A Brief History Of Argentina
Jonathan A.C. BrownA Brief History Of Argentina Gönderileri
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No matter what their views on populism, few people can ignore the remarkable success that Argentines garnered in the period of industrialization.
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Carlos Saúl Menem further weakened the judicial system during his terms in office to such a degree that Argentines had to laugh at the irony implicit in one joke circulating in the 1990s. Menem was on a state visit to Bolivia, so the apocryphal story goes, and his counterpart was introducing the Argentine head of state to the Bolivian cabinet ministers. “And this is our minister of the navy.” “Minister of the navy!” Menem exclaimed. “Bolivia is a landlocked country and has no navy. Why do you have a minister of the navy?” “Well,” replied the Bolivian president, “you have a minister of justice.”
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Violence and corruption have a long history in Argentina because those who use force and graft in public life have not been punished. They have been rewarded!
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Argentine society of late has gained even greater heterogeneity and diversity. The present economic troubles have impelled the best and brightest of the middle class to emigrate, while mestizo laborers from Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile have formed the new wave of immigration. The diversity and divisiveness of the social order, aided and abetted by continuing discrimination, reinforce the other historical predator stalking the nation—the authoritarian impulse.
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China’s emergence in the global economy, in particular, excited the Argentines as well as other Latin Americans looking for market alternatives to the United States.
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Argentine society today does not compare to that of the 1880s either. The unions have lost some of their power from the glory days of populism, but the organized working class has reconstituted itself behind the large body of the permanently unemployed. The ranks of the disemployed grew during the neoliberal privatization schemes of President Carlos Menem. Then the prolonged economic downturn from 1997 through 2001 expanded the jobless population even more. The IMF riots, the looting of the supermarkets, the blocking of highways, and the marches on the public squares gave this class a new sense of empowerment. The middle class tolerated—even sympathized with—them for a while; politicians like Néstor and Cristina negotiate informally with them. Public spending has provided a safety net for this more or less permanently impoverished sector of society like never before. This fact explains the redistributive tendencies of today’s body politic. It is not textbook neoliberalism but political expediency.
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The severe economic crisis of 2001 lingered long enough to be compared to the Great Depression of 1930. However, the comparison to the 1930s differed in one important detail. The military, now much reduced in stature, remained in the barracks. The memory of misrule and wanton violence of the generals had sobered the middle class considerably since the 1970s, and no one dared knock on the barracks door. It remained for the civilian politicians to reestablish public confidence without resorting to bloodshed. The Peronists who dominated the Congress and the provincial governorships took it upon themselves to reconstitute the power of the executive branch.
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The neoliberal reforms caused two of every five citizens to suffer.
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Once again, the judiciary proved too weak to overcome the impunity enjoyed by members of the executive and legislative branches. Some of the cases came before judges appointed by Menem himself. The president had also expanded the Supreme Court and appointed a majority of the justices. Some functionaries accused of corruption brought libel suits against the newspapers and reporters who had exposed them. Government television announcers routinely attacked print reporters who wrote stories about bribery and corruption. One reporter was even assassinated. At one moment during Menem’s first term, nearly a dozen cabinet-level and senior officials had been tainted by charges of corruption. “Menem has so centralized power in the judiciary that I am very worried,” said one prominent attorney quoted in yet another New York Times article. “But what makes me most afraid is that people don’t seem to care. All they seem to be worrying about is whether there is low inflation” (Nash 1991, 15).
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Questions about corruption among the highest officials plagued Menem’s administration from the beginning. The president had appointed his relatives to high government positions, which they used, reporters alleged, to launder drug money. Questions also arose about the duty-free import of foreign luxury cars. A group of Italian businessmen gave President Menem, who loved fast cars, a new Ferrari.
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