Raúl Alfonsín
Encyclopedia
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín was an Argentine
lawyer, politician and statesman, who served as the President of Argentina
from December 10, 1983, to July 8, 1989. Alfonsín was the first democratically-elected president of Argentina following the military government known as the National Reorganization Process
. He was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation in 1985, among numerous other such recognitions.
, in eastern Buenos Aires Province
, to Ana María Foulkes and Raúl Serafín Alfonsín, and raised in the Roman Catholic faith. Following his elementary schooling he enrolled at the General San Martín Military Lyceum, where he graduated after five years as a second lieutenant. He became affiliated with the centrist Radical Civic Union
(UCR) in 1945 while taking an active role in the reform group, Intransigent Renewal Movement. He enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires
Law School, from where he graduated in 1950 and returned to Chascomús as an attorney. He married María Lorenza Barreneche the same year.
Alfonsín founded a local newspaper (El Imparcial) and was elected to the city council in 1951. Running as a UCR candidate for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies
(the lower house of the Argentine Congress) later that year, he lost to an opponent supported by the country's newly elected populist leader, Juan Perón
. His periodical's opposition to the increasingly intolerant Perón led to Alfonsín's incarceration in 1953. A violent September 1955 coup d'état (the self-styled Revolución Libertadora
) brought Perón's reign to an end, however, and the resulting ban of Peronist political activity returned the UCR to its role as Argentina's most important political party.
He was elected to the Buenos Aires
provincial legislature in 1958 on the UCRP ticket, a faction of the UCR slightly to the right of the winners of the 1958 election
, the UCRI. Alfonsín was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1963
, becoming one of President Arturo Illia's most steadfast supporters in Congress; he lost his seat when a military coup removed Illia from office in 1966. Developing differences with the party's moderately conservative leader, Ricardo Balbín
, Alfonsín announced the formation of a Movement for Renewal and Change within the UCR in 1971. He stood for the UCR's nomination for the 1973 presidential election
with Conrado Storani as his running mate, but lost to Balbín, who was in turn defeated by Perón's Justicialist Party
. Argentina's return to democracy in 1973 did not improve the country's difficult political rights climate. An increasingly violent conflict between far-left and far-right groups led to a succession of repressive measures, mostly against the former. Amid spiraling violence in December 1975, Alfonsín helped establish the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights
.
The March 1976 coup against the hapless President Isabel Perón did not lead to the Permanent Assembly's closure and, instead, prompted its affiliated lawyers, including Alfonsín, to lend their services to the growing ranks of friends and relatives of the disappeared, arguably risking their lives to do so. Alfonsín was among the few prominent Argentine political figures to vocally oppose President Leopoldo Galtieri
's April 1982 landings on the Falkland Islands
.
The 1981 collapse of conservative economist José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz
's free trade
and deregulatory policies and the defeat in the Falklands War
, among other reasons, led the National Reorganization Process
to seek a "democratic exit" in 1983, and new general elections
were held on October 30. Alfonsín, who had been elected leader of the party in July that year, defeated Justicialist Party
candidate Ítalo Lúder
by 12 points, carrying a majority in the Chamber of Deputies
and, though garnering only 18 of 46 seats in the Senate
and 7 of 22 governors, the UCR's Alejandro Armendáriz
scored an upset victory in Buenos Aires Province
, home to one in three Argentines. Alfonsín persuaded President Reynaldo Bignone
to advance the inaugural three months and he took office on December 10.
]
Chief among Alfonsín's full platter of inherited problems was an economic depression stemming from the 1981-82 financial collapse and its resulting US$43 billion foreign debt, which demanded interest payments that, alone, swallowed all of Argentina's US$3 billion trade surplus. The economy had recovered modestly in 1983 as a result of Bignone's lifting of wage freezes and crushing interest rates imposed by the Central Bank's "Circular 1050;" but inflation raged at 400%, GDP per capita remained at its lowest level since 1968 and fixed investment
, 40% lower than in 1980. Naming a generally center-left cabinet led by Foreign Minister Dante Caputo
and Economy Minister Bernardo Grinspun (his campaign manager), Alfonsín began his administration with high approval ratings and with the fulfillment of campaign promises such as the inaugural of a nutritional assistance program for the 27% of Argentines under the poverty line at the time, as well as the recission of Bignone's April 1983 blanket amnesty for those guilty of human rights abuses
and his September decree authorizing warrantless wiretapping. Defense Minister Raúl Borrás advised Alfonsín to remove Fabricaciones Militares, then Argentina's leading defense contractor
, from the Armed Forces' control, ordering the retirement of 70 generals and admirals known for their opposition to the transfer of the lucrative contractor.
Appointing renowned playwright Carlos Gorostiza
as Secretary of Culture and exiled computer scientist Dr. Manuel Sadosky
as Secretary of Science and Technology, hundreds of artists and scientists returned to Argentina during 1984. Gorostiza abolished the infamous National Film Rating Entity, helping lead to a doubling in film and theatre production. The harrowing La historia oficial (The Official Story) was released in April 1985 and became the first Argentine film to secure an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
. Alfonsín created the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP) to document their human rights
abuses. Led by renowned novelist Ernesto Sábato
, the CONADEP documented 8,960 forced disappearances and presented the President with its findings on September 20. The report drew mixed reactions, however, as its stated total of victims fell short of Amnesty International
's estimate of 16,000 and of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo's estimate of 30,000.
Alfonsín had leading members of leftist groups prosecuted early on, leading to jail sentences for, among others, Montoneros
leader Mario Firmenich. He sought to improve relations with Peronists by pardoning former President Isabel Perón in May 1984 for her prominent role in the early stages of the Dirty War
against dissidents and for her alleged embezzlement of public funds, though his January introduction of legislation providing for secret ballot
labor union elections led to massive opposition by the CGT
, Argentina's largest, and handed his administration its first defeat when the Senate struck it down in February by one vote.
Relations with the United States
suffered when Alfonsín terminated the previous regime's support for the Contras
, and two meetings with U.S. President Ronald Reagan
failed to ease Reagan's opposition to economic concessions towards Argentina. Alfonsín did, however, initiate the first diplomatic contact with the United Kingdom
since the Falklands War two years earlier, resulting in the lifting of British trade sanctions. Proposing a Treaty with Chile
ending a border dispute over the Beagle Channel
, he put the issue before voters in a November 25, 1984, referendum and won its approval with 82%.
exacerbated by high global interest rates, Alfonsín had to also contend with shattered business confidence and record budget deficits. GDP grew by a modest 2% in 1984, though fixed investment
continued to decline and inflation rose to 700%. Losses among the panoply of State enterprises, service on the public debt and growing tax evasion left the federal budget with a US$10 billion shortfall in 1984 (13% of GDP). Unable to finance it, the Central Bank of Argentina "printed" money and inflation, which galloped at around 18% a month at the end of the dictatorship, rose to 30% in June 1985 (the world's highest, at the time). Attempting to control record inflation (prices had risen twelvefold in a year), his new Minister of the Economy, Juan Sourrouille, launched the Austral Plan, by which prices were frozen and the existing currency, the peso argentino
, was replaced by the Argentine austral
at 1,000 to one.
Sharp budget cuts were enacted, particularly in military spending which, including cutbacks in 1984, was slashed to around half of its 1983 level. Responding to financial sector concerns, it also introduced a mechanism called desagio, by which debtors whose installments were based on much higher built-in inflation
would received a temporary discount compensating for the sudden drop in inflation and interest rates; indeed, inflation (30% in June) plummeted to 2% a month for the remainder of 1985. The fiscal deficit fell by two-thirds in 1985, helping pave the way for the first meaningful debt rescheduling
since the advent of the crisis four years earlier. Sharp cuts in military spending also fed growing discontent in the military, and a number of bomb threats and acts of sabotage at numerous military bases were blamed on hard-line officers, chiefly former 1st Army Corps head Gen. Guillermo Suárez Mason
, who fled to Miami following an October arrest order.
Unable to persuade the military to court martial officers guilty of Dirty War
abuses, Alfonsín sponsored the Trial of the Juntas, whose first hearing began at the Supreme Court on April 22, 1985. Prosecuting some of the top members of the previous military regime for crimes committed during the Dirty War
, the trial became the focus of sudden international attention and, on December 9, the tribunal handed down life sentences against former President Jorge Videla and former Navy Chief Emilio Massera, as well as 17-year sentences against three others. For these accomplishments, Alfonsín was awarded the first Prize For Freedom
of the Liberal International
and the Human Rights Prize by the Council of Europe
, never before awarded to an individual. Four defendants were acquitted, however, notably former President Leopoldo Galtieri
, though he and two others were court-martialed in May 1986 for malfeasance during the Falklands War, receiving 12-year prison sentences.
These developments contributed to a strong showing by the UCR in the November 1985 legislative elections
. They gained one seat in the Lower House of Congress and would control 130 of the 254 seats. The Justicialists lost eight seats (leaving 103) and smaller, provincial parties made up the difference. Alfonsín surprised observers in April 1986 by announcing the creation of a panel entrusted to plan the transfer of the nation's capital to Viedma, a small coastal city 800 km (500 mi) south of Buenos Aires
. His proposals boldly called for constitutional amendments creating a Parliamentary system
, including a Prime Minister
, and were well received by the Lower House, though it encountered strong opposition in the Senate.
Economic concerns continued to dominate the national discourse, and the sharp fall in global commodity prices in 1986 stymied hopes for lasting financial stability. The nation's record US$4.5 billion trade surplus was cut in half and inflation had declined to 50% in the twelve months to June 1986 (compared to 1,130% to June 1985). Inflation, which had been targeted for 28% in the calendar year, soon began to rise, however, exceeding 80% in 1986. GDP, which had fallen by 5% in 1985, recovered by 7% in 1986, led by a rise in machinery purchases and consumer spending. Repeated wage freezes ordered by Economy Minister Sourouille, however, led to an erosion in real wages of about 20% during the Austral Plan's first year, triggering seven general strikes by the CGT during the same period. The President's August appointment of a conservative economist, José Luis Machinea
, as President of the Central Bank pleased the financial sector; but it did little to stymie continuing capital flight. Affluent Argentines were believed to hold over US$50 billion in overseas deposits, by then. Alfonsín stepped up his itinerary of state visits abroad, securing a number of trade deals.
The President's international esteem for his human rights record suffered in December 1986, when on his initiative Congress passed the Full Stop Law
, which limited the civil trials against roughly 600 officers implicated in the Dirty War
to those indicted within 60 days of the law's passage, a tall order given the reluctance of many victims and witnesses to testify. Despite these concessions, a group identified as Carapintadas
("painted faces," from their use of camouflage paint) loyal to Army Major Aldo Rico
, staged a mutiny of the important Army training base of Campo de Mayo
and near Córdoba
during the long weekend of Easter in 1987. Negotiating in person with the rebels, who objected to ongoing civil trials but enjoyed little support elsewhere in the Armed Forces, Alfonsín secured their surrender. Returning to the Casa Rosada
, where an anxious population was waiting for news, he announced: La casa está en orden y no hay sangre en Argentina. ¡Felices pascuas! ("The house is in order and there's no blood in Argentina. Happy Easter!"), to signify the end of the crisis.
His subsequent appointment of General Dante Caridi as Army Chief of Staff further strained relations with the military and in June, Congress passed Alfonsín's Law of Due Obedience
, granting immunity to officers implicated in crimes against humanity on the basis of "due obedience." This law, condemned by Amnesty International, among others, effectively halted most remaining prosecutions of Dirty War criminals. The climate of tension between those on either side of the issue was aggravated by the suspicious death in 1986 of Defense Minister Roque Carranza while in the Campo de Mayo military base and by the September 1987 discovery of the body of prominent banker Osvaldo Sivak, the victim of a police-orchestrated ransom kidnapping netting over a million US dollars. Amid this political turn to the right, Alfonsín did manage the passage of the legalization of divorce
, helping resolve the legal status of 3 million adults (1 in 6) who were separated from their spouse. He also passed the Antidiscrimination Law of 1987, a bill supported by Argentina's sizable Jewish and Gypsy communities. He was awarded the Moisés (Moses
) Prize by the Argentine Jewish community for the accomplishment.
A severe drought early in 1987 led to a new decline in exports, which reached their lowest level in a decade, nearly cancelling the vital trade surplus and leaving a US$6 billion current account deficit. The problem and the efforts of Alfonsín's debt negotiator, Daniel Marx
, helped secure the record rescheduling of US$19 billion in foreign public debt (a third of the total); but speculators' concerns led to a sudden fall in the value of the austral
, which lost half its value between June and October. As most Argentine wholesalers accepted only U.S. dollars at the time, this inevitably led to higher inflation, which leapt from 5% monthly in the first half of 1987 to 20% in October. Unimpressed by Alfonsín's appointment of a Labor Minister from within the CGT's ranks, their leader, Saúl Ubaldini, called two more general strikes during the year (hundreds of smaller, sectoral strikes erupted, as well).
A positive rapport between Alfonsín and the new, democratically-elected President of Brazil
, José Sarney
, helped lead to initial agreements for a common market between the two nations and Uruguay
in January 1988. Meeting in the Uruguayan resort of Punta del Este
, they agreed to subsidize intra-regional exports with a special currency for the purpose (the Gaucho
). A new Minister of Public Works, Rodolfo Terragno
, an academic with a long history in the UCR, prevailed on the administration to allow a novel, if controversial, search for needed foreign exchange: privatization
s. A number of factories and rail lines were offered for sale and, in September 1987, the effort yielded its first results with the sale of Austral Airlines
, a domestic carrier. Subsequent instability and the fallout from the Wall Street Crash of 1987 dampened further deals, however, and left Sourouille little choice but to raise taxes. GDP managed a 3% rise in 1987, led by higher construction spending, though inflation rose to 175% and real wages declined around 10%, leaving them lower than they were in 1983.
This turn for the worse helped to a significant setback for Alfonsín's UCR in local and legislative elections in September 1987
. The UCR lost 13 seats in Congress (leaving 117). Though still enjoying a 12-seat advantage over Justicialists, this deprived the UCR of its absolute majority in the Lower House and, five seats short of a majority in the Senate, this effectively suspended much of the UCR's legislative agenda, particularly the planned transfer of the capital to the Patagonia
region. UCR governors fared even worse: the 1987 mid-term election left only two, toppling, among four others, Governor Armendáriz of the paramount Province of Buenos Aires. Ongoing military discontent reached a flash point when Major Aldo Rico, the instigator of the Easter Rebellion, escaped from house arrest and promptly organized a second mutiny in January 1988; this mutiny was, again, quickly subdued. The resulting tension and continuing stagflation set the stage for Alfonsín's announcement that elections, scheduled for October 1989, would be moved up five months earlier.
The campaign made strange bedfellows of Alfonsín and the CGT during the May 1988 Justicialist Party convention. The CGT was adverse to the frontrunner for the nomination, Buenos Aires Governor Antonio Cafiero
. The President, in turn, preferred to see his struggling UCR (14 points behind in the polls) matched against Cafiero's rival, Carlos Menem
, a little-known and flamboyant governor of one of the nation's smallest provinces. The primaries resulted in an upset, however, and Menem was nominated the Justicialist Party's standard bearer. The UCR, for its part, made a safe choice: Eduardo Angeloz
, the centrist governor of Córdoba Province (Argentina's second-largest) and the most prominent UCR figure not closely tied to the unpopular Alfonsín.
The Austral Plan continued to disintegrate as the economy slipped back into recession. Inflation continued at 15-20% a month and in August, reached 27%. Foreign debt installments fell into arrears in April when Alfonsín ordered the Central Bank to curtail payments. Coinciding with the Southern Hemisphere's change of seasons, Economy Minister Sorouille announced a Plan Primavera ("Springtime Plan") on August 3, whose centerpiece was a price truce agreed on with 53 leading wholesalers. The plan also included a fresh wage freeze, however, triggering a September 9 general strike by the CGT that turned violent when police repressed demonstrators at the Plaza de Mayo
.
Violent and white collar crime were of increasing concern among the public and, though the judicial system
scored a victory when Banco Alas
executives were convicted the same day for fraud committed against the Central Bank totalling US$110 million, their receiving a suspended sentence
in exchange for the return of half the funds and the subsequent discovery of a sub-rosa "parallel customs" operated by National Customs Director Juan Carlos Delconte cast serious doubts on Alfonsín's commitment against large-scale corruption, which had become endemic to Argentine government and business during the 1970s.
Alfonsín obtained INTERPOL
's cooperation in extraditing fugitive Army Corps leader Gen. Guillermo Suárez Mason
(a leading Dirty War
perpetrator whose control over YPF nearly bankrupted the state oil concern in 1983) and Argentine Anticommunist Alliance mastermind José López Rega
, who were found exiled in the United States and returned to stand trial in 1987. The President's relationship with the military remained tenuous. Continuing military budget cuts and opposition to democratic rule led the extremist Carapintadas
to stage a third mutiny on December 1, receiving support from disaffected members of the Coast Guard, among others. The impasse lasted six days, resulting in the arrest of their leader, Col. Mohamed Alí Seineldín
, an Army officer with a long history of violence and anti-semitism
. In the interest of compromise, Alfonsín announced a modest military budget increase and the dismissal of the moderate Gen. Dante Caridi as Army Chief of Staff. A January 23, 1989 attack on the Regiment of La Tablada
by a leftist armed organization led to 39 deaths and tested Alfonsín's improved rapport with the military, which was consequently given wide latitude to prosecute the matter, leading to the alleged torture of a number of the conspirators.
The economy had benefited only modestly from lower inflation, which had fallen from 27% in August to 5-10% monthly for the rest of 1988. Owing to the mid-year recession, GDP fell 2% in 1988 and inflation rose to 380% while real wages continued to slide. Exports did recover and the trade surplus rose to nearly US$4 billion. The Springtime Plan, however, increasingly depended on its reserves to shore up the austral, whose stability guaranteed lower inflation rates. In so doing, the Central Bank shed almost all its US$3 billion in reserves and, in heavy trading on "Black Tuesday," February 7, 1989, the U.S. dollar gained around 40% against the austral. The sudden drop in the austral's value threatened the nation's tenuous financial stability and, later that month, the World Bank recalled a large tranche of a loan package agreed on in 1988, sending the austral into a tailspin: trading at 17 to the dollar in January, the dollar quoted at over 100 australes by election day, May 14. Inflation, which had been held below 10% a month as late as February, rose to 78.5% in May, shattering records and leading to a landslide victory for the Justicialist candidate, Carlos Menem. Polling revealed that economic anxieties were paramount among two-thirds of voters and Menem won in 19 of 22 provinces, while losing in the traditionally anti-Peronist Federal District (Buenos Aires).
The nation's finances did not stabilize after the election, as hoped. The dollar doubled in value that next week, alone and, on May 29, riots and looting
broke out in the poorer outskirts of a number of cities, particularly Rosario
. Inflation continued its dizzying rise: 114% a month in June and 197% in July. Income poverty leapt from around 30% to 47% during the debacle and the economy shrank by 7% in 1989, pushing per capita GDP to its lowest level since 1964. Having declared his intention to stay on until inaugural day, December 10, these events and spiraling financial chaos led Alfonsín to transfer power to President-elect Menem on July 8.
Alfonsín was forced to step down as President of the UCR following that party's defeat at the September 1991 midterm elections
. He defeated former Governor Armendáriz for the post in 1993, however, on anticipation of a power-sharing deal with the then-popular President Carlos Menem. Alfonsín and Menem signed the November 1993 Olivos Pact, through which the two largest Argentine parties agreed to support a constitutional reform
which (among other things) provided the party in opposition increased representation in the Senate
and paved the way for President Menem's reelection. He resigned as leader of the UCR after their poor performance in the 1995 elections; but he continued to be an important figure within the party, negotiating a successful alliance with the center-left Frepaso (who garnered 30% in 1995), ahead of the 1997 midterm elections
.
Alfonsín suffered a serious automobile accident en route to a campaign event in June 1999, though he recovered quickly. He was returned as leader of the UCR in October 2000 amid growing difficulties surrounding President Fernando de la Rúa
, a prominent UCR figure elected in 1999 on the Alliance
ticket with the center-left Frepaso. He was elected Senator for Buenos Aires Province in October 2001, but health problems led him to step down after a year, to be replaced by Diana Conti
.
In 2006, Alfonsín supported a faction of the UCR that favoured the idea of carrying an independent candidate for the 2007 presidential elections. The UCR, instead of fielding its own candidate, endorsed Roberto Lavagna
, a center-left economist who presided over the dramatic recovery in the Argentine economy from 2002 until he parted ways with President Néstor Kirchner
in December 2005. Unable to sway enough disaffected Kirchner supporters, Lavagna garnered third place.
Alfonsín was a member of the Club of Madrid
and was honored by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
with a bust of his likeness at the Casa Rosada
on October 1, 2008. He was the only former Argentine president to receive that homage during his lifetime.
Alfonsín died on 31 March 2009, at the age of 82, after being diagnosed a year before with lung cancer
and enduring a surgery intervention in the United States. He died peacefully in his home, surrounded by his family. Argentina declared three days of national mourning following his death through 2 April 2009. He was buried in La Recoleta Cemetery
in Buenos Aires
.
Thousands of Argentines mourned his death by crowding Callao Avenue
in Buenos Aires, waiting to accompany Dr. Alfonsín to his final resting place. The media captured the popular sentiment by pointing out that "the Argentine people wants to send a message: it is time to return to the values taught to us by Dr. Alfonsín: honesty, hard work, justice and equality for all."
Some critics point out that he failed to stave off a deep economic crisis; but his political achievements were of such magnitude, that they were summed up by President Cristina Kirchner when she unveiled his bust in 2008: "Whether you like it or not, you are a symbol of the return of democracy."
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
lawyer, politician and statesman, who served as the President of Argentina
President of Argentina
The President of the Argentine Nation , usually known as the President of Argentina, is the head of state of Argentina. Under the national Constitution, the President is also the chief executive of the federal government and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.Through Argentine history, the...
from December 10, 1983, to July 8, 1989. Alfonsín was the first democratically-elected president of Argentina following the military government known as the National Reorganization Process
National Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...
. He was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation in 1985, among numerous other such recognitions.
Early life and entry into politics
Alfonsín was born in the city of ChascomúsChascomús
Chascomús, is the principal city in Chascomús Partido in eastern Buenos Aires Province in eastern Argentina, located south of the capital Buenos Aires. As of 2001, the city had a population of 30,670 people.-History:...
, in eastern Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
, to Ana María Foulkes and Raúl Serafín Alfonsín, and raised in the Roman Catholic faith. Following his elementary schooling he enrolled at the General San Martín Military Lyceum, where he graduated after five years as a second lieutenant. He became affiliated with the centrist Radical Civic Union
Radical Civic Union
The Radical Civic Union is a political party in Argentina. The party's positions on issues range from liberal to social democratic. The UCR is a member of the Socialist International. Founded in 1891 by radical liberals, it is the oldest political party active in Argentina...
(UCR) in 1945 while taking an active role in the reform group, Intransigent Renewal Movement. He enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires
University of Buenos Aires
The University of Buenos Aires is the largest university in Argentina and the largest university by enrollment in Latin America. Founded on August 12, 1821 in the city of Buenos Aires, it consists of 13 faculties, 6 hospitals, 10 museums and is linked to 4 high schools: Colegio Nacional de Buenos...
Law School, from where he graduated in 1950 and returned to Chascomús as an attorney. He married María Lorenza Barreneche the same year.
Alfonsín founded a local newspaper (El Imparcial) and was elected to the city council in 1951. Running as a UCR candidate for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies
Argentine Chamber of Deputies
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress. This Chamber holds exclusive rights to create taxes, to draft troops, and to accuse the President, the ministers and the members of the Supreme Court before the Senate....
(the lower house of the Argentine Congress) later that year, he lost to an opponent supported by the country's newly elected populist leader, Juan Perón
Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón was an Argentine military officer, and politician. Perón was three times elected as President of Argentina though he only managed to serve one full term, after serving in several government positions, including the Secretary of Labor and the Vice Presidency...
. His periodical's opposition to the increasingly intolerant Perón led to Alfonsín's incarceration in 1953. A violent September 1955 coup d'état (the self-styled Revolución Libertadora
Revolución Libertadora
The Revolución Libertadora was a military uprising that ended the second presidential term of Juan Perón in Argentina, on September 16, 1955.-History:...
) brought Perón's reign to an end, however, and the resulting ban of Peronist political activity returned the UCR to its role as Argentina's most important political party.
He was elected to the Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
provincial legislature in 1958 on the UCRP ticket, a faction of the UCR slightly to the right of the winners of the 1958 election
Argentine general election, 1958
The Argentine general election of 1958 was held on 23 February. Voters chose both the President and their legislators and with a turnout of 90.9% , it produced the following results:-President:aAbstentions....
, the UCRI. Alfonsín was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1963
Argentine general election, 1963
The Argentine general election of 1963 was held on 7 July. Voters chose both the President and their legislators and with a turnout of 85.6%, it produced the following results:-President:aAbstentions.-Argentine Chamber of Deputies:...
, becoming one of President Arturo Illia's most steadfast supporters in Congress; he lost his seat when a military coup removed Illia from office in 1966. Developing differences with the party's moderately conservative leader, Ricardo Balbín
Ricardo Balbín
Ricardo Balbín was an Argentine lawyer and politician, and one of the most important figures of the centrist Radical Civic Union , for which he was the presidential nominee four times: in 1951, 1958, and twice in 1973....
, Alfonsín announced the formation of a Movement for Renewal and Change within the UCR in 1971. He stood for the UCR's nomination for the 1973 presidential election
Argentine general election, March 1973
The first Argentine general election of 1973 was held on 11 March. Voters chose both the President and their legislators and with a turnout of 85.5%, it produced the following results:-President:...
with Conrado Storani as his running mate, but lost to Balbín, who was in turn defeated by Perón's Justicialist Party
Justicialist Party
The Justicialist Party , or PJ, is a Peronist political party in Argentina, and the largest component of the Peronist movement.The party was led by Néstor Kirchner, President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, until his death on October 27, 2010. The current Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de...
. Argentina's return to democracy in 1973 did not improve the country's difficult political rights climate. An increasingly violent conflict between far-left and far-right groups led to a succession of repressive measures, mostly against the former. Amid spiraling violence in December 1975, Alfonsín helped establish the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights
Permanent Assembly for Human Rights
The Permanent Assembly for Human Rights is an Argentine non-governmental human rights organization; founded in 1975.- History :...
.
The March 1976 coup against the hapless President Isabel Perón did not lead to the Permanent Assembly's closure and, instead, prompted its affiliated lawyers, including Alfonsín, to lend their services to the growing ranks of friends and relatives of the disappeared, arguably risking their lives to do so. Alfonsín was among the few prominent Argentine political figures to vocally oppose President Leopoldo Galtieri
Leopoldo Galtieri
Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri Castelli was an Argentine general and President of Argentina from December 22, 1981 to June 18, 1982, during the last military dictatorship . The death squad Intelligence Battalion 601 directly reported to him...
's April 1982 landings on the Falkland Islands
1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands
On 2 April 1982, Argentine forces mounted amphibious landings of the Falkland Islands . The invasion involved an initial defence force organised by the Falkland Islands' Governor Sir Rex Hunt giving command to Major Mike Norman of the Royal Marines, the landing of Lieutenant-Commander Guillermo...
.
The 1981 collapse of conservative economist José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz
José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz
José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz was an Argentine executive and policy maker. He served as Minister of the Economy under de facto President Jorge Rafael Videla between 1976 and 1981, and shaped economic policy during the self-styled National Reorganization Process military dictatorship.-Early...
's free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
and deregulatory policies and the defeat in the Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
, among other reasons, led the National Reorganization Process
National Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...
to seek a "democratic exit" in 1983, and new general elections
Argentine general election, 1983
The Argentine general election of 1983 was held on 30 October and marked the return of Democracy after the 1976's dictatorship self-known as National Reorganization Process...
were held on October 30. Alfonsín, who had been elected leader of the party in July that year, defeated Justicialist Party
Justicialist Party
The Justicialist Party , or PJ, is a Peronist political party in Argentina, and the largest component of the Peronist movement.The party was led by Néstor Kirchner, President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, until his death on October 27, 2010. The current Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de...
candidate Ítalo Lúder
Ítalo Argentino Lúder
Ítalo Argentino Lúder was an Argentinian politician who served as the acting President of Argentina from September 13, 1975 until October 16, 1975, for Isabel Perón....
by 12 points, carrying a majority in the Chamber of Deputies
Argentine Chamber of Deputies
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress. This Chamber holds exclusive rights to create taxes, to draft troops, and to accuse the President, the ministers and the members of the Supreme Court before the Senate....
and, though garnering only 18 of 46 seats in the Senate
Argentine Senate
The Argentine Senate is the upper house of the Argentine National Congress. It has 72 senators: three for each province and three for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires...
and 7 of 22 governors, the UCR's Alejandro Armendáriz
Alejandro Armendáriz
Alejandro Armendáriz was an Argentine physician and politician.-Early career:Armendáriz was born in Saladillo, a pampas town in the Province of Buenos Aires, in 1923. His family relocated to the city of Buenos Aires in 1940, where he graduated from the Marist College of San José , the following year...
scored an upset victory in Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
, home to one in three Argentines. Alfonsín persuaded President Reynaldo Bignone
Reynaldo Bignone
Reynaldo Benito Antonio Bignone is an Argentine general who served as dictatorial President of Argentina from July 1, 1982 to December 10, 1983. In 2010, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the kidnappings, torture, and murders of the Dirty War.-Early career:Reynaldo Benito...
to advance the inaugural three months and he took office on December 10.
A new beginning
Fixed investment
Fixed investment in economics refers to investment in fixed capital, i.e., tangible capital goods , or to the replacement of depreciated capital goods which have been scrapped....
, 40% lower than in 1980. Naming a generally center-left cabinet led by Foreign Minister Dante Caputo
Dante Caputo
Dante Caputo is an Argentine academic, diplomat and politician, who served as the nation's foreign minister under President Raúl Alfonsín.-Academic activity:...
and Economy Minister Bernardo Grinspun (his campaign manager), Alfonsín began his administration with high approval ratings and with the fulfillment of campaign promises such as the inaugural of a nutritional assistance program for the 27% of Argentines under the poverty line at the time, as well as the recission of Bignone's April 1983 blanket amnesty for those guilty of human rights abuses
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
and his September decree authorizing warrantless wiretapping. Defense Minister Raúl Borrás advised Alfonsín to remove Fabricaciones Militares, then Argentina's leading defense contractor
Defense contractor
A defense contractor is a business organization or individual that provides products or services to a military department of a government. Products typically include military aircraft, ships, vehicles, weaponry, and electronic systems...
, from the Armed Forces' control, ordering the retirement of 70 generals and admirals known for their opposition to the transfer of the lucrative contractor.
Appointing renowned playwright Carlos Gorostiza
Carlos Gorostiza
Carlos Gorostiza is a prominent Argentine playwright, theatre director and novelist.-Life and work:Carlos Gorostiza was born to Basque Argentine parents in the upscale Buenos Aires borough of Palermo...
as Secretary of Culture and exiled computer scientist Dr. Manuel Sadosky
Manuel Sadosky
Manuel Sadosky was an Argentine mathematician, born in Buenos Aires to Jewish Russian immigrants fleeing the pogroms. He is widely considered the father of computer science studies in Argentina....
as Secretary of Science and Technology, hundreds of artists and scientists returned to Argentina during 1984. Gorostiza abolished the infamous National Film Rating Entity, helping lead to a doubling in film and theatre production. The harrowing La historia oficial (The Official Story) was released in April 1985 and became the first Argentine film to secure an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
. Alfonsín created the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP) to document their human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
abuses. Led by renowned novelist Ernesto Sábato
Ernesto Sabato
Ernesto Sabato , was an Argentine writer, painter and physicist. According to the BBC he "won some of the most prestigious prizes in Hispanic literature" and "became very influential in the literary world throughout Latin America"...
, the CONADEP documented 8,960 forced disappearances and presented the President with its findings on September 20. The report drew mixed reactions, however, as its stated total of victims fell short of Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
's estimate of 16,000 and of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo's estimate of 30,000.
Alfonsín had leading members of leftist groups prosecuted early on, leading to jail sentences for, among others, Montoneros
Montoneros
Montoneros was an Argentine Peronist urban guerrilla group, active during the 1960s and 1970s. The name is an allusion to 19th century Argentinian history. After Juan Perón's return from 18 years of exile and the 1973 Ezeiza massacre, which marked the definitive split between left and right-wing...
leader Mario Firmenich. He sought to improve relations with Peronists by pardoning former President Isabel Perón in May 1984 for her prominent role in the early stages of the Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
against dissidents and for her alleged embezzlement of public funds, though his January introduction of legislation providing for secret ballot
Secret ballot
The secret ballot is a voting method in which a voter's choices in an election or a referendum are anonymous. The key aim is to ensure the voter records a sincere choice by forestalling attempts to influence the voter by intimidation or bribery. The system is one means of achieving the goal of...
labor union elections led to massive opposition by the CGT
General Confederation of Labour (Argentina)
The General Confederation of Labour of the Argentine Republic is a national trade union centre of Argentina founded on September 27, 1930, as the result of the merge of the USA and the COA trade union centres...
, Argentina's largest, and handed his administration its first defeat when the Senate struck it down in February by one vote.
Relations with the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
suffered when Alfonsín terminated the previous regime's support for the Contras
Contras
The contras is a label given to the various rebel groups opposing Nicaragua's FSLN Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle's dictatorship...
, and two meetings with U.S. President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
failed to ease Reagan's opposition to economic concessions towards Argentina. Alfonsín did, however, initiate the first diplomatic contact with the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
since the Falklands War two years earlier, resulting in the lifting of British trade sanctions. Proposing a Treaty with Chile
Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1984 between Chile and Argentina
The Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1984 between Chile and Argentina was signed into agreement at the Vatican on 29 November 1984.It was ratified...
ending a border dispute over the Beagle Channel
Beagle Channel cartography since 1881
The region of the Beagle Channel, explored by Robert FitzRoy eighteen-thirties, was one of the last ones to be colonized by Chile and Argentina. The cold weather, the long distances from other inhabited regions and the shortage of transport and subsistence kept it far from the governmental task.In...
, he put the issue before voters in a November 25, 1984, referendum and won its approval with 82%.
Tackling inflation and impunity
Inheriting a foreign debt crisisLatin American debt crisis
The Latin American debt crisis was a financial crisis that occurred in the early 1980s , often known as the "lost decade", when Latin American countries reached a point where their foreign debt exceeded their earning power and they were not able to repay it.-Origins:In the 1960s and 1970s many...
exacerbated by high global interest rates, Alfonsín had to also contend with shattered business confidence and record budget deficits. GDP grew by a modest 2% in 1984, though fixed investment
Fixed investment
Fixed investment in economics refers to investment in fixed capital, i.e., tangible capital goods , or to the replacement of depreciated capital goods which have been scrapped....
continued to decline and inflation rose to 700%. Losses among the panoply of State enterprises, service on the public debt and growing tax evasion left the federal budget with a US$10 billion shortfall in 1984 (13% of GDP). Unable to finance it, the Central Bank of Argentina "printed" money and inflation, which galloped at around 18% a month at the end of the dictatorship, rose to 30% in June 1985 (the world's highest, at the time). Attempting to control record inflation (prices had risen twelvefold in a year), his new Minister of the Economy, Juan Sourrouille, launched the Austral Plan, by which prices were frozen and the existing currency, the peso argentino
Argentine peso argentino
The peso argentino was the currency of Argentina between June 6, 1983 and June 14, 1985. It was subdivided into 100 centavos. The symbol was $a. The ISO 4217 code was ARP.-History:...
, was replaced by the Argentine austral
Argentine austral
The austral was the currency of Argentina between June 15, 1985 and December 31, 1991. It was subdivided into 100 centavos. The symbol was an uppercase A with an extra horizontal line . This symbol appeared on all coins issued in this currency , to distinguish them from earlier currencies...
at 1,000 to one.
Sharp budget cuts were enacted, particularly in military spending which, including cutbacks in 1984, was slashed to around half of its 1983 level. Responding to financial sector concerns, it also introduced a mechanism called desagio, by which debtors whose installments were based on much higher built-in inflation
Built-in inflation
Built-in inflation is a type of inflation that results from past events and persists in the present.Built-in inflation is one of three major determinants of the current inflation rate. In Robert J. Gordon's triangle model of inflation, the current inflation rate equals the sum of demand-pull...
would received a temporary discount compensating for the sudden drop in inflation and interest rates; indeed, inflation (30% in June) plummeted to 2% a month for the remainder of 1985. The fiscal deficit fell by two-thirds in 1985, helping pave the way for the first meaningful debt rescheduling
Debt rescheduling
Debt rescheduling is the lengthening the time of debt repayment and forgiving, or dismissing, part of the loan for a date....
since the advent of the crisis four years earlier. Sharp cuts in military spending also fed growing discontent in the military, and a number of bomb threats and acts of sabotage at numerous military bases were blamed on hard-line officers, chiefly former 1st Army Corps head Gen. Guillermo Suárez Mason
Guillermo Suárez Mason
Carlos Guillermo Suárez Mason was an Argentine military officer convicted for Dirty War crimes during the 1976 — 83 military dictatorship. He was in charge of the Batallón de Inteligencia 601.-Biography:...
, who fled to Miami following an October arrest order.
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
abuses, Alfonsín sponsored the Trial of the Juntas, whose first hearing began at the Supreme Court on April 22, 1985. Prosecuting some of the top members of the previous military regime for crimes committed during the Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
, the trial became the focus of sudden international attention and, on December 9, the tribunal handed down life sentences against former President Jorge Videla and former Navy Chief Emilio Massera, as well as 17-year sentences against three others. For these accomplishments, Alfonsín was awarded the first Prize For Freedom
Prize For Freedom
The Prize For Freedom is an annual prize presented by the Liberal International since 1985. With the prize the organization honors an individual which has made an outstanding contribution to human rights and political freedoms.-Awards:* 1985 - Raúl Alfonsín...
of the Liberal International
Liberal International
Liberal International is a political international federation for liberal parties. Its headquarters is located at 1 Whitehall Place, London, SW1A 2HD within the National Liberal Club. It was founded in Oxford in 1947, and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal parties and for the...
and the Human Rights Prize by the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
, never before awarded to an individual. Four defendants were acquitted, however, notably former President Leopoldo Galtieri
Leopoldo Galtieri
Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri Castelli was an Argentine general and President of Argentina from December 22, 1981 to June 18, 1982, during the last military dictatorship . The death squad Intelligence Battalion 601 directly reported to him...
, though he and two others were court-martialed in May 1986 for malfeasance during the Falklands War, receiving 12-year prison sentences.
These developments contributed to a strong showing by the UCR in the November 1985 legislative elections
Argentine legislative election, 1985
The Argentine legislative elections of 1985 were held on 3 November. Voters chose their legislators and, with a turnout of 83.8%, it produced the following results:-Argentine Congress:-Background:...
. They gained one seat in the Lower House of Congress and would control 130 of the 254 seats. The Justicialists lost eight seats (leaving 103) and smaller, provincial parties made up the difference. Alfonsín surprised observers in April 1986 by announcing the creation of a panel entrusted to plan the transfer of the nation's capital to Viedma, a small coastal city 800 km (500 mi) south of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
. His proposals boldly called for constitutional amendments creating a Parliamentary system
Parliamentary system
A parliamentary system is a system of government in which the ministers of the executive branch get their democratic legitimacy from the legislature and are accountable to that body, such that the executive and legislative branches are intertwined....
, including a Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
, and were well received by the Lower House, though it encountered strong opposition in the Senate.
Economic concerns continued to dominate the national discourse, and the sharp fall in global commodity prices in 1986 stymied hopes for lasting financial stability. The nation's record US$4.5 billion trade surplus was cut in half and inflation had declined to 50% in the twelve months to June 1986 (compared to 1,130% to June 1985). Inflation, which had been targeted for 28% in the calendar year, soon began to rise, however, exceeding 80% in 1986. GDP, which had fallen by 5% in 1985, recovered by 7% in 1986, led by a rise in machinery purchases and consumer spending. Repeated wage freezes ordered by Economy Minister Sourouille, however, led to an erosion in real wages of about 20% during the Austral Plan's first year, triggering seven general strikes by the CGT during the same period. The President's August appointment of a conservative economist, José Luis Machinea
José Luis Machinea
José Luis Machinea is an Argentine economist and United Nations official.-Career:Machinea was born in Buenos Aires, and earned a degree in Economics from the Universidad Católica Argentina in 1968. He first entered public service in 1974, as a member of the Central Bank's Center for Montary and...
, as President of the Central Bank pleased the financial sector; but it did little to stymie continuing capital flight. Affluent Argentines were believed to hold over US$50 billion in overseas deposits, by then. Alfonsín stepped up his itinerary of state visits abroad, securing a number of trade deals.
The President's international esteem for his human rights record suffered in December 1986, when on his initiative Congress passed the Full Stop Law
Ley de Punto Final
Ley de Punto Final was a law passed by the National Congress of Argentina after the end of the military dictatorship of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional . Formally, this law is referred to by number Ley de Punto Final (Spanish, roughly translated Full Stop Law) was a law passed by the...
, which limited the civil trials against roughly 600 officers implicated in the Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
to those indicted within 60 days of the law's passage, a tall order given the reluctance of many victims and witnesses to testify. Despite these concessions, a group identified as Carapintadas
Carapintadas
The were a group of mutineers in the Argentine Army, who took part in uprisings during the presidency of Raúl Alfonsín in Argentina.In December 1986, the Ley de Punto Final was introduced...
("painted faces," from their use of camouflage paint) loyal to Army Major Aldo Rico
Aldo Rico
Aldo Rico is an Argentine military man and politician, famous for his role in the episodes of 1987 and 1988 where sectors of the Armed Forces, known as carapintadas , revolted to protest the policies of...
, staged a mutiny of the important Army training base of Campo de Mayo
Campo de Mayo
Campo de Mayo is a military base located in Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, northwest of Buenos Aires.Campo de Mayo covers an area of and is one of the most important military bases in Argentina, including Argentine Army's:...
and near Córdoba
Córdoba, Argentina
Córdoba is a city located near the geographical center of Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province. Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina after the federal capital Buenos Aires, with...
during the long weekend of Easter in 1987. Negotiating in person with the rebels, who objected to ongoing civil trials but enjoyed little support elsewhere in the Armed Forces, Alfonsín secured their surrender. Returning to the Casa Rosada
Casa Rosada
La Casa Rosada is the official seat of the executive branch of the government of Argentina, and of the offices of the President. The President normally lives at the Quinta de Olivos, a compound in Olivos, Buenos Aires Province. Its characteristic color is pink, and is considered one of the most...
, where an anxious population was waiting for news, he announced: La casa está en orden y no hay sangre en Argentina. ¡Felices pascuas! ("The house is in order and there's no blood in Argentina. Happy Easter!"), to signify the end of the crisis.
His subsequent appointment of General Dante Caridi as Army Chief of Staff further strained relations with the military and in June, Congress passed Alfonsín's Law of Due Obedience
Ley de Obediencia Debida
Ley de Obediencia Debida was a law passed by the National Congress of Argentina after the end of the military dictatorship of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional . Formally, this law is referred to by number Ley de Obediencia Debida (Spanish, Law of Due Obedience) was a law passed by the...
, granting immunity to officers implicated in crimes against humanity on the basis of "due obedience." This law, condemned by Amnesty International, among others, effectively halted most remaining prosecutions of Dirty War criminals. The climate of tension between those on either side of the issue was aggravated by the suspicious death in 1986 of Defense Minister Roque Carranza while in the Campo de Mayo military base and by the September 1987 discovery of the body of prominent banker Osvaldo Sivak, the victim of a police-orchestrated ransom kidnapping netting over a million US dollars. Amid this political turn to the right, Alfonsín did manage the passage of the legalization of divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
, helping resolve the legal status of 3 million adults (1 in 6) who were separated from their spouse. He also passed the Antidiscrimination Law of 1987, a bill supported by Argentina's sizable Jewish and Gypsy communities. He was awarded the Moisés (Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
) Prize by the Argentine Jewish community for the accomplishment.
A turn for the worse
Daniel Marx
Daniel Marx is the former Secretary of Finance of Argentina and he is currently Executive Director of Quantum Finanzas, a financial services firm in Argentina and the region which is part of a global network led by Evercore Partners and g5Advisors .He is also a consultant and advisor for multiple...
, helped secure the record rescheduling of US$19 billion in foreign public debt (a third of the total); but speculators' concerns led to a sudden fall in the value of the austral
Historical exchange rates of Argentine currency
The following table contains the monthly historical exchange rate of the different currencies of Argentina, expressed in Argentine currency units per United States dollar...
, which lost half its value between June and October. As most Argentine wholesalers accepted only U.S. dollars at the time, this inevitably led to higher inflation, which leapt from 5% monthly in the first half of 1987 to 20% in October. Unimpressed by Alfonsín's appointment of a Labor Minister from within the CGT's ranks, their leader, Saúl Ubaldini, called two more general strikes during the year (hundreds of smaller, sectoral strikes erupted, as well).
A positive rapport between Alfonsín and the new, democratically-elected President of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, José Sarney
José Sarney
José Sarney de Araújo Costa is a Brazilian lawyer, writer and politician. He served as president of Brazil from 15 March 1985 to 15 March 1990....
, helped lead to initial agreements for a common market between the two nations and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
in January 1988. Meeting in the Uruguayan resort of Punta del Este
Punta del Este
Punta del Este is a resort town on the Atlantic Coast in the Maldonado Department of southeastern Uruguay. It is located on the intersection of Route 10 with Route 39, directly southeast of the department capital Maldonado and about east of Montevideo...
, they agreed to subsidize intra-regional exports with a special currency for the purpose (the Gaucho
Gaucho (currency)
The Gaucho was the name of a currency intended to be used by Argentina and Brazil in the context of the Argentina-Brazil Integration and Economics Cooperation Program or PICE to make interregional payments...
). A new Minister of Public Works, Rodolfo Terragno
Rodolfo Terragno
Rodolfo Terragno is an Argentine politician and lawyer, former Senator and journalist.-Life and times:Terragno was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1943 and obtained a Law Degree from the University of Buenos Aires in 1967, founding the law firm of Terragno & Associates. He married Sonia...
, an academic with a long history in the UCR, prevailed on the administration to allow a novel, if controversial, search for needed foreign exchange: privatization
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
s. A number of factories and rail lines were offered for sale and, in September 1987, the effort yielded its first results with the sale of Austral Airlines
Austral Líneas Aéreas
Austral Líneas Aéreas , more commonly known by its shortened name Austral, is a domestic airline of Argentina, the sister company of Aerolíneas Argentinas. It is the second largest domestic scheduled airline in the country, after Aerolíneas Argentinas itself...
, a domestic carrier. Subsequent instability and the fallout from the Wall Street Crash of 1987 dampened further deals, however, and left Sourouille little choice but to raise taxes. GDP managed a 3% rise in 1987, led by higher construction spending, though inflation rose to 175% and real wages declined around 10%, leaving them lower than they were in 1983.
This turn for the worse helped to a significant setback for Alfonsín's UCR in local and legislative elections in September 1987
Argentine legislative election, 1987
The Argentine legislative elections of 1987 were held on 6 September. Voters chose their legislators and governors and, with a turnout of 83.6%, it produced the following results:-Argentine Congress:-Background:...
. The UCR lost 13 seats in Congress (leaving 117). Though still enjoying a 12-seat advantage over Justicialists, this deprived the UCR of its absolute majority in the Lower House and, five seats short of a majority in the Senate, this effectively suspended much of the UCR's legislative agenda, particularly the planned transfer of the capital to the Patagonia
Patagonia
Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...
region. UCR governors fared even worse: the 1987 mid-term election left only two, toppling, among four others, Governor Armendáriz of the paramount Province of Buenos Aires. Ongoing military discontent reached a flash point when Major Aldo Rico, the instigator of the Easter Rebellion, escaped from house arrest and promptly organized a second mutiny in January 1988; this mutiny was, again, quickly subdued. The resulting tension and continuing stagflation set the stage for Alfonsín's announcement that elections, scheduled for October 1989, would be moved up five months earlier.
The campaign made strange bedfellows of Alfonsín and the CGT during the May 1988 Justicialist Party convention. The CGT was adverse to the frontrunner for the nomination, Buenos Aires Governor Antonio Cafiero
Antonio Cafiero
Antonio Francisco Cafiero is an Argentine Justicialist Party politician.-Biography:Cafiero was born in Buenos Aires. He joined Catholic Action in 1938, and enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires, becoming President of the Students' Association...
. The President, in turn, preferred to see his struggling UCR (14 points behind in the polls) matched against Cafiero's rival, Carlos Menem
Carlos Menem
Carlos Saúl Menem is an Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. He is currently an Argentine National Senator for La Rioja Province.-Early life:...
, a little-known and flamboyant governor of one of the nation's smallest provinces. The primaries resulted in an upset, however, and Menem was nominated the Justicialist Party's standard bearer. The UCR, for its part, made a safe choice: Eduardo Angeloz
Eduardo Angeloz
Eduardo César Angeloz is an Argentine politician. He was a presidential candidate and Governor of Córdoba from December 11, 1983 to December 11, 1995....
, the centrist governor of Córdoba Province (Argentina's second-largest) and the most prominent UCR figure not closely tied to the unpopular Alfonsín.
The Austral Plan continued to disintegrate as the economy slipped back into recession. Inflation continued at 15-20% a month and in August, reached 27%. Foreign debt installments fell into arrears in April when Alfonsín ordered the Central Bank to curtail payments. Coinciding with the Southern Hemisphere's change of seasons, Economy Minister Sorouille announced a Plan Primavera ("Springtime Plan") on August 3, whose centerpiece was a price truce agreed on with 53 leading wholesalers. The plan also included a fresh wage freeze, however, triggering a September 9 general strike by the CGT that turned violent when police repressed demonstrators at the Plaza de Mayo
Plaza de Mayo
The Plaza de Mayo is the main square in downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is flanked by Hipólito Yrigoyen, Balcarce, Rivadavia and Bolívar streets....
.
Violent and white collar crime were of increasing concern among the public and, though the judicial system
Law of Argentina
The Legal system of Argentina is a Civil law legal system. The two pillars of the Civil system are the Constitution of Argentina and the Civil Code of Argentina ....
scored a victory when Banco Alas
Banco Alas
Banco Alas Cooperativo Limitado was a commercial bank based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.Inaugurated in 1979, Banco Alas became one of the first to offer ATM services in the country. The bank prospered initially, growing to include 76 branches, and over 1,200 employees...
executives were convicted the same day for fraud committed against the Central Bank totalling US$110 million, their receiving a suspended sentence
Suspended sentence
A suspended sentence is a legal term for a judge's delaying of a defendant's serving of a sentence after they have been found guilty, in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation...
in exchange for the return of half the funds and the subsequent discovery of a sub-rosa "parallel customs" operated by National Customs Director Juan Carlos Delconte cast serious doubts on Alfonsín's commitment against large-scale corruption, which had become endemic to Argentine government and business during the 1970s.
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
's cooperation in extraditing fugitive Army Corps leader Gen. Guillermo Suárez Mason
Guillermo Suárez Mason
Carlos Guillermo Suárez Mason was an Argentine military officer convicted for Dirty War crimes during the 1976 — 83 military dictatorship. He was in charge of the Batallón de Inteligencia 601.-Biography:...
(a leading Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
perpetrator whose control over YPF nearly bankrupted the state oil concern in 1983) and Argentine Anticommunist Alliance mastermind José López Rega
José López Rega
José López Rega was Argentina's Minister of Social Welfare during the Peronist government started in 1973 by Juan Perón and continued after Perón's death in 1974 by his third wife and vice-president, Isabel Martínez de Perón , until the coup d'etat of 1976 that initiated the so-called National...
, who were found exiled in the United States and returned to stand trial in 1987. The President's relationship with the military remained tenuous. Continuing military budget cuts and opposition to democratic rule led the extremist Carapintadas
Carapintadas
The were a group of mutineers in the Argentine Army, who took part in uprisings during the presidency of Raúl Alfonsín in Argentina.In December 1986, the Ley de Punto Final was introduced...
to stage a third mutiny on December 1, receiving support from disaffected members of the Coast Guard, among others. The impasse lasted six days, resulting in the arrest of their leader, Col. Mohamed Alí Seineldín
Mohamed Alí Seineldín
Mohamed Alí Seineldin was an Argentine army colonel who participated in two failed uprisings against the democratically elected governments of both President Raúl Alfonsín and President Carlos Menem in 1988 and 1990.Seineldín was born in Concepción del Uruguay into an Arab Argentine family...
, an Army officer with a long history of violence and anti-semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
. In the interest of compromise, Alfonsín announced a modest military budget increase and the dismissal of the moderate Gen. Dante Caridi as Army Chief of Staff. A January 23, 1989 attack on the Regiment of La Tablada
1989 attack on La Tablada Regiment
The 1989 attack on La Tablada Regiment was an assault on the military barracks located in La Tablada, in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, by 40 members of Movimiento Todos por la Patria , headed by former ERP leader Enrique Gorriarán Merlo. 39 people were killed and 60 injured when the...
by a leftist armed organization led to 39 deaths and tested Alfonsín's improved rapport with the military, which was consequently given wide latitude to prosecute the matter, leading to the alleged torture of a number of the conspirators.
The economy had benefited only modestly from lower inflation, which had fallen from 27% in August to 5-10% monthly for the rest of 1988. Owing to the mid-year recession, GDP fell 2% in 1988 and inflation rose to 380% while real wages continued to slide. Exports did recover and the trade surplus rose to nearly US$4 billion. The Springtime Plan, however, increasingly depended on its reserves to shore up the austral, whose stability guaranteed lower inflation rates. In so doing, the Central Bank shed almost all its US$3 billion in reserves and, in heavy trading on "Black Tuesday," February 7, 1989, the U.S. dollar gained around 40% against the austral. The sudden drop in the austral's value threatened the nation's tenuous financial stability and, later that month, the World Bank recalled a large tranche of a loan package agreed on in 1988, sending the austral into a tailspin: trading at 17 to the dollar in January, the dollar quoted at over 100 australes by election day, May 14. Inflation, which had been held below 10% a month as late as February, rose to 78.5% in May, shattering records and leading to a landslide victory for the Justicialist candidate, Carlos Menem. Polling revealed that economic anxieties were paramount among two-thirds of voters and Menem won in 19 of 22 provinces, while losing in the traditionally anti-Peronist Federal District (Buenos Aires).
The nation's finances did not stabilize after the election, as hoped. The dollar doubled in value that next week, alone and, on May 29, riots and looting
1989 riots in Argentina
The 1989 food riots were a series of riots and related episodes of looting in stores and supermarkets in Argentina, during the last part of the presidency of Raúl Alfonsín, between May and June 1989...
broke out in the poorer outskirts of a number of cities, particularly Rosario
Rosario
Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....
. Inflation continued its dizzying rise: 114% a month in June and 197% in July. Income poverty leapt from around 30% to 47% during the debacle and the economy shrank by 7% in 1989, pushing per capita GDP to its lowest level since 1964. Having declared his intention to stay on until inaugural day, December 10, these events and spiraling financial chaos led Alfonsín to transfer power to President-elect Menem on July 8.
Later years
Argentine legislative election, 1991
The Argentine legislative elections of 1991 were held between August and December, though most polls took place on 8 September. Voters chose their legislators and governors and, with a turnout of 79.9%, it produced the following results:-Argentine Congress:...
. He defeated former Governor Armendáriz for the post in 1993, however, on anticipation of a power-sharing deal with the then-popular President Carlos Menem. Alfonsín and Menem signed the November 1993 Olivos Pact, through which the two largest Argentine parties agreed to support a constitutional reform
1994 reform of the Argentine Constitution
The 1994 amendment to the Constitution of Argentina was approved on 22 August by a Constitutional Assembly that met in the twin cities of Santa Fe and Paraná...
which (among other things) provided the party in opposition increased representation in the Senate
Argentine Senate
The Argentine Senate is the upper house of the Argentine National Congress. It has 72 senators: three for each province and three for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires...
and paved the way for President Menem's reelection. He resigned as leader of the UCR after their poor performance in the 1995 elections; but he continued to be an important figure within the party, negotiating a successful alliance with the center-left Frepaso (who garnered 30% in 1995), ahead of the 1997 midterm elections
Argentine legislative election, 1997
Argentina held national parliamentary elections on 26 October 1997 and the results were as follows:-Background:President Carlos Menem, who successfully campaigned to have the Argentine Constitution amended in 1994 largely for the sake of being eligible for a second term in office, won the 1995...
.
Alfonsín suffered a serious automobile accident en route to a campaign event in June 1999, though he recovered quickly. He was returned as leader of the UCR in October 2000 amid growing difficulties surrounding President Fernando de la Rúa
Fernando de la Rúa
Fernando de la Rúa is an Argentine politician. He was president of the country from December 10, 1999 to December 21, 2001 for the Alliance for Work, Justice and Education ....
, a prominent UCR figure elected in 1999 on the Alliance
Alliance for Work, Justice and Education
The Alliance for Work, Justice and Education was a party coalition in Argentina around the turn of the third millennium...
ticket with the center-left Frepaso. He was elected Senator for Buenos Aires Province in October 2001, but health problems led him to step down after a year, to be replaced by Diana Conti
Diana Conti
Diana Beatriz Conti is an Argentine lawyer and politician. She is a member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies and a former national senator.-Early years:...
.
Roberto Lavagna
Roberto Lavagna is an Argentine economist and politician, and was the former Minister of Economy and Production of Argentina from April 27, 2002, to November 28, 2005.-Career:...
, a center-left economist who presided over the dramatic recovery in the Argentine economy from 2002 until he parted ways with President Néstor Kirchner
Néstor Kirchner
Néstor Carlos Kirchner was an Argentine politician who served as the 54th President of Argentina from 25 May 2003 until 10 December 2007. Previously, he was Governor of Santa Cruz Province since 10 December 1991. He briefly served as Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations ...
in December 2005. Unable to sway enough disaffected Kirchner supporters, Lavagna garnered third place.
Alfonsín was a member of the Club of Madrid
Club of Madrid
The Club de Madrid is an independent non-profit organization created to promote democracy and change in the international community. Composed of 80 former Presidents and Prime Ministers from 56 countries, the Club de Madrid is the world’s largest forum of former Heads of State and Government.Among...
and was honored by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner , commonly known as Cristina Fernández or Cristina Kirchner is the 55th and current President of Argentina and the widow of former President Néstor Kirchner. She is Argentina's first elected female president, and the second female president ever to serve...
with a bust of his likeness at the Casa Rosada
Casa Rosada
La Casa Rosada is the official seat of the executive branch of the government of Argentina, and of the offices of the President. The President normally lives at the Quinta de Olivos, a compound in Olivos, Buenos Aires Province. Its characteristic color is pink, and is considered one of the most...
on October 1, 2008. He was the only former Argentine president to receive that homage during his lifetime.
Death
Alfonsín died on 31 March 2009, at the age of 82, after being diagnosed a year before with lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
and enduring a surgery intervention in the United States. He died peacefully in his home, surrounded by his family. Argentina declared three days of national mourning following his death through 2 April 2009. He was buried in La Recoleta Cemetery
La Recoleta Cemetery
La Recoleta Cemetery is a famous cemetery located in the exclusive Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It contains the graves of notable people, including Eva Perón, Raúl Alfonsín, and several presidents of Argentina.- History :...
in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
.
Thousands of Argentines mourned his death by crowding Callao Avenue
Callao Avenue
Avenida Callao is one of the principal thoroughfares in Buenos Aires, Argentina.-Overview:Mayor Torcuato de Alvear, inspired by the urban redevelopment works in Paris at the direction of Baron Haussmann, drew up master plans for major boulevards, running east to west and north to south...
in Buenos Aires, waiting to accompany Dr. Alfonsín to his final resting place. The media captured the popular sentiment by pointing out that "the Argentine people wants to send a message: it is time to return to the values taught to us by Dr. Alfonsín: honesty, hard work, justice and equality for all."
Some critics point out that he failed to stave off a deep economic crisis; but his political achievements were of such magnitude, that they were summed up by President Cristina Kirchner when she unveiled his bust in 2008: "Whether you like it or not, you are a symbol of the return of democracy."
Notable quotes
With democracy we eat, with democracy we educate, with democracy we heal.
Argentina has developed a culture of democracy no one can now undo: the merest attempt would fill every plaza in the Republic with the awesome sight of the people demanding the protection of any legal right, if for but one individual.
No president has the right to endlessly demand sacrifices from his people.
Ideas go on, men don’t. Men succeed or fail, but it is the ideas that transform themselves into torches that keep democracy alive.
External links
- Biography by CIDOB Foundation
- Raúl Alfonsín's Project Syndicate op/eds
- Krauss, Clifford. "Raúl Alfonsín, Former Argentine Leader, Dies," The New York Times, Wednesday, April 1, 2009.
- Obituary by the Associated PressAssociated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...