José Ber Gelbard was an Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 activist and politician.

Career

Gelbard was born in Radomsko

Radomsko

Radomsko is a town in central Poland with 50,618 inhabitants . It is situated on the Radomka river in the Łódź Voivodeship , having previously been in Piotrków Trybunalski Voivodeship . It is the capital of Radomsko County....

, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, in 1917. In 1930 Gelbard emigrated to Argentina with his parents and siblings. They settled in Tucumán, 800 mi (1,287 km) north of Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

. Those were tough times and Gelbard had to make a living as a street peddler of men's ties and belts. In 1938 he married Dina Haskel. They settled in Catamarca

Catamarca

Catamarca may refer to:*San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca, Argentina*Catamarca Province, Argentina...

 and he started a men's clothing store named "Casa Nueva York".

Gelbard was a political activist, involved in several causes, including Jewish armed groups defending the Jewish community in Tucumán from the abuses of local Nazi groups, and joined the Democratic Union, a loose alliance against populist candidate Juan Perón

Juan Perón

Juan Domingo Perón was an Argentine military officer, and politician. Perón was three times elected as President of Argentina though he only managed to serve one full term, after serving in several government positions, including the Secretary of Labor and the Vice Presidency...

, during the 1945-46 electoral campaign

Argentine general election, 1946

The Argentine general election of 1946, the last for which only men were enfranchised, was held on 24 February. Voters chose both the President and their legislators and with a turnout of 83.4%, it produced the following results:-President:aAbstentions....

. In the late 40's, he embraced the idea that the only way Argentina was going to grow was if the small and medium business sectors prospered, and if the millions of small industries and merchants were united as a force that could negotiate with Perón's pro labor forces.
In 1954 Gelbard moved with his family to Buenos Aires and almost immediately became part of Perón's cabinet as a minister without portfolio. He continued his fight for small and medium businesses, opposing perceived imperialist interests and agro interests that would have preferred a country of grain and cattle exporters, to the detriment of the millions of small industries and businesses. In this process, the CGE ("Confederación General Económica") was born. It could be described as the union of millions of industrialists and businessmen, with enough strength to negotiate with the government and labor unions. In 1955 there was a military coup that toppled Perón. Gelbard was prosecuted and his assets were frozen, for being an advisor to Peron.

In later years, the generals called elections, there were new coups d'état, new presidents, new elections and Gelbard became, without exceptions, the advisor of all subsequent presidents, whether Generals or democratically elected. In 1972, following a request from General Lanusse, the then dictator, Gelbard negotiated the return of General Perón from his exile in Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

. After many trips and secret negotiations, elections were called and since Perón was not allowed to be President himself, one of his men, Dr. Héctor Cámpora became president on May 25, 1973.

Perón allegedly said that he would not accept a Peronist government without José Ber Gelbard watching the economy. Finally in October 1973 Perón himself became president after an internal political shuffle. Gelbard implemented a plan, "The Social Pact" (El Pacto Social), which basically called for a freeze in prices and salaries so the country could progress economically. He also gave a new boost to exports by unilaterally lifting the Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

n blockade and selling one billion dollars in good to Cuba, including US-branded cars manufactured in Argentina (which the US had to accept after a threat to close all US car factories in Argentina). Many economic missions were planned and large groups of Argentine businessmen and industrialists headed by the Minister of Economy visited Cuba, Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

, Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

, the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

 and other countries.

On July 1, 1974, Perón died, leaving a divided party and his widow, who was earlier chosen Vice President as a compromise between feuding factions, in power. Increasingly strained by rising labor union wage demands and the 1973 oil shock alike, the Social Pact gradually lost its ability to contain inflation, and in November, Gelbard decided to resign. In March 1976 a bloody Military Junta

Military junta

A junta or military junta is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term derives from the Spanish language junta meaning committee, specifically a board of directors...

 overthrew Isabel Perón's presidency and in later years killed tens of thousands of people. Gelbard and his family left the country before the coup and obtained political asylum in the USA. All his assets in Argentina were quasi confiscated, frozen. There was a death sentence for him and his son Fernando. On October 4, 1977, Gelbard died of a heart attack in Washington DC. His son Fernando fought the Junta, recovered all the family assets, and in 1989 became Argentine Ambassador to France.