Despite belated recognition by the Department of State of Argentine President Guido’s government, Argentina is once more going through an agonizing internal struggle. The struggle at this phase is less between the Argentine Military and civilians than between two factions which have emerged within the Argentine military structure itself: one clinging to a desperate hope that the nation can be pacified by a return to common sense at the ballot box, the other resolutely unwilling to hazard the nation’s fate in general elections which could bring Peronists into total power. This internal dispute stems from a question of method rather than principle, for the Argentine Military are determined that Peronism shall never again despoil their country.
The immediate sequence of events that resulted in the replacement of Arturo Frondizi as President of Argentina are these: the Argentine elections of March 18 turned out disastrously for the Frondizi government. Peronist candidates won ten governorships in 19 provinces, and Frondizi’s party lost control of the House of Deputies. Argentine military leaders thereupon informed Frondizi that they would not tolerate the installation of Peronist governors and demanded that he nullify the elections. Instead, Frondizi stalled. The Peronists, led by the governor-elect of Buenos Aires province, Andrés Framini, declared that they would not be cheated of the fruits of electoral victory and threatened a general strike. Argentine military leaders reiterated their demand that Frondizi nullify the elections, and when he refused, arrested and flew him to comfortable isolation on an island in the Plate River. Legal succession to the Presidency devolved upon the Senate president, José María Guido, who was duly sworn in and set about forming a cabinet under the watchful eyes of the Military.
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