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consolidated control of the junta. General Jorge Videla, head of the
army, assumed the presidency of a junta that consisted also of the heads
of the navy and the air force. “The aim of the Process,” Videla declared,
“is the profound transformation of consciousness” (Feitlowitz 1998,
19). The new military government agreed on two policies that had
broad support from the public. The junta promised to combat inflation,
and it vowed to eliminate the guerrilla problem.
To remedy inflation, the junta assigned economic policy to José
Martínez de Hoz, a Harvard-trained economist from an old landed
family. He immediately inspired confidence in domestic and foreign
investors, as he decreed economic policies that favored open markets
and smaller public expenditures. Martínez de Hoz also welcomed
foreign investment at a propitious moment. The Arab oil boycott of
1973 had succeeded in raising international petroleum prices four-
fold, resulting in large profits for the world's oil exporters. Rising oil
prices hurt the economy of Argentina, whose national oil company
could not supply even the anemic economy with enough fossil fuels.
However, international banks at the time had billions of petro-dollars
on deposit and hired dozens of Spanish-speaking financial agents to
scour Latin America for lending opportunities. Martínez de Hoz's
decrees impressed the international lenders, who also exuded con-
fidence in the military government's ability to “discipline” both the
guerrillas and the workers. The new government eagerly seized the
opportunity to achieve economic growth at a low rate of inflation
through borrowing from abroad.
Under the onslaught of loans, the generals decided against down-
sizing the government, and every military governor and officer in
charge of the state companies sought interviews with foreign lenders
as a way to boost their personal power. They replaced the Peronist
bureaucrats with an even greater number of their own friends and sup-
porters. Argentina experienced a boom in its economy that made the
military government very popular, but the generals succumbed to the
age-old tendency of government officials entrusted with the nation's
interests—their immunity corrupted them. The mayor of Buenos Aires,
General Osvaldo Cacciatorre, was a fine example. In military politics,
he represented the faction of hard-liners. His administration borrowed
$1 billion to build a superhighway from Ezeiza airport straight into
the heart of the capital. During construction, his minions bulldozed
32 shantytowns ( villas miserias) and displaced nearly 300,000 poor
residents. The mayor had plans for an entire urban network of autopis-
tas (superhighways), but the money ran out. General Cacciatorre also
 
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