Alfosin party and Peronists reverse ruling

Press, 12 May 1984, Page 11

Alfosin party and Peronists reverse ruling

NZPA-Reuter Buenos Aires Argentina’s governing Radical Party united with the opposition Peronists yesterday to nullify a court decision and assure the return of a former President, Maria Estela Martinez de Peron, from exile. Representatives of the two parties worked on the text of a law annulling Mrs Peron’s debts which, they said, had stemmed from biased court rulings under the former military Government. Federal Judge Norberto Giletta ruled as unconstitutional on Thursday, a decree freeing Mrs Peron from paying a $lO million debt to the State, imposed in 1981. Radical and Peronist politicians said that Judge Giletta’s decision had been aimed at upsetting talks between the two parties that are to begin after Mrs Peron’s planned return from Spain on May 21. The President, Mr Raul Alfonsin, is expected to delay crucial decisions on Argentina’s $U543.6 billion foreign debt and economic policy until after the talks, officials have said. The widow of President Juan Peron was in office from his death in 1974 until she was ousted by the military in 1976 and put in custody. She was freed into exile in 1981. The Peronists virtually control the Senate and the

powerful trade union movement. Mrs Peron is seen as the only politician who can speak for the whole party in talks with the Government. Judge Giletta denied yesterday that his ruling had been aimed at disrupting such talks but Peronist sources said that it could delay her return. In 1981 Judge Giletta found Mrs Peron guilty on two charges of embezzling public funds and sentenced her to eight years in prison. She was also ordered to pay damages, which, Judge Giletta said, totalled more than $lO million. The case against Mrs Peron was controversial because a Federal judge had previously found her not guilty on the same charges.