End of a Siege

ARGENTINA End of a Siege

Twenty thousand exhilarated Argentines massed in downtown Buenos Aires. There were shouts of "Death to Peron." One man fought a duel with an umbrella against a sword-wielding police officer. An unknown number of revolvers were more or less harmlessly discharged. Fifty persons were arrested. After three and one half years Argentina's state of siege had been lifted.

The first howl was for elections. Three days after an obscure political newcomer --Dr. J. Hortensio Quijano, Minister of the Interior--announced the freedom decree, Argentines headed for the monument to Roque Saenz Pena, author of Argentina's now-rusty election laws. They piled flowers high around Roque, booed the Government, demanded a free election.

Gags & Secret Arrests. The state of siege was born nine days after Pearl Harbor. Argentina's late President Ramon S. Castillo, deciding on "prudent neutrality," needed gags to still pro-Allied sentiment. He muffled the press, banned most political activity and public assembly.

When the military toppled Castillo June 4, 1943, Colonel Juan Domingo Peron & friends retained the state of siege, and' improved on it. They reluctantly abandoned it only when public opinion grew too strong to shush.

The military had all along promised an election. Lifting the state of siege was preliminary. But exiles in Montevideo noted that the Government still had plenty of onerous laws. Nor had any definite election date been set.

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