(4 of 5)
The Argentines feel about bases for the U.S. almost as strongly as the Irish feel about bases for Britain. Opposition to the bases among the Argentine people was so nearly unanimous that no political leader has dared to come out openly in favor of them. As one of his last acts before resigning his post, Foreign Minister Julio Argentino Roca patched up a deal with Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia and Paraguay, whereby any bases that are built will be built by the five countries concerned.
Problem in Democracy. Last week Acting President Castillo announced that he would govern by decree temporarily, i.e., until the Chamber of Deputies ends the legislative boycott which caused its last session to accomplish nothing. The issue which caused the Chamber to refuse to pass legislation was fundamental: how far can the democratic process survive in Argentina?
Because Argentina's middle and lower classes are more numerous than its landowners, the Radical Party has held power most of the time since election laws were reformed in 1912. The Conservatives have been able to govern only through coup, coalition, accident or coercion. Ramon Castillo got into politics through a coup, became Vice President through coalition and Acting President through accident. He may become President through his Party's custom of thwarting the democratic process at the polls.
Last December, elections were held in the Provinces of Santa Fe and Mendoza. In Argentina provincial elections determine the outcome of the Presidential election because the victorious party controls the election machinery. The Conservatives won in Santa Fe and Mendoza and outraged Radicals marched on Buenos Aires, loudly charging fraud. The Conservatives did not deny the charge. To demands by the Radical-controlled Chamber of Deputies that Federal interventors be appointed in the two provinces, Acting President Castillo turned a deaf ear. The Radical Deputies thereupon declared their legislative boycott. Not even a budget could be passed.
Ramón S. (for nothing) Castillo-was born in the small mountain town of An-casti in the backward, religious, traditionalist, poverty-stricken Province of Catamarca on the 20th of November, 1873, the son of Rafael Castillo and Maria Barrionuevo. The family was partly of conquistador stock; a family of small estancieros, not rich but well-connected in the Province. When he was eleven Ramên entered the Colegio Nacional in the provincial capital of Catamarca, where he founded Argentina's first student paper, El Estudiante. Between his graduation from the law school of Buenos Aires University in 1896, and 1918, when he retired from the bench, he was a judge of many courts. As a jurist he was juridically impeccable; no decision of his was ever reversed by the higher court. On resigning from the bench he decided to enter politics and took an active part in the Uriburu-Justo Conservative coup of the 6th of September, 1930, which forced General Hipolito Irigoyen out of the Presidency. Castillo was rewarded with the post of Interventor in Tucuman Province.