Osvaldo Cacciatore

Osvaldo Cacciatore (* 1924 in Buenos Aires ; † 2007 ibid) was an Argentine officer in the Air Force and from April 2, 1976 to March 31, 1982 mayor of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires.

Life

Early years

Osvaldo Andrés Cacciatore was born in Buenos Aires in 1924. In 1946 he enrolled in the Air Force School and took part in the coup against President Juan Perón on September 28, 1951 . The coup, led by General Benjamin Menéndez, failed, however, and Menéndez, Cacciatore and others involved fled to neighboring Montevideo , Uruguay , whose government Perón rejected.

Cacciatore returned to Argentina and the Air Force. In 1955 he took part in a second uprising against the president, this time led by Admiral Samuel Toranzo Calderón. Toranzo decided on the eve of the planned coup to postpone it. Unaware of this decision, members of the Air Force carried out the bomb attack on the Plaza de Mayo on June 16 , in which 300 civilians were killed. The insurgents then flew to Uruguay.

A revolt by the army , led by General Eduardo Lonardi in September of the same year, finally led to Perón's removal. With the establishment of the Revolución Libertadora on September 23, Cacciatore returned to Argentina. Cacciatores continued his career in the Air Force without any particularities, in 1972 he took over a management position. In preparation for Perón's visit on November 17, 1972, he chaired the government delegation.

Mayor of Buenos Aires

Design of the expressway network approved by Cacciatore in 1976 - five of which were actually built.

With the coup of March 1976 and the introduction of the military dictatorship , almost all democratically elected officials were replaced and Cacciatore was appointed mayor of Buenos Aires by the new regime.

He was head of a city that produced a quarter of Argentina's GNP and was the largest South American city at the time. His upcoming tasks included the preparation of the football World Cup, which was to take place in Argentina in 1978 and for which two stadiums, namely the Estadio José Amalfitani and the Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti , had to be rebuilt. The city itself suffered from logistical problems: the increase in individual traffic since the 1950s was not offset by any corresponding infrastructure measures. In the course of the migration of migrants from the less developed north of Argentina and from neighboring countries such as Bolivia and Paraguay, over 30 slums were created, in which around 200,000 people (6% of the urban population) lived.

To solve these problems, Cacciatore hired engineer Dr. Guillermo Laura with a master plan for a new public transport network. Laura's plan, originally conceived as early as 1970, provided for nine expressways with a length of 74 km, two of which already existed. In preparation, 3,000 houses were expropriated and demolished between 1977 and 1978. In November 1978 construction began on the next two roads. These roads had a total length of 14 km and were opened in December 1980. Until 2006 they were toll roads under the AUSA consortium.

The removal of the slums and the demolition of social housing, in which around 16,000 people lived, were determined by an ordinance of the mayor dated July 13, 1977. The social tenants should be relocated to the Partidos La Matanza and Esteban Echeverría in Gran Buenos Aires . However, those affected did not agree to the resettlement, and clashes resulted in numerous deaths and injuries.

These incidents and the Commission's understanding that the slums can only be evacuated if acceptable accommodation is available for those affected resulted in a court decision in December 1979. The 1980 census showed that no more than 30,000 people lived in the slums, what prompted Cacciatores Housing Commissioner (and later Mayor) Guillermo del Cioppo to say: “Life in Buenos Aires is not for everyone, only for those who deserve it and who are ready to live in a decent community - a better one City for the best people. "

These measures were complemented by the construction of 64 public schools and several public parks, as well as the closure of tens of thousands of incinerators in apartment buildings, which produced up to 3,000 tons of toxic residues per day. Instead, a garbage disposal ("Manliba", a private-state consortium) was set up.

Cacciatores achievements were overshadowed by the Dirty War and the disappearance of nearly 30,000 people. In Buenos Aires alone, the military dictatorship operated 15 torture centers. In addition, there were financial irregularities in many city administration projects. The two completed highways, originally valued at US $ 222 million, actually cost nearly US $ 1 billion. Since the income from the toll usage was lower than planned, the work on the five other roads was initially postponed. The construction of another expressway was only canceled after a demolition. The effects of this on the affected Saavedra district were only "healed" in the late 1990s. Three expressways were built after that.

Cacciatore's deal with garbage disposal company Manliba also came under fire because of the cost and inability of the company to maintain the new dump. His pressure on the football club CA San Lorenzo de Almagro to sell their stadium and the property in Boedo to the French retailer Carrefour could not be resolved.

His efforts to develop the dilapidated Villa Lugano district led to the Parque de la Ciudad being built on an abandoned rubbish dump. There was renewed controversy when the company Interama, which was commissioned with the park facility, went bankrupt in 1980 and the city took over the company's debts. The targeted 15 million visitors per year were never reached either, max. one million people visited the amusement park every year.

Late years

Cacciatore was forced to cancel a number of other urban development projects, including the urbanization of the then-deserted port area of Puerto Madero . On April 1, 1982, he handed over the business to his successor, Guillermo del Cioppo . He faced a number of charges because of his lucrative business.

After the return to democracy in 1983, many former slum dwellers returned to their previous homes. This prompted Cacciatore to run as a member of the National Congress in 1993 . In 1997 he applied for a seat in the legislature of Buenos Aires. Both times, however, it was unsuccessful. Cacciatore died in 2007 in his hometown at the age of 83.

predecessor	Office	successor
Eduardo Alberto Crespi	Mayor of Buenos Aires 1976–1982	Guillermo del Cioppo

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} La Nación : Cacciatore, el militar que cambió la ciudad (span.)
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Clarín of July 30, 2007
3. ↑ Sheina, Robert: Latin America's Wars ; Brassey's, 2003
4. ^ Potash, Robert: The Army and Politics in Argentina ; Stanford University Press, 1996
5. ↑ ^{a b} AUSA: Historia (span.) ( Memento of the original from July 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ' 
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Pagina / 12 : Militares vs. villeros (span.)
7. ^ Schuurman, Franz Johan: Urban Social Movements in the 3rd World ; Taylor & Francis, 1989
8. ↑ ^{a b} Clarín of August 29, 2009: Un contrato enorme y codiciado (span.)
9. ↑ Andersen, Martin: Dossier Secreto ; Westview Press, 1993
10. ↑ La Nación : La autopista que no fue (Spanish)
11. ↑ Notas de Futbol : El viejo gasómetro (Spanish)
12. ^ Villa Lugano (Spanish)
13. ^ Lewis, Paul: The Crisis of Argentine Capitalism ; University of North Carolina Press, 1990