ARGENTINA: President for Two Days for a Country in Flames

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 22 2001 (IPS) - The new president of Argentina, Ramón Puerta of the Justicialista (Peronist) Party, will govern for just 48 hours, until Congress designates a caretaker president who will either call elections or serve out the rest of the term of the outgoing Fernando de la Rúa.

The members of Congress met briefly Friday to formally accept De la Rúa’s resignation, which was presented late Thursday. They also decided that Puerta, as Senate president, would head the government until a replacement is named this weekend.

Whoever is named president will organise the transition to a new government and perhaps call elections, which according to leaders of the Justicialista Party, in the opposition until Friday, could take place on Mar 31.

Justicialista governors who have the greatest chances of becoming candidates believe that is the best option.

But senators close to former president Carlos Menem (1989-99), also of the Justicialista Party, argue that whoever is chosen this weekend should serve out the remaining two years of de la Rúa’s four-year term, without calling early elections.

However, constitutionalist lawyers are opposed to that possibility, arguing that two years is too long for a caretaker president to govern. They speculate that the Justicialista lawmakers’ strategy is aimed at allowing Menem to run for reelection in 2003, since a full presidential term would have lapsed by then, as required by the constitution.

While a solution to the institutional crisis was being discussed and the various economic policy options were being analysed, the nationwide rioting and protests that began Wednesday and left at least 26 dead had calmed down to isolated looting incidents.

Nancy González, a nurse and social worker, told IPS that things were frightening Thursday night in the impoverished neighbourhood of San Pablo in General Pacheco, part of the Greater Buenos Aires, where a number of local residents decided to defend themselves from possible attacks by standing guard and setting large bonfires.

“There was a kind of psychosis that they would come and try to break into our houses. People said there were strangers in trucks shouting ‘viva la revolucion!’ and things like that, and I couldn’t sleep because young men here are so frequently armed…in the past 14 months, I have seen 18 youngsters killed,” said González.

“There are too many kids wandering the streets all day, too many people without work, which means we should have seen this coming. But I had never seen anything like this. People would run out to loot, and come back loaded down with bags” Wednesday, she added.

González’s fears, the product of a climate of terror and threats, were shared by many in the lower-income neighbourhoods located on the outskirts of the capital.

“My sister says it’s the same in (the poor neighbourhood of La Matanza), and my daughter who lives in El Palomar says things are the same there too. At night, the neighbours organise to stand guard, and burn things to keep people from coming too close to their houses. It’s as if we were living in a state of war.”

The governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Carlos Ruckauf, said there were rumours of gangs going around ransacking houses. And although he said the situation was calmer than on Thursday, he recommended that people stay at home at night, and call the police if necessary.

Friday’s general strike and fears of violence left the streets virtually empty. Burnt vehicles that were still smoking, the broken glass of storefronts and office buildings, and an enormous number of looted businesses made up a desolate but relatively calm landscape.

The federal courts said they would hold outgoing authorities accountable for the brutal police crackdown and the deaths of protesters in the Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace.

Two federal prosecutors held De la Rúa responsible for the multiple homicides and serious bodily injury committed by police who opened fire on the demonstrators, rode over them with their horses, or dragged them by the hair.

Former president de la Rúa, who showed up unexpectedly at the Casa Rosada Friday to lift the state of emergency that he declared Wednesday, evaded responsibility for the repression, saying authorities acted within the framework of the law and the state of siege.

But he also made an unusual confession. “I did not know that tragic events occurred here (in the Plaza de Mayo). I had other information. I have no information about what you are telling me,” he responded to a journalist who asked him about the police repression, which was broadcast live on TV.

At least six people were killed outside the presidential palace and one on the steps of Congress.

The rest of the victims were killed in the riots and looting in cities in the interior and on the outskirts of the capital. Some people were killed by police bullets, while others were shot by shopkeepers defending their property.

Most of the victims were under 40, and many were teenagers. In the province of Entre Rios, an 11-year-old girl was shot in the head when she was still 150 metres away from a supermarket to which she and her family were heading to try to get food, according to a local journalist.

When he visited the Casa Rosada Friday, de la Rúa said he personally wanted to lift the state of siege he had declared 48 hours before, which had sparked the wave of pot-banging and street protests.

He also criticised the Justicialista Party of “hastening” the downfall of the government ” and “refusing the support” which was necessary to avoid a breakdown of the institutional order when he invited them to form a national unity government.

“I believe I have worked with loyalty, honesty and a profound conviction that I did what was necessary for the country,” he said.

The former president maintained that Argentina needed a “rational, sane and balanced administration” like the one he was heading. He also said it was not the popular uprising that put an end to his administration.

“The citizens are complaining about the lack of results, but not about the policies we were following,” said de la Rúa. He admitted that the 1,000 dollar monthly cash withdrawal limit announced three weeks ago caused irritation, but said it was “an unavoidable duty.”

Finally, de la Rúa said a stage of his life in which he had given “the best of himself” was coming to an end. “People will understand later that I did what had to be done and that I faced many difficulties,” he concluded.