{{Short description|Argentine politician, diplomat and writer}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Mario Amadeo |image = Mario Amadeo c. 1963.jpg |image_size = 220px |caption = Mario Amadeo {{circa|1963}}. |office1 = [[Argentina–Brazil relations|Ambassador of Argentina to Brazil]] |term_start1 = 1966 |term_end1 = 1969 |appointer1 = [[Juan Carlos Onganía]] |predecessor1 = [[:es:Carlos A. Fernández|Carlos Alberto Fernández]] |successor1 = [[:es:Osiris Villegas|Osiris Villegas]] |office2 = [[Permanent Representative of Argentina to the United Nations]] |term_start2 = 1958 |term_end2 = 1962 |appointer2 = [[Arturo Frondizi]] |predecessor2 = [[:es:Mariano José Drago|Mariano José Drago]] |successor2 = [[:es:Lucio García del Solar|Lucio García del Solar]] |office3 = [[List of ministers of foreign affairs and worship|Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship]] |term_start3 = 23 September 1955 |term_end3 = 13 November 1955 |president3 = [[Eduardo Lonardi]] |predecessor3 = [[:es:Ildefonso Cavagna Martínez|Ildefonso Cavagna Martínez]] |successor3 = [[:es:Luis Podestá Costa|Luis Podestá Costa]] |birth_name = Mario Octavio Amadeo French |birth_date = 11 January 1911 |birth_place = [[Buenos Aires]], Argentina |death_date = {{death date and age|1983|03|19|1911|01|11|df=y}} |death_place = Buenos Aires, Argentina |occupation = Politician, diplomat, writer |party = |other_party = |spouse = |alma_mater = |signature = }}
'''Mario Octavio Amadeo French''' (11 January 1911 – 19 March 1983<ref name="Rees">[[Philip Rees]], ''[[Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890]]'', [[Simon & Schuster]], 1990, p. 9</ref>) was an [[Argentina|Argentine]] [[conservatism|conservative]] [[nationalism|nationalist]] politician, diplomat and writer who served as a minister in the government of [[Eduardo Lonardi]]. He belonged to the highly influential [[right-wing]] tendency prominent in Argentine politics on either side of the [[Second World War]].
==Biography== ===Rise to prominence=== A native of [[Buenos Aires]], Amadeo studied [[philosophy]] and briefly worked as an academic in that area.<ref name="Rees"/> During the 1930s the youthful Amadeo was closely associated with the anti-[[liberalism]] tendency and took his inspiration from such [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[conservatism|conservative]] writers as [[Léon Bloy]], [[Charles Péguy]], [[Jacques Maritain]], [[G. K. Chesterton]], [[Hilaire Belloc]], [[Giovanni Papini]] and [[Ramiro de Maeztu]].<ref>Alberto Ciria, ''Parties and Power in Modern Argentina (1930-1946)'', 1974, p. 151</ref> As such he belonged to the group of rightist authors and activists that included [[Carlos Ibarguren]], [[Manuel Gálvez]], [[Juan Carulla]], [[Ernesto Palacio (writer)|Ernesto Palacio]], [[Máximo Etchecopar]] and [[Rodolfo Irazusta|Rodolfo]] and [[Julio Irazusta]]. He was also the President of ''Ateneo de la República'', an elitist semi-secret club active in the 1940s and accused of [[fascism]] by its opponents, which included a number of cabinet ministers amongst its members.<ref>Craig L. Arceneaux, ''Bounded Missions: Military Regimes and Democratization in the Southern Cone and Brazil'', 2002, p. 51</ref> A founder of the Argentine [[Catholic Action]] in 1931, as well as the later rightist journal ''El Baluarte'', Amadeo was influenced in his political ideas by [[Ramiro de Maeztu]] and [[Hispanidad]] and advocated an anti-democratic traditionalism that also looked to [[corporatism]] and an economic nationalism that sought to curtail the influence of foreign capital in Argentine life.<ref name="Rees"/> He was an enthusiastic supporter of the regime of [[Francisco Franco]] in Spain.<ref>Stein Ugelvik Larsen, ''Fascism Outside Europe'', Columbia University Press, 2001, p. 133</ref>
During the [[Second World War]] Amadeo became associated with a strand within Argentine politics that came out in favour of the [[Axis powers]]. As a consequence the [[United States Department of State]]'s so-called 'Blue Book on Argentina' listed Amadeo as being 'a trusted collaborator' of the [[Sicherheitsdienst|SD]]'.<ref>Harold F. Peterson, ''Argentina and the United States, 1810-1960'', 1964, p. 502</ref> Amadeo was close to [[Juan Carlos Goyeneche]], a frequent visitor to [[Nazi Germany]] during [[World War II]], and it was Amadeo who ensured communication between Goyeneche and [[Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship|Foreign Minister]] [[Enrique Ruiz Guiñazú]].<ref>[[Uki Goñi]], ''The Real ODESSA'', London: Granta Books, 2003, p. 11</ref> In his later career as an ambassador to the [[United Nations]] he would demonstrate further [[Nazism|Nazi]] sympathies when he attacked [[Israel]] for kidnapping [[Adolf Eichmann]].<ref>Eliezer Ben Rafael, Yosef Gorni & Yaacov Ro'i, ''Contemporary Jewries: Convergence and Divergence'', 2003, p. 326</ref>
===Peronism=== Within General Lonardi's cabinet, he was part of a Catholic nationalist strain that recalled the earlier ideas of the likes Carulla and the Irazustas and also included Labour Minister [[Luis Cerruti Costa]] and the President's brother in law Clemente Villada Achaval.<ref>Robert A. Potash, ''The Army & Politics in Argentina: 1945-1962; Perón to Frondizi'', 1996, p. 217</ref> Amadeo sought to place himself within the conservative traditions of [[Juan Manuel de Rosas]] and argued that the [[Peronism]] he came to serve was also part of the same tradition.<ref>Sandra McGee Deutsch, ''Las Derechas: The Extreme Right in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, 1890-1939'', 1999, p. 330</ref>
Amadeo initially remained loyal to Perón, and indeed saved his life when, following the latter's overthrow on September 19, 1955, the deposed leader slipped on the launch that was taking him to [[Paraguay]] and would have drowned had Amadeo not rescued him.<ref name="Iain Guest 1990, p. 484">Iain Guest, ''Behind the Disappearances'', 1990, p. 484</ref> Despite this Amadeo would later come to criticise Perón for using the workers as a basis for his regime, rather than following the old nationalist blueprint of [[hierarchy]] which he and his contemporaries endorsed.<ref>Colin M. MacLachlan, ''Argentina: What Went Wrong'', 2006, p. 116</ref> In response, author [[Ernesto Sabato]] published an [[open letter]] to Amadeo, ''The Other Face of Peronism'', in which, without denying his own opposition to the populist leader, Sabato appealed for less hostility towards Perón's largely [[working class]] supporters.<ref>[http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=791430&origen=acumulado&acumulado_id= ''La Nación'' (26 Mar 2006): Ernesto Sabato, el escritor y sus imágenes {{in lang|es}}]</ref>
Following the [[Revolución Libertadora|coup against Perón]], on September 25, Amadeo was appointed [[Foreign Minister of Argentina|Foreign Minister]] for President [[Eduardo Lonardi]]; his spell in the post ended, however, when General Lonardi was replaced by General [[Pedro Aramburu]] on November 13.
For the [[1957 Argentine Constitutional Assembly election|1957]] and [[1958 Argentine general election|1958 elections]] Amadeo led his own party, the ''Unión Federal Democrática Crisitiana'' although the group failed to attract any support.<ref>Michael A. Burdick, ''For God and the Fatherland: Religion and Politics in Argentina'', 1995, p. 93</ref> He was also a founder member of the Argentine autonomous sister organization of the ''Tradición, Familia y Propiedad'' movement initially founded in [[Brazil]] in 1960.<ref>"The Counter-Revolution," TFP.org, accessed Dec. 17, 2024, https://www.tfp.org/the-counter-revolution/</ref>
===United Nations=== Following his failure to win support as a political leader in his own right Amadeo pursued a long career with the [[United Nations]], serving in a number of capacities such as being the [[Permanent Representative of Argentina to the United Nations|Permanent Representative of Argentina]] and the inaugural vice-chairman of the [[United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space]].<ref>''[[Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]]'', September 1959, p. 319</ref> In May 1959 he also served as [[President of the United Nations Security Council|President]] of the [[United Nations Security Council|Security Council]].<ref>[https://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/scpres1950.htm Presidents of the Security Council : 1950-1959] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110828045749/http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/resguide/scpres1950.htm |date=2011-08-28 }}</ref> For a long time he served as the head of Argentina's delegation to the institution but he frequently proved a controversial choice.
Amadeo was involved in the disappearances during the [[Dirty War]] and was personally responsible for law 22068 which allowed the government to declare anyone disappeared for 90 days as legally dead.<ref name="Iain Guest 1990, p. 484"/> At the same time however Amadeo was also a member of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities attached to the [[United Nations Commission on Human Rights]] which was investigating the disappearances. As a member of this group in 1979 he accepted that Argentine prisons were poor but argued that political disappearances had already ended and even argued that similar disappearances were a regular feature of life in [[New York City]].<ref>Iain Guest, ''Behind the Disappearances'', 1990, p. 120</ref>
==Awards and honours== ===Foreign honours=== * {{flagu|Spain}}: **[[File:ESP Isabella Catholic Order GC.svg|ESP Isabella Catholic Order GC|70px]] Grand Cross of the [[Order of Isabella the Catholic]] (1960)<ref>{{cite web |title=Decreto 1332/1960, de 18 de julio, por el que se concede la Gran Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica al señor Mario Amadeo. |url=https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-1960-10682 |website=Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado |publisher=Ministerio de la Presidencia, Justicia y Relaciones con las Cortes, Gobierno de España |access-date=12 January 2024}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}{{Presidents of the United Nations Human Rights Council}}{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amadeo, Mario}} [[Category:1911 births]] [[Category:1983 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century Roman Catholics]] [[Category:Argentine collaborators with Nazi Germany]] [[Category:Argentine fascists]] [[Category:Argentine male writers]] [[Category:Christian fascists]] [[Category:Argentine Roman Catholic writers]] [[Category:People of the Dirty War]] [[Category:Foreign ministers of Argentina]] [[Category:Permanent representatives of Argentina to the United Nations]] [[Category:Ambassadors of Argentina to Brazil]] [[Category:People from Buenos Aires]] [[Category:Catholicism and far-right politics]] [[Category:Argentine people of Asturian descent]] [[Category:Argentine people of Basque descent]] [[Category:Argentine people of Canarian descent]] [[Category:Argentine people of Irish descent]] [[Category:Argentine people of Italian descent]] [[Category:Argentine people of Portuguese descent]] [[Category:Argentine people of Spanish descent]]