Pescado podrido. Domestic and international circuits of Argentine rumors and conspiracy theories (1930-1943)

ABLARD, JONATHAN; BOHOSLAVSKY, ERNESTO

Nueva York

Workshop; Workshop ?Rumors, Falsified Documents, and other Interpretative Challenges in the Latin American Archive; 2019

Columbia University

Fakenews and false rumors are known in Argentina as pescado podrido (rotten fish) for they can poison the one who buysor eats it. This paper deals with this issue by identifying how and whyArgentine conspiracy theories and rumors were created, spread and legitimizedwithin domestic and international circuits by government officials and thepress between the 1930 Uriburu coup and 1943, a period when the practice of pescado podrido intensified.iN Argentina, a variety of forces drove the increase in pescado podrido including political instability, the banning of themajoritarian Radical Party, elite anxiety about a ?communist? threat, a long lasting nationalistfear aboutthe integrity of borders.  Argentineelites and authorities produced and consumed pescado podrido for both their own politicalpurposes but also as a way to situate their own national situations into aglobal context. In particular, Argentine actors were inclined to see any anti-governmentactions as being linked to international communism and in some cases fear ofJewish world conspiracies.  On the internationalfront, misleading and incorrect information circulated back and forthbetween Argentina and and the North Atlantic. We selected two casesin order to show how this ecosystem worked: the denunciation of a rumoredco-conspiracy of the Argentine Radical Party and Chilean Army to seize controlof Neuquén city in September 1930, and recurring rumors of 'communist' infiltrationinto government agencies, such as the Army and schools, that createdlong-lasting concern in Buenos Aires and Washington D.C. This paper is based onresearch in government archives and newspaper collections in Neuquén city (inNorthern Patagonia), Buenos Aires, and Washington, D.C.  Argentine official sources included recordsfrom the Ministry of the Interior, the Gobernación del Neuquén, PresidentAgustín P. Justo?s papers and recently declassified Army and Navy documents. Wealso consulted US government public and secret documents from the  Department of State and U.S. Military Attachécorrespondence.