Abstract

MARTOCCI, Federico. An Initiative to Change the “Economic and Social Structures": Stakeholders, Discourses and Challenges. La Pampa during the second Peronism (1973-1976). Rev. hist. am. argent. [online]. 2023, vol.58, n.2, pp.93-122.  Epub Dec 22, 2023. ISSN 2314-1549.  http://dx.doi.org/10.48162/rev.44.047.

This work aims at analyzing the initiatives deployed by the La Pampa provincial State, under Peronist Governor Aquiles J. Regazzoli’s administration (1973-1976), towards a change of “structures” allowing, among other things, to increase farming production in a peripheral region of the Argentine Pampas. As such, priorities included expanding the productive border, amplifying the rural outreach services, diversifying production, and implementing an “agrarian transformation plan.” The goal of this plan was to achieve a better distribution of land, with the topic gaining momentum in the wake of the proposals made by the National Secretary of Agriculture and Husbandry. This work analyzes the actions projected by La Pampa government, as well as the discourses around the topic by a Leftist sector and the criticism raised by rural organizations. The stand taken by these organizations resulted in several successive strikes, which certainly contributed to halting the State decisions, in a context marked by Peronism’s internal conflict. Our historiographical approach, drawing on official sources, news articles, texts of rural organizations, and verbal testimonies from contemporary stakeholders, aims at producing explanations from the analysis of a yet-not-explored case.

Keywords : farming; rural organizations; peronism; State; La Pampa.