Word: frondizi
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Elected with the votes of ex-Dictator Juan Peron's diehard followers, Frondizi nevertheless received his sash of office from the military men who had booted Peron, and he is still torn between these two suspicious, irreconcilable forces. Early this month the Peronista "tactical command," already rewarded by a 20% blanket wage increase and a political-amnesty bill, met behind guarded doors in Buenos Aires and twisted the screws tighter. Frondizi got word to drop all court cases against Peronistas, return all Peronista property, and fire the federal judges appointed by the military regime...
Judges Fired. On the last point, Frondizi seemed ready to give in. He handed the Senate his list of nominations for permanent judgeships, and his intentions were plain. Of 145 judges, 35 anti-Peronistas lost their jobs. Every judge sitting on a case against Peron, e.g., graft treason, his love affair with 14-year-old Nelly Rivas was either dropped Or promoted to a higher but less sensitive job. The nominations sent anti-Peronistas riot through the Palace of Justice. They rained jeers and firecrackers down from the galleries, exploded a bomb in an upper-story closet, shattering the walls...
...cold, misty night, 10,000 oppositionists gathered in Constitution Plaza to hear People's Radical Party leaders end their postelection truce by charging Frondizi with selling out to both Peronistas and Communists. More ominous than the rally was a flurry of small, secret meetings among young anti-Peronista officers in barracks and military clubs...
Appeasement. Frondizi hastily backed down. He declared in a speech that the country wanted "neither old nor new dictators." He agreed to let the navy buy its first aircraft carrier, Britain's 14,000-ton Warrior, and made a "solemn commitment" to purchase new equipment for the air force. He cleared his new judges with the Buenos Aires Bar Association and removed the names of several accused Peronistas...
Chief Justice Orgaz and most of the other judges resumed their posts. Afraid of pushing the military too far, the Peronistas stopped talking tough. Underground Leader Guillermo Kelly called newsmen to a secret rendezvous and said he would go along with Frondizi's program "for the good of democracy." For a while at least, Frondizi might be able to concentrate on the grievous economic problems of his fertile but bankrupt country...