ARGENTINA: Social and Political Breakdown at Dizzying Speed

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 20 2001 (IPS) - Argentina’s acute political, economic and social crisis brought the government of Fernando de la Rúa to bay Thursday, after 16 people were killed in a wave of rioting and looting, thousands of protesters spontaneously took to the streets, and Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo resigned.

But this time, de la Rúa will not only have to decide on who will replace Cavallo, Argentina’s third economy minister this year, but the economic policies to be followed by whoever is designated.

Business leaders, bankers and analysts predict default and devaluation, or the dollarisation of Latin America’s third-biggest economy, given the lack of other options, while the country appears to be sinking into anarchy.

Analysts said Thursday that the currency-board system pegging the peso to the dollar, designed by Cavallo 10 years ago, has been in death throes for three weeks – since restrictions on cash withdrawals were declared – and is merely surviving on artificial life support.

“We are on the eve of developments of far-reaching significance,” political columnist Eduardo Van der Kooy warned in the Buenos Aires daily Clarin Thursday.

A 41-month recession has driven one-third of the population into poverty, in what was one of the richest countries in the world in the early 20th century, while unemployment has soared to 18 percent.

Cavallo had announced a 2002 budget containing even stiffer austerity measures, and spending cuts of 15 percent with respect to this year’s budget.

Cornered by a crisis that looks set to devour everything in its path, de la Rúa, who is only halfway through his four-year term, called an emergency meeting of ruling coalition and opposition governors of the country’s provinces to discuss what is to be done, while the members of the cabinet handed in their resignations.

Senator Jorge Yoma of the opposition ‘Justicialista’ (Peronist) Party had stated just hours earlier that if Cavallo did not resign, a plenary session of Congress might be convened, in which the Justicialistas would hold a majority.

Yoma’s remarks were interpreted as a veiled threat to de la Rúa, whose resignation could be called for by a plenary session.

For his part, Senator Eduardo Duhalde, one of the leading figures of the Justicialista Party, who was defeated by de la Rúa in the 1999 elections, warned that “if the president does not change, we will have to change the president.”

The social eruption began in the early hours of Wednesday morning, when thousands of people in towns in the interior began to loot supermarkets and other stores.

Within just a few hours, the rioting had spread to the capital and to 11 of the country’s 22 provinces. Incidents were reported in all of the suburbs of the Greater Buenos Aires.

The first crowds peacefully asking for food handouts from supermarkets began to be seen on Friday. They were dispersed by police or promised food, although only a few stores actually made good on their promises.

By Tuesday the pressure had reached breaking-point, and looting began that night. People of all ages – women, families with children, and senior citizens – broke into supermarkets to carry out bags of food. Others emerged with bottles of liquor, refrigerators or clothing, and trucks carrying food were also attacked.

The large supermarket chains on the outskirts of Buenos Aires closed their doors after violent incidents in which owners and employees armed with sticks and sometimes guns tried to ward off looters.

Businesses in the capital began to close, including the large shopping centres, for fear of looting, which broke out just when stores were getting ready for the peak sales season, the days before Christmas.

By Thursday, while stores were still being looted in some provinces, the death toll had risen to 16 – mainly shooting victims – while over 100 had been injured.

At least four of the victims were shot by shopkeepers who tried to protect their stores by opening fire on looters.

In 1989, runaway four-digit inflation also led to social unrest, rioting and looting, which left 17 dead and brought about the early resignation of then-president Raúl Alfonsín (1983-89).

De la Rúa announced the distribution of seven million dollars in food. But on Wednesday night he declared a state of siege, and in a message to the nation accused small groups of “violent” protesters of “taking advantage of the situation to sow discord and create chaos.”

The president’s speech triggered an immediate reaction, mainly from the middle class, who began to bang on pots in windows and balconies, and later poured out onto the streets in protest.

The biggest march reached the Plaza de Mayo outside the seat of the national government. Ignoring the declaration of a state of siege, Argentines, who were carrying no political banners, gathered to call for Cavallo’s resignation, which occurred a few hours later.

Other demonstrators massed outside Cavallo’s apartment building, and one group marched to the presidential residence, located in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Olivos.

Spontaneous marches towards monuments or emblematic buildings also took place in populous cities like Rosario or Mar del Plata.

Protesters remained in the Plaza de Mayo until the early hours of Thursday morning, when they were disersed by the police with tear gas, which caused vomiting and choking among the crowd. But some stayed until daybreak, defying the police and the state of emergency.

The demonstrators made no distinction between government officials, former officials, and opposition politicians. The anger and rage was directed at the entire political class, and stones were even hurled at buildings.

Amidst stiff structural adjustment policies in the public sector, which have led to lay-offs and wage and pension cuts, the high salaries of government officials and lawmakers are one of the hottest and most divisive issues.

Cavallo asked for guarantees for his safety and that of his family. It was even rumoured that he planned to leave the country, although he is prohibited from doing so by Judge Julio Speroni, who is handling the case involving the smuggling of arms to Ecuador and Croatia in the early 1990s.

During the government of Carlos Menem (1989-99), Argentina violated an international ban on arms sales to Croatia, which was involved in war. A shipment of weapons was also sent to Ecuador, which engaged in a brief war with Peru disputing a border treaty for which Argentina was one of the guarantors.