Part I of this series discusses the history and conditions leading up to the military coup d'etat in 1976. Part II reveals the mechanisms and pervasiveness of brutal torture and murder by the state during the dictatorship. Part III explores the nefarious secret plan to control South America and the United States' involvement in it.
Growing pains
In December of 1983, with the inauguration of Raúl Alfonsín as president—chosen by the people in free elections—democracy once again prevailed in Argentina. Seven years of state-perpetrated terror against the populace was over and Argentinos could speak their minds, write their opinions and vote their consciences without fear of reprisal.
The first two decades of freedom were a roller coaster ride for Argentinos: the heady relief as the country held elections and installed a representative popular government was mixed with anxiety that its failure could bring back authoritarian rule—the generals and commanders were chastened for the moment but nevertheless considered themselves a co-equal branch of government.
New political leaders, who had carefully opposed the dictatorship, gained their voices and worked to lead the nation in new directions; but a generation of future leaders—the young politicians, organizers, university students, intellectuals, and others—had disappeared into the murderous maw of the regime, their passion, intelligence, and talents lost forever.
The neoliberal economic policies imposed during the junta were still operative and would remain so for nearly two decades. Huge foreign debts accumulated by Argentina's dictators—with the IMF and private lenders fully aware that they were lending to an illegitimate government—remained on the books and more debt was piled on to service the previous loans and keep government services afloat.
Argentinos experienced shock under the fiscal austerity program of President Carlos Menem (1989-1999). Massive layoffs occurred as Menem dissolved public enterprises and monopolies (such as telephone, electricity, etc.) and sold them to private interests, frequently foreign-owned. [1] The nation's natural resources (minerals, oil, gas, and even water) were purchased for a fraction of their real value, often by cronies who lined Menem's pockets. The national airline and Argentina's extensive rail system were put on the auction block (consequently, rail service—both passenger and goods shipment—entirely disappeared from the country save in a small area surrounding Buenos Aires).
Argentina experienced an influx of cash but it was still insufficient to maintain the economic engine of the nation. Various currency schemes were tried, including one which artificially pegged the peso to a one-to-one exchange rate with the dollar; for a period, Argentinos experienced a surge in living standards and splurged on consumer goods and foreign travel.
In 1999, newly elected President Fernando de la Rua pursued a policy familiar to us with Republicans and Third Way Democrats: deficit reduction. Again, austerity was imposed and interest rates hiked to discourage spending and foreign imports but the result was decreased consumption and production and decreased tax revenue, exacerbating the problem of Argentina trying to service its debt payments.
Ultimately, the dollar soared and dragged the peso with it, leaving Argentina's agricultural exports—the nation's primary source of revenue--uncompetitive on the world market. The IMF and other lenders refused to renegotiate old loans or extend new ones. The country's assets had been stripped and there was nothing left to sell in order to raise cash.
And it all came crashing down
As the economy plummeted into disaster, banks were closed and accounts frozen overnight, leaving citizens with absolutely no money to pay bills or even buy food. Businesses were left without funds to pay employees, purchase materials or goods, or keep the lights and water on. The balances in accounts, formerly denominated in dollars, were converted to pesos and the peso was plunged into devaluation, effectively wiping out nearly the entire value.
Lest anyone worry about the banks and the rich, they must have psychically foreseen what was coming (surely, it couldn't have been due to corruption and collusion). Sadly, I can no longer find it but there used to be a video on Youtube, showing a line of armored cars, more than a mile long, snaking through Buenos Aires the night before the Corralito (clampdown on bank accounts) on their way to Uruguay. We can assume they safely spirited their assets out of the country just in time.
Unemployment shot up to 22.5% by official statistics but because so much labor in Argentina is “off the books” most estimates are that real unemployment was at least 40%. Poverty rose to an astounding rate of 57.5% of the population. [6]
As late as 2007, I still saw entire families of cartoneros (cardboard collectors)—parents and very young children—who scavenged the garbage on the streets of Buenos Aires, from late at night to the wee hours of the morning. They came from remote, impoverished suburbs of the city and the government arranged a special nightly train, dubbed the Ghost Train, to bring them in and take them home again. More than two thousand cartoneros arrived by train every night to pick through trash, hoping to find enough cardboard, metal or other material to sell that they would be able to feed their families.
Governments came and went as riots broke out on the streets—Argentina must have set a world record when it churned through five presidents (both elected and provisional) in just ten days at the end of 2001. Argentina defaulted on US$ 93 billion of loans, at the time the largest sovereign default in world history.
The next several years were a period of hardship for most Argentinos. Inflation soared up to as much as 10% per month, production and employment dropped precipitously and there appeared to be little hope of ever climbing out of the morass of debt. [3] Then, in 2003, Argentina finally found a bit of good fortune when Nestor Kirchner was elected president.
Return to normalcy
Kirchner was similar to our own Franklin Roosevelt, willing to try things and stick with whatever worked and jettison that which didn't. Spurning neoliberalism, he applied some tried-and-true Keynesian measures, such as renationalizing some infrastructure and utilities, giving the state both the opportunity to create jobs as well as control prices of essential services. His administration began or built on public programs which resulted in funds getting into the hands of the poor and working class, stimulating growth and production via public spending. Most importantly, Kirchner went beyond default (inability to pay a debt) and declared that Argentina was unwilling to pay. He played hardball and lenders decided to renegotiate their loans for about 30% of their original value, rather than risk Argentina unilaterally repudiating the debts and losing everything.
Still a pariah to international financiers, Argentina pursued commercial and financial alliances with non-traditional nations, such as Venezuela and China. It also promoted increased cooperation with the South American trading bloc, Mercosur, developing internal markets for both import and export. Argentina soon experienced one of the highest growth rates of GDP in the world. [2] Much of the Kirchner economic policy was continued when he left office and was succeeded by his wife—Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner—in free elections in 2007 (she was reelected in 2011).
Argentina today
Argentina has largely recovered from both the dictatorship and the financial meltdown of 2001. Its economy is mixed, with agriculture still playing an important role but also with thriving industries in automobile production, nuclear power plant design and construction, and even space technology (it launched the first telecommunications satellite entirely built in Argentina into orbit in 2014). [4]
The country has tremendous reserves of natural gas and shale oil in its southern reaches. Development costs are high and oil prices are currently low so there is little expectation of an economic boost from that sector in the near future. On the other hand, Argentina is one of the premier spots in the world for renewable energy sources. [8] It has an abundance of sunshine for solar, the Patagonian region is famous for its constant winds, and tidal energy along the Atlantic coast holds great potential. If Argentina is wise, it will forgo exploitation of its carbon-based resources and avoid their future costs (environmental remediation, pollution, global warming et al.) in favor of developing the alternative energies of the future.
Although Argentina still has economic ups and downs, the country has been growing and slowly prospering. Investments and loans from China, as well as revenue from agricultural exports to the world's largest population, have helped Argentina to resume its progress toward being a developed, instead of developing, nation.
Mauricio Macri was elected president and assumed office at the end of 2015. Considered to be somewhat conservative by some and neoliberal by others, it is too early to tell how he will govern. Like Obama, Macri faces a congress controlled by opponents so his plans may be tempered by the need to seek congressional consensus for projects or laws that he cannot implement via decreto (executive order).
His administration has delinked the peso from artificial valuations, resulting in devaluing of the currency. While it has spurred inflation at home, it has also made Argentine exports more competitive abroad, so its long term effects on the economy remain to be seen. He has also recently arranged a settlement with some outstanding creditors, known as “vulture funds”, who acquired pre-default bonds at discount and have been pursuing full payment plus interest for over a decade. Although it is a bitter pill for Argentinos to swallow, settling that debt should open up new possibilities for Argentina in terms of foreign investment in the country.
Through all of the tribulations of the corrupt Menem years and the financial crisis of 2001, Argentina did not appeal to its military nor to any populist figure to assume the reins of power illegally. It has a robust and active political life, more so than the United States. In my experience, Argentinos are far more informed about the issues and their politicians than most Americans. There are a large and fluid number of active political parties, ranging from the equivalent of our Tea Party to an actual Communist Party. Alliances shift, often based on specific issues, and existing parties are split or dissolved and new parties born—it's often easier to keep track of familiar political faces rather than the parties with which they are currently registered. Democracy appears healthy and dynamic in the land of the gauchos.
Ensuring justice and human rights
Nestor and Cristina Kirchner had been young university students, studying law, during Isabel's presidency. They practiced law during the dictatorship and entered politics after its fall, rising through the ranks over the years (between them they held numerous offices, including mayor, provincial governor, national deputy [same as our congressperson], and national senator). Undoubtedly, living through the state of terror must have affected them; when they gained power (Nestor as president while Cristina was simultaneously an elected senator and First Lady), they sought justice.
In the waning days of the junta, the dictators granted themselves amnesty. Nevertheless, trials were held and convictions obtained but the dictators were subsequently pardoned by President Menem. To prevent further prosecutions, the former rulers and high ranking military officers pushed hard in the new democracy for two laws that would shield them from the courts: the Ley de Punto Final (Full Stop Law) and the Ley de Obediencia Debida (Law of Due Obedience). Together, these laws prohibited prosecuting the junta and military officers for crimes they committed during the dictatorship as well as any underlings who carried out their orders.
There was a great deal of opposition to both laws but practicality won out over idealism: with open threat of another coup, the Congress and President Alfonsín acquiesced and prison no longer loomed for the perpetrators. Justice had not been served but it was merely delayed.
The Kirchners advocated for repeal of the laws, a popular position with most of the public. Too many people were still living with grief over lost loved ones, or encountering their kidnappers and torturers in a restaurant or cinema, unable to point them out to the police and see them hauled off to jail. The public wanted justice, as resolution and retribution.
In 2003, Congress repealed both laws. Moreover, when challenged in the courts, the Supreme Court found in 2005 that both laws were unconstitutional to begin with. [7] The agents of terror would soon find themselves the hunted instead of the hunters—as our ongoing story will tell in Part V.
Since then, Argentina has become a world leader in human rights in many areas. Under the leadership of both Nestor and Cristina, the country achieved remarkable advances. For example, same-sex couples were granted rights similar to our civil unions in 2008 and then full marriage equality in 2010. The Ley de Identidad de Género (Gender Identity Law) is considered to be the most progressive in the world. It allows anyone to self-certify gender and the government will issue new documents to reflect the declared gender and it provides free medical services such as sex change surgery or hormone treatments via private insurance plans or direct government payments. [5] Other laws guarantee civil rights for LGBQT people in areas such as employment, housing, and public accommodations and services, a remarkable achievement in Latin America with the pervasive influence of the Catholic Church. Women's equality is mandated by law and both special prosecutors and educational/intervention programs are tasked with eliminating domestic violence.
In other areas, such as the rights of indigenous peoples and free access to public information, Argentina has a mixed record. Many Argentinos, politicians and activists are working toward improvements with the goal of Argentina becoming second to none on the global stage.
Clearly the country has grown and matured after being put through the fire of 1976-83 which tempered its civic steel. The experience was terribly painful but the Argentine people have learned from it and kept the vow that is repeated throughout the nation to this day: “¡Nunca mas!” (never again)
Part V, the concluding chapter of this series, will offer some thoughts about the influences and heritage that made the dictadura possible, review the fates of some of the personages of our tale, and speculate about the future of Argentina. Look for it on Friday.
Update: Part V is now online.
[1] An analysis of Menem’s Ten year regime in Argentina by Gaurav Sushant, Jawaharlal Nehru University
[2] The day Argentina hit rock bottom by Max Seitz, BBC News
[3] 1998–2002 Argentine great depression at Wikipedia
[4] GEO Satellites at ARSAT
[5] Argentina Adopts Landmark Legislation in Recognition of Gender Identity at Outright Action International
[6] The Argentine Crisis 2001/2002 Economic Report by Iris van de Wiel, Rabobank
[7] Argentina: Amnesty Laws Struck Down at Human Rights Watch
[8] Argentina Renewable energy in Latin America at Norton Rose Fulbright