Argentina's dictatorship economy chief Martinez de Hoz dies

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

By Helen Popper
BUENOS AIRES | Sat Mar 16, 2013 2:31pm EDT

(Reuters) - Jose Alfredo Martinez de Hoz, economy minister during the most brutal years of Argentina's "dirty war" dictatorship and architect of some of the crisis-prone nation's most infamous economic experiments, has died at age 87.

The former economy chief, who was under house arrest as part of an investigation into the kidnapping of two businessmen, died on Saturday in Buenos Aires, local newspapers reported on their websites.

Martinez de Hoz's name became a byword for economic mismanagement in Argentina, but his plan to get the troubled national economy in order was initially lauded on Wall Street.

Prominent U.S. banker David Rockefeller called his strategy "brilliant, solid and absolutely realistic" in a 1978 interview, describing how he promptly granted a Chase Bank loan to the country. Further credits followed.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/16/us-argentina-martinezdehoz-idUSBRE92F0AG20130316

[struggle4progress]

1. Coming up next! Allegations of a Vatican cover-up! Has Pope Francis murdered Martinez de Hoz?

[No Vested Interest]

2. It seems like we'll be hearing and reading

much more about Latin America in the future than we've ever had or known in the past.

Knowledge is a good thing and will be in this instance.
Just hope for factual information and not words based on a personal agenda.

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. He should have been considered just as criminal as the rightist generals he served.

[David__77]

4. Potentially more so.

The officers were often not real policy makers. There were string pullers pushing the fascist policies. The Hjalmar Schachts and Milton Friedmans always seem to get away, unfortunately.