Are Shoeboxes Really Ballot Boxes? – Folha de S. Paulo, March 25, 1973
by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
Immediately after the election results were announced in Argentina, that country’s TFP published a manifesto in La Prensa and other Buenos Aires newspapers, which, in my opinion, serious and impartial history will record as an essential document for understanding what is happening in our sister country.
The viewpoint expressed in this lucid and courageous document is both clear and subtle. I hope to summarize it in a few sentences. Perón is the man chosen by the proponents of the “revolution with freedom” to drag Argentina down the same path that led to the collapse of Allende’s Chile. Since the old caudillo no longer enjoys the prestige he once had, a whole political maneuver was needed to push important non-Peronist electoral sectors toward him. President Lanusse was the main instrument of this maneuver. His terrible administration—note, for example, his striking ineffectiveness against rampant inflation—has caused deep discontent among the electorate. General Lanusse’s theatrical anti-Peronist stance has led many discontented voters to cast their ballots for Perón as a form of protest. Furthermore, Lanusse’s blatant anti-Peronism united the Justicialist Party, which had been seriously divided for years, around Perón. On the other hand, at a more discreet level, President Lanusse took several measures that were actually useful to Perón.
Added to all this were the division and weakness among the civilian “marshals” of the anti-Peronist parties, the division among the centrist currents, each of which launched its own candidate (five in all) against the united Peronists, the discreet but authentic support of the “toads” and much of the clergy for Perón, and other factors that united a predominantly anti-Peronist electorate around Campora, Perón’s “straw man.”
The Argentine TFP developed this view well before the elections, in a series of publications widely sold and distributed on the streets of Buenos Aires and throughout Argentina, and also reported or reproduced in the Buenos Aires and provincial press, always with a sympathetic reception from countless passersby or newspaper readers. Therefore, this document was not presented to the public only after the elections to explain, “at any cost,” the leftist candidate’s victory.
Among these publications, the penetrating and well-documented book Los Kerenskys Argentinos (published in July 1972) stands out, especially for the brilliant pen of Cosme Beccar Varela Hijo. Also worth mentioning are the manifestos “Ver, Juzgar y Actuar” (See, Judge, and Act) (September-November 1971) and “Derecho de abstención: arma de autenticidad” (The Right to Abstain: a Weapon of Authenticity) (January 1973). The Brazilian TFP can provide those especially interested in studying this important series of analyses of the Argentine situation with all the documentation published by its courageous sister organization.
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Were these the only factors behind Perón’s narrow victory?
No. The manifesto signed by the leaders of the Argentine TFP presents shocking data on the regularity of the elections. I transcribe verbatim what it says on this point:
“With regard to the ballot boxes, all reports from newspapers and polling station presidents state that they were unusually small; that the opening for inserting ballots was absurdly placed on the side rather than at the top, as would be logical; that, with the express authorization of the electoral authorities, the ballot boxes, when full, were broken open to arrange the ballots or even to remove and store some of them elsewhere; and that, for this very reason, or because some ballot boxes did not even reach the polling stations, votes were cast into shoe boxes or plastic bags (see Cronica and La Prensa, Monday, March 12).
A newspaper in the capital said this election “showed some really unusual aspects, unlike anything seen in others,” and that these facts “provoked angry protests from voters, who felt frustrated and deceived.”
“An impartial history of the future will refuse to recognize these as serious elections because tampered ballot boxes mean there is no genuine election.”
“Anti-Peronist leaders should be denouncing these facts and demanding that the government conduct a thorough investigation and clarification of the anomalies in the ballot boxes and the vote count; they should be demanding a second ballot to save the country from a terrible drama like Chile’s, which is submerged in misery and oppression. However, they remain silent or speak only to ‘admit’ a non-existent defeat and even to join in the apparent official conspiracy to suppress a second round.”
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It is not incumbent on the Brazilian TFP to take an official position on this disturbing set of anomalies. However, this large-scale tampering with ballot boxes and votes cast into shoe boxes is truly astonishing.
I find it important that the Brazilian public see this information in the context of the numerous reports published by the national press about events in the neighboring nation, without which their view of the situation would be incomplete.
I conclude by noting that after their manifesto, featuring this impressive data, was published, telephones at the TFP headquarters in Buenos Aires did not stop ringing. Daily calls ranged from 100 to 150, almost all supportive. Some people reported irregularities, while others, few in number, anonymously hurled a barrage of threats and insults at the TFP, in a style consistent with that of TFP adversaries in other countries.
