The Infamous Decade () was a period in Argentine history that began with the 1930 coup d'état against President Hipólito Yrigoyen. This decade was marked on one hand by significant rural exodus, with many small rural landowners ruined by the Great Depression, which in turn pushed the country towards import substitution industrialization, and on the other hand, conservative governments stayed in power perpetually by electoral fraud. The poor results of economic policies and popular discontent led to another coup in 1943, the Revolution of 1943, by the Grupo de Oficiales Unidos (GOU), a nationalist faction of the Armed Forces, which triggered the rise to power of Juan Perón.
Besides electoral fraud, this period was characterized by the persecution of the political opposition (mainly against the UCR) and generalized government corruption, against the background of the Great Depression. The impact of the economic crisis forced many farmers and other rural workers to relocate to the outskirts of the larger cities, resulting in the creation of the first villas miseria (shanty towns). Thus, the population of Buenos Aires jumped from 1.5 million inhabitants in 1914 to 3.5 million in 1935.Felipe Pigna, Los Mitos de la Historia Argentina, 3, ed. Planeta, 2006, p. 285 Lacking in political experience, in contrast with the European immigrants who brought with them socialist and anarchist ideas, these new city dwellers would provide the social base, in the next decade, for Peronism.
The democratic liberal senator Lisandro de la Torre (founder in 1914 of the Democratic Progressive Party) denounced various scandals, directing an investigation on the meat trade starting in 1935. In the midst of the investigation, de la Torre's disciple, senator-elect Enzo Bordabehere, was murdered by Ramón Valdez Cora on the Senate floor, and the province of Santa Fe was intervened. The murder was depicted by Juan José Jusid's 1984 film, Asesinato en el Senado de la Nación. CHADE (Compañía Hispano Argentina de Electricidad, an offshoot of the Sofina multinational conglomerate) was also at the heart of an important political and financial scandal. The CHADE scandal, symbol of the Infamous Decade, led to investigations following the revolution of 1943 that deposed Ramón Castillo's government in a military coup, and to the subsequent Rodríguez Conde report on concessions given to the electrical companies.
In 1931, a year after the execution of the Italian anarchist Severino Di Giovanni and his comrade Paulino Scarfó—who had implemented a propaganda of the deed campaign aimed both at international support of the Sacco and Vanzetti case and at attacking Fascist Italy's interests in Argentina—three anarchists were given life sentences during a show trial in which they were tortured, on the charges of having assassinated family members of conservative politician José M. Blanch. Known as the "prisoners of Bragado" (presos de Bragado), the case raised international public indignation. Anarchists, who had created a solidarity network with comrades expelled under the 1902 Law on Residency which legalised the expulsion of immigrants who "compromise national security or disturb public order", were considered as public enemies by Uriburu's dictatorship.Felipe Pigna, 2006, pp. 265–281 Prior to their execution, three anarchist bombs had detonated at three strategic places on the Buenos Aires railway network on January 20 1931, killing three and wounding 17.The New York Times, "Blasts Kill Three in Buenos Aires", January 21 1931. In 1942, Minister Solano Lima signed the prisoners' releases; their names were cleared by a 1993 law upheld by Socialist deputy Guillermo Estévez Boero. In 2003, a law granted a pension to the daughter of one of the anarchist victims of this show trial.
Dictatorship of José Félix Uriburu (1930–1932)
Agustín P. Justo's presidency (1932–1938) In 1933 Arturo Jauretche took part in a failed uprising, led by Col. Francisco Bosch and Col. Gregorio Pomar in Paso de los Libres, in the province of Corrientes. He was subsequently detained.
Political situation
In 1936, divisions within radicalism deepened under the influence of the scandal over the concession of the Compañía Hispano-Americana de Electricidad (CHADE), which had been accused of bribing conservative and radical politicians to obtain the concession, including the then Minister of Finance and future president Roberto M. Ortiz.
Alvear said the following about the conservatives:
UCR uprisings During his term, the Radical Civic Union opposition, which had declared electoral abstention due to the illegitimacy of the regime, was very pronounced. In 1933, radical uprisings took place in Buenos Aires, Corrientes, Entre Ríos and Misiones, resulting in more than a thousand detainees. Yrigoyen, gravely ill, was returned to Buenos Aires and kept under house arrest; he would die on 3 July, and his burial in La Recoleta Cemetery would be the occasion for a massive demonstration. In December, on the occasion of the meeting of the UCR national convention, a joint uprising of military personnel and politicians broke out in Santa Fe, Rosario and Paso de los Libres. José Benjamín Ábalos, former minister of Yrigoyen, and Colonel Roberto Bosch were arrested for the uprising, and the party's delegates and leaders imprisoned on Martín García. Alvear, a former political sponsor of Justo, went into exile, while others were held in the Ushuaia Prison.
Economic and social policy
Minister of Economy Hueyo was succeeded by the lawyer Federico Pinedo, a member of the Independent Socialist Party, who would mark a shift in government policy. State intervention in the economy became more pronounced, with the creation of the National Grain Board, the Meat Board, the Cotton Board, the Yerba Mate Board, the Wine Regulatory Board, and the Dairy Industry Board. In all cases, the policies implemented were aimed at protecting the interests of large producers at the expense of smaller ones.
He also ordered the definitive closure of the Currency Board (Caja de Conversión), which until 1929 had exchanged paper money for gold. To replace it as a tool for exchange rate control, he consulted the Bank of England, which sent one of its directors, Otto Niemeyer, to Buenos Aires. Niemeyer drafted a proposal for the creation of the Central Bank of Argentina (Banco Central de la República Argentina), which was approved by Congress through Laws 12,155 to 12,160, enacted successively in March 1935; the Central Bank opened in June of that year, headed by Raúl Prebisch.
The Roca-Runciman Treaty
It was during Justo's term that Argentina signed the Roca-Runciman Treaty with the United Kingdom, which assured the UK a provision of fresh meat in exchange for important investments in the field of transportation in Argentina, given certain economic concessions from Argentina, such as giving control over the public transport in Buenos Aires to a British company, the Corporación de Transportes.
At the 1932 Ottawa Conference, the British had adopted measures that favored imports from its own colonies and dominions. The pressure from Argentine landowners for whom the government restored trade with the main buyer of Argentine grain and meat had been very strong. Led by the president of the British Trade Council, Viscount Walter Runciman, they were intense and resulted in the signing on April 27 of the Roca-Runciman Treaty.
The treaty created a scandal, because the UK allotted Argentina a quota less than any of its dominions—390,000 tons of meat per year were allotted to Argentina in exchange for many concessions to British companies, and 85% of exportation had to be arranged through British refrigerated shippers. In addition, the tariffs of the railways operated by the UK were not regulated, the treaty did not establish customs fees over coal, had given special dispensation to British companies with investments in Argentina and had reduced the prices of their exports.
The National Democratic Party, one of the parties that had supported the nomination of Justo for President, had split because of this controversy. Finally the Senate rescinded the treaty on July 28. Many workers strikes followed the deliberations, especially in Santa Fé Province, which ended with government intervention.
Import substitution industrialization and Pinedo's economic policies On the other hand, the trade isolationism of the world powers ultimately prompted the beginning of Argentine industrial development via import substitution. Important firms, such as the Bunge & Born agribusiness food company and the Tornquist group, previously turned towards exports but began to diversify their activities and invest in national industries aimed at local consumption.
Under the direction of Minister of Economy Federico Pinedo, economic policy became interventionist, although still with a conservative aim. Pinedo created the Central Bank (BCRA), which was advised by Sir Otto Niemeyer, the director of the Bank of England.Felipe Pigna, Los Mitos de la Historia Argentina, 3, ed. Planeta, 2006, p. 284 The BCRA's board of director was mainly composed of personalities tied to private banks. It had as its missions the managing of the peso and the regulation of interest rates. Writer and thinker Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz was a strong critic of British involvement in Argentina, of which the BCRA itself was the prime example.
The Juntas Reguladores Nacionales were also created during this period, aimed at developing private and state activities and controlling the quality of products, both for national consumption and for export. In order to support prices of products and avoid overproduction, the Juntas destroyed entire loads of corn, used as fuel for locomotives, despite popular hunger. Thirty million pesos per year were spent to destroy wine products.
Furthermore, Pinedo launched a national project of road construction, the national network reaching 30,000 kilometers in 1938 (although many remained without pavement). This competed with the railway system, in the hands of mostly British companies, and furthered the penetration of US firms selling motor vehicles in the Argentine market. US foreign direct investment (FDI) grew during this time, with companies such as the textile firms Sudamtex, Ducilo and Anderson Clayton establishing themselves in Argentina, as well as the tire companies Firestone and Goodyear, the electronics firm Philco and the chemistry firm Johnson & Johnson.