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In 1932 he became Senator from Catamarca Province. His legislative record consisted of pork-barrel projects and the world's best bankruptcy law. In January 1936, President Agustin P. Justo made him Minister of Justice, later Minister of the Interior. His most notable accomplishment in that office was the establishment of the still-existent Argentine postal censorship. In June 1937 he resigned to campaign for the Vice-Presidency on the coalition ticket headed by Roberto M. Ortiz. Ortiz was a Radical whom the Conservatives thought they could handle, Castillo a Conservative who was considered harmless by the Radicals. Nobody could foresee then that Ortiz would infuriate his Conservative supporters by fighting for honest elections, or that before he could complete his reform he would be laid low with diabetes, plumping Castillo into the Casa Rosada. Castillo has been Acting President of Argentina since last July 3 (TIME, July 15).
This short, slight man with the slightly scraggly grey hair has more in common with the late Calvin Coolidge than the fact that he came to power by accident. He has a sardonic sense of humor, a deliberate manner and enormous practical shrewdness, which has earned him the nickname El Zorro (The Fox). He has no hobbies, takes no exercise; his family life consists of daily visits to his daughter Delia's house, where he plays with his grandchildren (see cut, p. 40). A hard, patient worker, in the ten months he has been Acting President he has worked hard and patiently to perpetuate his Party in power.
Behind Castillo is a junta of shrewd politicians: onetime President Justo, Senate President Robustiano Patron Costas, Senator Antonio Santamarina, Boss Alberto Barcelo of Buenos Aires Province, Fascist-minded Manuel A. Fresco, onetime Governor of Buenos Aires. About the only thing that could upset their plans would be the return of President Ortiz, and a Conservative-controlled Senate Committee has ruled that the President is too nearly blind to read the bills he would sign. Disorganized by Ortiz' illness and frightened for Argentina's future, the Radicals are now split into two camps, one led by onetime President Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear favoring cooperation with the Conservatives. Even Radicals are beginning to fear that unless Argentina ends the political strife which has weakened her for two generations, she will commit national harakiri.
What choice Acting President Castillo would make in Argentina's most pressing question was still his secret. "All solutions will become known as the Government issues new decrees," said he last week. Onetime President Justo, however, had already made up his mind: that the U.S. would "git thar fustest with the mostest men."
Those Argentines who would go the London-Washington way see Argentina's future in gradual industrialization that would free her from utter dependence on exports. But Argentina's old-guard Conservatives, of whom Castillo is the archetype, represent landowners and not the masses. Above all they are for Argentina and her still-unrealized destiny.
* Argentina's White House is pink.
* Pronounced Castijo. The Castilian liquid Il which is sounded as y in most Spanish-speaking countries, becomes a soft j in Argentina.