Argentina: A Nation Again

The whole country seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. In three jammed galleries of Buenos Aires' red-and-gold Chamber of Deputies, spectators embraced, cheered, waved handkerchiefs, then spontaneously broke into Argentina's national anthem. The capital's vote was in, and a few hours later, countrywide returns made it official: Dr. Arturo Umberto Illía, 63, was Argentina's new President-elect, after polling 270 electoral votes—31 more than the majority he needed. Finally, it seemed, Argentina was a nation again.

His hair a stately white, his face deeply lined, Illia personifies almost everything that Argentina craves and lacks —maturity and stability. Ever since the military ousted President Arturo Frondizi in March 1962, the rich land of grain and beef has drifted from crisis to crisis and from military faction to military faction, amid needless inflation, trade deficits and an eroding peso. Just before last month's twice-delayed popular elections finally came up, there were strong fears that the military would annul the result to prevent followers of the exiled Dictator Juan Perón from returning to power through a popular front they had formed with Frondizi's party. Instead, the army simply disqualified most of the front's electors. Angered, Perón then tried to discredit the elections by ordering his followers to cast blank ballots. But he underestimated the widespread Argentine desire for an end to crisis. On election day, voters, fastening on the little-known Illia—a country doctor who still practices—as the most suitable compromise choice, gave him 27% of the vote. From there, Illia mustered the remaining electoral support he needed.

Illía's election seemed to confirm that for Argentina in the near future the worst was over. Foreign commerce is picking up, the peso is rallying, and the cost-of-living curve is flattening out.

Last week on the day of the electoral college vote, the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange posted its biggest trading day in history. Soon after, the government arranged to release 350 political and labor union prisoners, and even freed deposed President Frondizi from house arrest.

When he dons the sash of office Oct. 12, Illía promises an Argentina-first policy, renegotiating the contro versial foreign oil contracts made by Frondizi (see WORLD BUSINESS) and re-examining Argentina's monetary poli cies, now closely hewing to the austere line of the International Monetary Fund.