Rulers’ future uncertain

Press, 17 June 1982, Page 8

Rulers’ future uncertain

NZPA Buenos Aires Argentina's immediate political future appeared uncertain after the end of hostilities, observers ' said in Buenos Aires yesterday. The gap between the:military regime and political .parties whose activities have been banned since the 1976 .military coup, yesterday appeared as wide as it, was .before April 2, the date Argentine troops “recovered” the ,-islands ' they are now' about to leave.

The huge show of support for the Government by all sectors of society 16 weeks ago, gradually waned over the weeks as the British troops advanced. As the guns fell silent over Port Stanley,

the voice of protest that was the first to be heard, again called for the immediate resignation of the military government. The voice of Raul Alfonsin, leader of the Reformist' Radicalism Movement, the second most powerful Argentine political force after the Peronists, reflected the anger of. certain sectors of the- . population. convinced they were cheated, according to Argentine political circles.

The sources added that everything depended on how the authorities announced the real • turn ■ of events in the South Atlantic.

For. all political- leaders, national unity inspired by the recovery of the Falklands necessitated the creation of a

transitional coalition government which would lead to the return of democratic institutions.

But President Leopoldo Galtieri on June 7 dashed all hopes hopes when he said his Government, true to the process of national reorganisation of the armed forces, did not have any exact date.

The President said he was waiting for the reorganisation of political groups that would be created from new party statutes before deciding? whether conditions for a return to democracy were present. ; ■ ■ .. Political leaders were deeply disappointed by the President’s remarks. But on several occasions, Colonel Bernardo Menendez,

Secretary of State for the Interior,’ said the military junta did not intend to encourage too hasty a return to normalisation and that any movement, any decision, would have to be considered at length.

Political leaders like Mr Alfonsin could scarcely attack the military regime after defeat in the Falklands because of the success neverthless achieved by the country’s air force,7

Brigadier-General” Basilio Lami Dozo, the Air Force chief, whose pilots won flying colours in the skies above the Falklands, was the first to agree that a consolidated Argentina would- emerge from-the war. *7