Argentina
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Country in South America, bounded west and south by Chile, north by Bolivia, and east by Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, and the Atlantic Ocean.
Government
The return of civilian rule in 1983 brought a return of the 1853 constitution, with some changes in the electoral system; in 1994 further important revisions were made. The present constitution provides for a federal system with a president and vice-president elected by universal suffrage and both serving four-year terms, renewable only once. The president is head of state and appoints a prime minister as head of government.Argentina is a federal union of 23 provinces, one national territory, and the Federal District. The two-chamber congress consists of a 69-member senate chosen by provincial legislatures for a nine-year term, and a directly elected 259-member chamber of deputies serving a four-year term. One senator from each state is elected to represent minorities. Each province has its own elected governor and legislature that deal with matters not assigned to the federal government.
History
Originally inhabited by American Indian peoples, the population of Argentina numbered about 300,000 at the time of the first visit by Europeans in the early 16th century. In 1515 a company of Spanish adventurers, under the leadership of Juan Díaz de Solís, landed near the Río de la Plata in search of a passage southwestward to the East Indies. In 1520, during his voyage of circumnavigation, Magellan arrived at the wide estuary of the River Paraná, and being convinced that there was no passage through to the west he promptly left the country.The first European settlements
In 1526 Sebastian Cabot, the pilot-major of Charles V, Holy Roman emperor and king of Spain, went to La Plata to make astronomical observations. On hearing of mineral wealth in the interior, however, he abandoned his primary object and began exploring. He explored up the rivers Paraná and Paraguay, built a fort on the River Uruguay, and founded a settlement a little further on, north of the River Caracarañá, which he called San Espiritu. The Indian ornaments of heavy silver that he sent home to Spain gave the country a reputation of great wealth, and the estuary of the Paraná was called the Río de la Plata (‘silver river’) in consequence. In 1534 a Basque nobleman, Pedro de Mendoza, organized an expedition on a larger scale than had been attempted before. He arrived at La Plata in the following year and laid the foundations of a Spanish settlement at Buenos Aires in 1536, but suffered great losses. Mendoza himself returned to Spain in 1537. His lieutenant, Domingos Martinez de Irala, remained in the country, and founded the first permanent Spanish settlement in the interior of South America at Asunción, which for many years remained the headquarters of the colonial Spanish government. The settlement at Buenos Aires had been abandoned because of Indian attacks. An attempt to re-establish the city was made in 1542 by Cabeza de Vaca, but with no success.Spanish colonial rule
In 1580 Juan de Garay, who in 1573 had founded the city of Santa Fé, rebuilt Buenos Aires, and endowed it with a corporation and full Spanish municipal rights. He defeated the Indians, and imposed Spanish rule upon them. By this time the Spaniards had penetrated as far as the Andes. San Miguel de Tucumán was founded in 1565, and Córdoba in 1573.In 1620 Buenos Aires became separate from the local Spanish government at Asunción, though it remained under the authority of the viceroyalty of Peru (the seat of Spanish power in South America). Spain jealously forbade all European powers to trade with its colonies or to settle in the country, which meant commercial ruin for the ports. In 1618 Spain allowed Buenos Aires to send out two ships, but the town was prevented from having any internal trade with Peru by the exorbitant customs duty of 50% levied at Córdoba on all goods sent to or from Buenos Aires. This duty was reduced in 1665, but it was not till 1776 that the policy of exclusion was finally abandoned. In 1713, by the Treaty of Utrecht (see Utrecht, Treaty of) ending the War of the Spanish Succession, Britain gained the right to import black African slaves into Spanish-American colonies.
The life of the early settlers, therefore, was not very prosperous. Not only was their trade crippled through the administration of the colonial power, but they themselves were continually harassed by attacks from indigenous Indian tribes.
In 1776 Buenos Aires was made the capital and seat of the new viceroyalty of Río de la Plata, with jurisdiction over the neighbouring territories that now form the republics of Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Argentina. During the period of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Spain and France combined against Britain, and Spain's colonies in the Americas became the object of British military expeditions. In 1806 the British commander, Gen Beresford, besieged Buenos Aires, but was repulsed by the inhabitants, and in the following year another British force under Gen Whitelock assaulted the town and was also compelled to capitulate. Victory, unaided by Spanish or French armies, made the colonists aware of their own military strength. Their thoughts inevitably turned towards independence.
The struggle for independence
The population rose against Spanish rule in 1810. In May a provisional junta was formed, with Manuel Belgrano and José de San Martín as two prominent revolutionary leaders. In 1816 a congress of deputies meeting at San Miguel de Tucumá declared the country's independence and elected Don Martin Pueyrredon supreme dictator. Spain was defeated by the combined forces of Chile and Buenos Aires at Chacabuco in 1817, and at Maipú in 1818, but it was not until 1842 that Spain formally acknowledged the independence of Argentina.The early republic
After the struggle with Spain, Argentina was in a state of chaos. During the first half-century of the republic the country was disturbed by continual civil war, owing to disputes between the coastal and interior provinces and within the coastal provinces over the fixing and allocation of tariff revenues. From 1827 to 1852, the dictator Juan Manuel Rosas controlled Buenos Aires and established his authority over the interior. Later regimes committed themselves to laissez-faire economic policies integrating Argentina into the international economy.Territorial wars
In 1826–28 war was waged with Brazil for the possession of Uruguay. The Brazilians were defeated at Utuzaingo, and Uruguay became independent under the name of Monte Video. Rosas's subsequent interference in the internal affairs of Uruguay led to a war with France between 1838 and 1842. In 1865–70 Argentina allied with Brazil and Uruguay in the War of the Triple Alliance against Paraguay, due largely to the arrogance of Francisco Solano López, president of Paraguay, who had invaded Argentine territory. He was defeated and killed in 1870 by Bartólomé Mitre, the Argentine president and general, and peace was restored.The dispute with Chile
Towards the end of the 19th century relations between Chile and Argentina were strained by quarrels over boundaries. Argentina prepared for war by increasing its navy. The boundary protocol was signed with Chile in December 1900. In the following year the two countries referred the question of the frontier to the arbitration of Britain, and war was averted.The early 20th century: prosperity and reform
Between 1880 and 1914 Argentina experienced a dramatic period of immigration. This was accompanied by the rapid expansion of the city of Buenos Aires and the formation of the Socialist Party and both socialist and anarcho-syndicalist trade unions. Throughout World War I Argentina remained neutral.One of the most significant events in Argentine history in this period was the election in 1916 of the leader of the Radical Civic Union (UCR), Dr Hipólito Irigoyen, to the office of president. Never previously had the Radicals secured control of the government. Argentina's abstention from the war enabled the country to make considerable headway in commerce. In domestic affairs the chief features of Irigoyen's first administration were the introduction of a minimum wage to protect the working classes from the effects of an inflated currency, the raising of the railway tariff, and the unswerving support of national and provincial constitutions. Irigoyen was again inaugurated president in 1928, but deposed by the revolution of 1930.
The overthrow of the Radicals
The coup d'état that overthrew Irigoyen was effected by a combination of all the fighting services directed by a junta under Gen Uriburu. It was virtually bloodless and conservative in character. The cause of Irigoyen's downfall was, apparently, popular discontent with one-man rule bordering on dictatorship, a discontent aggravated by economic depression, much the same causes as had led to similar forcible changes in the governments of Bolivia and Peru a few weeks earlier in the same year. Civilian government returned in 1932, and since that time Argentina has been subject to alternate civilian and military rule.Argentina in World War II
During World War II the then president, Ramón S Castillo, pursued a neutral policy. His policy was not unpopular in Argentina, though in neighbouring countries it was seen as pro-Nazi. In June 1943, there was a military uprising at the Campo de Mayo, the Argentine military centre, and Castillo surrendered to the revolutionaries and resigned the presidency. Gen Ramirez, the insurgent leader, issued a manifesto, calling for ‘a loyal American union and collaboration, and the fulfilment of pacts and continental undertakings’. Towards the end of 1943, however, relations between the Allies and Argentina greatly deteriorated on account of the apparently fascist character of the Ramirez dictatorship.The rise of Péron
The end of 1945 saw the rise of Col (later Lt-Gen) Juan Domingo Perón, who had been secretary of the War Ministry since June 1943, and subsequently vice-president of Argentina. He was imprisoned by the dictatorship on the island of Martin Garcia, but owing to the insistent clamour of the Argentine workers was brought back to Buenos Aires as the de facto leader of the country. Strengthened by the popularity of his wife, María Eva Duarte de Perón (known as ‘Evita’), Perón created the Peronist party, based on extreme nationalism and social improvement.In the general election of February 1946, which was held in an atmosphere of turbulence and violence, Perón was, in effect, the official candidate, and stood for the presidency as the self-proclaimed champion both of the masses against the plutocracy and of Argentina against the USA. He had the support of part of the army and most of the trade unions, the tacit approval of the church, and the allegiance of a large and well-trained police force.
During the Argentine election campaign the US government published a memorandum, which it had addressed to the Pan-American Union (the precursor of the Organization of American States), in which evidence from Germany was cited indicating a continuing partnership between the military dictatorship and an elaborate Nazi organization in Argentina, and quoting Perón himself as aiming at a ‘thoroughly regimented totalitarian State dedicated to the pursuit of a warlike life and a war economy’. This merely inflamed Argentine national feeling and caused the intelligentsia, as well as the urban working classes, to swing to Perón.
Perón's first presidency
In June 1946 he was inaugurated president amid scenes of popular enthusiasm. Sweeping social and economic changes followed. Foreign capital ceased to be attracted to Argentina, and the social programme initiated by Perón proved a heavy burden for the country's already shaky economy. Government corruption remained as bad as before; and after the death of his wife Evita in 1952, Perón's relations with the church became increasingly strained, and his dictatorship more unbridled. He forfeited the support of the army, the church, and the radical middle classes, and a revolution by a combination of the dissident factions resulted in his deposition in September 1955 and eventual exile to Spain, from where he continued to direct the Peronist movement.The newspaper La Prensa, which had come under the control of Perón, was restored to its former owners, with freedom of editorial action. The economist Raul Prebisch was recalled from exile to advise on fiscal and monetary rehabilitation.
Argentina since the 1950s
The Argentine political and economic situation has steadily deteriorated since 1955. Argentina is the only country in the world to have been considered ‘developed’ in the 1930s, when its income per capita compared favourably with that in Canada, and ‘underdeveloped’ in the decades since the 1950s.The first Perón government was remembered as a period of economic anarchy by the propertied classes, but the urban working classes recalled it as the only government that sought to remedy their grievances. Perónism, even with Perón in Madrid, remained, therefore, a resilient force, embracing as it did groups from the extreme left to the extreme right of the political spectrum. The successors of Perón failed to achieve the degree of consensus necessary to restore political stability and economic expansion. Increases in the consumption of local foodstuffs reduced Argentine exports, thereby creating an endemic balance-of-payments problem. This was offset in the short term by devaluations but, in the long term, caused spiralling inflation. The failure to cope with inflation brought down successive governments, both civilian and military.
The return of Perón
Perón attempted unsuccessfully to regain power in 1964, but the attempt did serve to reinforce his latent popularity. A coup in 1966 restored military rule, and the success of a later Peronist party, Frente Justicialista de Liberación (Justicialist Liberation Front), brought Héctor Cámpora to the presidency in 1973. After three months he resigned to make way for Perón, who was re-elected to power on a broad-based coalition. Perón's third wife, María Estela Martínez de Perón (‘Isabel’), became vice-president.The rule of Isabel Perón
Perón died in 1974, and was succeeded by his widow Isabel, who alone seemed able to preserve the Perónist coalition. She survived in office for a short time largely because of the absence of a credible alternative. Her attempts to bring some political stability were thwarted by the action of armed guerrillas of both the extreme left and the extreme right within and outside the Perónist movement, by disloyalty within the army, and by growing trade-union disenchantment with her government. The Perónist coalition was overthrown in March 1976 by a three-person military junta led by Lt-Gen Jorge Videla, who himself took over the office of president.Videla and the ‘dirty war’
Under Videla the constitution was amended, and political and trade-union activity banned. The years 1976–83 witnessed a ferocious campaign by the junta against left-wing elements, the ‘dirty war’, during which it is believed that between 9,000 and 30,000 people ‘disappeared’. Videla retired in 1978, to be succeeded by Gen Roberto Viola, who promised a return to democracy. Viola died in 1981 and was replaced by Gen Leopoldo Galtieri.The Falklands conflict
In 1982 Galtieri, seeking popular support and wishing to distract attention from the deteriorating economy, ordered the invasion of the Islas Malvinas, the Falkland Islands, over which the UK's claim to sovereignty had long been disputed. After a short war, during which 750 Argentines were killed, the islands were reoccupied by the UK. With the failure of the Falklands invasion, Galtieri was replaced in a bloodless coup by Gen Reynaldo Bignone. A military inquiry reported in 1983 that Galtieri's junta was to blame for the defeat. Several officers were tried, and some, including Galtieri, given prison sentences, while an amnesty was granted to all those convicted of political crimes during the previous ten years. The ban on political and trade-union activity was lifted and general elections were held in October 1983. The main parties were the UCR, led by Raúl Alfonsín, and the Peronist Justicialist Party (PJ), led by Italo Lúder. In January 2000, warrants were issued in Spain for the arrest of Galtieri and high-ranking members of his junta, on suspicion of crimes against humanity and genocide while Galtieri was in power.Alfonsín's reforms and investigations
Having won the election, Alfonsín announced radical reforms in the armed forces (leading to the retirement of more than half the senior officers) and the trial of the first three military juntas that had ruled Argentina after 1976. He set up the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons to investigate the ‘dirty war’. A report by the commission in 1984 listed over 8,000 people who had disappeared and 1,300 army officers who had been involved in the campaign of repression. Human rights groups put the deaths and disappearances at up to 30,000. Many officers were imprisoned, but later reprieved by Carlos Menem, president 1989–99. In March 2001, a judge repealed two laws guaranteeing immunity from prosecution, declaring them unconstitutional. This opened the way for hundreds of members of the armed forces to be prosecuted, although the repeal would need to be ratified by the Supreme Court.Alfonsín's government was soon faced with enormous economic problems, resulting in recourse to help from the International Monetary Fund and an austerity programme.
Menem tackles high inflation
The presidential election of May 1989 was won by the PJ candidate, Carlos Menem. Alfonsín handed over power in July 1989, five months before his term of office formally ended, to allow Menem to come to grips with the high inflation (more than 1,000% a year) that threatened to bring about increasing social unrest. The new government established a rapport with the UK authorities and full diplomatic relations were restored in February 1990 (though without the issue of sovereignty over the Falklands being fully resolved). President Menem was elected leader of the PJ in August, and in December 1990 a rebellion by junior army officers was put down.A financial scandal involving Menem's relatives and aides threatened the PJ's success in midterm elections, but support for Menem's economic policies secured a victory. In 1991 inflation was, at 84%, the lowest it had been since 1986. In 1992 the government introduced a new currency, the peso, to replace the austral, which had been rendered almost worthless by inflation.
Menem's constitutional reforms approved
In the October 1993 assembly elections the PJ won a clear majority, and in December the senate approved Menem's constitutional reform proposals, allowing him to seek reelection. Initially rejected by the house of representatives, the proposals had been amended to incorporate opposition requests, including the assignment of key posts to UCR candidates and the reduction of the presidential term from six to four years.The PJ won the April 1994 assembly elections with a reduced majority, and in August the revised constitution was approved by a special constitutional assembly. Menem was reelected to serve a second term in May 1995. The PJ won a clear majority in the concurrent assembly elections. In the congressional elections of November 1997, however, Menem lost his absolute majority.
Access to the Falklands regained
In May 1999, Falkland Islanders agreed to hold their first direct talks with Argentina since their 1982 war. The talks would cover economic cooperation, air links, and visits by Argentine citizens. Under an agreement between Britain and Argentina signed in July, Argentine passport holders could visit Falkland Islands for the first time since the 1982 war. A group of Argentinians visited the islands in August.Rúa comes to power
Fernando de la Rúa won Argentina's presidential election in October 1999, ending ten years of Peronist rule. He promised a crackdown on corruption and tough fiscal measures to balance Argentina's budget, and his new cabinet included four well-known economists, whose presence indicated Rúa's intention to follow orthodox economic policies. However, in May 2000, thousands of people joined protests against new public spending cuts on health and social security proposed by the government to help it meet targets set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as conditions for receiving a US$39 billion package of aid. The cuts were opposed in Congress, but in December President Rúa issued decrees to impose them. Despite the aid, however, Argentina's financial crisis continued.In January, in an effort to reduce the 15% unemployement rate, Rúa raised the retirement age of women from 60 to 65, and announced a five-year, US$20 billion public works programme. In late March 2001, Domingo Cavallo became the third finance minister since January, after spending cuts proposed by his predecessor had provoked the rupture of Rúa's governing Alianza coalition. Congress granted emergency powers to Rúa and Cavallo to impose cuts and tax and tariff changes, but protected government jobs, wages, and pensions. Cavallo responded with US$700 million of public spending cuts.
Menem arrested
In July 2001, former president Carlos Menem, two former ministers, and a former chief of the armed forces were charged with conspiracy to ship government guns and explosives illegally to Croatia and Ecuador. Officially destined for Panama and Venezuela, around 6,500 tonnes of weapons ended up in Croatia and Ecuador between 1991 and 1995. At the time, Argentina was bound by international arms embargoes on both countries.British prime minister visits
In August, as part of a wider Latin American trip, Tony Blair became the first British prime minister to visit Argentina. He praised Argentina's economic austerity programme.After 11 days of talks, the IMF announced in late August that it would offer Argentina a new loan of US$8 billion, of which US$3 billion was to support a voluntary and market-based debt restructuring. In return, Argentina's government promised a new law reforming provincial finance. In September a draft budget proposed a further US$6.5 billion (or 10%) in spending cuts, including cuts in civil service wages and pensions. However, in December the Argentine government was forced to decree exchange controls and restrictions on cash withdrawals. In emergency meetings held in Washington, DC, the Argentine government attempted to persuade the IMF to reconsider a suspended US$1.3 billion loan. It was feared that a default on Argentina's US$132 billion debt could trigger economic collapse across South America.
Argentina elected its third government in a fortnight on 1 January 2002, when Congress chose Eduardo Duhalde, a Peronist senator, to serve as the country's president until 2003, abandoning plans for an election in March 2002. Two days of looting, vandalism, and violent protests that left 16 people dead had forced out Fernando de la Rúa on 21 December 2001; his successor, Adolfo Rodriguez Saá, lasted only eight days. The president of the lower house, Eduardo Camaño, then stepped in as acting president until Duhalde was appointed. Congress approved an emergency bill on 6 January giving President Duhalde special powers to end the system of pegging the peso to the US dollar, which Duhalde blamed for the economic and social chaos in the country. The government devalued the peso by 30% for most trade and capital transactions; for other purposes, the currency would float.
In February, the Argentine government made slow progress in persuading provincial governors to accept cuts in revenue transferred from central government. However, a budget with spending cuts of 14% was approved by Congress in March, and provincial governors eventually accepted a temporary cut in transferred revenue. The financial reforms were a necessary step before the arrival of a delegation from the IMF to start talks on a new loan agreement. Despite the cuts, the IMF insisted that Argentina carry out further economic reforms before it would restore its loan programme. In late March the central bank was forced to impose controls on foreign-exchange dealing after the peso, dropped further in value.
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