page_title: Mariano Moreno
section_title: Operations plan
hierarchical_section_title: Mariano Moreno / Primera Junta / Operations plan
caption_attribution_description: Español: Primer página del "Plan de Operaciones, programa de gobierno de la Primera Junta
context_page_description: Mariano Moreno was an Argentine lawyer, journalist, and politician. He played a decisive role in the Primera Junta, the first national government of Argentina, created after the May Revolution.
  Moreno was born in Buenos Aires in 1778. His father was Manuel Moreno y Argumosa, born in Santander, Spain, who arrived in the city in 1776 and married María del Valle. Mariano was the firstborn of the Moreno family and had thirteen brothers. During his youth he studied Latin, logic, and philosophy at San Carlos Royal College, followed by college studies of law at Chuquisaca. During these studies, he learned the new ideas of the Spanish Enlightenment. He married María Guadalupe Cuenca and returned to Buenos Aires, becoming a prominent lawyer for the Cabildo. Unlike most other criollos, he rejected the Carlotist project and the administration of Santiago de Liniers, joining instead the ill-fated mutiny of Álzaga against him. He worked for the next viceroy, Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros. He wrote the economic paper The Representation of the Landowners, which persuaded the viceroy to open trade with Britain.
context_section_description: Following a proposal of Manuel Belgrano, the Junta wrote a political platform setting broad goals and procedures to follow to achieve its objectives. The creation of this document, whose name is often summarized simply as the "Operations plan", was trusted to Mariano Moreno. There have been disputes about the authenticity of this document. Some historians like Paul Groussac suspect that the document was a literary forgery, prepared by a Spaniard at the Court of Portugal to discredit the Junta. Supporters of the truthfulness of the document like Norberto Piñeiro, allege that the content would be consistent with government actions taken by the Primera Junta.
  The document states the need to defeat the royalist forces and therefore proposes many possible actions similar to those employed by Jacobins during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution. It rejected the use of political moderation, considering that it would be dangerous during revolutionary times. It compared the South American revolution, still in its early stages, with the French and North American ones, and even the revolution in Spain itself, pointing out that none of those relied solely upon conspiracies or secret meetings. The document proposes to favor patriots and fill the state offices with them. Peninsulars, on the other hand, should be carefully monitored, and punished at the slightest proof of action against the Junta, and executed if they were rich or influential. For this end, the Junta would need to create an espionage network. This policy towards peninsulars is coherent with the actions taken against the Liniers Counter-revolution and similar to the one employed by Simón Bolívar in the North shortly after. Moreno thought that José Gervasio Artigas would be an invaluable ally and that Buenos Aires should use any resource at its disposal to have him join the fight against absolutism. He noted the internal conflicts in Chile and Paraguay and urged support of local patriots against local royalists.
  On the level of international relations, Mariano Moreno rejected slavery in Brazil, a neighboring Portuguese colony. He proposed to distribute large numbers of Gazeta de Buenos Ayres newspapers, filled with libertarian ideas and translated into Portuguese, and provide military support to the slaves if they should riot. He considered the risk of a complete Spanish defeat in the Peninsular War or a restoration of absolutism great menaces and regarded Britain as a potential ally against them. During a conflict, Britain would be able to provide them with weapons and other goods not produced locally. Critics of Moreno consider him an Anglophile because of this proposal, but the same document also warns against the risk of allowing Britain too much influence in the national economy. He criticized the relationship between Britain and Portugal, considering that Portugal was subject to a "shameful slavery" to Britain and that British influence in Brazil was so high that the Portuguese colonies might eventually become British ones. Moreno held the same ideas about being simultaneously friendly and cautious with Britain in the pages of the Gazeta newspaper.
  In the economic field, the document addressed the lack of a bourgeoisie that could turn the political changes into economic development and proposed to overcome this lack with strong state interventionism. Mariano Moreno proposed that the state invest 200 or 300 million in factories, manufacturing, arts, agriculture, navigation, and other critical areas. There would be no risk of bankruptcy because the state would manage the businesses. With the money generated, the state would then seek seeds and tools and ultimately allow the continent to be economically autarchic. The initial money that the state would need to become such an active economic force would come from the mines in Potosi, where the slavers had nearly 500 or 600 million. Moreno proposed simply to confiscate the money and nationalize the mines. He reasoned that five or six thousand people would be harmed by such action, but eighty or a hundred thousan
caption: The first page of the Operations plan
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