Frigerio, Rogelio (1914–2006)

Rogelio Frigerio (b. November 1914; d. September 2006), Argentine industrialist, journalist, and politician. Born in Buenos Aires, Frigerio achieved business success in textiles, mining, and agriculture. He served as editor and political director of the newsmagazine Qué Sucedió en Siete Días, director of the Center for National Research (1956–1988), and secretary for Economic-Social Relations of the Nation (1958). In 1959 he became economic counselor to the presidency. As Arturo Frondizi's closest advisor, Frigerio was responsible for the accord between Frondizi's Intransigent Radicals (Unión Cívica Radical Intransigente) and Juan D. Perón (then in exile), which had provided Peronist voting support for Frondizi's presidential victory in 1958. Frigerio influenced Frondizi's industrial strategy for national economic independence, which required large-scale involvement, on favorable terms, of foreign capital and technology. The strategy—particularly as it affected the petroleum industry, which Frondizi had until shortly before defended as the cornerstone of economic nationalism—outraged nationalists; moreover, it failed to achieve the intended results.

The president's attempt to bring the Peronist remnant into a permanent Radical-led coalition aroused increasing opposition among military anti-Peronists; in late March 1962 Frondizi was ousted by a military coup—the first of many as Argentina descended into chaos in the 1960s and 1970s. Once in power, the military charged Frigerio and his associates with "economic crimes." Thereafter, Frigerio remained close to Perón, but stayed out of public life until the 1980s. He became affiliated with the Movement for Integration and Development after 1975, and in 1983 he made an unsuccessful run for the presidency.

Frigerio published a score of books on politics and political economy, including Los cuatro años (1958–1962) (1962), Petroleo y desarrollo (1962), Historia y política (1963), Crecimiento económico y democracia (1963), Estatuto del subdesarrollo: Las corrientes del pensamiento económico argentino (1967), Síntesis de la historia crítica de la economía Argentina (1979), Diez años de la crisis Argentina: Diagnóstico y programa del desarrollismo (1983), and Ciencia, tecnología y Futuro (1995).

See alsoArgentina, Political Parties: Intransigent Radicals; Frondizi, Arturo; Perón, Juan Domingo.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Amato, Alberto. Cuando fuimos gobierno. Buenos Aires: Editorial Paidós, 1983.

Merchensky, Marcos. Las corrientes ideologicas en la historia argentina. Buenos Aires: Editorial Concordia, 1961.

Szusterman, Celia. Frondizi and the Politics of Developmentalism in Argentina, 1955–1962. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993.

                                    Ronald C. Newton