POLITICS-ARGENTINA: Crisis Brings Foreseeable Rumours of Coup

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 8 2002 (IPS) - Argentina’s Defence Minister Horacio Jaunarena refuted the possibility Friday of a coup d’état, and assured that the military could only be called to intervene in internal affairs as a final resort.

Jaunarena’s statements, at a conference with the foreign press, came after a week of leaked news about meetings among military chiefs, politicians and business leaders, in which they are believed to have discussed the role of the armed forces in a context of deepening economic, social and political crisis.

The minister said the military brass are currently “the principal defenders of institutionality,” because they are convinced that intervention by the armed forces in political matters would undermine their true role and would not resolve the country’s problems.

“I do not see any type of institutional danger,” said Jaunarena. Throughout Argentina’s history, the coups that occurred required military will, a push from civil society and a favourable international context – and none of these factors exist today, he stated.

The security forces (police and gendarmerie) are entrusted with containing potential civilian uprisings, the minister added. Nevertheless, the Constitution makes room for the armed forces – “as a last recourse” – to take action if there is a state of “domestic commotion” that justifies it.

Such domestic commotion has already occurred. Argentina is submerged in a profound economic, social and political crisis that has deepened during the last few months. Fernando de la Rúa resigned from the presidency last Dec 20 after a wave of violent protests and looting marked the beginning of the chaos.

Nearly 30 people died and hundreds have been injured in clashes between civilians and police.

The current president, Eduardo Duhalde, took office Jan 1. He was designated to the post by Congress to finish out De la Rúa’s term and to take control of the situation. But the crisis persists, and the Argentine people’s distrust of political and judicial institutions continues to grow.

Opposition lawmaker Elisa Carrió predicted Thursday evening that Duhalde will not last to the end of the presidency, to December 2003. “Duhalde is not the problem. The problem is that the economic regime will not make it (to the end of the year), and Duhalde expresses the survival of that regime,” she said.

The legislative deputy, who has made a name as a corruption fighter, had warned in February about the gestation of “a civilian- military intervention” and denounced the politicians and business leaders who met with high-ranking military officials.

Nearly all participants admitted the meetings had taken place, but played down the importance of the conversations held.

Carrió, leader of the Association for a Republic of Equals party and the politician with the most favourable public image, according to polls, reckons “there is risk” for Argentina’s democracy due to “the lack of resolution of institutional legitimacy and the lack of a policy for a more just income distribution.”

Minister Jaunarena, had no comment Friday when consulted about a legal investigations into the role of De la Rúa and other political officials and police in the repression of the Dec 20 protests in the Plaza de Mayo, across from the government palace.

He denied that members of the army had participated in the crackdown on looters at supermarkets that had prompted De la Rúa to declare a state of siege on Dec 19. Jaunarena was Defence Minister at that time as well.

“The state of siege does not automatically mean the armed forces can intervene” in suppressing the disturbances, he said in response to a question from a correspondent from the U.S.-based TV network ABC, who said he had interviewed members of the military who were guarding a supermarket in Buenos Aires.

Federal judge María Servini ordered the indictment and preventive detention of former security secretary Enrique Mathov, and of former chief of police, Rubén Santos, and announced that she would subpoena De la Rúa within the next two weeks to make a declaration about the alleged abuse of authority and failure to perform his duties as top government official.

Public prosecutor Luis Comparatore said Friday that Mathov, in his legal statement, had pointed the finger at De la Rúa for ordering the Plaza de Mayo cleared. Comparatore said the former president could face court conviction, though so far the crimes for which he could be charged do not carry prison sentences.