to explain to ourselves the reason why that process that would have led us to be one of the great nations.
Six decades ago, Argentina was self-sufficient and now it goes into debt to import, it manufactured airplanes and transportation of its own design and now it unbalances its balance of payments to buy auto parts and assemble them, 1 in every 30 Argentines was below the poverty line and now 1 in every 3, that is: 10 times more.
The President said, and today I share it especially with the young people who are present and future, that to do politics it is essential that the ideals be in accordance with the goals, and that we need political freedom, administrative honesty, and knowing that power comes from the society in which one must insert oneself.
Norma Cadoppi Frigerio is president of the Strategic Forum for National Development Foundation.