Argentine change-over

Press, 31 March 1981, Page 8

Argentine change-over

NZPA-Reuter Buenes Aires General Roberto Viola has been sworn in as Argentina's thirty-eighth President for a three-year term which he promises will bring the country a step closer to democratic rule. He succeeds General Jorge Rafael Videla who had held the job since the armed forces overthrew the tottering administration-of President Maria Estella CTsabelita”) Peron five years ago. The eight-minute swear-ing-in ceremony took place in the building which housed the Argentine Congress until it was dissolved in 1976.

Dressed in a white uniform, General Viola, who is 56, _ received the blue and white presidential sash from the hands of General Leopoldo Fortuna Galtieri, the

Army commander-in-chief and present leader of the three-man ruling military junta. The ■ armed forces took over a country in political and economic chaos and pledged to restore democratic rule but no date for a General Election was set. General Viola, who is considered a moderate by his fellow military officers, has said he will bring Argentina a step closer to civilian rule hut he has ruled out elections during his three-year term.

President Viola's 13-man Cabinet is the first since the 1976 coup to have a majority of civilians. He also has closer contacts with civilians than his predecessor and has begun talks with representatives of various political sectors on-ways of re-establishing civilian rule.

But political sources say the President's freedom of action will be limited bv a powerful hard-line lobby within the armed forces. Human rights is the most irksome single problem facing the new President. Political circles are clamouring for information on the fate of thousands of people who disappeared without trace dur-. ing the Army’s mid-1970 crackdown on "Leftists and are presumed to be dead. He also inherits a difficult economic situation. Industrialists, cattle breeders, and businessmen are also unhappy with the open-market policies of the outgoing Economy Minister (Mr Jose Martinez De Hoz). Inflation still runs at an annual 82 per cent but that is a marked improvement on the 740 per cent rate of five years ago.