Wartime espionage in Argentina commands special interest in light of that country's controversial commitment to neutrality until the eve of Nazi Germany's fall. Prominent members of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration headed by Secretary of State Cordell Hull viewed neutrality as a mask for pro-Axis sympathies at variance with the Pan-American movement that also impaired the Allied war effort. In this context, US officials deployed many schemes to discover evidence of Argentine collusion with the Nazis, including espionage. After the war, Spruille Braden, who in 1945 served as the US ambassador in Argentina and then as the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, instigated publication of the notorious Blue Book, an exposé of alleged wartime ties between Nazi Germany and Argentine political leaders. Argentina gained additional ill repute as a suspected haven for escaped Nazi war criminals.British espionage in Argentina developed greater in scope than American spying, which reflected Britain's enormous business stake in the country and its wartime dependence on Argentine meat. More successful on balance than their American counterparts according to Panagiotis Dimitrakis, the British networks focused on protecting trade and shipping by preventing sabotage. Meanwhile, the Winston Churchill government accepted Argentine neutrality. The benefits that Britain received from this policy included the near-threefold increase in wartime meat exports and the deferment of all payment for meat until after the war. Further, neutrality protected British business against US competitors. Thus a state ostensibly failing to support British and Allied war aims, for which it was denounced by the United States, developed during the war into a British commercial satellite to a far greater extent than ever before in its history. Neutrality also served British interests by permitting maximum resources to be diverted into meat production and exports as opposed to being used for alternative purposes under US control. Under such conditions, the British were reluctant to denounce any but the most blatant instances of Argentina having “chosen to dally with evil,” as Churchill referred to cases of collusion with Nazi Germany. Dimitrakis describes one of these instances, the Oscar Hellmuth affair of early 1944, in which the British tailed and arrested the courier sent by President Pedro Ramírez to purchase weapons in Germany.The author includes “British and American espionage” in his book's subtitle, but he also devotes a substantial section to German spy activities. Following Ronald C. Newton's notable 1992 study The “Nazi Menace” in Argentina, 1931–1947, Dimitrakis analyzes German espionage, though he does incorporate new archival data, much of it from The National Archives in Britain. While fleshing out some old stories and narrating new ones, he nevertheless leaves an impression that espionage in wartime Argentina had only a limited impact. Among Germans, figures like Johannes Siegfried Becker could do little more than transmit information already in the public domain culled from newspapers. On the British side, MI6 reports included scarcely relevant data like the invention of the Biro ballpoint pen in Buenos Aires by László Biró, a Hungarian migrant. Dimitrakis reports, oddly it would seem, that among the Latin American states Argentina was a low priority in the eyes of the British Special Operations Executive. All indications point to the contrary in light of the importance of Argentine meat in Britain.US espionage too proved mundane and unspectacular. Turf wars between J. Edgar Hoover at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and William J. Donovan, director of the Office of Strategic Services, dominate this part of the story. Dimitrakis's narrative lacks reports of spectacular feats associated with espionage: the assassination of public figures tied to enemies, the sinking of ships transporting crucial cargoes, the disruption of railroads, or the type of heroic exploits associated with the French Resistance. Nazi spies in Argentina failed to disrupt the frigoríficos; there is no compelling evidence that spies found ways to guide the U-boats to consistently attack the meat ships. The book conveys nothing of the intrigue, treachery, or romance of contemporary movies like Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious, made in 1945–46 in locations reminiscent of wartime Buenos Aires.Dimitrakis proffers a bureaucratic history of spying. He fails to explain each country's perception of its national interest and how this influenced the development of its espionage networks. He applies his enviable multilingual skills to only limited advantage. He neglects important secondary literature devoted to wartime Argentina published in the United States. The author uncovers numerous issues but leaves interesting, long-asked questions unresolved. For example, he accepts the long-held if often-contested view that Ramón Castillo, president of Argentina in 1940–43, supported the Nazis but provides no new evidence. Dimitrakis hints at undiscovered data revealing Juan Perón's pro-Axis proclivities but once more omits details and proof. In too many instances, the book fails to distinguish between fact and propaganda.
In times of political effervescence, the number of pamphlets and newspapers editions tends to increase. Accordingly, the different instances in the life of a political movement can be traced through the type of intervention proposed by its publications. The rise of the anarchist movement publishing activity in Buenos Aires preceded its relevance within trade union during the first years of the 20th century. Until that moment the few "popular editions" published in the country consisted in literary works. In that context, Anarchism generated a novel circuit of texts through which an unprecedented relationship between printers, politics, authors, publishers and readers was established. Therefore, the decentralized financing and dissemination practices of the anarchist publishing movement revealed a broad thematic range of political concerns, that would finally shape, over the decades, the editorial interests of
In Antiguo régimen y liberalismo, Gabriela Tío Vallejo details the political history of Tucumán as it made the transition from colony to liberal provincial capital. Vallejo focuses on Tucumán’s cabildo and elections; she makes extensive use of census materials and a variety of other primary and secondary sources.In the first section, Vallejo sets the stage for the end of the colonial period by describing the type of society present in Tucumán, as well as the political institutions that supposedly carried out the crown’s wishes in that region. The most important political and social group was the vecinos—merchants and hacendados— which is not unusual in an area far from the Spanish centers of power. The vecinos occupied the important positions within the cabildo, and through their work represented all tucumanos.Politically, the two most important institutions within colonial society in Tucumán were the cabildo and the intendant system, instituted after 1796 as part of the Bourbon reforms. Tucumán did not have a governor or a corregidor. The cabildo’s members were elected by the urban vecinos, who thus wielded extraordinary authority and power over the political life of the city. Furthermore, in the case of Tucumán the powers of the creoles relative to the peninsulares increased with the intendant system and the Bourbon reforms. The most important creole families in Tucumán became even more powerful after the changes instituted after 1796. Vallejo argues that the Bourbon reforms did not bring about absolutism in Tucumán as they did elsewhere in Latin America. In fact, they did the exact opposite; they further decentralized political power and increased Tucumán’s autonomy vis-à-vis the crown.In the second half of the book, Vallejo discusses the impact of revolution and war on politics and the political process in Tucumán. She argues that war, which lasted from 1808 until 1819, caused only limited change in the city and that there was no political change. She observes that the cabildo changed with the times, forming ties that eventually enabled it to transform itself into a more autonomous institution. Additionally, indirect community participation increased in the post-independence period, though it had antecedents in the colonial regime.By the 1820s, Tucumán had its hands full dealing with provinces along its borders. Neighboring provinces often acted as foreign countries, and bandits roamed the frontier areas between provinces, usually supported by provincial governments on one side or the other. Military uprisings and liberalized electoral laws transformed politics in the city. Vallejo argues that during this period political leaders in Tucumán implemented liberal practices and principles that had evolved from traditional forms.Nonetheless, Vallejo contends that the organization of the provincial state suffered from two problems in the 1820s: terrible economic crises and the new reluctance of the vecinos to participate in politics. These problems had a direct bearing on the survival of the cabildo. Very few vecinos were willing to accept a political office that provided few benefits and in some cases could be dangerous. They thus became apathetic about the political process, evidenced by their poor participation in elections during this period. Furthermore, the institution that replaced the cabildo in the 1820s, the Sala de Representantes, did so only after the cabildo ceased to function as a political power precisely because its members, the vecinos, refused to hold political posts that could endanger their political and economic interests within the community.Vallejo’s point about the decentralizing effects of the Bourbon reforms is an innovative one that broadens our understanding of these reforms and suggests that we ought to revisit their local implications on a case-by-case basis. However, she offers fewer original insights about the postindependence period. Additionally, the book’s overly lengthy chapters make it difficult for a reader to follow Vallejo’s main arguments and conclusions. Nonetheless, this study provides a wealth of information about the political development and transformation of a city in a lesser-known and -studied region of Latin America.