Álvaro Alsogaray

Álvaro Carlos Alsogaray (22 June 1913 – 1 April 2005) was an Argentine politician and economist. He has been known for being Minister of Economy on two occasions, Minister of Industry, Ambassador to the United States, and National Deputy. He played an important role with the Azules in the confrontation against the Colorados. He promoted economic liberalism in the second half of the 20th century and founded the political party Unión Del Centro Democrático (UCeDé).

He managed to spread his liberal ideology in unthinkable social sectors. Carlos Menem, winner in 1989 of the popular vote of Peronism, adopted his preaching in favor of privatization and the free market.

First years Alsogaray was born in Esperanza, Santa Fe, in 1913, as the eldest of three children to Julia Elisa Bosch and Álvaro Alsogaray. Born to a prominent local military family, Alsogaray graduated from the National Military College as an infantry officer. He studied military engineering in the Army's School of Higher Technical Studies and civil and aeronautical engineering at the National University of Córdoba. He married Edith Gay in 1940, and had two sons and a daughter.

Early career

He retired from the army with the rank of captain and with two engineering degrees, which led to his being called el capitán ingeniero. He entered business, becoming an important contractor for State enterprises such as FAMA (a predecessor of flag carrier Aerolíneas Argentinas), and briefly served as its director during the presidency of Juan Perón, whose populist politics and policies would later be anathema to Alsogaray's thinking.

After the coup that removed Perón in 1955, he held the posts of Under-secretary of Commerce and Minister of Industry, and maintained numerous Peronist staffers at the Undersecretariat despite his support for the coup.

Declaring that the economy "must go through winter", the austerity measures were a boon to exporters - but caused consumer prices to double in 1959, and real wages and construction to fall by about 20%. The resulting trade surplus and pro-growth policies pursued by Frondizi's point man on the economy, Rogelio Frigerio, both contributed to a robust recovery in 1960 and 1961.

Marginalized in favor of Frigerio after the 1959 recession and deeply unpopular, Alsogaray resigned early in 1961. Frigerio had been President Frondizi's first choice for the critical Economy Ministry, an appointment thwarted by the military; Frondizi and Frigerio later founded the MID, a political party centered around the need for accelerated development.

Following the 1966 coup against President Illia, he was designated Ambassador to the United States, a post he held until 1968. The Universidad Francisco Marroquín granted Alsogaray an honorary doctorate in 1985.

A vocal supporter of the era's privatizations, he prevailed on President Menem to appoint his daughter, María Julia, Secretary of the Environment, in which post she served from 1991 to 1999, and himself served in numerous consultative posts during the Menem presidency, endorsing the populist-turned-conservative president in his 1995 election.

His UCedé party languished despite his renewed influence as much due to public mistrust of his policies, as because of rivalries in the party itself – notably between his daughter and Adelina D'Alessio de Viola (whom he had Menem appoint as head of the Banco Hipotecario). Commenting on the dispute, he remarked that "would it that one's political party could do without affiliates...or women!"