Pinedo, Federico (1895–1971)

Federico Pinedo (b. 1895; d. 1971), Argentine politician and political economist. Born in Buenos Aires, Pinedo graduated from the National University of Buenos Aires in 1915 with a degree in law and social science and then pursued a career in law and politics. He joined the reformist Socialist Party and was later a founder of the Independent Socialist Party. As such he was elected deputy for the Federal Capital in 1920–1922 and again in 1928–1933; he supported the overthrow of President Hipólito Yrigoyen in 1930. A leading figure of the Concordancia, he served as minister of finance under presidents Agustín Pedro Justo (1933–1935) and Ramón S. Castillo (1940–1941). He is best known for the "Pinedo Plan" of 1940, which represented a notable turn away from Argentina's classic economic liberalism. The plan envisioned massive state investment in industry, to be financed by public bonds sold through private banks; an industrial credit bank would make the resultant capital available to industrialists. It emphasized housing construction and envisioned a state agency to purchase surplus primary products for resale overseas as well as state purchase of the British-owned railways, with wartime credits accumulating in London. Radical deputies defeated the plan in Congress but it won wide political support; Perón later adopted its leading proposals. As a democrat, however, Pinedo opposed Perón and was imprisoned.

Following Perón's overthrow in 1955 Pinedo advocated stern measures to restore the Argentine economy but came to believe that Argentina's problems were political in nature. During 1962 acting president José Maria Guido named him minister of finance. Pinedo believed congressional and judicial authority should be restored but held that the Peronist Party—a totalitarian party, in his view—should remain banned. His stand was unacceptable either to Peronists or to military hardliners, who soon imposed harsh demands on Guido. When the latter acceded to them, Pinedo, the spokesman for moderation, resigned after only two weeks in office. Pinedo had already achieved fame as a journalist and author; his major works include En tiempos de la república y después (5 vols., 1946), El fatal estatismo (1956), La CEPAL y la realidad económica en América Latina (1963), La Argentina en un cono de sombra (1968), and La Argentina (1971). Pinedo died in Buenos Aires.

See alsoArgentina, Political Parties: Independent Socialist Party; Argentina, Political Parties: Socialist Party.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Azaretto, Roberto. Federico Pinedo: Político y economista. Buenos Aires: Emecé Editores, 1998.

Louro de Ortiz, Amalia A. El grupo Pinedo-Prebisch y el neoconservadorismo renovador. Buenos Aires: Grupo Editor Latinoamericano, 1992.

                                   Ronald C. Newton