 |
| Kirchner, Argentine President |
Unfinished journey (85)
(Part eighty-five, Depok, West Java, Indonesia, 15
September 2014, 14:29 pm)
Argentina is one of the advanced football country in
South America, in addition to Brazil, and Uruguay. One of the players
considered the best player in the world:
Messi 'more powerful than the Playstation'
cooperation and Neymar Messi led Barca victory over
Bilbao
Lionel Messi is the best player in the world, according
to teammate Neymar and Barcelona boss Luis Enrique.
27 year-old Argentine player was helped execute two goals
Neymar Barca when dealing with Athletic Bilbao last Saturday.
"Messi is a star. Getting better and better my game
with him," said Neymar, 22, who left the bench at the Nou Camp.
"He did a lot of things in practice that even I have
never once seen ... on the Playstation," said Enrique.
Barca struggled to break through the defense
painstakingly Bilbao to Neymar revealed in the 70th minute, Messi ran to greet
passes and scored a goal.
"Messi is the best player not only because of his
goals but also because operannya," said Enrique. "It is a joy and
honor to work with him in the team." (bbc)
 |
| Lionel Messi The best soccer player in the world |
History of Argentina
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Part of a series on the
History of Argentina
Coat of arms of Argentina
Pre-Columbian[show]
Colonial Argentina[show]
Independence[show]
Civil War[show]
Building a nation[show]
Peronism[show]
1955 to 1976[show]
National Reorganization Process[show]
Return to democracy[show]
Portal icon Argentina portal
v t e
The history of Argentina is divided by historians into
four main parts: the pre-Columbian time or early history (up to the sixteenth
century), the colonial period (1530–1810), the period of the nation-building
(1810 to 1880), and the history of modern Argentina (from around 1880).
Prehistory in the present territory of Argentina began
with the first human settlements on the southern tip of Patagonia around 13,000
years ago. Written history began with the arrival of Spanish chroniclers in the
expedition of Juan Díaz de Solís in 1516 to the Río de la Plata, which marks
the beginning of Spanish domination in this region.
In 1776 the Spanish Crown established the Viceroyalty of
the Río de la Plata, an umbrella of territories from which, with the Revolution
of May 1810, began a process of gradual formation of several independent
states, including one called the United Provinces of Río de la Plata. With the
declaration of independence on July 9, 1816 and the military defeat of the
Spanish Empire in 1824, a federal state was formed in 1853-1861, known today as
the Republic of Argentina.
Contents [hide]
1 Pre-Columbian era
2 Spanish colonial era
3 War of independence
4 Historical map
5 Argentine Civil Wars
6 Liberal Governments (1862–1880)
7 National Autonomist Hegemony (1880–1916)
8 Radical Governments (1916–1930)
9 Infamous Decade (1930–1943)
10 Revolution of '43 (1943–1946)
11 Peronist Years (1946–1955)
12 Revolución Libertadora (1955–1958)
13 Fragile radical administrations (1958–1966)
14 Revolución Argentina (1966–1973)
15 Growing instability (1969–1976)
15.1 Subversive Years (1969–1973)
15.2 Cámpora's Tenure (1973)
15.3 Return of Perón (1973–1974)
15.4 Isabel's Government (1974–1976)
16 National Reorganization Process (1976–1983)
16.1 Beagle conflict
17 New Democracy (1983–present)
17.1 Alfonsín Era (1983–1989)
17.2 Menemist Decade (1989–1999)
17.3 New Millennium Crisis (1999–2003)
17.3.1 De La Rúa Presidency (1999–2001)
17.3.2 Corralito (2001)
17.3.3 Recovery (2002–2003)
17.4 Kirchners' Governments (2003–Present)
18 See also
19 References
20 Further reading
20.1 In Spanish
21 External links
Pre-Columbian era[edit]
The fortification of Pucará de Tilcara in Jujuy Province,
part of the Inca Empire.
The area now known as Argentina was relatively sparsely
populated until the period of European colonization. The earliest traces of
human life are dated from the Paleolithic period, and there are further traces
in the Mesolithic and Neolithic.[1] However, large areas of the interior and
piedmont were apparently depopulated during an extensive dry period between
4000 and 2000 B.C.[2]
The Uruguayan archaeologist Raúl Campá Soler divided the
indigenous peoples in Argentina into three main groups: basic hunters and food
gatherers, without development of pottery, advanced gatherers and hunters, and
basic farmers with pottery.[3] The second group could be found in the Pampa and
south of Patagonia, and the third one included the Charrúas and Minuane people
and the Guaraníes.
Some of the different groups included the Onas at Tierra
del Fuego, the Yámana at the archipelago between the Beagle Channel and Cape
Horn, Tehuelches in the Patagonia, many peoples at the litoral, guaycurúes and
wichis at Chaco. The Guaraníes had expanded across large areas of South
America, but settled at the northeastern provinces of Argentina. The Toba
(Komlek) nation and the Diaguita which included the Calchaqui and the Quilmes
lived in the North and the Comechingones in what is today the province of
Cordoba. The Charrua (which included the Minuane people), yaros, Bohanes and
Chanás (and Chaná-Timbú) were located in the actual territory of Entre Ríos and
the Querandí in Buenos Aires.
Spanish colonial era[edit]
See also: Viceroyalty of Peru, Government of the Río de
la Plata, Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and May Revolution
Europeans first arrived in the region with the 1502
Portuguese voyage of Gonçalo Coelho and Amerigo Vespucci. Around 1512, João de
Lisboa and Estevão de Fróis discovered the Rio de La Plata in present-day
Argentina, exploring its estuary, contacting the Charrúa people, and briging
the first news of the "people of the mountains", the Inca empire,
obtained from the local natives. They also traveled as far south as the Gulf of
San Matias at 42ºS, on the northern shores of Patagonia.[4][5][6] The Spanish,
led by Juan Díaz de Solís, visited the territory which is now Argentina in
1516. In 1536 Pedro de Mendoza established a small settlement at the modern
location of Buenos Aires, which was abandoned in 1541.[7]
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| Argentine map |
A second one was established 1580 by Juan de Garay, and
Córdoba in 1573 by Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera. Those regions were part of the Viceroyalty
of Peru, whose capital was Lima, and settlers arrived from that city. Unlike
the other regions of South America, the colonization of the Río de la Plata
estuary was not influenced by any gold rush, since it lacked any precious
metals to mine.[7]
The natural ports on the Río de la Plata estuary could
not be used because all ships were meant to be made through the port of Callao
near Lima, a condition that led to contraband becoming the normal means of
commerce in cities such as Asunción, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo.[8]
The Spanish raised the status of this region by
establishing the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776. This viceroyalty
consisted of today's Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, as well as much of
present-day Bolivia. Buenos Aires, now holding the customs of the new political
subdivision, became a flourishing port, as the revenues from the Potosí, the
increasing maritime activity in terms of goods rather than precious metals, the
production of cattle for the export of leather and other products, and other
political reasons, made it gradually become one of the most important
commercial centers of the region.
The viceroyalty was, however, short-lived due to lack of
internal cohesion among the many regions of which it was constituted and lack
of Spanish support. Ships from Spain became scarce again after the Spanish
defeat at the battle of Trafalgar, that gave the British maritime supremacy.
The British tried to invade Buenos Aires and Montevideo in 1806 and 1807, but
were defeated both times by Santiago de Liniers. Those victories, achieved
without help from mainland Spain, boosted the confidence of the city.[9]
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| Argentina Troops |
The beginning of the Peninsular War in Spain and the
capture of the Spanish king Ferdinand VII created great concern all around the
viceroyalty. It was considered that, without a King, people in America should
rule themselves. This idea led to multiple attempts to remove the local
authorities at Chuquisaca, La Paz, Montevideo and Buenos Aires, all of which
were short-lived. A new successful attempt, the May Revolution of 1810, took
place when it was reported that all of Spain had been conquered, with the only
exception of Cádiz and León.
War of independence[edit]
Main article: Argentine War of Independence
See also: Primera Junta, Junta Grande, First Triumvirate
(Argentina) and Second Triumvirate (Argentina)
Portrait of José de San Martín.
The May Revolution ousted the vicero, other variants like
a constitutional monarchy or a Regency were briefly considered. The viceroyalty
was also renamed, and it nominally became the United Provinces of the Río de la
Plata. However, the status of the different territories that had belonged to
the viceroyalty changed many times during the development of the war, as some
regions would remain loyal to their previous governors and others were captured
or recaptured; later these were to divide into several countries.
The first military campaigns against the royalists were
waged by Manuel Belgrano and Juan José Castelli. The Junta, after expanding
itself into the Junta Grande, was replaced by the First Triumvirate. A Second
Triumvirate would replace it years later, calling for the Assembly of year XIII
that was meant to declare independence and write a constitution. However, it
did not do either thing, and replaced the triumvirates with an unipersonal head
of state office, the Supreme Director.
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| Argentine troops war in Malvinas |
By this time José de San Martín arrived in Buenos Aires
with other generals of the Peninsular War. They gave new strength to the
Revolutionary war, which was compromised by the defeats of Belgrano and
Castelli and the royalist resistance at the Banda Oriental. Alvear took
Montevideo, and San Martín started a military campaign that would span across
an important part of the Spanish territories in America. He created the Army of
the Andes in Mendoza and, with the help of Bernardo O'Higgins and other
Chileans he made the Crossing of the Andes and liberated Chile. With the
Chilean navy at his disposal, he moved to Peru, liberating that country as
well. San Martín met Simón Bolívar at Guayaquil, and retired from action.
A new assembly, the Congress of Tucumán, was called while
San Martín was preparing the crossing of the Andes. It finally declared
independence from Spain or any other foreign power. Bolivia declared itself
independent in 1825, and Uruguay was created in 1828 as a result of the
Cisplatine War.
The United Kingdom officially recognized Argentine
independence in 1825, with the signing of a Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and
Navigation on February 2; the British chargé d'affaires in Buenos Aires,
Woodbine Parish, signed on behalf of his country. Spanish recognition of
Argentine independence was not to come for several decades.
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| Exspansion of Argentine Territory |
Historical map[edit]
The map below is based on a wide range of antique maps
for the periods shown and is intended to give a broad idea of the changes in
the State of Argentina in the nineteenth century. The periods are broad and
plus or minus about a decade around each date. The hatched areas are disputed
or subject to change during the period, the text in this article will explain
these changes. There are minor changes of territory that are not shown on the map.
The changing state of Argentina. The light green area was
allocated to indigenous peoples, the light pink area was the Liga Federal, the
hatched areas are subject to change during the period.
Argentine Civil Wars[edit]
Main articles: Argentine Civil War and Argentine
Confederation
Governor Juan Manuel de Rosas by Cayetano Descalzi around
1841
The defeat of the Spanish was followed by a long civil
war between unitarians and federalists, about the organization of the country
and the role of Buenos Aires in it. Unitarians thought that Buenos Aires should
lead the less-developed provinces, as the head of a strong centralized
government. Federalists thought instead that the country should be a federation
of autonomous provinces, like the successful States of the United States.
During this period the United Provinces of the Rio de la
Plata lacked a head of state, since the unitarian defeat at the Battle of
Cepeda had ended the authority of the Supreme Directors and the 1819
Constitution. There was a new attempt in 1826 to write a constitution, leading
to the designation of Bernardino Rivadavia as President of Argentina, but it
was rejected by the provinces. Rivadavia resigned due to the poor management at
the Cisplatine War, and the 1826 constitution was repealed.
During this time, the Governors of Buenos Aires Province
received the power to manage the international relations of the confederation,
including war and debt payment. The dominant figure of this period was the
federalist Juan Manuel de Rosas, who is portrayed from different angles by the
diverse historiographic flows in Argentina: the liberal history usually
considers him a dictator, while revisionists support him on the grounds of his
defense of national sovereignty.[10]
He ruled the province of Buenos Aires from 1829 to 1852,
facing military threats from secession attempts, neighbour countries, and even
European countries. Although Rosas was a Federalist, he kept the customs
receipts of Buenos Aires under the exclusive control of the city, whereas the
other provinces expected to have a part of the revenue. Rosas considered that
this was a fair measure because only Buenos Aires was paying the external debt
generated by the Baring Brothers loan to Rivadavia, the war of independence and
the war against Brazil. He developed a paramilitary force of his own, the
Popular Restorer Society, commonly known as "Mazorca"
("Corncob").
Rosas' reluctance to call for a new assembly to write a
Constitution led General Justo José de Urquiza from Entre Ríos to turn against
him. Urquiza defeated Rosas during the battle of Caseros and called for such an
assembly. The Argentine Constitution of 1853 is, with amendments, still in
force to this day. The Constitution was not immediately accepted by Buenos
Aires, which seceded from the Confederation; it rejoined a few years later.
Bartolomé Mitre was the first president of the unified country.
Liberal Governments (1862–1880)[edit]
See also: Argentine Constitution of 1853, Conquest of the
Desert, Generation of '80 and South American dreadnought race
President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento.
The presidency of Bartolomé Mitre saw an economic
improvement in Argentina, with agricultural modernization, foreign investment,
new railroads and ports and an immigration wave from Europe. Mitre also
stabilized the political system by commanding federal interventions that
defeated the personal armies of caudillos Chacho Peñaloza and Juan Sáa.
Argentina joined Uruguay and Brazil against Paraguay in the War of the Triple
Alliance, which ended during Sarmiento's rule with the defeat of Paraguayan and
the annexation of part of its territory by Argentina.
Despite victory in the war, Mitre's popularity declined
severely because of it since a broad section of the Argentine population was
opposed to the war due to the alliance with Brazil (Argentina's historic rival)
that took place during the war and the betrayal of Paraguay (which had been
until then one of the country's most important economic allies). One of the
major hallmarks of Mitre's presidency was the "Law of Compromise", in
which Buenos Aires joined the Argentine Republic and allowed the government to
use the City of Buenos Aires as the center of government, but without
federalizing the city and by reserving the province of Buenos Aires the right
to secede from the nation if conflict arose.
In 1868 Mitre was succeeded by Domingo Faustino
Sarmiento, who promoted public education, culture and telegraphs. Sarmiento
managed to defeat the last known caudillos and also dealt with the fallout of
the Triple Alliance War, which included a decrease in national production due
to the death of thousands of soldiers and an outbreak of diseases brought by
returning soldiers, such as cholera and yellow fever.
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| Buenos Aires City |
In 1874 Nicolás Avellaneda became president and ran into
trouble when he had to deal with the economic depression left by the Panic of
1873. Most of these economic issues were solved when new land was opened for
work after the expansion of national territory through the Conquest of the
Desert, led by his war minister Julio Argentino Roca. This military campaign
took most of the territories under control of natives, and reduced their
population.
In 1880 a trade conflict caused turmoil in Buenos Aires,
which led governor Carlos Tejedor to declare secession from the republic. Avellaneda
denied them this right, breaking the Law of Compromise, and proceeded to send
army troops led by Roca to take over the province. Tejedor's secession efforts
were defeated and Buenos Aires definitely joined the republic, federalizing the
city of Buenos Aires and handing it over to the government as the nation's
capital city.
National Autonomist Hegemony (1880–1916)[edit]
See also: Argentine–Chilean naval arms race and South
American dreadnought race
President Julio Argentino Roca, the central political
figure of the PAN Hegemony years.
After his surge in popularity due to his successful
desert campaign, Julio Roca was elected president in 1880 as the candidate for
the National Autonomist Party, a party that would remain in power until 1916.
During his presidency, Roca created a net of political alliances and installed
several measures that helped him retain almost absolute control of the
Argentine political scene throughout the 1880s. This sharp ability with
political strategy earned him his nickname of "The Fox".
The country's economy was benefited by a change from
extensive farming to industrial agriculture and a huge European immigration,
but there wasn't yet a strong move towards industrialization. At that time,
Argentina received some of the highest levels of foreign investment in Latin
America.[citation needed] In the midst of this economic expansion, the Law 1420
of Common Education of 1884 guaranteed universal, free, non-religious education
to all children. This and other government policies were strongly opposed by
the Roman Catholic Church in Argentina, causing the Holy See to break off
diplomatic relations with the country for several years and setting the stage
for decades of continued Church-state strain.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, Argentina
temporarily resolved its border disputes with Chile with the Puna de Atacama
Lawsuit of 1899, the Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina and
the 1902 General Treaty of Arbitration. Roca's government and those that
followed were aligned with the Argentine oligarchy, especially the great land
owners.
In 1888, Miguel Juárez Celman became president after Roca
was constitutionally unable to be re-elected; Celman attempted to reduce Roca's
control over the political scene, which earned him his predecessor's
opposition. Roca lead great opposition movement against Celman, which coupled
with the devastating effects that the Long Depression had on the Argentine
economy allowed the Civic opposition party to start a coup d'état which would
be later known as the Revolution of the Park. The Revolution was led by the
three main leaders of the Civic Union, Leandro Alem, former president Bartolomé
Mitre and moderate socialist Juan B. Justo. Though it failed in its main goals,
the revolution forced Juárez Celman's resignation and marked the decline of the
Generation of '80.
In 1891 Roca proposed that the Civic Union elect somebody
to be vice-president to his own presidency the next time elections came around.
One group led by Mitre decided to take the deal, while another more
intransigent group led by Alem went against that. This eventually led to the
split of the Civic Union into the National Civic Union, led by Mitre, and the
Radical Civic Union, led by Alem. After this division occurred, Roca withdrew
his offer, having completed his plan to divide the Civic Union and decrease
their power. Alem would eventually commit suicide in 1896; control of the
Radical Civic Union went to his nephew and protégé, Hipólito Yrigoyen.
After Celman's downfall, his vice-president Carlos
Pellegrini took over and proceeded to resolve the economic crisis which
afflicted the country, earning him the moniker of "The Storm Sailor".
Fearing another wave of opposition from Roca like the one imposed on Celman,
Pellegrini remained moderate in his presidency ending his predecessor's efforts
to distance "The Fox" from political control. The following
governments up until 1898 took similar measures and sided with Roca to avoid
being politically chastised.
In 1898, Roca became president again in a politically
unstable situation, with a large amount of social conflicts that included
massive strikes and anarchist subversion attempts. Roca handled most of these
conflicts by having the police or the army crack down on protestors, rebels and
suspected rebels. After the end of his second presidency, Roca fell ill and his
role in political affairs began to gradually decrease until his death in late
1914.
In 1904, Alfredo Palacios, a member of Juan B. Justo's
Socialist Party (founded in 1896), became the first Socialist deputy in
Argentina, as a representative for the working-class neighborhood of La Boca in
Buenos Aires. He helped create many laws, including the Ley Palacios against
sexual exploitation, and others regulating child and woman labor, working hours
and Sunday rest.[citation needed]
The hegemony of the PAN ended in 1910 with the election
of Roque Sáenz Peña to the presidency. Peña was a progressive member of the PAN
who disliked the fraudulent elective system the PAN employed and thus passed
the Ley Sáenz Peña, which made the political vote mandatory, secret and
universal among males aged eighteen or more. Under this law the first non-PAN
president since 1880 was elected in 1916, Hipólito Yrigoyen of the Radical
Civic Union.
Radical Governments (1916–1930)[edit]
Main article: History of Argentina (The Radicals in
Power, 1916-1930)
See also: Unión Cívica Radical
President Hipólito Yrigoyen.
Conservative forces dominated Argentine politics until
1916, when the Radicals, led by Hipólito Yrigoyen, won control of the
government through the first national elections under male universal suffrage.
745,000 citizens were allowed to vote, of a total population of 7.5 million
(immigrants, who represented much of the population, were not allowed to vote);
of these, 400,000 abstained themselves.[11]
Yrigoyen, however, only obtained 45% of the votes, which
did not allow him a majority in Parliament, where the conservatives remained
the leading force. Thus, of 80 draft laws proposed by the executive, only 26
were voted through by the conservative majority.[12] A moderate agricultural
reform proposal was rejected by Parliament, as was an income tax on interest,
and the creation of a Bank of the Republic (which was to have the missions of
the current Central Bank).[12]
Despite this conservative opposition, the Radical Civic
Union (UCR), with their emphasis on fair elections and democratic institutions,
opened their doors to Argentina's expanding middle class as well as to social
groups previously excluded from power.[citation needed] Yrigoyen's policy was
to "fix" the system, by enacting necessary reforms which would enable
the agroindustrial export model to preserve itself.[13] It alternated moderate
social reforms with repression of the social movements. In 1918, an
estudiantine movement started at the University of Córdoba, which eventually
led to the University Reform, which quickly spread to the rest of Latin
America. In May '68, French students recalled the Córdoba movement.[14]
The Tragic Week of January 1919, during which the
Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA, founded in 1901) had called for a
general strike after a police shooting, ended up in 700 killed and 4,000
injured.[15] General Luis Dellepiane marched on Buenos Aires to re-establish
civil order. Despite being called on by some to initiate a coup against
Yrigoyen, he remained loyal to the President, at the sole condition that the
latter would allow him a free hand on the repression of the
demonstrations.[citation needed] Social movements thereafter continued in the
Forestal British company, and in Patagonia, where Hector Varela headed the
military repression, assisted by the Argentine Patriotic League, killing
1,500.[16]
On the other hand, Yrigoyen's administration enacted the
Labor Code establishing the right to strike in 1921, implemented minimum wages
laws and collective contracts. It also initiated the creation of the Dirección
General de Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF), the state oil company, in
June 1922. Radicalism rejected class struggle and advocated social
conciliation.[17]
Meanwhile, the Radicals continued Argentina's neutrality
policy during World War I, despite the United States' urge to push them into
declaring war against the Central Powers. Neutrality enabled Argentina to
export goods to Europe, in particular to Great Britain, as well as to issue
credit to the belligerent powers. Germany sank two Argentine civilian ships,
Monte Protegido on April 4, 1917 and the Toro, but the diplomatic incident only
ended with the expulsion of the German ambassador, Karl von Luxburg. Yrigoyen
organized a Conference of Neutral Powers in Buenos Aires, to oppose the United
States' attempt to bring American states in the European war, and also
supported Sandino's resistance in Nicaragua.[18]
In September 1922, Yrigoyen's administration refused to
follow the cordon sanitaire policy enacted against the Soviet Union, and,
basing itself on the assistance given to Austria after the war, decided to send
to the USSR 5 million pesos in assistance.[19]
The same year, Yrigoyen was replaced by his rival inside
the UCR, Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear, an aristocrat, who defeated Norberto
Piñero's Concentración Nacional (conservatives) with 458,457 votes against
200,080. Alvear brought to his cabinet personalities belonging to the
traditional ruling classes, such as José Nicolás Matienzo at the Interior
Ministry, Ángel Gallardo at Foreign Relations, Agustín P. Justo at the War
Ministry, Manuel Domecq García at the Marine and Rafael Herrera Vegas at the
Haciendas. Alvear's supporters founded the Unión Cívica Radical
Antipersonalista, opposed to Yrigoyen's party.[citation needed]
During the early 1920s, the rise of the anarchist
movement, fueled by the arrival of recent émigrés and deportees from Europe,
spawned a new generation of left-wing activism in Argentina. The new left,
mostly anarchists and anarcho-communists, rejected the incremental
progressivism of the old Radical and Socialist elements in Argentina in favor
of immediate action. The extremists, such as Severino Di Giovanni, openly
espoused violence and 'propaganda by the deed'. A wave of bombings and
shootouts with police culminated in an attempt to assassinate U.S. President
Herbert Hoover on his visit to Argentina in 1928 and a nearly successful
attempt to assassinate Yrigoyen in 1929 after he was re-elected to the
presidency.
In 1921, the counter-revolutionary Logia General San
Martín was founded, and diffused nationalist ideas in the military until its
dissolution in 1926. Three years later, the Liga Republicana (Republican
League) was founded by Roberto de Laferrere, on the model of Benito Mussolini's
Black shirts in Italy. The Argentine Right found its major influences in the
19th-century Spanish writer Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo and in the French
royalist Charles Maurras.[20] Also in 1922, the poet Leopoldo Lugones, who had
turned towards fascism, made a famous speech in Lima, known as "the time
of the sword", in the presence of the War Minister and future dictator
Agustín P. Justo, which called for a military coup and the establishment of a
military dictatorship.
In 1928, Yrigoyen was re-elected as president and began a
series of reforms to increase workers' rights. This intensified the
conservative opposition against Yrigoyen, which grew even stronger after
Argentina was devastated by the beginning of the Great Depression after the
Wall Street Crash. On September the 6th of 1930, a military coup led by the
pro-fascist general José Félix Uriburu overthrew Yrigoyen's government and
began a period in Argentine history known as the Infamous Decade.
Exports of frozen beef, especially to Great Britain,
provided much needed foreign currency, but trade fell off sharply in the Great
Depression.[21]
Infamous Decade (1930–1943)[edit]
Main article: Infamous Decade
The Flagship Sarmiento and the Ministry of Defense,
Buenos Aires.
In 1929, Argentina was wealthy by world standards, but
the prosperity ended after 1929 with the worldwide Great Depression. In 1930, a
military coup, supported by the Argentine Patriotic League, forced Hipólito
Yrigoyen from power, and replaced him by José Félix Uriburu. Support for the
coup was bolstered by the sagging Argentine economy, as well as a string of
bomb attacks and shootings involving radical anarchists, which alienated
moderate elements of Argentine society and angered the conservative right,
which had long been agitating for decisive action by the military forces.
The military coup initiated the period known as the
"Infamous Decade", characterised by electoral fraud, persecution of
the political opposition (mainly against the UCR) and pervasive government
corruption, against the background of the global depression.
During his brief tenure as president, Uriburu cracked
down heavily on anarchists and other far-left groups, resulting in 2,000
illegal executions of members of anarchist and communist groups. The most
famous (and perhaps most symbollic of anarchism's decay in Argentina at the
time) was the execution of Severino Di Giovanni, who was captured in late
January 1931 and executed on the first of February of the same year.
After becoming president through the coup, Uriburu
attempted to create a constitutional reform that would include corporatism in
the Argentine Constitution. This move toward fascism was viewed negatively by
the conservative backers of the coup and they turned their support to the more
moderate conservative general Agustín P. Justo, who won the presidency in a
1932 election that was heavily fraudulent.
Justo began a policy of liberal economic moves that
benefitted mostly the nation's upper classes and permitted great political and
industrial corruption at the expense of national growth. One of the most
infamous decisions of Justo's government was the creation of the Roca-Runciman
Treaty between Argentina and the United Kingdom, which benefitted the British
economy and the rich beef producers of Argentina at the expense of national
interest.
In 1935, progressive democrat Senator Lisandro de la
Torre began an investigation into several corruption allegations within the
Argentine beef production industry, during which he attempted to charge Justo's
Minister of Agriculture, Luis Duhau, and the Minister of Finance, Federico
Pinedo, with political corruption and fraud charges. During the exposition of
the investigation in the National Congress Duhau started a fight among the
Senators, during which his bodyguard, Ramón Valdez-Cora, tried to kill De La
Torre but accidentally ended up shooting De La Torre's friend and political
partner Enzo Bordabehere. The meat investigation was dropped soon afterwards,
but not before De La Torre managed to achieve the incarceration of the head of
the Anglo meat company for corruption charges. De la Torre would later commit
suicide in 1939.
The collapse of international trade led to industrial
growth focused on import substitution, leading to a stronger economic
independence. Political conflict increased, marked by confrontation between
right-wing fascists and leftist radicals, while military-oriented conservatives
controlled the government. Though many claimed the polls to be fraudulent,
Roberto Ortiz was elected president in 1937 and took office the next year, but
due to his fragile health he was succeeded by his vice-president, Ramón
Castillo. Castillo effectively took power in 1940; he formally assumed
leadership in 1942.
Revolution of '43 (1943–1946)[edit]
Main article: Revolution of '43
See also: Argentina in World War II
The civilian government appeared to be close to joining
the allies, but many officers of the Argentine armed forces (and ordinary
Argentine citizens) objected due to fear of the spread of communism. There was
a wide support to stay neutral in the conflict, as during World War I. The
government was also questioned by domestic policy reasons, namely, the
electoral fraud, the poor labour rights and the selection of Patrón Costas to
run for the presidency.
On June 4, 1943, the G.O.U. (Grupo de Oficiales Unidos),
which was a secret alliance between military leaders led by Pedro Pablo
Ramírez, Arturo Rawson, Edelmiro Farrell and Farrell's protégé Juan Domingo
Perón marched to the Casa Rosada and demanded the resignation of president
Castillo. After hours of threats their goal was achieved and the president
resigned. This event is considered by historians as the official end of the
Infamous Decade.[citation needed]
After the coup, Ramírez took power. Although he did not
declare war, he broke relations with the Axis powers. Argentina's largest
neighbor, Brazil, had already entered the war on the allied side in 1942.
In 1944 Ramirez was replaced by Farrell, an army officer
of Irish-Argentine origin who had spent two years attached to Mussolini's army
in the twenties.[citation needed] Initially his government continued to
maintain a neutral policy. Towards the end of the war, Farrell decided it was
in the interests of Argentina to be attached to the winning side. Like several
Latin American states, Argentina made a late declaration of war against Germany
with no intention of providing any military forces.[citation needed]
Juan Domingo Perón managed the relations with labourers
and unions, and become highly popular. He was deposed and detained at the
Martín García island, but a massive demonstration on October 17, 1945, forced
the government to free Perón and restore him to office. Perón would win the
elections shortly afterwards by a landslide. The US ambassador, Spruille
Braden, took direct action in Argentine politics supporting the antiperonist
parties.[citation needed]
Peronist Years (1946–1955)[edit]
President Juan Perón (1946).
See also: Juan Perón, Peronism and Eva Perón
In 1946 General Juan Perón became president; his populist
ideology became known as peronism. His popular wife Eva Perón played a leading
political role until her death in 1952.[22] Perón established censorship by
closing down 110 publications between 1943 and 1946.[23] During Juan Perón's
rule, the number of unionized workers and government programs increased.[24]
His government followed an isolationist foreign policy
and attempted to reduce the political and economic influence of other nations.
Perón expanded government spending. His policies led to ruinous inflation. The
peso lost about 70% of its value from early 1948 to early 1950; inflation
reached 50% in 1951.[25]
Opposition members were imprisoned and some of them
tortured.[26] He dismissed many important and capable advisers, while promoting
officials largely on the basis of personal loyalty. A coup (Revolución
Libertadora) led by Eduardo Lonardi, and supported by the Catholic Church,
deposed him in 1955. He went into exile, eventually settling in Francoist
Spain.
[icon] This section
requires expansion. (November 2011)
Revolución Libertadora (1955–1958)[edit]
Further information: Revolución Libertadora
In Argentina, the 1950s and 1960s were marked by frequent
coups d'état, low economic growth in the 1950s and high growth rates in the
1960s. Argentina faced problems of continued social and labor demands.
Argentine painter Antonio Berni's works reflected the social tragedies of these
times, painting in particular life in the villas miseria (shanty towns).
Following the Revolución Libertadora military coup,
Eduardo Lonardi held power only briefly and was succeeded by Pedro Aramburu,
president from November 13, 1955 to May 1, 1958. In June 1956, two Peronist
generals, Juan José Valle and Raul Tanco, attempted a coup against Aramburu,
criticizing an important purge in the army, the abrogation of social reforms
and persecution against trade-union leaders. They also demanded liberation of
all political and labor activists and the return to the constitutional order.
The uprising was quickly crushed: General Valle and other members of the
military were executed, and twenty civilians were arrested at their homes and
their bodies thrown in the León Suarez dumping ground.
Along with the June 1955 Casa Rosada bombing on the Plaza
de Mayo, the León Suarez massacre is one of the important events that started a
cycle of violence. Pedro Aramburu was later kidnapped and executed for this
massacre, in 1970, by Fernando Abal Medina, Emilio Angel Maza, Mario Firmenich
and others, who would later form the Montoneros movement.[27]
In 1956, special elections were held to reform the
constitution. The Radical Party under Ricardo Balbín won a majority, although
25% of all ballots were turned in blank as a protest by the banned Peronist
party. Also in support of Peronism, the left wing of the Radical Party, led by
Arturo Frondizi, left the Constitutional Assembly. The Assembly was severely
damaged by that defection and was only able to restore the Constitution of 1853
with the sole addition of the Article 14 bis, which enumerated some social
rights.
Fragile radical administrations (1958–1966)[edit]
President Arturo Frondizi.
A ban on Peronism expression and representation continued
during the fragile civilian governments of the period 1958–1966. Frondizi,
UCRI's candidate, won the presidential elections of 1958, obtaining
approximately 4,000,000 votes against 2,500,000 for Ricardo Balbín (with
800,000 neutral votes). From Caracas, Perón supported Frondizi and called upon
his supporters to vote for him, as a means toward the end of prohibition of the
Peronist movement and the re-establishment of the workers' social legislation
voted during Perón's leadership.
On one hand, Frondizi appointed Álvaro Alsogaray as
Minister of Economy to placate powerful agrarian interests and other
conservatives. A member of the powerful military dynasty Alsogaray, Álvaro, who
had already been Minister of Industry under Aramburu's military rule, devalued
the peso and imposed credit control.
On the other hand, Frondizi followed a laicist program,
which raised concerns among the Catholic nationalist forces, leading to the
organization, between 1960 and 1962, of the far-right Tacuara Nationalist
Movement.
The Tacuara, the "first urban guerrilla group in
Argentina",[28] engaged in several anti-Semitic bombings, in particular
following Adolf Eichmann's kidnapping by the MOSSAD in 1960. During the visit
of Dwight Eisenhower to Argentina, in February 1962 (Eisenhower had been until
1961 President of the United States), the Tacuara headed nationalist
demonstrations against him, leading to the imprisonment of several of their
leaders, among them Joe Baxter.[29]
The ousting of President Arturo Illia was initially
broadly supported but later deeply regretted by the Argentine population.
However, Frondizi's government ended in 1962 with
intervention yet again by the military, after a series of local elections were
won by the Peronist candidates. José María Guido, chairman of the senate,
claimed the presidency on constitutional grounds before the deeply divided
armed forces were able to agree on a name. Right-wing elements in the Argentine
armed forces in favor of direct military rule and the suppression of former
Peronist politicians, subsequently attempted to wrest control of the government
in the 1963 Argentine Navy Revolt on April 2. The failure of the revolt's
plotters to win the loyalty of army units near the capital permitted Guido's
government to swiftly put down the revolt at the cost of 21 lives.
In new elections in 1963, neither Peronists nor
Communists were allowed to participate. Arturo Illia of the Radical People's
Party won these elections; regional elections and by-elections over the next
few years favored Peronists.
On the other hand, the Tacuara were outlawed by Illia in
1965, some of its members ultimately turning to the Peronist Left (such as Joe
Baxter) while others remained on their far-right positions (such as Alberto
Ezcurra Uriburu, who would work with the Triple A).
Despite the fact that the country grew and developed
economically during Illia's tenure as president, he was eventually ousted in a
military coup in 1966.
Revolución Argentina (1966–1973)[edit]
Main article: History of Argentina (1966–1973)
Amidst growing workers' and students' unrest, another
coup took place in June 1966, self-designated Revolución Argentina (Argentiene
Revolution), which established General Juan Carlos Onganía as de facto
president, supported by several leaders of the General Confederation of Labour
(CGT), among whom the general secretary Augusto Vandor. This led to a series of
military-appointed presidents.
While preceding military coups were aimed at establishing
temporary, transitional juntas, the Revolución Argentina headed by Onganía
aimed at establishing a new political and social order, opposed both to liberal
democracy and Communism, which gave to the Armed Forces of Argentina a leading,
political role in the economic rationalization of the country. The political
scientist Guillermo O'Donnell named this type of regime
"authoritarian-bureaucratic state",[30] in reference both to the
Revolución Argentina, the Brazilian military regime (1964–1985), Augusto
Pinochet's regime (starting in 1973) and Juan María Bordaberry's regime in
Uruguay.
Onganía's Minister of Economy, Adalbert Krieger Vasena,
decreed a freeze of wages' increase and a 40% devaluation, which strongly
affected the state of the Argentine economy, in particular of the agricultural
sector, favoring foreign capital. Vasena suspended collective labour
conventions, reformed the hydrocarburs law which had established a partial
monopoly of the Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) state enterprise, as
well as passing a law facilitating expulsions in case of fault of payment of
rent. Finally, the right to strike was suspended (Law 16,936) and several other
laws reversed progress made concerning labor laws throughout the preceding years.[citation
needed]
The workers' movement divided itself between Vandoristas,
who supported a "Peronism without Peron" line (Vandor declared that
"to save Perón, one has to be against Perón") and advocated
negotiation with the junta, and Peronists, themselves divided.[citation needed]
In July 1966 Onganía ordered the forcible clearing of
five facilities of the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) in Argentina on July
29, 1966 by the Federal Police, an event known as La Noche de los Bastones
Largos ("The Night of the Long Batons"). These facilities had been
occupied by students, professors and graduates (members of the autonomous
government of the university) who opposed the military government's
intervention in the universities and revocation of the 1918 university reform.
The university repression led to the exile of 301 university professors,
including Manuel Sadosky, Tulio Halperín Donghi, Sergio Bagú and Risieri
Frondizi.[31]
In late May 1968 General Julio Alsogaray dissented from
Onganía, and rumors spread about a possible coup d'état, Algosaray leading the
conservative opposition to Onganía. Finally, at the end of the month, Onganía
dismissed the leaders of the Armed Forces: Alejandro Lanusse replaced Julio
Alsogaray, Pedro Gnavi replaced Benigno Varela, and Jorge Martínez Zuviría
replaced Adolfo Alvarez.
On 19 September 1968 two important events affected
Revolutionary Peronism. On one hand, John William Cooke, former personal
delegate of Perón and ideologist of the Peronist Left, as well as a friend of
Fidel Castro, died from natural causes. On the other hand, a small group (13
men and one woman) who aimed at establishing a foco in Tucuman Province, in
order to head the resistance against the junta, was captured.[32] Among them
was Envar El Kadre, then a leader of the Peronist Youth.[32]
In 1969 the CGT de los Argentinos (CGTA, headed by the
graphist Raimundo Ongaro) headed social movements, in particular the Cordobazo,
as well as other movements in Tucuman and Santa Fe. While Perón managed a
reconciliation with Augusto Vandor, head of the CGT Azopardo, he followed, in
particular through the voice of his delegate Jorge Paladino, a cautious line of
opposition to the military junta, criticizing with moderation the neoliberal
policies of the junta but waiting for discontent inside the government
("hay que desencillar hasta que aclare", said Perón, advocating
patience). Thus, Onganía had an interview with 46 CGT delegates, among whom
Vandor, who agreed on "participationism" with the military junta,
thus uniting themselves with the Nueva Corriente de Opinión headed by José
Alonso and Rogelio Coria.
In December 1969 more than 20 priests, members of the
Movimiento de Sacerdotes para el Tercer Mundo (MSTM, Movement of Priests for
the Third World), marched on the Casa Rosada to present to Onganía a petition
pleading him to abandon the eradication plan of villas miserias (shanty
towns).[33]
Meanwhile, Onganía implemented corporatism policies,
experimenting in particular in Córdoba, underneath Carlos Caballero's governance.
The same year, the Movement of Priests for the Third World issued a declaration
supporting Socialist revolutionary movements, which led to the Catholic
hierarchy, by the voice of Juan Carlos Aramburu, coadjutor archbishop of Buenos
Aires, to proscribe priests from making political or social declarations.[34]
Growing instability (1969–1976)[edit]
During the de facto government of the Revolución
Argentina the left began to regain power through underground movements. This
was mainly through violent guerilla groups. Later, the return of Peronism to
power was expected to calm down the heated waters but did exactly the opposite,
creating a violent breach between right-wing and left-wing peronism, leading to
years of violence and political instability that culminated with the coup
d'état of 1976.
Subversive Years (1969–1973)[edit]
Various armed actions, headed by the Fuerzas Armadas de
Liberación (FAL), composed by former members of the Revolutionary Communist
Party, occurred in April 1969, leading to several arrests among FAL members.
These were the first left-wing urban guerrilla actions in Argentina. Beside
these isolated actions, the Cordobazo uprising that year, called forth by the
CGT de los Argentinos, and its Cordobese leader, Agustín Tosco, prompted
demonstrations in the entire country. The same year, the People's Revolutionary
Army (ERP) was formed as the military branch of the Trotskyist Workers'
Revolutionary Party, kidnapping high-profile rich Argentines and demanding
ransom.[35][36]
The last of the "de facto" military presidents,
Alejandro Lanusse, was appointed in 1971 and attempted to re-establish
democracy amidst an atmosphere of continuing Peronist workers
protests.[citation needed]
Cámpora's Tenure (1973)[edit]
On March 11, 1973, Argentina held general elections for
the first time in ten years. Perón was prevented from running, but voters
elected his stand-in, Dr. Hector Cámpora, as President. Cámpora defeated his
Radical Civic Union opponent. Cámpora won 49.5 percent of the votes in the
presidential election following a campaign based on a platform of national
reconstruction.[37]
Riding a wave of mass support, Cámpora inaugurated his
period on May 25. He acceded to his functions on May 25, which was saluted by a
massive popular gathering of the Peronist Youth movement, Montoneros, FAR and
FAP ("Fuerzas Armadas Peronistas") in the Plaza de Mayo. Cámpora
assumed a strong stance against right-wing Peronists, declaring during his
first speech: "La sangre derramada no será negociada" ("Spilled
blood will not be negotiated").[37]
Cuban president Osvaldo Dorticós and Chilean president
Salvador Allende were present at his inauguration, while William P. Rogers,
U.S. Secretary of State, and Uruguayan president Juan Bordaberry, could not attend,
blocked in their respective cars by demonstrators. Political prisoners were
liberated on the same day, under the pressure of the demonstrators. Cámpora's
government included progressive figures such as Interior Minister Esteban Righi
and Education Minister Jorge Taiana, but also included members of the labor and
political right-wing Peronist factions, such as José López Rega, Perón's
personal secretary and Minister of Social Welfare, and a member of the P2
Masonic lodge.[37] Perón's followers also commanded strong majorities in both
houses of Congress.
Hector Cámpora's government followed a traditional
Peronist economic policy, supporting the national market and redistributing
wealth. One of José Ber Gelbard's first measures as minister of economics was
to augment workers' wages. However, the 1973 oil crisis seriously affected
Argentina's oil-dependent economy. Almost 600 social conflicts, strikes or
occupations occurred in Cámpora's first month. The military conceded Campora's
victory, but strikes, as well as government-backed violence, continued
unabated. The slogan "Campora in government, Perón in power"
expressed the real source of popular joy, however.
Return of Perón (1973–1974)[edit]
Amidst escalating terror from right and left alike, Perón
decided to return and assume the presidency. On June 20, 1973, two million
people waited for him at Ezeiza airport. From Perón's speaking platform,
camouflaged far-right gunmen fired on the masses, shooting at the Peronist
Youth movement and the Montoneros, killing at least thirteen and injuring more
than three hundred (this became known as the Ezeiza massacre).[38]
Cámpora and vice-president Solano Lima resigned on July
13. Deputy Raúl Alberto Lastiri, José López Rega's son-in-law and also a P2
member, was then promoted to the Presidency to organize elections. Cámpora's
followers such as Chancellor Juan Carlos Puig and Interior Minister Esteban
Righi were immediately replaced by Alberto J. Vignes and Benito Llambi, and the
Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (ERP - People's Revolutionary Army) was
declared a "dissolved terrorist organization". On September 23, Perón
won the elections with 61.85% of the votes, with his third wife, María Estela
Isabel Martínez de Perón, as vice-president.
Peronist right-wing factions won a decisive victory and
Perón assumed the Presidency in October 1973, a month after Pinochet's coup in
Chile. Violent acts, including by the Triple A, continued to threaten public
order. On September 25, 1973, José Ignacio Rucci, CGT trade-union's Secretary
General and Perón's friend, was assassinated by the Montoneros. The government
resorted to a number of emergency decrees, including the implementation of
special executive authority to deal with violence. This allowed the government
to imprison persons indefinitely without charge.[citation needed]
Perón won 61.9 percent of the vote and, with his wife
Maria Estela (Isabel) Martinez de Perón as vice president, and their
administration was inaugurated on October 12. In his second period in office, Perón
was committed to achieving political peace through a new alliance of business
and labor to promote national reconstruction. Peron's charisma and his past
record with respect to labor helped him maintain his working-class support.[39]
Isabel de Perón was inexperienced in politics and only
carried Perón's name; Lopez Rega was described as a man with numerous occult
interests, including astrology, and a supporter of dissident Catholic groups.
Economic policies were directed at restructuring wages and currency
devaluations in order to attract foreign investment capital to Argentina. Lopez
Rega was ousted as Isabel de Perón's adviser in June 1975; General Numa
Laplane, the commander in chief of the army who had supported the
administration through the Lopez Rega period, was replaced by General Jorge
Rafael Videla in August 1975.[39]
Isabel's Government (1974–1976)[edit]
Perón died on July 1, 1974. His wife succeeded him in
office, but her administration was undermined by economic downfall (inflation
was skyrocketing and GDP contracted), Peronist intra-party struggles, and
growing acts of terrorism by insurgents such as the ERP and paramilitary
movements.
Montoneros, led by Mario Firmenich, cautiously decided to
go underground after Peron's death. Isabel Perón was removed from office by the
military coup on March 24, 1976. This gave way to the last and arguably most
violent de facto government in Argentina, the National Reorganization Process.
National Reorganization Process (1976–1983)[edit]
Main articles: National Reorganization Process and Dirty
War
Following the coup against Isabel Perón, the armed forces
formally exercised power through a junta led consecutively by Videla, Viola,
Galtieri and Bignone until December 10, 1983. These de facto leaders termed
their government programme "National Reorganization Process".
In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Marxist-Leninist
militias such as People's Revolutionary Army utilized aggressive tactics that
sometimes resulted in violence.[35] Later the military government used these
acts as justification for their even more brutal measures. The
"ideological war" doctrine of the Argentine military focused on
eliminating the social base of insurgency. In practice that meant assassinating
many middle class students, intellectuals and labor organizers, most of whom
had few ties to the guerrillas.
Monument to the Falklands War Fallen, Neuquen.
The costs of what the armed forces called the "Dirty
War" were high in terms of lives lost and basic human rights violated.
Thousands of deaths may be attributed to various guerrilla attacks and
assassinations. The 1984 Commission on the Disappeared documented the
disappearance and probable death at the hands of the military regime of about
11,000 people, relatively few of whom were likely Montonero or ERP cadres.
Human rights groups estimate that over 30,000 persons were
"disappeared" (i.e. arrested, tortured, and secretly executed without
trial) during the 1976–1983 period; many more went into exile.[citation needed]
The People's Revolutionary Army alone admitted it lost 5,000 militants.[40]
Serious economic problems, mounting charges of
corruption, public discontent and, finally, the country's 1982 defeat by the
United Kingdom in the Falklands War following Argentina's unsuccessful attempt
to seize the Falkland Islands all combined to discredit the Argentine military
regime. Under strong public pressure, the junta lifted bans on political
parties and gradually restored basic political liberties.
Beagle conflict[edit]
The Beagle conflict began to brew in the 1960s, when
Argentina began to claim that the Picton, Lennox and Nueva islands in the
Beagle Channel were rightfully hers. In 1971, Chile and Argentina signed an
agreement formally submitting the Beagle Channel issue to binding Beagle
Channel Arbitration. On May 2, 1977 the court ruled that the islands and all
adjacent formations belonged to Chile. See the Report and decision of the Court
of Arbitration.
On 25 January 1978 the Argentina military junta led by
General Jorge Videla declared the award fundamentally null and intensified
their claim over the islands. On 22 December 1978, Argentina started[41] the
Operation Soberania over the disputed islands, but the invasion was halted due
to:
(The newspaper Clarín explained some years later that
such caution was based,) in part, on military concerns. In order to achieve a
victory, certain objectives had to be reached before the seventh day after the
attack. Some military leaders considered this not enough time due to the
difficulty involved in transportation through the passes over the Andean
Mountains.[42]
and in cite 46:
According to Clarín, two consequences were feared. First,
those who were dubious feared a possible regionalization of the conflict.
Second, as a consequence, the conflict could acquire great power proportions.
In the first case decisionmakers speculated that Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and
Brazil might intervene. Then the great powers could take sides. In this case,
the resolution of the conflict would depend not on the combatants, but on the
countries that supplied the weapons.
In December that year, moments before Videla signed a
declaration of war against Chile, Pope John Paul II agreed to mediate between
the two nations. The Pope's envoy, Antonio Samoré, successfully averted war and
proposed a new definitive boundary in which the three disputed islands would
remain Chilean. Argentina and Chile both agreed to Samoré's proposal and signed
the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1984 between Chile and Argentina, ending
that dispute.
New Democracy (1983–present)[edit]
On October 30, 1983, Argentines went to the polls to
choose a president; vice-president; and national, provincial, and local
officials in elections found by international observers to be fair and honest.
The country returned to constitutional rule after Raúl Alfonsín, candidate of
the Radical Civic Union (Unión Cívica Radical, UCR), received 52% of the
popular vote for president. He began a 6-year term of office on December 10,
1983.
Alfonsín Era (1983–1989)[edit]
Five days later, he created the National Commission on
the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP), led by Argentine writer Ernesto Sábato.
However, it was also under Alfonsín's presidency that the December 24, 1986 Ley
de Punto Final ("Full Stop Law") was voted, granting amnesty to all acts
committed before December 10, 1983, amid pressure from the military. It would
not be until June 2005's Supreme Court decision to overturn all amnesty laws
that investigations could be started again.[43]
During the Alfonsín administration, a Treaty of Peace and
Friendship of 1984 between Chile and Argentina with Chile was signed and the
roots of the Mercosur trade bloc were established.
In 1985 and 1987, large turnouts for mid-term elections
demonstrated continued public support for a strong and vigorous democratic
system. The UCR-led government took steps to resolve some of the nation's most
pressing problems, including accounting for those who disappeared during
military rule, establishing civilian control of the armed forces, and
consolidating democratic institutions. One of the biggest achievements of the
Alfonsín administration was the reduction of corruption in public offices, which
was reduced by half during his administration.[citation needed]
However, constant friction with the military, failure to
resolve several economic problems inherited from the military dictatorship and
great opposition from the labor unions undermined the effectiveness of the
Alfonsín government, which left office six months early after Peronist
candidate Carlos Saúl Menem won the 1989 presidential elections.
Menemist Decade (1989–1999)[edit]
See also: Washington Consensus
Carlos Menem, President throughout the 1990s.
As President, Carlos Menem launched a major overhaul of
Argentine domestic policy. Large-scale structural reforms dramatically reversed
the role of the state in Argentine economic life. Ironically, the Peronist
Menem oversaw the privatization of many of the industries Perón had
nationalized.
A decisive leader pressing a controversial agenda, Menem
was not reluctant to use the presidency's powers to issue "emergency"
decrees (formally necessity and urgency decrees) when the Congress was unable to
reach consensus on his proposed reforms. Those powers were curtailed somewhat
when the constitution was reformed in 1994 as a result of the so-called Olivos
Pact with the opposition Radical Party. That arrangement opened the way for
Menem to seek and win reelection with 50% of the vote in the three-way 1995
presidential race. Piquetero movement rose.
The 1995 election saw the emergence of the moderate-left
FrePaSo political alliance. This alternative to the two traditional political
parties in Argentina was particularly strong in Buenos Aires but lacked the
national infrastructure of the Peronists and Radicals. In an important
development in Argentina's political life, all three major parties in the 1999
race espoused free market economic policies.
New Millennium Crisis (1999–2003)[edit]
Main article: Argentine economic crisis (1999–2002)
De La Rúa Presidency (1999–2001)[edit]
Main article: Fernando de la Rúa § Presidency
See also: Argentine_economic_crisis_(1999–2002) § The
crisis
In October 1999, the UCR–FrePaSo Alianza's presidential
candidate, Fernando de la Rúa, defeated Peronist candidate Eduardo Duhalde.
Having taken office in December 1999, De la Rúa followed an IMF-sponsored
program of government spending cuts, revenue increases, and provincial revenue-sharing
reforms to get the federal fiscal deficit under control, and pursued labor
market flexibilization and business-promotion measures aimed at stimulating
foreign investment, so as to avoid defaulting the public debt.[citation needed]
Towards the end of 2001, Argentina faced grave economic
problems. The IMF pressed Argentina to service its external debt, effectively
forcing Argentina to devalue the Argentine peso, which had been pegged to the
U.S. dollar, or alternatively fully dollarize its economy. Deep budget cuts,
including a 13% reduction in pay for the nation's 2 million public sector
employees, failed to curb the rapidly increasing country risk on almost U$100
billion in Argentine bonds, increasing debt service costs and further limiting
access to international credit, despite a moderately successful debt swap
arranged by Cavallo with most bondholders. Voters reacted to the rapidly
worsening economy in the October 2001 midterm elections by both depriving the
Alliance of its majority in the Lower House, and by casting a record 25% of
spoiled ballots.[44]
Corralito (2001)[edit]
Police intervention in the 2001 riots
On November 1, 2001, as people's fears that the peso
would be devalued caused massive withdrawal of bank deposits and capital flight,
de la Rúa's Minister of Economy Domingo Cavallo passed regulations severely
limiting withdrawals, effectively freezing the peso-denominated assets of the
Argentine middle class, while the dollar-denominated foreign accounts of the
wealthy were shielded from devaluation. (The freezing of the bank accounts was
informally named corralito.)[citation needed]
The overall economy declined drastically during December
2001. The resulting riots led to dozens of deaths. The Minister of Economy
Domingo Cavallo resigned, but that did not prevent the collapse of De la Rúa's
administration. On December 20 de la Rúa also resigned, but the political
crisis was extremely serious, as a result of the previous resignation of the
vice-president Carlos Chacho Álvarez in 2000. The president of the Senate
became interim president until the National Congress elected, two days later,
Adolfo Rodríguez Saá to finish De la Rúa's term. But Rodríguez Saá resigned a
week later on December 31, leaving the power to the president of the Chamber of
Deputies (as the Senate was undergoing their annual renovation of its
president) as interim.
Finally, on January 2, 2002, the National Congress
elected the Peronist Eduardo Duhalde, a losing candidate in the most recent
presidential election, as president. The peso was first devalued by 29%, and
then the dollar peg was abandoned; by July 2002, the national currency had
depreciated to one-quarter of its former value.
Recovery (2002–2003)[edit]
President Duhalde faced a country in turmoil. His
administration had to deal with a wave of protests (middle-class cacerolazos
and unemployed piqueteros), and did so with a relatively tolerant policy,
intending to minimize violence. As inflation became a serious issue and the
effects of the crisis became apparent in the form of increased unemployment and
poverty, Duhalde chose a moderate, low-profile economist, Roberto Lavagna, as
his Minister of Economy. The economic measures implemented brought inflation
under control.[citation needed]
After a year, Duhalde deemed his tasks fulfilled and,
pressured by certain political factors, called for elections, which in April
2003 brought Néstor Kirchner, the left-of-centre Peronist governor of Santa
Cruz, to power.
Kirchners' Governments (2003–Present)[edit]
Main articles: Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de
Kirchner
See also: Kirchnerism and Pink tide
Néstor Kirchner hands the presidential mandate to his
wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
President Kirchner took office on May 25, 2003. He
reshuffled the leadership of the Armed Forces, overturned controversial amnesty
laws that protected members of the 1976-1983 dictatorship from prosecution, and
kept Lavagna on as economy minister for most of his presidency. Kirchner's
administration saw a strong economic rebound,[citation needed] and foreign debt
reestructuring.
The 2007 general election took place in ten provinces in
September and Kirchner's Front for Victory won in six provinces. Hermes Binner
was elected governor of Santa Fe, becoming the first Socialist governor in
Argentina's history and the first non-Justicialist to rule the rather wealthy
Santa Fe province, and Center-left Fabiana Ríos (ARI) became the first woman to
be elected governor of Tierra del Fuego, while the right-wing Mauricio Macri
was elected Chief of Government of Buenos Aires City in June 2007.[45]
On December 10, 2007, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner took
over the presidency from her husband, after winning elections with 44% of the
vote. Néstor Kirchner remained a highly influential politician during the term
of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The press developed the term "presidential
marriage" to make reference to both of them at once.[46] Some political
analysts compared this type of government with a diarchy.[47]
After proposing a new taxation system for agricultural
exports, Cristina Fernández's Government had to face a severe lock out of the
sector. The protest, which spread over 129 days, was quickly politicized and
marked an inflection point in her administration. The system was finally
rejected in the Senate by the opposite vote of the Vice president Julio Cobos.
The political style of the government changed with the
Death and state funeral of Néstor Kirchner. Cristina slowly distanced from the
traditional structure of the Justicialist Party and favored instead The
Cámpora, a group of young supporters led by her son Máximo Kirchner. (Continoe)
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