DOCSLIB.ORG

General Ongania and the Argentine [Military] Revolution of the Right: Anti- Communism and Morality, 1966-1970

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
General Ongania and the Argentine [Military] Revolution of the Right: Anti- Communism and Morality, 1966-1970 HAOL, Núm. 17 (Otoño, 2008), 65-79 ISSN 1696-2060 GENERAL ONGANIA AND THE ARGENTINE [MILITARY] REVOLUTION OF THE RIGHT: ANTI- COMMUNISM AND MORALITY, 1966-1970 Cyrus Stephen Cousins University of Texas, United States. E-mail: [email protected] Recibido: 2 Julio 2008 / Revisado: 31 Julio 2008 / Aceptado: 3 Septiembre 2008 / Publicación Online: 15 Octubre 2008 Abstract: This project analyzes the relationship expended a tremendous amount of energy trying between the rhetoric of Argentina’s fifth to save Argentina from moral degradation, and it military dictatorship on youth, morality, and linked these efforts to its anti-communist communism, and the government’s cultural position. In particular, Gen. Onganía and his campaigns executed from 1966-1973. During cabinet utilized the police to cleanse the supposed “La Revolución Argentina,” General Juan decadence of Argentina’s middle-class youth Carlos Onganía and his cabinet targeted the through a morality campaign, clamp down on “immorality” of the youth because they believed communism in the national universities, and the internal threat of communism had degraded implement anti-communist and censorship the country’s traditional Catholic values. By legislation, even before dealing with economic constructing a moral and spiritual culture problems. through a crusade against immorality, intervention in the national universities, With a consensus among the military and Gen. censorship and anti-communist legislation, Onganía’s civilian cabinet members that the conservative officers thought they could shield failing economy warranted immediate action, Argentina’s youth from further infiltration of why did the new government worry so much leftist ideologies and preserve the nation’s future about morality and link its culture campaigns to leaders. the eradication of communism? Based on the Keywords: Bureaucratic Authoritarianism, La officers’ speeches and the military’s Revolución Argentina, Gen. Juan Carlos revolutionary pamphlets, Catholic Nationalist Onganía, Catholic Nationalist, conservatism. theology, anti-communist and censorship ______________________ legislation, magazines and literature, and Argentine and U.S. newspapers, this article INTRODUCTION demonstrates that cultural and societal factors motivated and directed the administration’s n June 1966, in the midst of yet another reform efforts, before they established a clear economic crisis, the Argentine military seized plan for economic stabilization. The anti- I control of the country, heralding their fifth communist rhetoric and actions of authoritative coup d’état of the century as “La Revolución and conservative Catholic-minded officers and Argentina.” Under the leadership of General Juan the Buenos Aires police targeted the Carlos Onganía, the military government asserted “immorality” of the modern youth because they that communism threatened Argentina’s future, believed the internal threat of communism had and that social, political, and economic stability degraded the country’s traditional Catholic could only occur with its eradication. In their values. By constructing a moral and spiritual speeches, the generals not only mentioned the culture, the generals thought they could shield need to combat the spread of leftist ideology, but Argentina’s youth from further exposure to leftist also emphasized an immediate need to deal with ideology and mold them into the future stagnant economic growth, high inflation, fiscal conservative and Catholic leadership. irresponsibility, depleted national savings and declining foreign investments. However, during the first six months, the new government © Historia Actual Online 2008 65 General Ongania and The Argentine Revolution Cyrus Stephen Cousins 1. THEORY, HISTORIOGRAPHY AND Catholic Nationalist theologians during the THE 1966 MILITARY COUP decades leading up to the nation’s final coups. The theologians’ teachings spoke that communist This article departs from much of the scholarship doctrine and practice resulted from modern influenced by the theory of Bureaucratic liberalism, carried to its ultimate consequences5. Authoritarianism during the past twenty years1. In other words, the radical cultural changes Simply put, Guillermo O’Donnell’s theory occurring during the 1960s lead to society’s argues that Argentine military regimes, such as acceptance of alternative leftist ideologies. These the one from 1966-1972, established authoritarian leftist ideas challenged Argentina’s Catholic rule for the purpose of working with technocrats traditions. Both Avellaneda and Osiel indicate to implement liberal economic policies that that the military officers of the final dictatorship would reverse the ills brought with prolonged modeled their cultural reforms on those employed reliance on “easy” or “import-substitution” during the fifth dictatorship. Thus, this project industrialization. However, rather than focusing fills a missing piece in the scholarship by on economic determinants or political resolutions analyzing how officers of the fifth military that impelled the military to establish dictatorship sought to reform the cultural and authoritarian rule, or explaining how the new social spaces inhabited by the country’s middle- government attempted to bring economic class youth by combating communism and stabilization, this project follows critics who have preserving Argentina’s Catholic values. argued that Latin American military governments were motivated by concerns other than industrial After the military officers seized control of the development during the 1960s and 1970s2. Gen. country with their coup d’état on June 29, 1966, Onganía and his fellow officers had a clear plan they articulated the country’s quagmire of to restore the country’s traditional Catholic values problems and their goals to solve them in various and combat the spread of communism, even documents and speeches. The military believed before they had determined how to address the that previous civilian leaders had failed to failing economy. Moreover, after the most establish order and stability -necessary intense phase of their moral crusade, Gen. prerequisites for addressing Argentina’s political Onganía and his cabinet members continued their ineptness, economic stagnation, and social struggle against immorality during the later instability. According to the generals, the actions economic stabilization program (1967-1970) by of previous administrations had led to “the positing it within anti-communist and censorship bankruptcy of the principle of authority and a legislation. Thus, this project responds to recent lack of order and discipline”6. The result, Gen. challenges to consider Argentine military politics Onganía declared, was that “our country was and popular resistance from a cultural perspective transformed into a scene of anarchy characterized by analyzing the relationship between the by the collision of sectors with conflicting military’s discourse on communism, morality, the interests, a situation aggravated by the lack of modern youth, and the actual campaigns targeted basic social order”7. Thus, the first and most at this sector of Argentine society3. important step would be the “achievement of order within the present situation, based on the This project also follows the work of two integral use of the principles of order, authority, scholars who have analyzed why the Argentine responsibility and discipline”8. Implied in the military of the sixth and final dictatorship (1976- officers’ rhetoric is that civilian leaders, 1983) included programs of cultural reform with particularly the county’s previous president, measures to root-out communist influences. Arturo Umberto Illia, had failed to establish Andrés Avellaneda argues that Argentine military authority by not maintaining order and discipline. dictatorships actively placed censorship on Their declaration to establish order through culture because of their motivation to attempt to military authority sent a clear message to the construct an Argentine lifestyle reflecting nation and the rest of the world: the country’s traditional Catholic values. Yet, restoring salvation would come through military rule. Only Argentina’s Catholic values in society also through military leadership could reforms be required a fierce campaign to weed out influences implemented and followed. of Marxism and Communism4. Another historian of the final dictatorship, Mark Osiel, argues that With the myriad of economic problems plaguing the military’s fight against communism coincided the country, Gen. Onganía and his fellow with its Catholic orientation because officers of officers included vague plans to reform the the armed forces developed relationships with economy in their discourse to legitimize their 66 © Historia Actual Online 2008 Cyrus Stephen Cousins General Ongania and The Argentine Revolution seizure of power and bolster popular support. challenged conservative styles. Even after the They promised that the new military military coup, one paper ran articles about government would “eliminate the deep-rooted women’s fashions that informed the young causes of the present economic stagnation.” consumers “underwear is also outerwear. They would establish “conditions to make Whether you are going to bed or going out, you feasible a great economic expansion [based on] can wear the same thing”13. The Buenos Aires the human and natural resources available to the Herald taunted young women to push country”9. Nevertheless, a concise plan to Argentina’s cultural
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Argentine History: from Pre-Colonial Times Through the 20Th Century
    Syllabus 2016 Argentine History: From pre-colonial times through the 20th century Dr. Juan Francisco Martínez Peria [CEL – UNSAM] Fridays 2:00 – 6:00 pm Total Load: 64 hours Course Description This course aims to delve into the economic, cultural, social, and political history of Argentina, since the pre-colonial period through the last decades of the twentieth century. The course will provide an overview of the mayor processes that marked the historical development of this country, examining at the same time the strong bonds with the other Latin American nations and the complex relations with the major hegemonic powers. In the first place, we will study the societies of the native peoples of Argentina and the sufferings they experienced due to the Spanish colonization. Next, we will analyze the economic, social, political, and cultural situation of the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata under Spanish rule and its crisis in the XIX century. Subsequently, we will study the Argentine independence movement, examining its ties with the rest of the Spanish American Revolutions. In fourth place, we will study the postcolonial era and the civil wars between Buenos Aires’ elite and the provinces, taking in account the experiences of the Rosistas and Urquicistas Confederations. Next, we will examine the liberal conservative order, the state building process, the immigration process, and the emergence of the labor movement and the radical party. Afterwards, we will analyze the crisis of the conservative order, the radical governments, and the brief liberal conservative restoration. Following, we will examine the Peronist governments, and the post Peronist crisis studying the social and political turmoil that agitated Argentina during the 50´s, 60´s 70´s.
    [Show full text]
  • Doc CADAL 16 English
    The Political Origins of the Argentine Crisis By Mauricio Rojas The ills that afflict Argentina are not simple or superficial, and the solutions to its problems require a more serious diagnosis than the one given by those who look for a scapegoat to blame this one-time promising country’s woes on. Understanding this today is more D important than ever, because the country is going through a characteristic period of recovery and hope that appears from time to time, like a pause between violent swells of crises. Now is the O time to start facing these long-standing problems, before they overwhelm us again. C U This document is a revised version of the preface to the second Spanish edition of «History of the Argentine Crisis». The book was originally published in Swedish and M later translated and published in English and Portuguese. The first Spanish edition was published by CADAL and TIMBRO in December 2003. E N T Mauricio Rojas was born in Santiago de Chile in 1950 and lives in Sweeden since 1974. He is a Member of the Sweeden Parlament, Associate Professor in the Department of Economic O History at Lund University, Vice President of Timbro and Director of Timbro’s Center for Welfare Reform. He is author of a dozen books, among them, The Sorrows of Carmencita, Argentina’s crisis in a historial perspective (2002), Millennium Doom, Fallacies about the end of work (1999). Beyond the S welfare state. Sweden and the quest for a post-industrial Year II Number 16 welfare model (2001) and The rise and fall of the swedish May 21st., 2004 model (1998).
    [Show full text]
  • The 'Argentine Problem' : an Analysis of Political Instability in a Modern Society
    THE 'ARGENTINE PROBLEM7: AN ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL INSTABILITY IN A MODERN SOCIETY Alphonse Victor Mallette B.A., University of Lethbridge, 1980 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS @ Alphonse Victor Mallette 1986 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY June, 1986 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis, proJect or extended essay (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for flnanclal gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/Project/Extended Essay Author: -. - rJ (date) -.-.--ABSTRACT This thesis is designed to explain, through political and historical analysis, a phenomenon identified by scholars of pol- itical development as the "Argentine Problem". Argentina is seen as a paradox, a nation which does not display the political stab- ility commensurate with its level of socio-economic development. The work also seeks to examine the origins and policies of the most serious manifestation of dictatorial rule in the nation's history, the period of military power from 1976 to 1983.
    [Show full text]
  • 180203 the Argentine Military and the Antisubversivo Genocide
    Journal: GSI; Volume 11; Issue: 2 DOI: 10.3138/gsi.11.2.03 The Argentine Military and the “Antisubversivo” Genocide DerGhougassian and Brumat The Argentine Military and the “Antisubversivo ” Genocide: The School of Americas’ Contribution to the French Counterinsurgency Model Khatchik DerGhougassian UNLa, Argentina Leiza Brumat EUI, Italy Abstract: The article analyzes role of the United States during the 1976–1983 military dictatorship and their genocidal counterinsurgency war in Argentina. We argue that Washington’s policy evolved from the initial loose support of the Ford administration to what we call “the Carter exception” in 1977—79 when the violation of Human Rights were denounced and concrete measures taken to put pressure on the military to end their repressive campaign. Human Rights, however, lost their importance on Washington’s foreign policy agenda with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the end of the Détente. The Argentine military briefly recuperated US support with Ronald Reagan in 1981 to soon lose it with the Malvinas War. Argentina’s defeat turned the page of the US support to military dictatorships in Latin America and marked the debut of “democracy promotion.” Keywords: Proceso, dirty war, human rights, Argentine military, French School, the School of the Americas, Carter Page 1 of 48 Journal: GSI; Volume 11; Issue: 2 DOI: 10.3138/gsi.11.2.03 Introduction: Framing the US. Role during the Proceso When an Argentine military junta seized the power on March 24, 1976 and implemented its “ plan antisubversivo ,” a supposedly counterinsurgency plan to end the political violence in the country, Henry Kissinger, the then United States’ Secretary of State of the Gerald Ford Administration, warned his Argentine colleague that the critiques for the violation of human rights would increment and it was convenient to end the “operations” before January of 1977 when Jimmy Carter, the Democratic candidate and winner of the presidential elections, would assume the power in the White House.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyrighted Material
    BINDEX 06/25/2018 18:16:29 Page 379 INDEX ‘Ndrangheta, 261 Ambedkar, B. R., 115, 150, 238, 273, 1848 revolutions, 306 282, 311 1955 System, 137 American Civil War, 94 9/11, 178, 269, 273, 301, 302 American Constitution, 109, 318 Amin al-Husseini, Haj, 100 Aam Aadmi Party, 311 Amin, Idi, 127, 255 Abdullah of Jordan, King, 120 Amritsar Massacre (1919), 30, 48 Abe, Shinzo, 317 anarchism, 5, 10, 44, 61, 159, 219, 306 Aborigines, 38, 74, 265, 272, 275 Andaman Islands, 267 Abyssinia, 97, 250, 265 Anglo-Boer War, 16, 31, 39 Action Française, 59, 67, 81, 109, 225 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty (1936), 55 Adenauer, Konrad, 109, 132, 244 Anglo-Hindu law, 278 Advani, L. K., 171 Anglo-Iraq treaties; (1926), (1932) African National Congress, 142, 155, Anglo-Muhammadan law, 278 156, 176, 281, 312 Anglo-Russian Entente (1907), 22 Afrikaners, 31, 73, 127, 155, 279 animals in war, 210, 295 agricultural reforms, 54, 63, 75, 84, 85, Antarctica, 15 94, 119, 124, 127, 129, 134, 135, 146, Anthropocene, 214, 287, 295, 296 151, 153, 185, 232, 284, 291, 297, 307, Anthropology, 8, 179, 183, 186–189, 309, 316 192, 232, 234, 296 Ahmadiyya, 168, 234 anti-fascist resistance, 133 AIDS, 204, 205, 288, 289, 312, 323 Anti-French War, 123 Alawites, 22, 280 anti-hunting protests, 210, 295 Alexander I of Yugoslavia, King, 62 anti-Nazi resistance, 65 Alger Hiss case, 110 anti-Semitism, 16, 60, 66, 81, 100, 103, Algerian War of Independence,COPYRIGHTED 185 197, 243, 251,MATERIAL 256, 299, 308 Algérie Française, 156 Anti-US War, 123 Ali, Mehmet, 239, 240 anti-Vietnam War protests, 143, 200 Ali, Muhammad, 210 Antonius, George, 22, 28 Aligarh Muslim University, 207 Apartheid, 90, 127, 135, 156, 163, 174, Allahabad, 111, 276 176, 210, 255, 268, 279, 285, 296, 311, Allende, Salvador, 159 312 Allied Powers (First World War), 13, 96 Appadurai, Arjun, 6, 299 Remaking the Modern World 1900–2015: Global Connections and Comparisons, First Edition.
    [Show full text]
  • A Critical and Comparative Analysis of Organisational Forms of Selected Marxist Parties, in Theory and in Practice, with Special Reference to the Last Half Century
    Rahimi, M. (2009) A critical and comparative analysis of organisational forms of selected Marxist parties, in theory and in practice, with special reference to the last half century. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/688/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] A critical and comparative analysis of organisational forms of selected Marxist parties, in theory and in practice, with special reference to the last half century Mohammad Rahimi, BA, MSc Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Centre for the Study of Socialist Theory and Movement Faculty of Law, Business and Social Science University of Glasgow September 2008 The diversity of the proletariat during the final two decades of the 20 th century reached a point where traditional socialist and communist parties could not represent all sections of the working class. Moreover, the development of social movements other than the working class after the 1960s further sidelined traditional parties. The anti-capitalist movements in the 1970s and 1980s were looking for new political formations.
    [Show full text]
  • Peronismo Y Universidad En Los Años Sesenta. Una Aproximación a Las Tramas Discursivas Y Organizativas Del Proceso De Peroniza
    Peronismo y Universidad en los a~nossesenta. Una aproximaci´ona las tramas discursivas y organizativas del proceso de peronizaci´onde los sectores estudiantiles y docentes de la Universidad de Buenos Aires (1966-1973) DIP Nicol´as Cuestiones de sociolog´ıano 8 (2012). ISSN 2346-8904. http://www.cuestionessociologia.fahce.unlp.edu.ar Peronismo y Universidad en los años sesenta. Una aproxi- mación a las tramas discursivas y organizativas del proceso de peronización de los sectores estudiantiles y docentes de la Universidad de Buenos Aires (1966-1973) Peronism and University in the Sixties. An Approach to the Discursive and Organizational Frames of the Process of Peronization of Students and Teachers at the University of Buenos Aires (1966-1973) Nicolás Dip Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Centro de Investigaciones Sociohistoricas / CONICET(Argentina) [email protected] Resumen El presente trabajo de investigación busca generar los primeros aportes para contribuir a un mayor conocimiento del proceso de radicalización política que ex- perimentaron las universidades y el movimiento estudiantil argentino entre los años sesenta y setenta. En este panorama, se propone estudiar el proceso de peronización de los sectores estudiantiles y docentes de la Universidad de Buenos Aires entre 1966 y 1973. A partir de este objetivo, se intenta reconstruir la trayectoria y la perspectiva política de las principales organizaciones que se identiicaron con el peronismo en- tre la intervención universitaria dispuesta por el régimen militar de la “Revolución Argentina” y la designación de Rodolfo Puiggrós como rector-interventor de la casa estudio porteña en el gobierno constitucional de Héctor Cámpora.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rise and Fall of Argentina
    Spruk Lat Am Econ Rev (2019) 28:16 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40503-019-0076-2 Latin American Economic Review RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access The rise and fall of Argentina Rok Spruk* *Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract School of Economics I examine the contribution of institutional breakdowns to long-run development, and Business, University of Ljubljana, Kardeljeva drawing on Argentina’s unique departure from a rich country on the eve of World ploscad 27, 1000 Ljubljana, War I to an underdeveloped one today. The empirical strategy is based on building Slovenia a counterfactual scenario to examine the path of Argentina’s long-run development in the absence of breakdowns, assuming it would follow the institutional trends in countries at parallel stages of development. Drawing on Argentina’s large historical bibliography, I have identifed the institutional breakdowns and coded for the period 1850–2012. The synthetic control and diference-in-diferences estimates here suggest that, in the absence of institutional breakdowns, Argentina would largely have avoided the decline and joined the ranks of rich countries with an income level similar to that of New Zealand. Keywords: Long-run development, New institutional economics, Political economy, Argentina, Applied econometrics JEL Classifcation: C23, K16, N16, N46, O43, O47 1 Introduction On the eve of World War I, the future of Argentina looked bright. Since its promulga- tion of the 1853 Constitution, Argentina had experienced strong economic growth and institutional modernization, which had propelled it into the ranks of the 10 wealthi- est countries in the world by 1913. In the aftermath of the war, Argentina’s income per capita fell from a level approximating that of Switzerland to its current middle-income country status.
    [Show full text]
  • In the Coup Written Press of Brazil
    Sentidos de “revolução” e “revolución” na imprensa escrita golpista do Brasil (1964) e da Argentina (1966) / Senses of “revolução” and “revolución” in the coup written press of Brazil (1964) and Argentina (1966) / Sentidos de “revolução” y “revolución” en la prensa escrita golpista de Brasil (1964) y de Argentina (1966) María Alejandra Vitale * RESUMO Neste artigo percorremos as conexões teóricas que podem ser estabelecidas entre o dialogismo do Círculo de Bakhtin e alguns aspectos da teoria do discurso de Michel Pêcheux, considerando a leitura que Jacqueline Authier-Revuz fez de ambos em sua proposta sobre as heterogeneidades enunciativas. Também nos propomos a descrever os sentidos adquiridos pela palavra “revolução” nos editoriais e comentários dos jornais O Globo e Folha de S. Paulo que tematizaram no Brasil o golpe de Estado de 31 de março de 1964 e compará-los com o que aconteceu na imprensa escrita argentina com a palavra “revolución” frente ao golpe militar de 28 de junho de 1966. PALAVRAS CHAVE: Dialogismo; Heterogeneidade; Revolução; Revolución; Discursividade golpista brasileira e argentina ABSTRACT In this article we cross the theoretical connections that can be established between Bakhtin Circle dialogism and some aspects of the discourse theory of Michel Pêcheux, considering the reading of both made by Jacqueline Authier-Revuz in the frame of her proposal about enunciative heterogeneities. We also try to describe the senses of the word "revolução" in O Globo and Folha de S. Paulo related to the Brazilian coup d’état of March 31st, 1964 and compare it to what happened in the Argentinean press with the word "revolución" facing the military coup of June 28th, 1966.
    [Show full text]
  • La Prensa and Liberalism in Argentina, 1930-19461 Jorge Nállim University of Manitoba
    An Unbroken Loyalty in Turbulent Times: La Prensa and Liberalism in Argentina, 1930-19461 JORGE NÁLLIM University of Manitoba In recent years, a growing body of scholarship has revised one of the most controversial periods in Argentine history: the sixteen years between the mi- litary coup of September 1930 and the presidential election of Juan Perón in 1946. These years have been traditionally interpreted as a transition period, a “prelude” to the emergence of Peronism, characterized by the decadence of the nineteenth-century liberal republic in a context of political and ideological crisis and economic and social transformation. While acknowledging some of those features, new studies emphasize the blurred political and ideological boundaries of the main political and social actors and locate them within the broader histo- rical framework of the interwar years. For example, they show that the Radical and Socialist parties and the conservative groups that gathered in the ruling Concordancia coalition were deeply divided and far from being ideologically homogeneous, and that varied positions on state economic intervention, free trade, and industrialization generated both sharp intra-party differences as well as cross-party coincidences.2 This new historiography offers a particularly fruitful context to explore one of the most important national newspapers in this period, La Prensa. Founded in 1869 by José C. Paz in the city of Buenos Aires, La Prensa eventually achieved a large national circulation and a reputation as a “serious press,” which made it widely accepted as a reliable source of information and a frequent reference in congressional debates. Firmly controlled by the Paz family, the newspaper and its owners prospered during Argentina’s elitist liberal republic which lasted [email protected] E.I.A.L., Vol.
    [Show full text]
  • The Argentine Crisis
    1 The Argentine Crisis. A look at the Twentieth Centuryi Luis Alberto Romeroii En: Flavia Fiorucci & Marcus Klein (ed): The Argentine crisis at the turn of the Millenium. Amsterdam, Aksant, 2004. The Argentine crisis broke in the last months of 2001 and developed during 2002, the year when bank deposits were trapped in the corralito, and the year of demonstrations against politicians with the clamorous demand for que se vayan todos (all of them should go). It was a year of rage and of big re- founding projects. The "people", the "civil society" would succeed where politicians had failed. There was an echo of previous and faraway experiences of excessive willingness, though overshadowed by discordant voices defending strictly personal interests. In the last third of 2002, the realisation that the final collapse was not imminent, the perception that the state had some sort of capacity for negotiation and, above all, the perspective of the presidential election eased the tension a bit. The elections of March 2003 came as a surprise because of the high level of attendance and a carefully thought-out vote, distributed among several candidates. The polarisation set for the second round announced that even one of the miracles of democracy would take place: el pueblo (the people) was ready to crush the anti-pueblo (the anti-people). The first measures of the new president consisted of strong gestures of authority, oriented to what the majority of public opinion considered good causes, and in that way, the feeling of a new beginning, of a new opportunity for Argentina, became stronger.
    [Show full text]
  • A Brief History of Argentina
    A Brief History of ArgentinA second edition JonAtHAn c. Brown University of Texas at Austin A Brief History of Argentina, Second Edition Copyright © 2010, 2003 by Lexington Associates All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brown, Jonathan C. (Jonathan Charles), 1942– A brief history of Argentina / Jonathan C. Brown. — 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8160-7796-0 1. Argentina—History. I. Title. F2831.B88 2010 982—dc22 2010004887 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Excerpts included herewith have been reprinted by permission of the copyright holders; the author has made every effort to contact copyright holders. The publishers will be glad to rectify, in future editions, any errors or omissions brought to their notice. Text design by Joan M. McEvoy Maps and figures by Dale Williams and Patricia Meschino Composition by Mary Susan Ryan-Flynn Cover printed by Art Print, Taylor, Pa. Book printed and bound by Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group, York, Pa.
    [Show full text]