ARGENTINA: Capitalism Is Unconstitutional

“The last chapter of our economic liberation begins with the case of the capitalistic organ La Prensa” cried Evita Perón’s newspaper Democracia this week. “Capitalism itself is manifestly unconstitutional, since it stands for free enterprise, whereas the [1949 Argentina] constitution establishes full state control over foreign commerce and stipulates that any domestic enterprise may be defined as a public service and taken over.”

Democracia’s outburst capped a week of Peronista fulmination against La Prensa and all those, at home & abroad, who had spoken up in behalf of its right to be free and to criticize the regime of Juan and Evita Perón. A special session of Congress met to pass sentence of death on La Prensa by expropriating it, then hesitated and decided instead to condemn the paper to a living death.

The debate was stormy and punctuated by the bronze alarm bells ringing for order. The Peronista-packed Chamber of Deputies passed and sent on to the rubber-stamp Senate—which approved it within 100 minutes—a resolution to appoint “a joint congressional committee to intervene and investigate . . . La Prensa, and the firms commercially linked to it, with the purpose of determining a definite program to be adopted …” Until the Peronista-packed committee made its recommendation, it would in effect control the newspaper, lock, stock and presses.

But the Peronistas, led by Deputy José Emilio Visca, onetime butcher and boss of the Anti-Argentine Activities Committee which closed dozens of opposition papers last year, could not silence the opposition utterly. Boldly facing the booing government benches, Radical Deputy Arturo Frondizi cried: “Yes, you are full of power—but also full of fear … If there is any campaign against Argentina outside the country, it is because the regime has liquidated all freedom inside the country!”