By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Dec 21 2001 (IPS)

Argentine President Fernando de la Rúa resigned Thursday after two days of rioting and looting plunged this Southern Cone country into a state of anarchy.

The secretary-general of the presidency, Nicolás Gallo, reported that de la Rúa had sent his resignation to parliament.

De la Rúa, in office since December 1999, suffered one last defeat when the opposition Justicialista Party did not respond to his invitation Thursday to join the government and form a cabinet of national unity.

The first in line to succeed De la Rúa is the president of the Senate, Justicialista Senator Ramón Puerta, given that the vice- presidency has stood vacant since Carlos Alvarez resigned in October 2000. However, it is still unclear what shape the government will take.

According to the constitution, Congress can now designate a caretaker president from the ranks of all public employees and call new elections, or name a new president to serve out the remaining two years of de la Rúa’s four-year term.

De la Rúa’s successor will take over a country caught in the grip of a popular rebellion involving rioting, looting, and street protests. The death toll resulting from the Wednesday and Thursday disturbances has climbed to 18.

“If Peronism (the Justicialista Party) refuses the invitation, the president will resign,” the president’s under-secretary of communications Juan Pablo Baylac had warned.

De la Rúa’s invitation met with no echo among the leaders of the Justicialista movement. “If it involves following this model (of government), then he shouldn’t count on us,” said Senator Eduardo Duhalde, one of the Justicialista party’s leaders and the loudest critic of the government’s economic policies.

Shortly before the president resigned, labour leader Hugo Moyano announced a general strike for Friday to demand that de la Rúa step down, while the secretary-general of the General Confederation of Labour – Argentina’s largest trade union – Rodolfo Daer, called for an indefinite strike.

But despite de la Rúa’s resignation, the general strike began Thursday evening, to protest the state of siege declared by the government Wednesday.

The police continued to crack down on protesters and looters, and five people were reported killed in the Plaza de Mayo outside the seat of government, which demonstrators were trying to occupy.

The police attempted to disperse the protesters with water hoses, tear gas and truncheons, chasing them down the streets surrounding the Plaza de Mayo, while new groups of demonstrators arrived to take their place.

Buenos Aires Mayor Aníbal Ibarra, who represents the leftist faction of the centre-left Alliance that carried de la Rúa to power two years ago, called on the government to order a halt to the police crackdown.

Meanwhile, the looting of supermarkets and other shops continued, despite the state of siege, and several houses were ransacked on the outskirts of the capital.

Shopping centres closed their doors, the trains and subway stopped running in the capital, and employees working in the seat of government were sent home.

Powerless in the face of the crisis, de la Rúa was unable to organise the meeting he had announced with Justicialista Party senators and provincial governments.

In isolated statements, a majority of Justicialista Party leaders demanded the president’s resignation, and demanded that elections be called.

“Argentina has no government, it has sunk into anarchy,” stated a communique issued by the Justicialista senators.

“The demonstrations represent the revocation of his mandate,” said Senator Cristina Fernández, who entered the Senate this month.

The social eruption was triggered by the recent adoption of limits on cash withdrawals from banks, and the outlook of further austerity measures announced for the coming year – measures that would only deepen the 41-month recession and further drive up unemployment, which already stands at 18.3 percent.

The government had attempted to continue renegotiating Argentina’s public debt of 130 billion dollars, and to eliminate the fiscal deficit, in order to regain the confidence of the markets.

But the International Monetary Fund (IMF) refused this month to release a disbursement of 1.3 billion dollars. IMF spokesman Thomas Dawson held the Argentine government responsible for its failure to meet the agreed-on targets.

IMF Deputy Managing Director Ann Kreuger said Thursday in New Delhi that the multilateral lending institution was following events in Argentina with “concern.” US President George W. Bush expressed similar sentiments.

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