José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz
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José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz (born 13 August 1925) was an Argentine politician, best known as the Minister of Economy under president Jorge Rafael Videla between 1976 and 1981, during the the last military dictatorship.
On 2 April 1976 Martínez de Hoz announced a plan to open up the markets, keep inflation in check and stimulate foreign investment. Workers' salaries were frozen and subject to state control. The debt of private companies as well as the national public and private debt increased considerably. The deregulation of the financial markets removed checks on banks and transferred the responsibility to the state, which took charge of their debt as needed. Imports increased and short-term financial speculation flourished. The fiscal and trade balances skyrocketed. Income inequality increased. The public debt, which amounted to $7,000 million at the start of the dictatorship, had grown to $43,000 by the time of the restoration of democracy in 1983.
Martínez de Hoz, allegedly involved in human rights abuses, was indicted in 1988 and spent 77 days in jail, but was then freed, and finally benefitted from the pardon of President Carlos Menem in 1990. In 2006, however, a judge declared the pardon unconstitutional and additionally revoked the suspension of the judicial process dictated before, thus leaving the way open to investigate Martínez de Hoz's involvement in the kidnapping of a businessman and his son between 1976 and 1977.
[edit] References
- La dictadura militar en Argentina on the Ministry of Education website.
- Una pesada herencia, by Ernesto Hadida.
- "La Justicia anuló los indultos a Martínez de Hoz y Harguindeguy", Clarín, 4 Sep 2006. (in Spanish)
- "Argentine junta pardons revoked", BBC News, 6 Sep 2006.
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