Argentina

/ahr'jeuhn tee"neuh/; Sp. /ahrdd'hen tee"nah/, n.

a republic in S South America. 35,797,536; 1,084,120 sq. mi. (2,807,870 sq. km). Cap.: Buenos Aires. Also called the Argentine. Official name, Argentine Republic.

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Argentina

Introduction Argentina
Background: Following independence from Spain in 1816, Argentina experienced periods of internal political conflict between conservatives and liberals and between civilian and military factions. After World War II, a long period of Peronist authoritarian rule and interference in subsequent governments was followed by a military junta that took power in 1976. Democracy returned in 1983, and numerous elections since then have underscored Argentina's progress in democratic consolidation. Geography Argentina -
Location: Southern South America, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between Chile and Uruguay
Geographic coordinates: 34 00 S, 64 00 W
Map references: South America
Area: total: 2,766,890 sq km land: 2,736,690 sq km water: 30,200 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly less than three-tenths the size of the US
Land boundaries: total: 9,665 km border countries: Bolivia 832 km, Brazil 1,224 km, Chile 5,150 km, Paraguay 1,880 km, Uruguay 579 km
Coastline: 4,989 km
Maritime claims: contiguous zone: 24 NM territorial sea: 12 NM exclusive economic zone: 200 NM continental shelf: 200 NM or to the edge of the continental margin
Climate: mostly temperate; arid in southeast; subantarctic in southwest
Terrain: rich plains of the Pampas in northern half, flat to rolling plateau of Patagonia in south, rugged Andes along western border
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Salinas Chicas -40 m (located on Peninsula Valdes) highest point: Cerro Aconcagua 6,960 m
Natural resources: fertile plains of the Pampas, lead, zinc, tin, copper, iron ore, manganese, petroleum, uranium
Land use: arable land: 9.14% permanent crops: 0.8% other: 90.06% (1998 est.)
Irrigated land: 15,610 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards: San Miguel de Tucuman and Mendoza areas in the Andes subject to earthquakes; pamperos are violent windstorms that can strike the Pampas and northeast; heavy flooding Environment - current issues: environmental problems (urban and rural) typical of an industrializing economy such as deforestation, soil degradation, desertification, air pollution, and water pollution note: Argentina is a world leader in setting voluntary greenhouse gas targets Environment - international party to: Antarctic-Environmental
agreements: Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation
Geography - note: second-largest country in South America (after Brazil); strategic location relative to sea lanes between the South Atlantic and the South Pacific Oceans (Strait of Magellan, Beagle Channel, Drake Passage); Cerro Aconcagua is South America's tallest mountain, while the Valdes Peninsula is the lowest point on the continent People Argentina
Population: 37,812,817 (July 2002 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 26.3% (male 5,090,046; female 4,854,761) 15-64 years: 63.2% (male 11,968,135; female 11,937,709) 65 years and over: 10.5% (male 1,636,332; female 2,325,834) (2002 est.)
Population growth rate: 1.13% (2002 est.)
Birth rate: 18.23 births/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Death rate: 7.57 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Net migration rate: 0.63 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Sex ratio: at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/ female total population: 0.98 male(s)/ female (2002 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 17.2 deaths/1,000 live births (2002 est.) Life expectancy at birth: total population: 75.48 years female: 79.03 years (2002 est.) male: 72.1 years
Total fertility rate: 2.41 children born/woman (2002 est.) HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.69% (1999 est.) HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/ 130,000 (1999 est.)
AIDS:
HIV/AIDS - deaths: 1,800 (1999 est.)
Nationality: noun: Argentine(s) adjective: Argentine
Ethnic groups: white (mostly Spanish and Italian) 97%, mestizo, Amerindian, or other nonwhite groups 3%
Religions: nominally Roman Catholic 92% (less than 20% practicing), Protestant 2%, Jewish 2%, other 4%
Languages: Spanish (official), English, Italian, German, French
Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 96.2% male: 96.2% female: 96.2% (1995 est.) Government Argentina
Country name: conventional long form: Argentine Republic conventional short form: Argentina local short form: Argentina local long form: Republica Argentina
Government type: republic
Capital: Buenos Aires Administrative divisions: 23 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia), and 1 autonomous city* (distrito federal); Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires Capital Federal*, Catamarca, Chaco, Chubut, Cordoba, Corrientes, Entre Rios, Formosa, Jujuy, La Pampa, La Rioja, Mendoza, Misiones, Neuquen, Rio Negro, Salta, San Juan, San Luis, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero, Tierra del Fuego - Antartida e Islas del Atlantico Sur, Tucuman note: the US does not recognize any claims to Antarctica
Independence: 9 July 1816 (from Spain)
National holiday: Revolution Day, 25 May (1810)
Constitution: 1 May 1853; revised August 1994
Legal system: mixture of US and West European legal systems; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal and mandatory
Executive branch: chief of state: President Eduardo Alberto DUHALDE (since 2 January 2002); note - selected by National Congress in aftermath of resignation of former President DE LA RUA on 20 December 2001 and resignations of others who briefly held the office following DE LA RUA's departure; Vice President Carlos "Chacho" ALVAREZ resigned 6 October 2000 and the post remains vacant; note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government head of government: President Eduardo Alberto DUHALDE (since 2 January 2002); note - selected by National Congress in aftermath of resignation of former President DE LA RUA on 20 December 2001 and resignations of others who briefly held the office following DE LA RUA's departure; Vice President Carlos "Chacho" ALVAREZ resigned 6 October 2000 and the post remains vacant; note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president election results: Fernando DE LA RUA elected president; percent of vote - 48.5% ; Vice President Carlos "Chacho" ALVAREZ resigned 6 October 2000 and a replacement was not named; DE LA RUA resigned 20 December 2001; following a series of interim presidents, Eduardo Alberto DUHALDE was selected president by the National Congress on 1 January 2002 elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket by popular vote for four-year terms; election last held 24 October 1999 (next to be held NA October 2003)
Legislative branch: bicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional consists of the Senate (72 seats; formerly, three members appointed by each of the provincial legislatures; presently transitioning to one-third of the members being elected every two years to six-year terms) and the Chamber of Deputies (257 seats; one- half of the members elected every two years to four-year terms) election results: Senate - percent of vote by bloc or party - NA%; seats by bloc or party - Justicialist (Peronist) 40, UCR 24, provincial parties 6, Frepaso 1, ARI 1; Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by bloc or party - NA%; seats by bloc or party - Justicialist (Peronist) 113, UCR 74, provincial parties 27, Frepaso 17, ARI 17, AR 9 elections: Senate - last held 14 October 2001 (next to be held NA October 2003); Chamber of Deputies - last held 14 October 2001 (next to be held NA October 2003)
Judicial branch: Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (the nine Supreme Court judges are appointed by the president with approval by the Senate) Political parties and leaders: Action for the Republic or AR [Domingo CAVALLO]; Alternative for a Republic of Equals or ARI [Elisa CARRIO]; Front for a Country in Solidarity or Frepaso (a four-party coalition) [Dario Pedro ALESSANDRO]; Justicialist Party or PJ [Carlos Saul MENEM] (Peronist umbrella political organization); Radical Civic Union or UCR [Angel ROZAS]; several provincial parties Political pressure groups and Argentine Association of
leaders: Pharmaceutical Labs (CILFA); Argentine Industrial Union (manufacturers' association); Argentine Rural Society (large landowners' association); business organizations; General Confederation of Labor or CGT (Peronist-leaning umbrella labor organization); Peronist-dominated labor movement; Roman Catholic Church; students International organization AfDB, Australia Group, BCIE, BIS,
participation: CCC, ECLAC, FAO, G-6, G-15, G-19, G- 24, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur, MINURSO, MIPONUH, MTCR, NSG, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNMEE, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNMOP, UNMOVIC, UNTSO, UNU, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO, ZC Diplomatic representation in the US: chief of mission: Ambassador Diego Ramiro GUELAR chancery: 1600 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009 consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York FAX: [1] [phone] telephone: [1] [phone] Diplomatic representation from the chief of mission: Ambassador James
US: D. WALSH embassy: Avenida Colombia 4300, C1425GMN Buenos Aires mailing address: international mail: use street address; APO address: Unit 4334, APO AA 34034 telephone: [54] (11) 5777-4533 FAX: [54] (11) 5511-4240
Flag description: three equal horizontal bands of light blue (top), white, and light blue; centered in the white band is a radiant yellow sun with a human face known as the Sun of May Economy Argentina -
Economy - overview: Argentina benefits from rich natural resources, a highly literate population, an export-oriented agricultural sector, and a diversified industrial base. However, when President Carlos MENEM took office in 1989, the country had piled up huge external debts, inflation had reached 200% per month, and output was plummeting. To combat the economic crisis, the government embarked on a path of trade liberalization, deregulation, and privatization. In 1991, it implemented radical monetary reforms which pegged the peso to the US dollar and limited the growth in the monetary base by law to the growth in reserves. Inflation fell sharply in subsequent years. In 1995, the Mexican peso crisis produced capital flight, the loss of banking system deposits, and a severe, but short- lived, recession; a series of reforms to bolster the domestic banking system followed. Real GDP growth recovered strongly, reaching 8% in 1997. In 1998, international financial turmoil caused by Russia's problems and increasing investor anxiety over Brazil produced the highest domestic interest rates in more than three years, halving the growth rate of the economy. Conditions worsened in 1999 with GDP falling by 3%. President Fernando DE LA RUA, who took office in December 1999, sponsored tax increases and spending cuts to reduce the deficit, which had ballooned to 2.5% of GDP in 1999. Growth in 2000 was a negative 0.5%, as both domestic and foreign investors remained skeptical of the government's ability to pay debts and maintain the peso's fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. The economic situation worsened still further in 2001 with the widening of spreads on Argentine bonds, massive withdrawals from the banks, and a further decline in consumer and investor confidence. Government efforts to achieve a "zero deficit", to stabilize the banking system, and to restore economic growth proved inadequate in the face of the mounting economic problems. At the start of 2002, newly elected president Eduardo DUHALDE met with IMF officials to secure an additional $20 billion loan, but immediate action seemed unlikely. The peso's peg to the dollar was abandoned in January 2002, and the peso was floated from the dollar in February; inflation picked up rapidly.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $453 billion (2001 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: -4.6% (2001 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $12,000 (2001 est.) GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 6% industry: 28% services: 66% (2001 est.) Population below poverty line: 37% (2001 est.) Household income or consumption by lowest 10%: NA%
percentage share: highest 10%: NA% Inflation rate (consumer prices): 4% (2001 est.)
Labor force: 15 million (1999) Labor force - by occupation: agriculture NA%, industry NA%, services NA%
Unemployment rate: 25% (yearend 2001)
Budget: revenues: $44 billion expenditures: $48 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2000 est.)
Industries: food processing, motor vehicles, consumer durables, textiles, chemicals and petrochemicals, printing, metallurgy, steel Industrial production growth rate: 1% (2000 est.) Electricity - production: 82.802 billion kWh (2000) Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 51.81% hydro: 40.67% other: 0.29% (2000) nuclear: 7.23% Electricity - consumption: 80.806 billion kWh (2000)
Electricity - exports: 3.7 billion kWh (2000)
Electricity - imports: 7.5 billion kWh (2000)
Agriculture - products: sunflower seeds, lemons, soybeans, grapes, corn, tobacco, peanuts, tea, wheat; livestock
Exports: $26.5 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.)
Exports - commodities: edible oils, fuels and energy, cereals, feed, motor vehicles
Exports - partners: Brazil 26.5%, US 11.8%, Chile 10.6%, Spain 3.5% (2000)
Imports: $23.8 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.)
Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, metal manufactures, plastics
Imports - partners: Brazil 25.1%, US 18.7%, Germany 5%, China 4.6% (2000)
Debt - external: $155 billion (2001 est.) Economic aid - recipient: $10 billion (2001 est.)
Currency: Argentine peso (ARS)
Currency code: ARS
Exchange rates: Argentine pesos per US dollar - 1.33325 (January 2002), 1.000 (1997- 2001); note - fixed rate pegged to the US dollar was abandoned in January 2002; peso now floats
Fiscal year: calendar year Communications Argentina Telephones - main lines in use: 7.5 million (1998) Telephones - mobile cellular: 3 million (December 1999)
Telephone system: general assessment: by opening the telecommunications market to competition and foreign investment with the "Telecommunications Liberalization Plan of 1998", Argentina encouraged the growth of modern telecommunication technology; fiber-optic cable trunk lines are being installed between all major cities; the major networks are entirely digital and the availability of telephone service is being improved; however, telephone density is presently minimal, and making telephone service universally available will take some time domestic: microwave radio relay, fiber-optic cable, and a domestic satellite system with 40 earth stations serve the trunk network; more than 110,000 pay telephones are installed and mobile telephone use is rapidly expanding international: satellite earth stations - 8 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); Atlantis II and Unisur submarine cables; two international gateways near Buenos Aires (1999) Radio broadcast stations: AM 260 (including 10 inactive stations), FM NA (probably more than 1,000, mostly unlicensed), shortwave 6 (1998)
Radios: 24.3 million (1997) Television broadcast stations: 42 (plus 444 repeaters) (1997)
Televisions: 7.95 million (1997)
Internet country code: .ar Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 33 (2000)
Internet users: 3.88 million (2001) Transportation Argentina
Railways: total: 33,744 km (167 km electrified) broad gauge: 20,594 km 1.676-m gauge (141 km electrified) standard gauge: 2,739 km 1.435- m gauge (26 km electrified) narrow gauge: 10,154 km 1.000- m gauge; 257 km 0.750-m gauge (2000 est.)
Highways: total: 215,434 km paved: 63,553 km (including 734 km of expressways) unpaved: 151,881 km (1998 est.)
Waterways: 10,950 km
Pipelines: crude oil 4,090 km; petroleum products 2,900 km; natural gas 9,918 km
Ports and harbors: Bahia Blanca, Buenos Aires, Comodoro Rivadavia, Concepcion del Uruguay, La Plata, Mar del Plata, Necochea, Rio Gallegos, Rosario, Santa Fe, Ushuaia
Merchant marine: total: 24 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 147,505 GRT/222,500 DWT ships by type: cargo 9, petroleum tanker 10, railcar carrier 1, refrigerated cargo 2, roll on/roll off 1, short-sea passenger 1, includes some foreign-owned ships registered here as a flag of convenience: United Arab Emirates 1, Uruguay 1 (2002 est.)
Airports: 1,369 (2001) Airports - with paved runways: total: 144 over 3,047 m: 4 2,438 to 3,047 m: 26 1,524 to 2,437 m: 60 914 to 1,523 m: 45 under 914 m: 9 (2001) Airports - with unpaved runways: total: 1,225 over 3,047 m: 2 2,438 to 3,047 m: 2 1,524 to 2,437 m: 53 914 to 1,523 m: 598 under 914 m: 570 (2001) Military Argentina
Military branches: Argentine Army, Navy of the Argentine Republic (includes naval aviation and Marines), Coast Guard, Argentine Air Force, National Gendarmerie, National Aeronautical Police Force Military manpower - military age: 20 years of age (2002 est.) Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 9,521,633 (2002 est.) Military manpower - fit for military males age 15-49: 7,721,219 (2002
service: est.) Military manpower - reaching males: 335,085 (2002 est.)
military age annually: Military expenditures - dollar $4.3 billion (FY99)
figure: Military expenditures - percent of 1.3% (FY00)
GDP: Transnational Issues Argentina Disputes - international: claims UK-administered Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas); claims UK- administered South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; territorial claim in Antarctica partially overlaps British and Chilean claims
Illicit drugs: used as a transshipment country for cocaine headed for Europe and the US; increasing use as a money- laundering center; domestic consumption of drugs in urban centers is increasing

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officially Argentine Republic

Country, southern South America.

Area: 1,073,400 sq mi (2,780,092 sq km). Population (2002 est.): 36,446,000. Capital: Buenos Aires. The population is mostly of European ancestry, especially Spanish, but indigenous groups remain. Language: Spanish (official). Religion: Roman Catholicism (official). Currency: Argentine peso. Argentina can be divided into four general regions: the northeastern plains, the Pampas, Patagonia, and the Andes Mountains. The subtropical plains in the northeast are divided by the Paraná River into Mesopotamia to the east and Gran Chaco to the west and north. The Pampas, south and west of the Paraná, is one of the world's most productive agricultural areas and the country's most populous region. Patagonia lies south of the Colorado River. The Argentine Andes include the continent's highest peak, Mount Aconcagua. Argentina's hydrology is dominated by rivers that include the Paraná, Uruguay, and Pilcomayo, which drain into the Río de la Plata. Argentina has a developing economy based largely on manufacturing and agriculture; it is Latin America's largest exporter of beef and beef products. It is a republic with two legislative houses; the head of state and government is the president. Little is known of the indigenous population before the Europeans' arrival. The area was explored for Spain by Sebastian Cabot (1526–30); by 1580 Asunción, Santa Fe, and Buenos Aires had been settled. At first attached to the Viceroyalty of Peru (1620), it was later included with regions of modern Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, whose capital was Buenos Aires (1776). With the establishment of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in 1816, Argentina achieved its independence from Spain, but its boundaries were not set until the early 20th century. In 1943 the government was overthrown by the military; Col. Juan Perón took control in 1946. He in turn was overthrown in 1955. He returned in 1973 after two decades of turmoil. His second wife, Isabel, became president on his death in 1974 but lost power after another military coup in 1976. The military government tried to take the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) in 1982 but was defeated by the British in the Falkland Islands War, with the result that the government returned to civilian rule in 1983. The government of Raúl Alfonsín worked to end the human rights abuses that characterized the former regimes. Hyperinflation, however, led to public riots and Alfonsín's electoral defeat in 1989; his Peronist successor, Carlos Menem, instituted laissez-faire economic policies. In 1999 Fernando de la Rúa of the Alliance coalition was elected president, and his administration struggled with rising unemployment, heavy foreign debt, and government corruption.

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▪ 2009

Area:

2,780,403 sq km (1,073,520 sq mi)

Population

(2008 est.): 39,737,000

Capital:

Buenos Aires

Head of state:

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

      Argentine Pres. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner began her second month in office in January 2008 with high public-opinion approval ratings (in the low 50th percentile), a large and disciplined majority in the Senate (48 of 72 seats) and Chamber of Deputies (155 of 257 seats), the support of 20 of the country's 24 governors, and an iron control (in concert with her political partner and husband, former president Néstor Kirchner [2003–07]) of the governing Justicialist Party (also referred to as the Peronist party). Her political honeymoon was to be short-lived, however.

      On March 11 Minister of Economy Martín Lousteau introduced administrative Resolution 125/2008, which modified tax rates and regulations governing Argentina's principal export crop, soybeans and soy-related products. Participants in the country's agricultural sector—increasingly resentful of what they viewed as the national government's excessive taxation, price controls, and arbitrary interference in the sector's business practices—banded together to protest the modifications, particularly the imposition of a dramatic tax increase and a virtual ceiling placed on future profits. Never before had Argentina's disparate agricultural producers, ranging from large landowners and multinational corporations to small-scale farmers, joined in such a unified manner to oppose national government policy.

      The four-month conflict between the government and the agricultural sector included roadblocks by the agricultural producers and resulted in food shortages in the urban centres; government negotiations with the agricultural organizations eventually reached an impasse. Meanwhile, a bill that was drafted by the government in June to pass into law Resolution 125/2008 came to a formal vote on July 17 in the Senate, where 36 senators approved the measure and 36 senators, including many Peronists, rejected it. The tie was broken by Argentine Vice Pres. Julio Cobos, who voted against the bill.

      This crushing defeat in the Senate represented the first important political setback for Kirchner and Fernández de Kirchner in their five years in power. The government that emerged on July 17 at the end of this political conflict with the agricultural sector was much weaker than the one that existed prior to March 11. Between March and July, President Fernández de Kirchner saw her public-approval ratings plummet to less than half of their January values, her (and her husband's) control over Peronism weaken (with numerous prominent Peronists now actively challenging her administration), and her relationship with Cobos become irrevocably damaged.

      In addition to difficulties in the political realm, Argentina also faced serious economic challenges. These included an annual inflation rate of about 25% (an estimate by independent sources; the national and international community no longer considered the government-calculated inflation rate credible) and a decelerating economic growth rate of 7% (with a 5% growth rate projected for 2009). In an effort to spur foreign investment, President Fernández de Kirchner announced in September that Argentina would begin paying back the country's overdue loans from the Paris Club of creditor nations.

Mark P. Jones

▪ 2008

Area:

2,780,403 sq km (1,073,520 sq mi)

Population

(2007 est.): 39,531,000

Capital:

Buenos Aires

Head of state:

Presidents Néstor Kirchner and, from December 10, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

      On Oct. 28, 2007, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Fernandez de Kirchner, Cristina ) became the first woman in Argentina's history to be directly elected president. In July her husband, Pres. Néstor Kirchner, decided not to seek reelection to another four-year term and instead nominated Fernández de Kirchner as the governing Front for Victory's presidential candidate.

      Fernández de Kirchner handily won the election with 45% of the popular vote, nearly double that of her closest competitor, former national deputy Elisa Carrió of the Civic Coalition, who tallied 23%. The presidential field was rounded out by former economy minister Roberto Lavagna (17%), San Luis Gov. Alberto Rodríguez Saá (8%), former national deputy Fernando (“Pino”) Solanas (2%), and nine other candidates who combined garnered 6%. Fernández de Kirchner was the plurality winner in 21 of Argentina's 23 provinces, losing only to Lavagna in Córdoba and to Rodríguez Saá in San Luis; she also lost to Carrió in the federal capital district.

      Elections to renew 130 of the 257 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 24 of the 72 seats in the Senate were held concurrently with the presidential contest. The Front for Victory and allied parties supporting the candidacy of Fernández de Kirchner won 83 Chamber and 16 Senate seats. The largest opposition group (the Civic Coalition and its allies supporting the Carrió candidacy) claimed 23 Chamber and 4 Senate seats. The Radical Civic Union (UCR), historically the country's second largest party, won only 11 Chamber and 2 Senate seats. The five sitting UCR governors—including Mendoza Gov. Julio Cobos, who won the vice presidency—broke with the national UCR leadership (which backed Lavagna) and supported Fernández de Kirchner's candidacy.

      Fernández de Kirchner thus assumed office on December 10 with ample majorities in both the Chamber and the Senate (where the Front for Victory and allied parties controlled a total of 155 and 48 seats, respectively). She was expected to have no difficulty in the immediate future in obtaining the passage of her legislative program, which included initiatives to address poverty and increase infrastructure investment. The opposition was left extremely fragmented at the national level.

      The Argentine economy experienced robust growth during the year, with GDP increasing by 8%. Optimism regarding the growth rate was tempered by mounting inflationary pressures, however. In January the Kirchner government intervened in the operation of the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC), reportedly manipulating the calculation of the inflation rate in order to keep the official figure artificially low. Few observers considered the INDEC inflation statistics to be credible. Independent estimates of Argentina's inflation rate placed it at approximately 20% for 2007, and there were concerns that it could rise even higher in 2008.

Mark P. Jones

▪ 2007

Area:

2,780,403 sq km (1,073,520 sq mi)

Population

(2006 est.): 38,971,000

Capital:

Buenos Aires

Head of state:

President Néstor Kirchner

      In 2006 Pres. Néstor Kirchner continued to consolidate his hold on power in Argentina, with his reelection to a second four-year term a nearly foregone conclusion 10 months prior to the October 2007 presidential contest. As had been the case since Kirchner assumed office in 2003, GDP growth in 2006 was robust (8.5%), while unemployment dropped to around 10%. In large part because of his success on the economic front, Kirchner enjoyed very high levels of popular support, with 60% of the population having a positive opinion of him and only 10% holding a negative view.

      Kirchner's Front for Victory alliance and its congressional allies (Federal Peronist and others) provided the president with an absolute majority of the seats in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. This large and loyal majority passed all major legislation desired by Kirchner, including a law that allowed him unilaterally to modify any aspect of the annual budget. Furthermore, owing primarily to Kirchner's control of the federal purse strings, all but 3 of Argentina's 23 powerful governors, including 5 of the 6 governors who belonged to the opposition Radical Civic Union, publicly supported Kirchner's reelection bid.

      During 2006 the Argentine government's intervention in the economy increased, with formal and informal price controls and export restrictions (on beef, dairy, and petroleum products) designed to rein in inflation becoming commonplace. Inflation reached 10%, however, and these controls and restrictions resulted in a decline in productive investment that would constrain the country's ability to maintain high economic growth rates in the future. In particular, there were heightened fears that Argentina would experience serious energy shortages as a direct consequence of the lack of private investment in the electricity, natural-gas, and oil sectors.

      The combination of Argentina's robust economic growth (expected to continue in 2007), the fragmented and weakened status of the political opposition, and the growing role of the government in the economy (which had resulted in a reluctance among business leaders, including the media, either to criticize the government or to support opposition politicians) made it extremely likely that President Kirchner would be reelected in 2007. Public-opinion polls registered vote intentions for Kirchner as high as 60%, a full four to five times greater than that of his closest competitors, National Deputy Mauricio Macri and former economics minister Roberto Lavagna.

 During 2006 Argentina established closer ties with Venezuela, a major buyer of Argentine debt as well as an increasingly important trade partner. Relations with neighbouring Uruguay were under constant strain in 2006 owing to public opposition in Gualeguaychu, Arg., to two paper mills being constructed across the river in Fray Bentos, Uruguay. Protesters, who feared that the mills would pollute the Argentine side of the Uruguay River, severely restricted road access to Uruguay early in the year, with devastating results for the Uruguayan tourism industry. One mill announced in September that it would either move to another location or abandon Uruguay.

Mark P. Jones

▪ 2006

Area:

2,780,092 sq km (1,073,400 sq mi)

Population

(2005 est.): 38,592,000

Capital:

Buenos Aires

Head of state:

President Néstor Kirchner

      In 2005 Pres. Néstor Kirchner of the Justicialist (Peronist) Party (PJ) greatly consolidated his dominance over the country's political system. Kirchner, elected in 2003 with the support of then president Eduardo Duhalde—at the time the undisputed boss of the PJ in the province of Buenos Aires (PBA)—had maintained a tacit alliance with Duhalde under which the former president supported Kirchner in national-level affairs and Kirchner did not interfere with politics in the PBA. Chafing at the continued power wielded by Duhalde, Kirchner broke with him and challenged Duhalde's party machine in the PBA in the October 23 midterm elections.

      Kirchner's challenge proved to be very successful. The PBA Senate race was the marquee battle of the day. The race featured Kirchner's spouse, Sen. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, running under the Front for Victory banner against Duhalde's spouse, former congressional deputy Hilda (“Chiche”) González de Duhalde, of the Justicialist Front. “Cristina” soundly defeated “Chiche” by a margin of 46% to 20%, which thereby strengthened Kirchner's control of the PJ at the national level and in the PBA and severely weakened Duhalde politically.

      Throughout the country members of the governing PJ ran on numerous party lists, often competing among themselves (for instance, in many provinces a pro-Kirchner faction competed as the Front for Victory and an anti-Kirchner or neutral PJ faction as either the official PJ or using a province-specific name). The PJ (including a handful of non-Peronists placed on the Peronist lists at Kirchner's behest as well as a handful of anti-Kirchner Peronists) won 21 of the 24 Senate seats and 78 of the 127 Chamber seats. A very fragmented non-Peronist opposition won the remaining seats. The Radical Civic Union garnered the 3 other Senate seats as well as 21 Chamber seats. Only two other parties won 5 or more seats in the Chamber: Affirmation for an Equitable Republic and Republican Proposal, each of which won 9 seats.

      Argentina enjoyed robust growth in 2005 as the economy benefited from elevated world prices for the country's principal agricultural and mineral exports, a booming industrial sector (aided by a purposefully undervalued peso), and a high level of consumer confidence. While the country's GDP grew by 9% during the year, Argentina's economic future was uncertain. Investors remained reluctant to invest in medium- and long-term projects for a host of reasons, including the prospect of energy shortages in 2006 and beyond, the government's frequent failure to respect legal contracts and negotiate in good faith, the government's often hostile treatment of foreign (in particular) and domestic companies, and a rising inflation rate (12% in 2005).

Mark P. Jones

▪ 2005

Area:

2,780,092 sq km (1,073,400 sq mi)

Population

(2004 est.): 39,145,000

Capital:

Buenos Aires

Head of state:

President Néstor Kirchner

      January 2004 marked the two-year anniversary of Argentina's historic economic and political collapse. Compared with the dark days of December 2001 and January 2002, the Argentine economy and political system functioned quite well throughout 2004. Nevertheless, the use of different benchmarks, particularly economic ones, suggested that serious issues still existed, and many people remained pessimistic about the country's future despite the positive climate.

      The Argentine economy experienced robust growth in 2004, fueled by the success of the agricultural sector (particularly soybean exports), increased local industrial production as consumers substituted locally manufactured products for imports (which were now prohibitively expensive, owing to the three-to-one exchange rate with the U.S. dollar), and the boom experienced by the construction sector. Though this growth began to slow during the second semester, the country's GDP increased by a healthy 8% in 2004. At the same time, the inflation rate was a tolerable 6%.

      Throughout the year Pres. Néstor Kirchner of the Justicialist (Peronist) Party (PJ) consolidated his power and enjoyed the support of strong PJ majorities in both houses of the national congress. Though Kirchner was unable to marginalize his principal political rival— former president Eduardo Duhalde, leader of the PJ in the province of Buenos Aires—he was able to establish a tacit truce with Duhalde that allowed him to govern effectively.

      Kirchner's failure to address several underlying economic and social problems raised serious concerns about Argentina's future. After having defaulted unilaterally 36 months earlier on its debt, Argentina had yet to come to an agreement with its creditors, a majority of whom believed that Argentina was not negotiating in good faith. Until some type of acceptable agreement was reached, foreign (as well as domestic) investment in Argentina was likely to be modest, which would thereby threaten the country's ability to maintain its current level of economic growth. At year's end the prospects for an agreement in 2005 appeared increasingly likely. The Argentine government's hostile (and at times illegal) treatment of the privatized utility companies (most of which were owned by foreign capital) had resulted in an almost complete lack of investment in energy exploration, generation, and transportation, which in turn led to electricity and natural-gas shortages during the year. These shortages could become more severe in 2005 and 2006, particularly if weather conditions proved unfavourable.

      Argentina's relationship with the International Monetary Fund became increasingly conflictive in 2004, owing to Argentina's debt and utilities-related problems as well as to the Kirchner government's failure to pass legislation that would reform the banking sector and provide restitution (stemming from the 2002 devaluation) to the banks. The government's failure to reform the federal revenue-sharing system (i.e., the rules governing the fiscal relationship between the national government and the provincial governments) also complicated its relationship with the IMF.

       Crime also emerged as an extremely salient issue for the Argentine public during the year, with mounting popular pressure on Kirchner to adopt a harder line toward criminals. Though Kirchner at first resisted these demands, his declining public-approval ratings during the third quarter led to a government crackdown on many forms of criminal behaviour (especially chaotic, and often violent, street protests). The Kirchner government had only minimal success in its efforts to reduce crime, particularly in stemming the growing wave of kidnappings that plagued the Buenos Aires metropolitan area.

Mark P. Jones

▪ 2004

Area:

2,780,092 sq km (1,073,400 sq mi)

Population

(2003 est.): 36,846,000

Capital:

Buenos Aires

Head of state:

Presidents Eduardo Duhalde and, from May 25, Néstor Kirchner

      Following the political, economic, and social chaos experienced in 2002, the year 2003 was one of relative stabilization and normalization in Argentina. Néstor Kirchner (see Biographies (Kirchner, Nestor )) was elected president; the economy began to grow again; and the level of social tension dropped.

      In the political arena, the first round of presidential elections was held on April 27. The election date had been switched several times by interim president Eduardo Duhalde as part of his master plan to impede the election of former president Carlos Menem (1989–99); both Duhalde and Menem belonged to the Justicialist (Peronist) Party (PJ). Certain that Menem would win if the party held a primary, the PJ did not select one presidential candidate as originally planned. Instead, three different candidates ran under the PJ label: Menem, Santa Cruz governor Kirchner (Duhalde's handpicked candidate), and former interim president Adolfo Rodríguez Saá.

      Two former members of the country's second largest party, the Radical Civic Union (UCR), ran as candidates of their own personal parties, Elisa Carrió (a national deputy from Chaco) and Ricardo López Murphy (a cabinet minister in the government of Pres. Fernando de la Rúa, 1999–2001). Thirteen other candidates, including the official UCR candidate, Leopoldo Moreau, also competed.

      On April 27 Menem finished first with 24.5% of the valid vote, followed by Kirchner (22.2%), López Murphy (16.4%), Rodríguez Saá (14.1%), Carrió (14.1%), and Moreau (2.3%). Since no candidate surpassed the threshold needed to win in the first round, a second-round runoff between Menem and Kirchner was scheduled for May 18. The week prior to this election, however, Menem—under pressure from many of his supporters who realized that he had little chance of victory—withdrew from the runoff, which resulted in Kirchner's victory by default. On May 25 Kirchner assumed the presidency; his term in office was to run until Dec. 10, 2007.

      Every two years Argentina renewed one-half of its Chamber of Deputies and one-third of its Senate. Though the presidential election was held on April 27, only 7 of the 130 Chamber seats (out of 257) and none of the 24 Senate seats (out of 72) were determined on April 27. The elections for the remaining seats (as well as 20 of the 24 governorships) were held between June 8 and November 23, with every province responsible for scheduling its own elections. By the end of this period, the PJ had increased its dominance in the Chamber of Deputies (131 seats) and the Senate (41 seats) as well as at the provincial level (16 governorships). A weakened UCR remained the country's only other relevant political force, with 47 deputies, 16 senators, and 6 governors.

      President Kirchner spent the first seven months of his administration attempting to consolidate his power by taking actions that were popular with the general public. These measures included annulling restrictions on the extradition of military officers accused of having committed human rights abuses during the 1976–83 military dictatorship, attacking unpopular institutions such as the Supreme Court and the privately run utility companies, and resisting IMF pressure on Argentina to implement fiscally sound policies, policies that nonetheless would entail significant short-term costs for much of the Argentine citizenry.

      In the economic arena, the free fall Argentina had experienced since 2001 finally stopped, and the economy began to stabilize and grow again. During 2003 GDP increased by 6%, and the inflation rate was a mere 3%. In spite of these positive indicators, serious unresolved issues such as reform in the banking sector, utility price increases, a lack of governmental respect for the rule of law, and Argentina's considerable foreign and domestic debt (much of which was in default) continued to represent serious obstacles to increased growth and development. These issues exercised a chilling effect on most forms of foreign and domestic investment (except in a few select areas) as well as on consumer spending.

      In the social arena, the number and intensity of popular protests dropped significantly in 2003. In particular, following Kirchner's assumption of office in May, Argentines became much more positive about their personal situation as well as more optimistic about the country's future. This positive national mood was reflected in the reduced level of protest as well as in the very high public approval ratings (generally above 75%) enjoyed by President Kirchner.

      Kirchner's foreign-policy agenda marked a break with that in place during the previous dozen years. It involved a greater level of coordination and stronger ties with neighbour Brazil and attempts to revitalize Mercosur (the Common Market of the South). President Kirchner also fostered improved diplomatic relations with Latin America's more radical leaders: Presidents Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. In contrast, relations with the United States and traditional European allies Italy and Spain became much cooler than in the recent past.

Mark P. Jones

▪ 2003

Area:

2,780,092 sq km (1,073,400 sq mi)

Population

(2002 est.): 36,446,000

Capital:

Buenos Aires

Head of state:

Presidents Eduardo Camaño (acting) and, from January 2, Eduardo Duhalde

      In 2002 Argentina experienced an economic collapse of proportions nearly unheard-of when a war or major natural disaster was not involved. The country's gross domestic product fell by 15% (for a cumulative drop of 21% since the current recession began in 1998). Inflation increased from an average annual rate of 1% during the previous eight years to nearly 50% in 2002. The country's currency (the peso), which between 1991 and 2001 had been equal in value to the U.S. dollar (under the country's Convertibility Law, which pegged the peso to the dollar), was by October worth only 27 cents. The percentage of the population that was unemployed reached a record 22%, while the percentage that was underemployed totaled 19%. Finally, by September more than half of the country's population (53%) was living below the poverty line.

      Following Pres. Fernando de la Rúa's resignation in December 2001 and the subsequent resignation of interim president Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, Eduardo Duhalde was elected president on January 1 by a joint session of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate to complete the remainder of de la Rúa's term, which was to run until Dec. 10, 2003. At the time of his election, Duhalde was a senator from the province of Buenos Aires. He had been governor of the province of Buenos Aires between 1991 and 1999 and was the Justicialist (Peronist) Party (PJ) candidate for president in 1999 (finishing second behind de la Rúa).

      Upon assuming office on January 2, Duhalde was faced with the unenviable tasks of reducing the considerable social tensions that had brought about de la Rúa's resignation, restoring investor and consumer confidence, and in general repairing the massive damage to the economy that had occurred during the disastrous tenure of de la Rúa's final economy minister, Domingo Cavallo.

      The most important policy change implemented during Duhalde's first three months in office was the forced conversion of all dollar bank accounts into peso accounts (at a rate of 1.4 pesos to the dollar) combined with a nearly complete freeze on bank accounts (which prevented most withdrawals). Second in importance was the end of the Convertibility Law and the ensuing devaluation of the peso (which by October was trading at 3.7 to the dollar).

      A consequence of these two policy changes was that nearly one million Argentines with savings accounts or certificates of deposit saw the value of their money drop by between 60% and 70%, while all citizens and companies with dollar-dominated debt abroad faced the nearly impossible task of repaying that debt. At the same time, owing to the country's unilateral default on its debt (declared during the brief Rodríguez Saá administration in December 2001) and the collapse of the country's banking system, the government as well as most companies and individuals found it nearly impossible to obtain credit at anything other than exorbitant interest rates (if credit was even to be found). On December 2 the freeze on most bank accounts was lifted.

      Throughout 2002 the Duhalde administration and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held a series of meetings in an attempt to reach a new agreement that would allow Argentina to restructure its debt with the IMF as well as to receive new funds for economic and political restructuring. By year's end no agreement had been reached, but the Group of Seven gave its backing to Argentina in late December in an effort to help stimulate the resumption of IMF talks. In November Argentina defaulted on its $805 million loan with the World Bank.

      Experiencing little success during his first six months in office and faced with stubborn economic and social difficulties, in July Duhalde called for new presidential elections on March 30, 2003, with the new president to assume office on May 25, 2003 (six and a half months prior to the originally scheduled date).

      There was no clear front-runner for the March 2003 presidential election, however. The most noteworthy result of a review of six public opinion surveys in September–October was that over one-third of all citizens supported none of the candidates running for the office. Furthermore, the person most highly regarded by the electorate, Carlos Reutemann (governor of Santa Fe), adamantly refused to run for president.

      Another noteworthy result gleaned from these surveys was the low percentages of prospective votes for even the most prominent candidates. The front-runner was Adolfo Rodríguez Saá (governor of San Luis between 1983 and 2001 and president for a week in 2001) with 18%, followed by former president Carlos Menem (1989–99) with 12% and national deputy Elisa Carrio with 11%. The remaining relevant candidates were Néstor Kirchner (governor of Santa Cruz) with 9% and Ricardo López Murphy (a government minister during much of the de la Rúa administration) with 7%.

      Though the PJ had tentatively scheduled its presidential primary for Jan. 19, 2003, by December 2002 bitter PJ infighting over the proposed date resulted in the matter being sent to the courts. It remained unclear if all the PJ candidates (Rodríguez Saá, Menem, and Kirchner, along with the governor of Córdoba, José Manuel de la Sota) would participate in the primary.

Mark P. Jones

▪ 2002

Area:

2,780,092 sq km (1,073,400 sq mi)

Population

(2001 est.): 37,487,000

Capital:

Buenos Aires

Head of state:

Presidents Fernando de la Rúa, assisted by Ministerial Coordinator Chrystian Colombo, Ramón Puerta (acting) from December 21, Adolfo Rodríguez Saá (interim) from December 23 until December 30, and, acting from December 31 Eduardo Camaño

      In 2001 the Argentine recession entered its fourth year, with the embattled government of Pres. Fernando de la Rúa under mounting political and social pressure. The country's gross domestic product shrank by 3%; consumer prices dropped 1%; and the unemployment rate increased from an already high 15% to 17%.

      Owing to his inability to reverse the country's continued economic decline, Minister of Economy José Luis Machinea resigned in March. He was replaced by Ricardo López Murphy. López Murphy's economic reform plan, designed to reduce the fiscal deficit and restore economic growth, was, however, deemed too extreme (especially the spending cuts it entailed) by the moderate and progressive wings of the governing Alliance. López Murphy resigned after only two weeks in office.

      De la Rúa replaced López Murphy with Domingo Cavallo. (See Biographies (Cavallo, Domingo ).) Cavallo was former president Carlos Saúl Menem's minister of economy between 1991 and 1996 and was, along with Menem (who in June was placed under house arrest owing to corruption charges but was freed in November), the co-architect of the country's impressive economic turnaround in the early 1990s. As a member of Menem's cabinet, Cavallo had been widely criticized, if not demonized, by a large majority of the members of the Alliance (then in the opposition). His reappointment by de la Rúa provoked considerable discontent among virtually all of the members of the Alliance's junior partner, the Front for a Country in Solidarity (Frepaso), as well as among a substantial portion of the Alliance's senior partner, the Radical Civic Union (UCR), the party of de la Rúa.

      Once in office, Cavallo immediately launched a series of important, albeit piecemeal, economic reforms. These included implementing a tax on bank transactions, extending the value-added tax to previously exempt activities, and modifying the country's 1991 Convertibility Law. By July it was clear that Cavallo's reforms had been ineffective, with a lack of investor confidence pushing interest rates to such a level that the external credit market was, for all intents and purposes, closed to Argentina. In a move designed to restore investor confidence and obtain additional external financial support, principally from the International Monetary Fund, Cavallo introduced a “zero deficit law,” which was approved by Congress in late July. The law stipulated that Argentine government expenditures equal government revenues, with deficit spending prohibited. As a result, the government had to reduce its expenditures to keep them in line with revenues. During the third quarter this adherence resulted in a 13% reduction in government employee salaries and pensions and a considerable cutback in government purchases of goods and services.

      The combination of 39 months of recession and the fallout from the implementation of the zero deficit law did not augur well for de la Rúa and the Alliance in the October 14 midterm elections. In these elections the entire 72-member Senate (the first direct Senate election since 1973) was renewed along with one-half of the Chamber of Deputies. De la Rúa's UCR, the remnants of Frepaso, and a few minor parties presented a joint Alliance list of candidates in 16 provinces, while in the remaining 8 provinces the UCR and Frepaso ran separately. The Alliance-UCR and Frepaso received a strong rebuke at the polls, garnering a meager 23% of the popular vote in the Chamber election (down from 44% in 1999) and an equally scant 24% in the Senate election. The principal opposition Justicialist Party (PJ) won 37% (up from 32%) and 40% of the Chamber and Senate vote, respectively.

      In spite of the Alliance's dismal showing in the popular vote, owing to a combination of the rules governing the direct election of senators (two for the plurality winner and one for the first runner-up in each province) and the previous mode of Senate election (by provincial legislatures), the Alliance increased its Senate representation from 23 to 26. Likewise, while its number of Chamber seats won (35) represented a considerable drop from 1999 (63), the Alliance still remained a substantial force in the Chamber with 88 seats total. The PJ retained its majority in the Senate, winning 40 seats, while improving its presence in the Chamber by winning 65 seats (up from 50 in 1999) for a total of 116.

      In the fourth quarter the continuing economic decline sparked a political crisis. Antigovernment protesters rioted in the capital in late December, and Cavallo resigned on December 20. After President de la Rúa unsuccessfully attempted to patch up his shaky coalition by appealing to the opposition Peronist Party to join a government of national unity, he also resigned on the 20th. On December 23 Adolfo Rodríguez Saá was installed as interim president, and that same day he suspended payment on the country's $132 billion debt. The rioting continued, however, and Saá was forced to resign on December 30 after he was unable to secure political support from his party.

Mark P. Jones

▪ 2001

Area:

2,780,092 sq km (1,073,400 sq mi)

Population

(2000 est.): 37,032,000

Capital:

Buenos Aires

Head of state:

President Fernando de la Rúa, assisted by Ministerial Coordinator Chrystian Colombo

      On Dec. 10, 1999, Fernando de la Rúa assumed office as president of Argentina, marking the end of Carlos Saúl Menem's 10-year tenure. The Alliance (composed of de la Rúa's Radical Civic Union [UCR], the Front for a Country in Solidarity [Frepaso], and several smaller parties) held a plurality of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies but remained a minority in the Senate, where Menem's Justicialist Party (PJ; also known as the Peronist Party) continued to hold an absolute majority.

      The de la Rúa administration inherited a larger-than-expected fiscal deficit as well as a country immersed in a nearly year-and-a-half-long recession. The government's first major policy initiative was a significant tax increase in late December 1999, which, among other things, raised the sales tax on selected consumer goods and services—for example, soft drinks, mineral water, champagne, cellular phone calls, new cars, interurban bus transport—and increased the income tax rate for the wealthiest segment of the population. For example, while those workers earning $2,000 or less a month were unaffected by the tax hike, those earning $3,500 a month suffered a nearly 200% increase.

      The only noteworthy electoral contest in 2000 was the May 7 mayoral election in Buenos Aires. In this election the Alliance's Aníbal Ibarra (Frepaso) handily defeated Domingo Cavallo, the candidate supported by Cavallo's Action for the Republic, Gustavo Beliz's New Leadership, and a large number of Peronists. Ibarra garnered 49% of the vote to Cavallo's 33%, and Cavallo withdrew from a scheduled runoff election. The Alliance's share of seats in the Buenos Aires legislature fell, however, from 62% to 40%.

      On May 11 the de la Rúa administration obtained the passage of an important labour law reform designed to reduce the costs associated with hiring (and firing) workers in Argentina. In August this legislative victory came back to haunt the government as allegations emerged that senior government officials had bribed several PJ and UCR senators to obtain the law's passage.

      At the end of May, under increasing fiscal pressure, the de la Rúa government announced an important budget cut consisting primarily of a 12% salary reduction for national government public employees earning a monthly salary between $1,000 and $6,500 (15% for those earning above $6,500). The legislation also included other measures such as voluntary early retirement for national public employees and the reduction of some specific federal pensions; because of legal complications as well as political pressure, most of the pension reductions were not carried out. In December the International Monetary Fund announced that it would assist Argentina in reducing its rising debt burden by promising an aid package of up to $39.7 billion.

      August, September, and October brought additional bad news for the government as the May unemployment figures were released, the government and independent economists revised their economic growth projections for 2000, and the vice president resigned. The unemployment rate in May was 15.4%, up from 13.8% in October 1999 and 14.5% in May 1999. At the same time, the country had yet to emerge from its recession, with estimates of the 2000 gross domestic product growth rate falling from a January high of 4% to between 0.5% and 1% in October. The projected annual inflation rate was –1%. In October Vice President Carlos (“Chacho”) Alvarez, a Frepaso leader, abruptly resigned due in part to disagreements with the direction of the de la Rúa government. In a national poll conducted by MORI Argentina in September, 43% of those surveyed considered unemployment to be the number one problem facing the country, followed by corruption (29%), the recession (9%), education (9%), and crime (3%).

      Argentina continued to have disagreements with Brazil related to auto production within the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur) as well as over the import/export of specific agricultural products such as chicken and sugar. Argentina's dispute with the U.S. over pharmaceutical patents was sent to the World Trade Organization and thus was not a subject of bilateral discussion for most of the year. In June President de la Rúa made an official visit to the U.S., where he met with Pres. Bill Clinton. In July a new U.S. ambassador finally arrived in Argentina; the office had been vacant since December 1996, much to the dismay of most Argentine officials.

      Despite the fact that the 2003 presidential election was more than three years away, by mid-2000 the most prominent PJ candidates (José Manuel de la Sota, governor of Córdoba; Carlos Reutemann, governor of Santa Fe; and Carlos Ruckauf, governor of Buenos Aires) were already jockeying for position within the party and among the electorate. Although none of the three had attained status as the favourite, de la Sota benefited from the success thus far of his innovative economic program in Córdoba, while Ruckauf enjoyed a very positive public image as well as governed the country's largest province.

Mark P. Jones

▪ 2000

Area:

2,780,092 sq km (1,073,400 sq mi)

Population

(1999 est.): 36,578,000

Capital:

Buenos Aires

Head of state and government:

President Carlos Saúl Menem and, from December 10, Fernando de la Rúa; assisted by Ministerial Coordinator Jorge Rodríguez

      Carlos Menem's 10-year tenure as Argentine president ended on Dec. 10, 1999. Menem was constitutionally prohibited from seeking reelection; nevertheless, he spent the first half of 1999 attempting to clear the constitutional and political obstacles preventing him from seeking a third term. Menem was driven primarily by a desire to maintain control of his Justicialist Party (PJ; also known as the Peronist Party). He faced a stiff challenge within the PJ by fellow Peronist Eduardo Duhalde, the outgoing provincial governor of Buenos Aires and a presidential candidate. Each scored victories in early 1999, such as Menem's success in postponing the PJ presidential primary from May until July and Duhalde's achievement of an alliance with former Tucumán governor Ramón (“Palito”) Ortega, who became Duhalde's vice presidential candidate. Only in May, after Menem's standard-bearer in the Buenos Aires PJ gubernatorial primary was soundly defeated by Duhalde's candidate, did Menem desist in his reelection efforts.

      The opposition Alliance (composed of the Radical Civic Union [UCR], the Front for a Country in Solidarity [Frepaso], and several smaller parties) chose its presidential candidate in a November 1998 primary. Buenos Aires Mayor Fernando de la Rúa (UCR) won 64% of the vote, defeating Frepaso's Graciela Fernández Meijide (36%). Under a UCR-Frepaso preprimary agreement, Frepaso named the Alliance's vice presidential candidate, selecting Carlos (“Chacho”) Álvarez.

      In late May Duhalde enjoyed a surge in the opinion polls following his slate's victory in the Buenos Aires primary, obtaining a statistical tie with de la Rúa. By late July, however, owing in part to Menem's attempted sabotage of his candidacy and de la Rúa's error-free campaign, Duhalde trailed de la Rúa by 10–15% in polls. Duhalde was unable to close this gap during the campaign's final three months.

      On October 24 de la Rúa was elected president with 49% of the vote. Duhalde took 38%, while former economy minister Domingo Cavallo won 10%. De la Rúa assumed office on December 10.

      In the simultaneous partial renovation of the Chamber of Deputies, the Alliance won 65 seats, the PJ 50, and other parties 15. As of December 10, the Alliance held 126 of the Chamber's 257 seats, the PJ 101, and other parties 30. In the Senate the PJ continued to possess an absolute majority of the seats (39), the Alliance 25, and other parties 6. In addition to the strong legislative opposition facing de la Rúa, 15 of the country's 23 governors were PJ (including those of the three largest provinces), while only 7 belonged to the Alliance. Finally, de la Rúa faced a Supreme Court dominated by Menem appointees.

      The Brazilian economic crisis, uncertainty engendered by the election campaign, and the government's failure to enact a series of important secondary reforms adversely affected the Argentine economy in 1999. In contrast to the 3.9% gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate for 1998, the negative first- and second-quarter GDP growth rates of −3% and −4.9%, respectively, signaled a worsening economic situation that was not expected to rebound until early 2000. The unemployment rate in August was 14.5%, up from 12.4% in October 1998.

      At the end of the first quarter, Argentina's trade deficit was 22.1% less than that during the same period in 1998, a situation that stemmed primarily from a substantial drop in imports. The Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur) continued as Argentina's largest export market (29.5%), followed by the European Union (22.1%) and the North American Free Trade Agreement countries (12.9%).

      Inflation remained extremely low in 1999, with a projected inflation rate of between –1% and –2%. In January Menem attempted to deepen Argentina's convertibility plan (under which the Argentine peso is pegged to the U.S. dollar), proposing that Argentina adopt the U.S. dollar as its currency. This proposal was roundly criticized by the opposition as well as by many Peronists and received only a tepid reception from U.S. government officials. By the end of the year, dollarization had been largely forgotten.

      Argentina's relations with two of its Mercosur partners deteriorated during 1999. Relations with Paraguay were strained by Argentina's refusal to extradite Lino Oviedo, a former general and prominent politician accused of masterminding the 1999 assassination of Paraguayan Vice Pres. Luís María Argaña Ferraro. (See Obituaries. (Argana Ferraro, Luis Maria )) Relations with Brazil remained tense over trade issues and frequent violations of Mercosur rules by both countries. On a more positive note, Argentina reached an agreement with the United Kingdom in July under which Argentine citizens could henceforth travel to the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas. Since the unsuccessful 1982 Argentine invasion of the Falklands, only relatives of fallen Argentine soldiers had been able to visit the islands.

Mark P. Jones

▪ 1999

      Area: 2,780,092 sq km (1,073,400 sq mi)

      Population (1998 est.): 36,125,000

      Capital: Buenos Aires

      Head of state and government: President Carlos Saúl Menem, assisted by Ministerial Coordinator Jorge Rodríguez

      The administration of Pres. Carlos Menem was in its next-to-last year in 1998, with Menem's term due to expire in early December 1999 and presidential elections (along with those for half of the Chamber of Deputies) due to be held during the previous two months (probably in October 1999). Despite the relatively long time remaining before the vote, 1998 from the outset was dominated in the political sphere by electoral considerations.

      In January the list of presidential candidates was led by Graciela Fernández Meijide of the Frepaso coalition, with more than one-third of the votes in opinion surveys. Fernando de la Rúa, the mayor of Buenos Aires and Meijide's rival from within the electoral Alliance formed between Frepaso and the Radical Civic Union (UCR) in August 1997, was in second place. The tables turned, however, following a very strong showing by de la Rúa in the November 29 primary election. Leading candidates from the ruling Justicialist National Movement (Peronist Party) included Eduardo Duhalde (governor of Buenos Aires province), Ramón Ortega (former governor of Tucumán province), and Menem.

      Efforts to secure changes in the electoral and constitutional rules to permit Menem to run for a third consecutive term were prominent during the first half of the year. On March 19 the national electoral tribunal voted to give the nation's Supreme Court the final decision on this issue. This ruling had not been delivered by July, and at a special convention of the Justicialists on July 17, Menem sought to win the party's endorsement for a third term.

      Menem won the support of the convention, but, faced with the threat of a party split, he declared on July 21 that he would not press ahead with his reelection bid. This appeared to have staved off a major rift, although tensions between Duhalde and Menem remained high. There were also signs that the party might lose its control of the Senate in December, when some seats were being contested under transition rules set forth in the 1994 constitution.

      Despite Menem's diminished popularity in Argentina, which was underscored by a number of unsavoury developments during the year, including allegations of corruption affecting senior levels of government, his international prestige continued to grow. This was exemplified in the final quarter of the year when he received an invitation to address the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-World Bank annual meetings jointly with U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton. This was followed by important state visits in Europe, not least to the U.K. at the end of October.

      Compared with growth officially estimated at 8.4% in 1997, the expansion of gross domestic product (GDP) proceeded at a slower rate in 1998 under the impact of the financial crisis in Asia. This was confirmed by first-quarter GDP figures published in June, indicating a growth rate of 6.9% over the year; this was revised in September to 7.2%. Toward the end of August, Finance Secretary Pablo Guidotti stated that the official projection for 1998 GDP growth had been revised to 4.8%. Unemployment remained high, at 13.2% in both May and August. A series of budget cuts was introduced by Economy Minister Roque Fernández in a bid to ensure that the country would meet the budget deficit targets agreed upon with the IMF and also to help underpin investor confidence. Inflation remained low, at about 1.1% in the year to the end of September, with monthly rates of 0 in both August and September.

      On the trade front, export expansion was undermined by low commodity prices in the wake of the Asian crisis and reduced demand from Brazil, whereas import growth remained relatively strong. This increased the deficit to $3,390,000,000 in the eight months to the end of August; during the same period of 1997, the deficit had totaled $1,730,000,000. Despite the difficult international financial market conditions prevailing in late 1998, by October 5 Argentina was able to announce that it had secured some $5.7 billion in new financing from the World Bank ($2 billion), Inter-American Development Bank ($2 billion), and private foreign banks and a local bond issue ($1.7 billion), which was sufficient to cover financing needs through March 1999. The peso remained stable at parity with the U.S. dollar, underpinned by reserves in excess of $25 billion and by growing bank deposits.

SUSAN M. CUNNINGHAM

▪ 1998

      Area: 2,780,092 sq km (1,073,400 sq mi)

      Population (1997 est): 35,409,000

      Capital: Buenos Aires

      Head of state and government: President Carlos Saúl Menem, assisted by Ministerial Coordinator Jorge Rodríguez

      Pres. Carlos Menem experienced a year of mixed fortunes in 1997. His popularity, which had reached a low point in late 1996 following a series of corruption allegations against members of his government launched by former economy minister Domingo Cavallo, underwent a modest revival after a successful visit to the U.S. in December 1996. Menem's discussions with U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton partly secured special status for Argentina as a non-NATO ally. This was confirmed by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in August 1997. Early in the year it became apparent that the economic recovery was strengthening significantly after a strong final quarter of 1996, and this increased the prospect that the economy would grow more than the 5% officially projected for the year.

      Local political developments were less encouraging. Talks between the opposition Radical Civic Union and the Frepaso grouping over possible joint electoral tactics for the midterm congressional polls (to elect half the Chamber of Deputies) began in late 1996 and continued into 1997. At the beginning of August, the two parties announced that they would form an electoral alliance (the so-called Alliance for Work, Justice, and Education) for both the congressional polls in October 1997 and the presidential elections in 1999.

      Menem also encountered difficulties with the judiciary following court rulings early in the year that his efforts to push through further labour reforms by decree were unconstitutional. A pact in May between the government and the nation's major labour federation also failed to advance the reforms.

      Differences between Menem and his likely successor for the Justicialist National Movement (Peronist) presidential nomination in 1999, Buenos Aires Gov. Eduardo Duhalde, intensified in the wake of the murder of journalist José Luis Cabezas in January and flared up over other issues on repeated occasions during the year. In mid-February another bone of contention was the introduction of a bill by a close associate of Menem concerning the use of national referenda to decide on constitutional reforms; this was viewed as a possible attempt to embark on making changes that would allow Menem to run for a third term as president in 1999.

      After months of speculation about possible Cabinet dismissals in the wake of repeated allegations that several members had had illicit dealings with business magnate (and alleged planner of organized crime activities within the government) Alfredo Yabrán, Justice Minister Elías Jassán resigned on June 26. He was replaced by Raúl Granillo Ocampo, who had been serving as ambassador to the U.S. In late September there were signs that Menem was considering replacing the Chief of Cabinet Jorge Rodríguez, whose efforts to fulfill that role apparently had failed to meet the president's expectations, but Rodríguez was still in office at year's end.

      In the October 26 elections the opposition Alliance (Alianza), took 46% of the vote while the ruling Peronists (PJ) won only 36%. It lost its slim majority and took 52 of the 127 seats up for renewal; the Alliance received 61 seats, with the remainder divided among smaller parties. In the state of Buenos Aires, the victory of the Alliance's Graciela Fernández Meijide over Hilda Duhalde (wife of the PJ provincial governor, Eduardo Duhalde) by a wide margin (54% to 38%) reduced the likelihood that the governor would secure his party's nomination to run for the presidency in 1999.

      Concerning the economy, the publication of first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figures in June showed that expansion was strong, with an increase of 8.1% compared with the same period of 1996, when there was a decline of 3.2%. The performance continued during the second quarter, with GDP growth provisionally put at 7.8%, giving an average of 8% for the first half of the year; Economy Minister Roque Fernández predicted growth of at least 7% for the whole year.

      Despite robust growth and continuing low inflation (0.8% for the year to the end of August), unemployment continued at a high level and in May stood at 16.1% (down from 17.3% in October 1996). Menem pledged to reduce this to 6-8% by the end of his term in 1999, but the creation of new jobs did not appear to be rapid enough by the final quarter of 1997 to help the Peronists avert a significant defeat by the opposition alliance in the October elections.

      During the first three quarters of 1997, the country's trade account registered a sharp deficit of some $2,980,000,000, compared with a surplus of $491,000,000 in the same period of 1996. For the year as a whole, the Economy Ministry was predicting a deficit of $4.1 billion (revised up from $2 billion at the start of the year), increasing the current-account deficit to more than $8 billion.

      At the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in late September, it was indicated that Argentina (which had met its first-half fiscal deficit target agreed upon with the IMF) would sign an agreement for a $1 billion loan from the Fund by the end of the year.

SUSAN M. CUNNINGHAM

▪ 1997

      The federal republic of Argentina occupies the eastern section of the Southern Cone of South America, along the Atlantic Ocean. Area: 2,780,400 sq km (1,073,518 sq mi). Pop. (1996 est.): 34,995,000. Cap.: Buenos Aires. Monetary unit: peso, with (Oct. 11, 1996) an official (pegged) rate of A1 to U.S. $1 (A1.58 = £ 1 sterling). President in 1996, Carlos Saúl Menem; ministerial coordinators, Eduardo Bauzá and, from March 28, Jorge Rodríguez.

      Differences within Argentina's ruling Justicialist National Movement (Peronist; PJ) became increasingly evident in early January 1996. Former minister of the interior Gustavo Béliz resigned from the party and set up the Nueva Dirigencia ("new leadership") with a view to his running for mayor of Buenos Aires at the end of June.

      Jockeying for position was also evident among other political groups. In February, Sen. José Octavio Bordón—a rival of Pres. Carlos Menem who had left the PJ in 1994 to run in 1995 as the presidential candidate of the Frepaso grouping—resigned his Senate seat and left Frepaso. He appeared set to join Béliz and others in a new grouping that might seek to contest the 1999 elections.

      At the end of February the government succeeded in winning congressional approval for the "special powers" bill, which conferred upon the executive the ability to raise revenues by increasing specific taxes. At the end of March, Eduardo Bauzá, who held the new post of ministerial coordinator created by the 1994 constitution, resigned for health reasons and was replaced by Education Minister Jorge Rodríguez, a moderate. In May, Defense Minister Oscar Camilión was alleged to have approved illicit arms sales by the state weapons manufacturer to Ecuador in 1995 (at the time of its border conflict with Peru) and Croatia between 1991 and 1995. Although Camilión survived a congressional move to impeach him, the controversy led to his resignation in July. At that time Minister of Justice Rodolfo Barra also stepped down following allegations that he had been involved in anti-Jewish activities while a student.

      The Peronists suffered a major defeat in the Buenos Aires mayoral election at the end of June when Fernando de la Rúa of the Radical Civic Union won by a wide margin. Frepaso candidate Norberto La Porta finished in second place, and the Peronist incumbent, Jorge Domínguez (appointed by Menem), was third; Domínguez suffered from the candidacy of ex-Peronist Béliz, who finished fourth.

      In late July Menem acted to replace Domingo Cavallo, who had served in the Cabinet since the start of Menem's first term in July 1989. Minister of economy and public works and services since 1991, Cavallo was the architect of the "convertibility plan," which transformed Argentina from a hyperinflationary economy with a weak currency to one in which annual inflation was very low. The former president of the central bank, Roque Fernández, replaced Cavallo.

      Cavallo's departure came as no surprise, as Menem's efforts to create a new image for his second term were frustrated by the failure of the economy to rebound strongly enough from the slowdown (a 4.4% decline in gross domestic product in 1995) that began after Mexico's financial crisis in early 1995. By mid-1996 it seemed that Cavallo's forecast of 5% growth for the year was unlikely to be met (with 2.5-3% seeming more probable), and unemployment continued in the 16-17% range. On July 12 Cavallo announced cuts in social security benefits and other allowances and attempted to further tighten the rules against tax evasion. This drew criticism from political opponents as well as the announcement of a one-day general strike for August 8 by the nation's main labour confederation (which was carried out despite Cavallo's departure). Another more wide-ranging fiscal-adjustment package was launched by Fernández on August 12, soon after he took office. The core proposals involved increasing taxes on diesel fuel and gasoline and some rises in income taxes. These again proved controversial, but the main measures were approved by the Chamber of Deputies on September 18 and subsequently approved by the Senate.

      (SUSAN M. CUNNINGHAM)

▪ 1996

      The federal republic of Argentina occupies the eastern section of the Southern Cone of South America, along the Atlantic Ocean. Area: 2,780,400 sq km (1,073,518 sq mi). Pop. (1995 est.): 34,587,000. Cap.: Buenos Aires. Monetary unit: peso, with (Oct. 6, 1995) an official (pegged) rate of A1 to U.S. $1 (A1.58 = £ 1 sterling). President in 1995, Carlos Saúl Menem.

      The year 1995 began inauspiciously, with Argentina in the shadow of Mexico's currency crisis, which had erupted in December 1994. With presidential, gubernatorial, and some congressional elections scheduled for May 14 and Pres. Carlos Menem running for reelection, prompt action was taken by Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo to ensure that the country did not succumb to the so-called tequila effect of Mexico's crisis and also to reduce the chances of the opposition Radical Civic Union (UCR) and the Frepaso grouping, which had emerged from the former Broad Front (Frente Grande), gaining victories in the election.

      Cavallo's strategy included budget spending cuts announced in early January, subsequently reinforced by a package of austerity measures in early March. The country's extended financing facility program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which had been allowed to lapse in September 1994, was resumed. The program, under which the authorities originally had agreed to achieve a fiscal surplus of $4.4 billion (reduced in September) and growth of 3% (down from 7.1% in 1994), was approved on April 6. This helped rekindle business confidence and tempt back some of the estimated $8.2 billion of capital that had left the country early in the year.

      Against this backdrop, and with signs of unrest as the economy slowed sharply, the election campaign was fought. In his May 1 Labour Day address, Menem pledged his commitment to cut by 50% the unemployment rate (then thought to be slightly above the 12.2% registered in October 1994 but later shown to have been 18.6%) by means of a five-year public works program that would create 300,000 jobs.

      In fact, the economic slowdown did assist the opposition to some degree, with José Octavio Bordón—a senator and former member of the ruling Justicialist National Movement (Peronist) party, who defected in late 1994 to become the presidential candidate of the Frepaso grouping—appearing to make significant headway in the race for the presidency. But the election proved to be a resounding victory for Menem, who received about 50% of the vote, followed by Bordón with 29% and the UCR's Horacio Massaccesi with 17%. Of the 14 governorships contested on the same date, Peronist candidates won 10 and the UCR the remaining 4. The ruling party's position was also strengthened in the Chamber of Deputies, where it gained sufficient additional members to give it a quorum (136 of 257 seats).

      Menem officially began his second term of office—to run for four years (reduced from six as part of the 1994 constitutional revision)—on July 8. His Cabinet was unchanged, except that the new post of coordinating minister—a virtual prime minister—came into effect in September as specified in the revised constitution. The appointment, made by the president, went to Menem's former chief of staff, Eduardo Bauzá. However, a bill submitted to the national legislature in late September proposed the creation of several new ministries in line with the increased emphasis being placed by Menem in his second term on social and environmental matters.

      On the economic front, despite the relative success of measures to avert a Mexico-style financial crisis in Argentina, there were casualties among small banks and finance houses as liquidity was reduced. Some 50 banks had disappeared by year's end. The slowdown in activity also resulted in a significant reduction in tax revenues, which compromised the IMF target of achieving a fiscal surplus. The IMF program was thus renegotiated in late August, and revised terms were agreed upon by early September. Growth also turned negative, with a 3.7% contraction in the second quarter; this resulted in a first-half decline of 0.4% and official downward revision (in late September) of the annual growth forecast from 3% to 1%. Inflation remained at a stable low level, with the annual rate expected to be 3.6%.

      Given the high rate of unemployment (18.6% in May) and the impact of budget cuts, there was disquiet among the labour unions. This was partly demonstrated in a half-day general strike by the main labour confederation on September 6 and by provincial unrest on repeated occasions, including riots in Córdoba in June, San Juan in late July, and Santa Fe in September.

      The nation's trade position improved markedly in the first half of 1995 under the impact of the reduction of domestic consumption and strong demand from neighbouring Brazil. A quarrel with Brazil, its chief partner in the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur), over that country's plans to restrict automobile imports was largely defused in top-level meetings in June and July. At the end of June there was a six-month surplus of $883 million based on exports of $10,590,000,000 and imports of $9.7 billion. This contributed to a stronger current account position. After a first-quarter deficit of $1.8 billion, there was a surplus in the second quarter of $857 million; thus, the deficit at midyear was $951 million, down from $4,980,000,000 at the same time in 1994. In the international arena a pact signed with Britain on September 27 covered future arrangements for oil exploration and revenue sharing in the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas, and relations with Cuba were reported to be improving. (SUSAN M. CUNNINGHAM)

▪ 1995

      The federal republic of Argentina occupies the eastern section of the Southern Cone of South America, along the Atlantic Ocean. Area: 2,780,400 sq km (1,073,518 sq mi). Pop. (1994 est.): 33,880,000. Cap.: Buenos Aires. Monetary unit: peso, with (Oct. 7, 1994) an official (pegged) rate of 1 peso to U.S. $1 (1.59 pesos = £1 sterling). President in 1994, Carlos Saúl Menem.

      The greater part of 1994 was dominated by Pres. Carlos Menem's efforts to change the 1853 constitution so that he could run for a second term in 1995. Elections for a 305-seat constituent assembly to oversee the revision process took place on April 10, with the ruling Justicialist National Movement (Peronist; PJ) winning the largest share of the vote, at about 38%. This was a significant reduction for the PJ from the 43% in the October 1993 congressional polls.

      It was the main opposition Radical Civic Union (UCR) that fared worst, however, its share of the vote totaling 20%, compared with the 30% registered the previous October. The main beneficiary of the UCR's loss in support was the Frente Grande (or Broad Front) a coalition of left-leaning groups, including disenchanted members of the PJ, that polled 13.5% of the votes, compared with 3.7% in October 1993. More important, the Frente scored a decisive victory in Buenos Aires, with more than 35% of the vote, compared with 25% for the PJ and 15% for the UCR.

      The constitutional revision began on May 25 and was to be completed within 90 days. This was done, and the document was promulgated on August 24. To achieve the main goal of changing the constitution so that he could run again in 1995, Menem had to cede significant powers currently available to the president. His ability to rule by decree was curtailed, and he had to obtain legislative approval for his appointment to the new office of Cabinet chief.

      With an eye toward the 1995 election, Menem used his May 1 speech at the opening of the national legislature as an opportunity to announce new measures. A key provision was a boost of some $7 billion in the spending program for the country's poorest regions over the next three years. The emphasis would be on promoting public works projects (especially transportation, including rail and road links to Brazil and Chile) that would be designed to increase employment and exports. Provincial budgets (in the poorest regions of the country) were increased by up to $300 million above 1994 budget figures. Labour unions opposed to Menem's policies staged a one-day general strike on August 2. The bombing of the Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires on July 18, allegedly by Islamic extremists, caused the deaths of 96 people.

      During 1994 Argentina continued to enjoy relative economic stability. Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo on September 29 indicated that real gross domestic product increased by 7% during the first half of 1994, with a 28% rise in investment. Manufacturing grew less robustly (4.1%) than the overall rate, while the agricultural sector fared poorly, with 0.7% expansion. Despite the strong growth performance, unemployment was 11%. Consumer price inflation declined to an annual rate of 3.4% at the end of October from 3.76% at the end of September. The annual result for 1994 was expected to be about 4%, well below the 7.4% in 1993 and a fraction of the totals in the previous two years.

      In late October there was a revised official forecast that a budget deficit approaching $1 billion might be incurred for 1994. This contrasted with a target surplus of $4.6 billion originally agreed upon under the country's extended financing facility program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). During September Cavallo indicated that the country would not be proceeding with the two final series of loans from the IMF (totaling more than $400 million); consequently, there was no need for compliance with the targets.

      Overall, government spending during the first nine months outstripped government forecasts by close to $1.5 billion. In late October Cavallo requested legislative approval for an additional $1.3 billion for the social security budget to cover a deficit that was largely created by judicial rulings awarding retrospective pension increases to some 100,000 recipients.

      Concerning the external accounts, the trade deficit was on a rising curve. The nine-month accumulated deficit stood at $4,340,000,000 (based on exports of about $11.2 billion and imports of $15.5 billion), compared with a deficit of $1,920,000,000 in the same period of 1993. The trade deficit for the whole of 1994 was expected to approach $6 billion, compared with $3,690,000,000 in 1993, while the current account deficit was projected at about $10 billion, compared with $7.6 billion in 1993.

      Argentina's deficit on trade with its partners in the Mercosur common market (Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay) had increased by 42% at the end of August, to $727 million, although Argentina's exports to those countries had risen by 13%. The deficit was expected to be reduced by the end of the year as a result of increased Argentine exports to Brazil.

      On November 16 the Senate opened a debate on new patent and copyright legislation, which the U.S. government had been insisting upon for some time to update the existing 1864 law. (SUSAN M. CUNNINGHAM)

▪ 1994

Introduction

      The federal republic of Argentina occupies the eastern section of the Southern Cone of South America, along the Atlantic Ocean. Area: 2,780,400 sq km (1,073,518 sq mi). Pop. (1993 est.): 33,507,000. Cap.: Buenos Aires. Monetary unit: peso, with (Oct. 4, 1993) an official rate of 1 peso to U.S. $1 (1.52 pesos = £ 1 sterling). President in 1993, Carlos Saúl Menem.

Affairs.

      In 1993 Argentina continued to prosper under the framework for stability provided by the April 1991 "convertibility plan." Drawn up by Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo, the plan engendered ongoing advantages for the administration of Pres. Carlos Menem and his Peronist party, the Justicialist National Movement. The success of Cavallo's economic management contributed to a favourable result for the Peronists and their allies among the provincial parties in the midterm elections for 127 of 259 seats in the Chamber of Deputies held on October 3. The Justicialists won some 42% of the 13.2 million votes cast, compared with 30% for the main opposition party, the Radical Civic Union (UCR). The Union of the Democratic Centre (UCeDe), which was among the parties supporting the government, took only 2.6% of the vote, while other district party allies gained about 10%.

      The Justicialists did especially well in the city of Buenos Aires, where, contrary to eve-of-poll surveys showing the UCR ahead by up to five percentage points, it won, helped by the campaign led by former defense and economy minister (and close associate of President Menem) Erman González. The party also exceeded expectations in its stronghold of Buenos Aires province, taking over 50% of the vote, up to 15 points more than had been forecast on the basis of opinion surveys. As the country's largest electoral district, Buenos Aires province accounted for some 20 of the 127 seats contested. The strength of support for the ruling party in the country's economic heartland (with the main exception of Córdoba, where there was well-entrenched support for the UCR) appeared to vindicate the reform and liberalization policies pursued by Menem.

      Menem's bid for reelection, necessitating a change in the 1853 constitution, was renewed during 1993 after being shelved temporarily in 1992. The move had initially met with resistance from the UCR (and from some Justicialists) despite Menem's efforts to broaden the government's reform agenda. Although the Justicialists and their allies increased their number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies as a result of the October elections, the total fell short of the two-thirds majority required for amending the constitution. Proposals for reform (including the reelection of the president for a second consecutive term but for a reduced period of four years) were finally agreed to by Menem and Raúl Alfonsín, former president and leader of the UCR, in November and approved by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate the next month.

      The opening of government files late in the year showed that more than a thousand Nazi war criminals, many more than previously thought, had entered Argentina. Rioting by disgruntled public workers who had not been paid forced Menem to return home in mid-December from a state visit to the Vatican.

The Economy.

      Stability, with good growth and low inflation, was sustained during 1993 following an 8.7% growth in gross domestic product to $226 billion and consumer price inflation of 17.5% in 1992. Growth for 1993 was officially projected in the 6-7% range, while annual inflation appeared likely to register below 10%. Industrial output was expected to increase at a slower rate than the 7.8% of 1992, and in the agricultural sphere, flood damage during May (especially in the province of Buenos Aires) affected the output of certain crops. The exchange rate remained firm, with the central bank's buy-and-sell rates effectively held at 0.99 peso and 1 peso per U.S. dollar as part of the strategy devised under the April 1991 convertibility plan, whereby the bank was required to back issues of currency with its international reserves.

      Modifications to economic policy in 1993 were less marked than in previous years. During early January government authorities announced an incentive program for export companies. The key feature of the program was lower import tariffs (as low as 2% rather than 22%, rising in stages over a seven-year period to 22%) on goods that would be further processed and exported. On May 1 President Menem used the opportunity of his annual state of the nation address to outline the goals of the administration during the remainder of his term and to announce selected measures for the economy. Amplified by Cavallo, they included a number of actions: exemption of most foreign capital goods from import duties; tax rebates of 15% for purchases of domestically produced capital goods; a cut in top loan rates by the state-owned Banco de la Nacion from 17 to 16% per year for dollar-denominated loans and from 1.8 to 1.6% per month for peso loans; increased lending to small and medium-sized farms and companies; exemption from a 1% asset tax for certain industrial sectors; and easier payment terms for those firms that were in arrears on tax and social security debts.

      Among other legislative reforms, the government succeeded in winning legislative approval for its long-delayed social-security-reform bill when the Senate voted the bill through on September 23 (the Chamber of Deputies had passed it in May). The bill would allow for the voluntary establishment of private pensions as an alternative to the government scheme. A new labour-reform bill was introduced, with expected opposition from the main labour confederation being partly defused by the offer of consultation prior to presentation of the bill to the legislature. In late June some $3,040,000,000 of stock in the state oil concern, YPF, was put up for sale. (SUSAN M. CUNNINGHAM)

* * *

Introduction

Argentina, flag of   country of South America, covering most of the southern portion of the continent. The world's eighth largest country, Argentina occupies an area more extensive than Mexico and the U.S. state of Texas combined. It encompasses immense plains, deserts, tundra, and forests, as well as tall mountains, rivers, and thousands of miles of ocean shoreline. Argentina also claims a portion of Antarctica, as well as several islands in the South Atlantic, including the British-ruled Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas).

      Argentina has long played an important role in the continent's history. Following three centuries of Spanish colonization, Argentina declared independence in 1816, and Argentine nationalists were instrumental in revolutionary movements elsewhere, a fact that prompted 20th-century writer Jorge Luis Borges (Borges, Jorge Luis) to observe, “South America's independence was, to a great extent, an Argentine enterprise.” Torn by strife and occasional war between political factions demanding either central authority (based in Buenos Aires) or provincial autonomy, Argentina tended toward periods of caudillo, or strongman, leadership, most famously under the presidency of Juan Perón. The 1970s ushered in a period of military dictatorship and repression during which thousands of presumed dissidents were “disappeared,” or murdered; this ended in the disastrous Falklands Islands War of 1982, when Argentina invaded the South Atlantic islands it claimed as its own and was defeated by British forces in a short but bloody campaign. Defeat led to the fall of the military regime and the reestablishment of democratic (democracy) rule, which has since endured despite various economic crises.

      The country's name comes from the Latin word for silver, argentum, and Argentina is indeed a great source of valuable minerals. More important, however, has been Argentina's production of livestock and cereals, for which it once ranked among the world's wealthiest nations. Much of this agricultural activity is set in the Pampas (Pampas, the), rich grasslands that were once the domain of nomadic Native Americans, followed by rough-riding gauchos, who were in turn forever enshrined in the nation's romantic literature. As Borges describes them in his story "The South," the Pampas stretch endlessly to the horizon, dwarfing the humans within them; traveling from the capital toward Patagonia, the story's protagonist, Señor Dahlmann, “saw horsemen along dirt roads; he saw gullies and lagoons and ranches; he saw long luminous clouds that resembled marble; and all these things were casual, like dreams of the plain.... The elemental earth was not perturbed either by settlements or other signs of humanity. The country was vast, but at the same time it was intimate and, in some measure, secret. The limitless country sometimes contained only a solitary bull. The solitude was perfect and perhaps hostile, and it might have occurred to Dahlmann that he was traveling into the past and not merely south.”

 Despite the romantic lure of the Pampas and of vast, arid Patagonian landscapes, Argentina is a largely urban country. Buenos Aires, the national capital, has sprawled across the eastern Pampas with its ring of modern, bustling suburbs. It is among South America's most cosmopolitan and crowded cities and is often likened to Paris or Rome for its architectural styles and lively nightlife. Its industries have drawn colonists from Italy, Spain, and numerous other countries, millions of whom immigrated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Greater Buenos Aires is home to about one-third of the Argentine people. Among the country's other major cities are Mar del Plata, La Plata, and Bahía Blanca on the Atlantic coast and Rosario, San Miguel de Tucumán, Córdoba, and Neuquén in the interior.

Land (Argentina)

 Argentina is shaped like an inverted triangle with its base at the top; it is some 880 miles (1,420 km) across at its widest from east to west and stretches 2,360 miles (3,800 km) from the subtropical north to the subantarctic south. The country is bounded by Chile to the south and west, Bolivia and Paraguay to the north, and Brazil, Uruguay, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Its undulating Atlantic coastline stretches some 2,900 miles (4,700 km).

      Argentina's varied geography can be grouped into four major regions: the Andes, the North, the Pampas, and Patagonia. The Andean region extends some 2,300 miles (3,700 km) along the western edge of the country from Bolivia to southern Patagonia, forming most of the natural boundary with Chile. It is commonly subdivided into two parts: the Northwest and the Patagonian Andes, the latter of which is discussed below (Argentina) under Patagonia. The North is commonly described in terms of its two main divisions: the Gran Chaco, or Chaco, comprising the dry lowlands between the Andes and the Paraná River; and Mesopotamia, an area between the Paraná and Uruguay (Uruguay River) rivers. The centrally located plains, or Pampas, are grasslands subdivided into arid western and more humid eastern parts called, respectively, the Dry Pampa and the Humid Pampa. Patagonia is the cold, parched, windy region that extends some 1,200 miles (1,900 km) south of the Pampas, from the Colorado River to Tierra del Fuego.

Relief

The Northwest

 This part of the Andes (Andes Mountains) region includes the northern half of the main mountain mass in Argentina and the transitional terrain, or piedmont, merging with the eastern lowlands. The region's southern border is the upper Colorado River. Within the region the Andean system of north-south–trending mountain ranges varies in elevation from 16,000 to 22,000 feet (4,900 to 6,700 metres) and is interrupted by high plateaus (punas) and basins ranging in elevation from about 10,000 to 13,400 feet (3,000 to 4,080 metres). The mountains gradually decrease in size and elevation southward from Bolivia. South America's highest mountain, Aconcagua (Aconcagua, Mount) (22,831 feet [6,959 metres]), lies in the Northwest, together with a number of other peaks that reach over 21,000 feet (6,400 metres). Some of these mountains are volcanic in origin.

      To the southeast, where the parallel to subparallel ranges become lower and form isolated, compact units trending north-south, the flat valleys between are called bolsones (bolson) (basins). This southeastern section of the Northwest is often called the Pampean Sierras, a complex that has been compared to the Basin and Range region of the western United States. It is characterized by west-facing escarpments and gentler east-facing backslopes, particularly those of the spectacular Sierra de Córdoba. The Pampean Sierras have variable elevations, beginning at 2,300 feet (700 metres) in the Sierra de Mogotes in the east and rising to 20,500 feet (6,250 metres) in the Sierra de Famatina in the west.

The Gran Chaco

      The western sector of the North region, the Gran Chaco, extends beyond the international border at the Pilcomayo River into Paraguay, where it is called the Chaco Boreal (“Northern Chaco”) by Argentines. The Argentine sector between the Pilcomayo River and the Bermejo River is known as the Chaco Central. Argentines have named the area southward to latitude 30° S, where the Pampas begin, the Chaco Austral (“Southern Chaco”). The Gran Chaco in Argentina descends in flat steps from west to east, but it is poorly drained and has such a challenging combination of physical conditions that it remains one of the least-inhabited parts of the country. It has a subtropical climate characterized by some of Latin America's hottest weather, is largely covered by thorny vegetation, and is subject to summer flooding.

Mesopotamia

      East of the Gran Chaco, in a narrow depression 60 to 180 miles (100 to 300 km) wide, lies Mesopotamia, which is bordered to the north by the highlands of southern Brazil. The narrow lowland stretches for 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southward, finally merging with the Pampas south of the Río de la Plata. Its designation as Mesopotamia (Greek: “Between the Rivers”) reflects the fact that its western and eastern borders are two of the region's major rivers, the Paraná and the Uruguay. The northeastern part, Misiones province, between the Alto (“Upper”) Paraná and Uruguay rivers, is higher in elevation than the rest of Mesopotamia, but there are several small hills in the southern part.

The Pampas (Pampas, the)

      Pampa is a Quechua Indian term meaning “flat plain.” As such it is widely used in southeastern South America from Uruguay, where grass-covered plains commence south of the Brazilian Highlands, to Argentina. In Argentina the Pampas broaden out west of the Río de la Plata to meet the Andean forelands, blending imperceptibly to the north with the Chaco Austral and southern Mesopotamia and extending southward to the Colorado River. The eastern boundary is the Atlantic coast.

      The largely flat surface of the Pampas is composed of thick deposits of loess interrupted only by occasional caps of alluvium and volcanic ash. In the southern Pampas the landscape rises gradually to meet the foothills of sierras formed from old sediments and crystalline rocks.

Patagonia

 This region consists of an Andean zone (also called Western Patagonia) and the main Patagonian plateau south of the Pampas, which extends to the tip of South America. The surface of Patagonia descends east of the Andes in a series of broad, flat steps extending to the Atlantic coast. Evidently, the region's gigantic landforms and coastal terraces were created by the same tectonic forces that formed the Andes, and the coastline is cuffed along its entire length as a result. The cliffs are rather low in the north but rise in the south, where they reach heights of more than 150 feet (45 metres). The landscape is cut by eastward-flowing rivers—some of them of glacial origin in the Andes—that have created both broad valleys and steep-walled canyons.

 Patagonia includes a region called the Lake District, which is nestled within a series of basins between the Patagonian Andes and the plateau. There are volcanic hills in the central plateau west of the city of Río Gallegos. These hills and the accompanying lava fields have dark soils spotted with lighter-coloured bunchgrass, which creates a leopard-skin effect that intensifies the desolate, windswept appearance of the Patagonian landscape. A peculiar type of rounded gravel called grava patagónica lies on level landforms, including isolated mesas. Glacial ice in the past extended beyond the Andes only in the extreme south, where there are now large moraines.

Drainage

 The largest river basin in the area is that of the Paraguay–Paraná–Río de la Plata (Plata, Río de la) system. It drains an area of some 1.6 million square miles (4.1 million square km), which includes northern Argentina, the whole of Paraguay, eastern Bolivia, most of Uruguay, and a large part of Brazil. In Argentina the principal river of this system is the Paraná, formed by the confluence of the Paraguay and Alto Paraná rivers. The Río de la Plata (often called the River Plate) is actually the estuary outlet of the system formed by the confluence of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers; its name, meaning “River of Silver,” was coined in colonial times before explorers found that there was neither a single river nor silver upstream from its mouth. Other tributaries of this system are the Iguazú (Iguaçu (Iguaçu River)), Pilcomayo, Bermejo, Salado, and Carcarañá. Just above its confluence with the Alto Paraná, the Iguazú River plunges over the escarpment of the Brazilian massif, creating Iguazú Falls (Iguaçu Falls)—one of the world's most spectacular natural attractions.

      Aside from the Paraná's main tributaries, there are few major rivers in Argentina. Wide rivers flow across the Gran Chaco flatlands, but their shallow nature rarely permits navigation, and never with regularity. Moreover, long-lasting summer floods cover vast areas and leave behind ephemeral swamplands. During winter most rivers and wetlands of the Gran Chaco dry up, the air chills, and the land seems visibly to shrink. Only three of the region's numerous rivers—the Pilcomayo, Bermejo, and Salado—manage to flow from the Andes to the Paraguay-Paraná system in the east without evaporating en route and forming salt pans (salinas). The region's largest rivers follow a veritable maze of courses during flood season, however.

      In the Northwest the Desaguadero River and its tributaries in the Andes Mountains water the sandy deserts of Mendoza province. The principal tributaries are the Jáchal, Zanjón, San Juan, Mendoza, Tunuyán, and Diamante. In the northern Pampas, Lake Mar Chiquita (Mar Chiquita, Lake), the largest lake in Argentina, receives the waters of the Dulce, Primero, and Segundo rivers but has no outlet. Its name, meaning “Little Sea,” refers to the high salt content of its waters.

      Rivers that cross Patagonia from west to east diminish in volume as they travel through the arid land. The Colorado (Colorado River) and Negro rivers (Negro River), the largest in the south-central part of the country, produce major floods after seasonal snow and ice melt in the Andes. Farther south the Santa Cruz River flows eastward out of the glacial Lake Argentino in the Andean foothills before reaching the Atlantic.

Soils

      Soil types in Argentina range from the light-coloured saline formations of the high puna in the Northwest to the dark, humus-rich type found in the Pampas. Golden-brown loess soils of the Gran Chaco are sometimes lighter where salinity is excessive but turn darker toward the east in the Mesopotamian border zone. These give way to soils ranging from rust to deep red colorations in Misiones. Thick, dark soils predominate in the fertile loess grasslands of the Pampas, but lighter brown soils are common in the drier parts of northern Patagonia. Light tan arid soils of varying texture cover the rest of this region. Grayish podzolic types and dark brown forest soils characterize the Andean slopes.

Climate

      Argentina lies almost entirely within the temperate zone of the Southern Hemisphere, unlike the rest of the continent to the north, which lies within the tropics. Tropical air masses only occasionally invade the provinces of Formosa and Misiones in the extreme north. The southern extremes of Argentina, which extend to latitude 55° S, also have predominantly temperate conditions, rather than the cold continental climate of comparable latitudes in North America. The South American landmass narrows so markedly toward its southern tip that weather patterns are moderated by the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, and average monthly temperatures remain above freezing in the winter. The temperate climate is interrupted by a long, narrow north-south band of semiarid to arid conditions and by tundra and polar conditions in the high Andes and in southern portions of Tierra del Fuego.

      Precipitation is moderate to light throughout most of the country, with the driest areas in the far northwest and in the southern part of Patagonia. Most rainfall occurs in the northeast, in the Humid Pampa, Mesopotamia, and the eastern Chaco. Windstorms (pamperos) with thunder, lightning, and hail are common. During winter, stationary fronts bring long rainy periods. Dull, gray days and damp weather characterize this season, especially in the Pampas. Between winter storms, tropical air masses make incursions southward and bring mild relief from the damp cold.

Andean and sub-Andean zones

      Some parts of the Andean Northwest region have an annual average temperature range of more than 36 °F (20 °C), and occasional continental climatic conditions occur. Winter temperatures sometimes fall below freezing on cloudless days and nights.

      The high-elevation, cold climatic phenomenon in Argentina is sometimes referred to as tundra climate and, in even colder mountaintop areas, as polar. Generally, the tundra climate occupies the mountain zones where average annual temperatures are below 50 °F (10 °C); in the north this occurs above 11,500 feet (3,500 metres). Moving southward, tundra climate occurs at gradually decreasing elevations until it reaches sea level in southern Tierra del Fuego. The highest Andean peaks have permanent snow and ice cover.

The rain shadow zone

      Argentina is the only place in the Southern Hemisphere with an extensive portion of arid eastern coastline. This is caused by a longitudinal rain shadow zone (created when air masses lose their moisture while passing over high mountains) on the eastern side of the Andes. The zone begins in the Andean Northwest and extends along the eastern slopes of the Andes southward to, but not including, Tierra del Fuego. The rain shadow area has a central arid (desert) core rimmed by semiarid, or steppe, conditions. The steppe areas have about twice the annual precipitation found in the arid zones, but evaporation exceeds precipitation in both zones, which therefore remain treeless. Most of the arid region is subjected to strong winds that carry abrasive sand and dust. This is particularly true in Patagonia, where windblown dust creates a continuous haze that considerably reduces visibility.

The Pampean zone

      The Pampas occupy a transitional area between high summer temperatures to the north and cooler summers to the south. Buenos Aires, located on the northern edge of the Pampas, has a climate similar to that of cities in the southeastern United States, with hot, humid summers and cool, mild winters. The range of mean temperatures for summer months (December to February) is about 72–75 °F (22–24 °C), whereas that for winter months (June to August) is about 46–55 °F (8–13 °C). In the Humid Pampa the rainfall varies from 39 inches (990 mm) in the east to 20 inches (500 mm) in areas near the Andes—about the minimum needed for nonirrigated crops. Cold fronts that move northward from Patagonia, chiefly in July, bring occasional frosts and snow to the Pampas and Mesopotamia. In rare instances a dusting of snow covers Buenos Aires itself.

Plant and animal life

      Argentina's fauna and flora vary widely from the country's mountainous zones to its dry and humid plains and its subpolar regions. In heavily settled regions the makeup of plant and animal life has been profoundly modified.

The Northwest

 Vegetation in the Northwest region includes that of the high puna desert, the forested slopes of the Andes, and the subtropical scrub forests of the Pampean Sierras, the latter merging with the deciduous scrub woodlands of the Gran Chaco. Vegetation on the mostly exposed soil of the puna consists of dwarf shrubs and tough grasses, notably bunchgrass; these and other plants in the region are coloured almost as brown as the ground itself. The region is the land of the guanaco and its near relatives, the llama, alpaca, and vicuña.

      Forests grow along the eastern border of the puna region southward to the colder Andean zones, covering many slopes in this part of the mountains. The so-called mistol (jujube) forest thrives above 1,650 feet (500 metres), although giant cedars and some other tree species disappear above 3,300 feet (1,000 metres). A subtropical rainforest, composed of laurels, cedars, and other species, is found at elevations of about 4,000 feet (1,200 metres). The tree heights diminish above 7,000 feet (2,100 metres), and the growth becomes more like that of a cloud forest, with myrtles and laurels predominating. Higher still grow the queñoa, small, crooked trees that in places extend to the timberline at 11,500 feet (3,500 metres).

      Southeast of the Andean region described above, xerophytic (drought-tolerant) scrub forests, called monte, and intervening grasslands spread across the Pampean Sierras. Vegetation includes species of mimosa and acacia, and there is a smattering of cactus. Hares, skunks, and small deer abound in this part of the Northwest.

The Gran Chaco

 The western Gran Chaco has growths of thorn forest dominated by algaroba (carob trees) in the drier and often saline zones. Quebracho trees (a source of tannin) are present, but not to the extent that they are farther east. No plants survive in areas with finer salt at the surface. Coarse bunchgrasses are common in the dry steppe, which also supports dense scrub forests intermixed with prickly pear, barrel, and many other types of cactus.

      The vegetation of the Chaco becomes increasingly lush toward the east. The thorn forests are gradually replaced by dense quebracho forests (though of a less-valuable species than those in the west), and there are some pure stands of algaroba. Some 90 miles (150 km) west of the Paraná River, a few massive trees begin to appear. The rich wildlife of the Chaco includes deer, peccaries, monkeys, tapirs, jaguars, pumas, ocelots, armadillos, capybaras, and agoutis. The vast birdlife includes the flightless rheas, which are protected by a refuge in the area. Streams harbour numerous fish species, including piranhas, and snakes and other reptiles abound.

Mesopotamia

      Thin stands of tall wax palms occupy the flood zones of Mesopotamia. Groups of trees and grassy areas form a parklike landscape of noted beauty. Common trees are the quebracho, the urunday, and the guayacán, used for tannin and lumber. Gallery forests growing along rivers become denser and taller in Misiones province. Paraná pines appear at higher elevations. Mesopotamia is a habitat for jaguars, monkeys, deer, tapirs, peccaries, many snake varieties, and numerous birds, notably toucans and hummingbirds, as well as stingless bees.

The Pampas

 The principal Pampas vegetation is monte forest in the Dry Pampa and grassland in the Humid Pampa. The boundary between the Dry and Humid Pampas lies approximately along longitude 64° W. Knee-high grasses are found in the most humid areas, whereas to the north, west, and south, where precipitation decreases, tougher grasses give way to the monte of the Dry Pampa. The indigenous, plantlike ombu tree (Phytolacca dioica) is prized for the shade it provides but is of no commercial value. Planted grains, grasses, and trees have replaced much of the original flora.

      Since the time of European settlement, vast herds of cattle, as well as horses, have virtually taken over the areas of the landscape not planted in crops, and many native animal populations have dwindled. Flightless rheas still inhabit the Pampas, but guanacos are no longer found there. Both animals are fleet-footed, which is probably why the Indians developed the bola, a device consisting of weights on a short rope thrown to trip the animals. Small deer, introduced hares, and viscacha, a burrowing rodent, are common.

Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego

      Patagonia contains zones of deciduous Andean forests and, east of the Andes, of steppe and desert. The largest area—the steppe region—lies in northern Patagonia between the Colorado River and the port city of Comodoro Rivadavia. This zone represents an extension southward of the monte, which gives way gradually to a xerophytic shrub region without trees except along stream banks. In the extreme west on the Andean border, small stands of Araucaria survive, and clumps of wiry grasses are also present. Low scrub vegetation and green grass steppe alternate south of Comodoro Rivadavia to the tip of the continent. Wildlife in the region includes now rare guanacos and rheas, as well as eagles and herons, the Patagonian cavy (mará) and other burrowing rodents, mountain cats and pumas, and various poisonous snakes.

      The coniferous and broad-leaved forests of the Patagonian Andes spread into Chile. Antarctic beech and needle-leaved trees mixed with araucaria are common. The Patagonian Andes do not support a flourishing animal life: the smallest known deer, the pudu, dwells there, and wild pigs, introduced by Europeans, have multiplied.

      It seems likely that grasses in Tierra del Fuego first covered glaciated zones, but forests advanced after volcanic ash settled there. Antarctic beech is plentiful in the valleys and grows along with cypress on steep slopes. A local phenomenon near the southern tip of the continent is species of parrots and other birds more commonly associated with the tropics than with Patagonia. Penguins and seals frequent coastal areas, especially in the south.

People (Argentina)

Ethnic groups

      Heavy immigration (human migration), particularly from Spain and Italy, has produced in Argentina a people who are almost all of European ancestry. In the colonial period, though, the Spanish explorers and settlers encountered a number of native peoples. Among these were the Diaguita of the Andean Northwest, a town-dwelling agricultural people who were forced into labour after they were conquered. They were divided by the Spanish into small groups and were sent to work in Peru and the Río de la Plata area. In the Mesopotamian region the semiagricultural Guaraní also were forced into labour.

      Most other Argentine Indians were hunters and gatherers who fought the Spanish tenaciously but were eventually exterminated or driven away. In the Gran Chaco were the Guaycuruan (Guaycuruan languages)-speaking peoples, among others. The Araucanian Indians traveled over the mountains from Chile and raided Spanish settlements in the southern Pampas until the Conquest of the Desert in the 1870s. Another Pampas Indian tribe was the Querandí, who inhabited the region of Buenos Aires. In Patagonia the largest group was the Tehuelche, and on Tierra del Fuego the Ona.

      Population estimates of the colonial period suggest that by 1810 Argentina had more than 400,000 people. Of these perhaps 30 percent were Indian, their numbers drastically depleted from a pre-Columbian regional population estimated at 300,000. Ten percent of the total were either enslaved Africans or their descendants who had been smuggled into the country through Buenos Aires, and there was a large element of mestizos (mestizo) (European and Indian mixture). European descendants were in the minority.

      A great wave of European immigration after the mid-1800s molded the present-day ethnic character of Argentina. The Indians and mestizos were pushed aside (mainly to the Andean provinces) or absorbed, and the blacks and mulattos disappeared, apparently also absorbed into the dominant population. Since that time mestizos from Chile, Bolivia, and Paraguay have grown numerous in bordering regions, but only since the late 20th century has there been substantial immigration from Paraguay and Uruguay into the urban areas of Argentina.

      Almost half of the European immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were Italian, and about one-third were Spanish. Substantial numbers also came from France, Poland, Russia, Germany, and Great Britain. In 1869 the foreign-born made up 12 percent of the population; this grew to about one-third by 1914, and in large cities foreigners outnumbered natives by as much as 2 to 1. As immigration slowed later in the 20th century, the proportion of foreign-born Argentines dropped.

      The Italian influence on Argentine culture became the most important of any immigrant group, and Italian is still widely spoken in Buenos Aires. Other major foreign influences have come from Spanish and Polish immigrants. Smaller groups have also made notable contributions, however. British capital and management, in particular, built railroads and created the meat-processing industry; the British also left a relatively small but influential community. The Germans established farm settlements and cooperatives; the French contributed their viticultural expertise; and the Japanese invested in business, as did the Syrians and Lebanese.

      The children of immigrants were quick to identify themselves as Argentines, so the people were not divided into antagonistic ethnic groups. But Argentine society developed a serious division between the rural interior and the urban coast. Many rural people grew to resent the wealth, political power, and cultural affectations of the porteños, the “people of the port” in the Buenos Aires region, and many porteños looked upon residents of the interior as ignorant peasants. These divisions became deeply rooted in the politics of the country.

Language and religion

      Spanish is the national language, although in Argentina it is spoken in several accents and has absorbed many words from other languages, especially Italian. Numerous foreign languages and dialects can be heard, from Basque and Sicilian to Welsh and Gaelic. Toward the end of the 19th century, an underworld language called lunfardo developed in Buenos Aires, composed of words from many languages—among them Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, and languages from Africa. Lunfardo is now often heard in the lyrics of tango music.

 The vast majority of Argentine people are adherents of Roman Catholicism. Of the remainder, about equally small percentages are Protestants and Jews. Roman Catholic influence is strongly reflected in government and society, and Catholicism is constitutionally recognized as the official state religion, although freedom of worship is guaranteed.

Settlement patterns

      The varied topography, climate, and natural resources of Argentina shaped the pattern of European settlement. Although modern transportation and industry have partly effaced regional differences, the organization of life in both city and country still follows patterns that were set in early colonial times.

The Northwest

      Numerous archaeological sites in the region indicate the presence—before the Spanish invasion—of permanently settled Indians who practiced irrigation and terraced farming in the oasis-like valleys. The Spanish, arriving overland from what are now Peru and Bolivia, initially occupied areas on the lowland plains of the Chaco, distant from hostile indigenous groups; they made their first permanent settlement in 1553 at Santiago del Estero. Not long afterward forts arose in the Northwest at San Miguel de Tucumán (1565), Salta (1582), San Salvador de Jujuy (1593), and San Luis (1594); Córdoba, to the south, was founded in 1573. Meanwhile, the Northwest received colonists from still farther south as Spaniards and Creole settlers from Chile founded the cities of Mendoza and San Juan in the early 1560s.

      The cities in the Northwest were founded originally to support agriculture (including livestock raising) and trade with the silver mines of the Viceroyalty of Peru, particularly those at Potosí (now in Bolivia). Later, as Buenos Aires developed and the silver mines became less profitable, the country's orientation switched to the southeast. The Spanish established a trade route between Chile and Buenos Aires that went through Córdoba and Mendoza, both of which thrived. This northward path was chosen in order to avoid the Pampas Indians, and it has remained an important transportation route. Settlement in the 600-mile- (1,000-km-) long rain shadow zone east of the Andes took place in river oases stretching from just south of San Miguel de Tucumán to San Rafael, south of Mendoza.

      Rail transportation linked Mendoza to the Pampas in 1885 and sparked the development of viticulture in the Mendoza region. Access to Buenos Aires brought new capital, more settlers, better grape stock, and larger markets. Mendoza and oases such as San Rafael expanded once European immigrants could reach them and fill the labour shortage. Farmers in Tucumán province benefited from their more humid surroundings amid Andean foothills; they responded to the new markets across the Pampas by increasing sugar production, which had begun there during early colonial times. The first direct rail link between Tucumán and the Pampas in 1875 provided access to expanding sugar markets and to more modern machinery. Most of the tens of thousands of workers needed to harvest the crop came to live year-round on the large plantations, making Tucumán the most densely settled province in Argentina.

The Gran Chaco

      The Gran Chaco has long been considered a frontier region, and the government has often promoted its settlement and development. Agricultural colonies and cities grew first along the Paraná-Paraguay water route and then along railroads built to serve the quebracho industry. Resistencia was founded in 1878, and Formosa in 1879.

      The harsh physical conditions of the Gran Chaco explain why its native peoples engaged in only limited agriculture. Early Spanish expeditions aiming to conquer the Chaco came from Santiago del Estero to the west, Santa Fe to the southeast, and Asunción (now the capital of Paraguay) across the Paraguay River to the northeast. None of these succeeded in subduing the determined Indians, however.

      Settlement in the Chaco ultimately took place from Santiago del Estero, where irrigated cotton was successfully grown as early as the mid-16th century, and from Santa Fe, where cattle ranchers had purchased enormous acreages on which to raise tough criollo (Creole) cattle, which had survived from earlier expeditions. Ranchers defeated local Indians in 1885 and advanced to the northern frontier of the Argentine Chaco near the Bermejo River. Logging operations followed the ranchers and helped open parts of the Chaco—particularly in the east, where tannin from the quebracho tree met the demand of the Argentine leather industry. At the start of the 20th century, European settlers in the eastern Chaco began raising cotton, a crop that could withstand the long drought period. Small cotton-growing areas spread westward nearly to San Miguel de Tucumán, north to the Paraguayan border at the Pilcomayo River, and east into Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamia

      The northern part of the Mesopotamian region was first settled by Spaniards from Asunción, who in 1588 founded the city of Corrientes near the confluence of the Alto Paraná and Paraguay rivers. In the south settlers from Santa Fe crossed the Paraná River and established what became the city of Paraná. Having founded towns along navigable rivers, the Spanish secured the water route to the Río de la Plata estuary.

      When the Spanish first entered the Mesopotamian region, distances between settlements were so great that supply lines were tenuous, and the settlers found it necessary to produce their own subsistence crops. This they accomplished mainly by subjugating the remaining Indians under the encomienda system, which granted settlers the use of Indian labour on lands awarded by the crown. After Indian rebellions were met by Spanish military reprisals, however, many Indians were forced to flee. Finally, in the early 17th century the crown turned to the Jesuits (Jesuit) to restore peace and protect the native peoples. Within a century the Jesuits had built numerous reducciones (reducción), or mission settlements, in Mesopotamia, which later acquired the name Misiones. Under Jesuit rule northern Mesopotamia became the most important centre of colonization in the eastern part of the continent.

      The Territory of Misiones was created in the early 1880s, and Europeans, particularly Germans, began to settle the forested zone in the north. Yerba maté (Ilex paraguariensis; source of the brewed beverage maté), citrus, and vegetables, as well as tung trees, tea, and sugarcane, were grown on small farms. Outside the agricultural zones of Mesopotamia, cattle ranching came to dominate.

The Pampas (Pampas, the)

      The Pampas region was originally inhabited by Indians such as the Querandí, who reportedly did not practice agriculture but were fishers and hunters who used bolas for entangling fleet-footed guanacos and rheas. Fierce attacks by the Querandí forced Spanish settlers in Buenos Aires to flee upriver to Asunción in 1541. After Buenos Aires reemerged in 1580, the Spanish showed less interest in opening up the southern Pampas than in keeping open the northern trade route to Santa Fe, Asunción, and Upper Peru; as a result, estancias (estancia) (huge cattle ranches) were first established northwest of Buenos Aires.

      The estancias became one of the most important institutions in the economy, politics, and culture of Argentina. They began as gigantic tracts of land, often measuring in the hundreds of square miles, that were sold or granted to the Creole descendants of Spanish settlers during the 17th century. Herds of criollo cattle and horses ran half wild on these tracts. To manage the herds the estancia owners (estancieros) hired gauchos, ranch hands who dominated the Pampas until the open ranges disappeared late in the 19th century.

      Located on the estancias were widely dispersed ranchos, or simple adobe houses with dooryard gardens, which served as the headquarters of the estancieros. The gauchos were housed in more primitive huts or lean-tos. In addition, there were small pulperías, centrally located inns where marketing, banking, eating and drinking, and other functions took place. Some pulperías grew into villages. Gradually, the estancia region of the Pampas spread west and south of Buenos Aires.

      Buenos Aires and Santa Fe survived as small, sparsely populated towns until the mid-19th century. After that time rapid growth in agriculture changed the face of the Pampas. The world market for food products increased, and estancieros modernized their operations to meet the demand. Sheep and breeds of English cattle were imported to replace the criollo; however, the new cattle were unable to live on the Pampas grass and had to be fed with alfalfa. Because gauchos were not numerous or willing enough to cultivate alfalfa, their employers contracted European immigrants as tenant farmers. In addition, the southern frontier of the Pampas was pushed back, so that by 1880 Indian resistance was wiped out north of the Negro River. By 1914 several million European workers had arrived to work ranches and farms. Gradually, small farming and tenant farming operations spread west and south from Santa Fe and Entre Ríos provinces.

      The growth of agriculture spurred the growth of cities. Railroads radiating from Buenos Aires penetrated the interior of the Pampas, forming the densest network in the country. By the late 19th century foreign-owned frigoríficos (meat-packing plants for the export of beef and mutton) had been established on the Río de la Plata estuary. Efforts by the government to encourage the growth of manufacturing favoured the port cities, attracting most immigrants as well as many workers from the countryside. Buenos Aires subsequently became one of the most populous and cosmopolitan cities of the world, and the Humid Pampa became the most prosperous industrial and agricultural region of Argentina.

Patagonia

      Most approaches to Patagonia from the sea were hampered by inhospitable coastal cliffs and by high tides. With the Pampas Indians acting as a buffer against Europeans to the north, the Patagonian Indians thus remained unmolested until the mid-19th century, when European settlements encroached and warfare erupted. The Indian wars in northern Patagonia and the southern and western Pampas culminated in a campaign known as the Conquest of the Desert, which ended in 1879 with the smashing of the last major Indian resistance. Argentines, Chileans, and Europeans began to colonize Patagonia, with soldiers and financial contributors to the Indian wars receiving large land grants. Argentine settlers proceeded southward from the Pampean port city of Bahía Blanca and from Neuquén in the Andean foothills. Chileans from Punta Arenas settled in Tierra del Fuego. Welsh, Scottish, and English immigrants spread along the coast and inland, with the result that both Welsh and English are still spoken in parts of Patagonia.

      The southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia, on Tierra del Fuego, began as a missionary settlement; it can still be reached only by ship or aircraft. About the end of the 19th century, sheep ranching began along the rail line connecting the port of Río Gallegos with coal deposits at Río Turbio. Comodoro Rivadavia became an important oil and natural gas centre, and the Negro River fruit region began to develop in 1886 when the area east of Neuquén was settled by veterans of the Indian wars and by others.

Demographic trends

      The population of Argentina has increased 20-fold since 1869, when 1.8 million people were recorded there by the first census. Population growth was rapid through the early part of the 20th century, but it declined thereafter as both the birth rate and immigration began to drop off; the proportion of young people also declined. Argentina's rates of birth and population growth are now among South America's lowest. The nation's population density is also among the continent's lowest, although certain areas are quite heavily populated, including the Humid Pampa, Mesopotamia, and parts of the eastern Northwest. The population is growing faster in urban areas—especially Buenos Aires—than in the rest of the country. Nearly nine-tenths of the people live in urban areas, about a third in greater Buenos Aires alone.

Economy

      Argentina's economy, which is one of the more powerful in the region, is dependent on services and manufacturing, although agribusiness and ranching dominated the economy for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. Argentina still produces more grain than any other country in Latin America and is second in cattle raising only to Brazil, and its receipts from tourism are second in the region only to those of Mexico. Its gross national product (GNP), GNP per capita, and value added from manufacturing are also among the highest in the region. However, the country has withstood a number of economic downturns, including periods of high inflation and unemployment during the late 20th century and a major financial crisis in the early 21st century.

      In the 60 years after the founding of the farming colony at Esperanza in 1856, the base of Argentine agriculture shifted from livestock to crops. The spread of wheat, corn (maize), and flax cultivation roughly conformed to that of the estancia region of the Pampas. Although agriculture there did not become as intensive as it did in North America, soils were good and land was abundant. Argentine industry became important when mostly foreign-dominated manufacturers began exporting processed foods. The growth trend continued well into the 20th century as Argentina became one of the most prosperous countries in Latin America. Meat and grain were exported to expanding markets in Europe in exchange for fuel and manufactured products.

      In the early decades of the 20th century, Argentina became the world's leading exporter of corn, flax, and meat. However, the Great Depression of the 1930s considerably damaged the Argentine economy by reducing foreign trade. Between 1930 and 1980 Argentina fell from being one of the wealthiest countries in the world to ranking with the developing (Third World) nations. In response to the Great Depression, successive governments from the 1930s to the '70s pursued a strategy of import substitution designed to transform Argentina into a country self-sufficient in industry as well as agriculture. This was accomplished mainly by imposing high tariffs on imports and thereby sheltering Argentine textile, leather, and home-appliance manufacturers from foreign competition. The government's encouragement of industrial growth, however, diverted investment from agriculture, and agricultural production fell dramatically. Fruits, vegetables, oilseed crops such as soybeans and sunflowers, and industrial crops such as sugarcane and cotton increased their share of total agricultural production at the expense of the dominant grain crops. Overall, however, Argentina remained one of the world's major agricultural producers.

      By 1960 manufacturing contributed more to the country's wealth than did agriculture. Argentina had become largely self-sufficient in consumer goods, but it depended more than ever before on imported fuel and heavy machinery. In response the government invested heavily in such basic industries as petroleum, natural gas, steel, petrochemicals, and transport; it also invited investment by foreign companies. By the mid-1970s Argentina was producing most of its own oil, steel, and automobiles and was also exporting a number of manufactured products. Manufacturing became the largest single component of the gross domestic product (GDP). The country had also become self-sufficient in fuel.

      The era of import substitution ended in 1976 when the Argentine government lowered import barriers, liberalized restrictions on foreign borrowing, and supported the peso (the Argentine currency) against foreign currencies. At the same time, growing government spending, large wage raises, and inefficient production created a chronic inflation that rose through the 1980s, when it briefly exceeded an annual rate of 1,000 percent. Successive regimes tried to control inflation through wage and price controls, cuts in public spending, and restriction of the money supply. With the peso quickly losing value to inflation, a new peso was introduced in 1983 (with 10,000 old pesos exchanged for each new peso), only to be replaced by the austral in 1985, which was in turn replaced by another new peso in 1992.

      The measures enacted in 1976 also produced a huge foreign debt by the late 1980s, which became equivalent to three-fourths of the GNP. In terms of percentage of GDP, the country's agricultural and industrial sectors were similar to those of developed countries, but they were considerably less efficient. And, despite a high standard of living by South American standards, Argentina had a foreign debt ratio comparable to that of Third World countries.

      In the early 1990s the government enacted a program of economic austerity, reined in inflation by making the peso equal in value to the U.S. dollar, and privatized numerous state-run companies, using part of the proceeds from their sale to reduce the national debt. The resulting influx of foreign capital and increased industrial productivity helped to revitalize the economy. In 1995, however, a sudden devaluation of the Mexican peso threatened the economies of many Latin American nations. Argentines feared that investors who had lost money in Mexico would also lose confidence in the Argentine financial system. To avert that threat the government quickly adopted further austerity measures. However, a sustained recession at the turn of the 21st century culminated in a financial crisis in which the government—led by a quick succession of presidents and presidential resignations—defaulted on its foreign debt and again devalued the Argentine peso. By the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, however, the country's economy had recovered; there was considerable GNP growth, renewed foreign investment, and a significant drop in the unemployment rate.

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing

 Argentina is one of the world's major exporters of soybeans and wheat, as well as meat. It is also one of the largest producers of wool and wine, but most of its wine is consumed domestically. Although agriculture is an important source of export earnings, it now accounts for a small percentage of the overall GDP, and it employs only a tiny portion of the nation's workforce.

       wheat is Argentina's largest crop in harvested land area, and it is the main crop in the cattle-raising southern Pampas of Buenos Aires and La Pampa provinces. Wheat and corn (maize) dominate in the north. Planting of corn and wheat began simultaneously in the northern Pampas. By the end of World War II, however, foreign competition had cut Argentine corn production in half, and production has increased only gradually since then. About half of the corn produced is used for livestock feed. The total area of the Pampas planted in sorghum and soybeans has grown since 1960 to rank just behind that of wheat and corn. These crops also serve primarily as livestock feed and are valuable for export. Another crop of the northern Pampas is flax.

      More than nine-tenths of the country's grapes are planted in the Northwest provinces of Mendoza and San Juan; most of the crop is used for wine making. Table grapes are a specialty in La Rioja. The warmer northern provinces of Tucumán, Salta, and Jujuy make up the sugarcane-growing region of Argentina. The sugarcane provinces also have citrus orchards, which were introduced as a safeguard against the volatility of the sugar market. Tobacco is also grown in Salta and Jujuy. The best area for cotton growing lies mainly west of the Paraná River, between the Bermejo and Dulce rivers. Most of the crop is used by the Argentine textile industry.

      In Mesopotamia maté is the most important product of Misiones province, although since 1940 farmers have increasingly cultivated tea, tung trees (from which tung oil is derived), and citrus crops. Farther south in Mesopotamia, the truck-farming area supporting Buenos Aires, oranges, grapefruit, mandarins, and numerous vegetables are grown. The Negro River irrigation district in Patagonia has become one of Argentina's major fruit-producing regions, particularly for apples and pears.

      The Pampas are the traditional source of beef cattle, the country's most valuable export commodity. Estancieros have proved quick to adapt to changing markets, switching breeds and supplementing alfalfa feed with grain sorghum in order to produce leaner meat. Most of Argentina's hogs are raised in the Pampas, principally for domestic consumption. The cool, moist area of the southeastern Pampas, between Buenos Aires and the city of Mar del Plata, is an important dairy and sheep-raising district. Corrientes and Entre Ríos remain important cattle-raising provinces, ranking just behind those of the Pampas. Chaco province began as grazing ground for criollo cattle, but modern breeds have been susceptible to disease there, so the Chaco cattle economy has remained underdeveloped. Patagonia has at least half of the country's sheep, most of which are sheared for their wool. For a period during the 1990s, Argentine beef was banned from importation into the European Union, the United States, and other nations because of the incidence of foot-and-mouth disease. Exports subsequently resumed but were subject to periodic bans. Most of the beef produced in Argentina is now eaten locally.

      The forestry industry does not supply all of Argentina's needs. Most of the harvest is used for lumber, with smaller amounts for firewood and charcoal. In Mesopotamia the Paraná pine is harvested for its timber; there are also plantations of poplar and willow. The Northwest highlands produce pine and cedar, used for pulp and industry. The red quebracho of the Chaco region is valuable for its tannin, and the white quebracho is used for lumber and charcoal. Scattered stands of algaroba (carob) provide local firewood and cabinet wood in the Pampas.

      The fishing industry is comparatively small, owing in part to the overwhelming preference among Argentines for beef in their diet. Most coastal and deep-sea fishing is done in the Buenos Aires area, from the Río de la Plata to the Gulf of San Matías; the major ports are Mar del Plata and Bahía Blanca. Hake, squid, and shrimp make up a large part of the catch, about three-quarters of which is frozen or processed into oil and fish meal for export.

Resources and power

      Argentine industry is well served by the country's abundance of energy resources. By the late 20th century the country was self-sufficient in fossil fuels and hydroelectric generation, and it had become a petroleum exporter. Oil deposits are concentrated mainly in the Northwest and in Patagonia. The basin around the Patagonian port of Comodoro Rivadavia is estimated to hold some two-thirds of the country's onshore reserves. Other deposits are located in Jujuy and Salta provinces, in Mendoza and Neuquén provinces, and at the tip of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. The main natural gas fields are also in the Northwest, near Campo Durán (Salta province) and Mendoza, and in Patagonia, near Neuquén and Comodoro Rivadavia. Prior to the development of these fields in the 1980s, Argentina had imported gas from Bolivia. Coal deposits are found in southern Patagonia. Until 2000 some coal was mined there, but that activity has ceased; Argentina's needs are met by imports.

      With the exception of oil and natural gas, exploitable mineral reserves are generally small and widely scattered. Deposits of iron ore, uranium, lead, zinc, silver, copper, manganese, and tungsten are worked. A wide range of nonmetallic minerals is found throughout the country. Salt deposits are located on the western and southwestern edges of the Pampas, and materials such as clay, limestone, granite, and marble supply the construction industries.

      A significant amount of electrical power in Argentina is generated through hydroelectric stations, the total capacity of which has increased exponentially since the early 1970s. The huge Yacyretá dam on the lower Paraná River, brought on line in 1994–98, gave the nation a surplus of generating capacity. Argentina, with several nuclear plants, is one of Latin America's main producers of nuclear power.

Manufacturing

      Manufacturing, which accounts for about one-fifth of GDP and nearly one-sixth of the workforce, is a mainstay of the Argentine economy. A large sector of the country's industry is involved with the processing of agricultural products.

agribusiness

      Beef initiated industrialization in Argentina. The success of beef came as refrigeration techniques were perfected to allow, after 1876, for the storage and shipment of fresh meat. By the late 1920s frigoríficos (meat-packing plants) were located in various parts of the country, several of them in the Buenos Aires area. Later shipments proceeded from La Plata, Rosario, and Bahía Blanca. Frigoríficos at the ports of Patagonia came to serve the sheep ranches of that region.

      The growth of beef production in Argentina gave rise to a host of associated industries, including those producing tinned beef, meat extracts, tallow, hides, and leather. Argentina has been a consistent world leader in the export of hides. Leather processing occurs locally, and fine leather clothing can be obtained at retail outlets in the cities. The Chaco region supplies the necessary tannin, of which it is a major world producer.

      The Argentine grain-milling industry has grown in cities along the Río de la Plata littoral, where huge storage silos were built. Grain became a significant export as production increased in the late 20th century. Wheat flour is also produced in the silo areas for local consumption, and food industries based on wheat flour and pastas have developed at the same sites. Smaller but similar activities have emerged in the interior of Argentina wherever grain has been produced. Textile production in Argentina also developed on the basis of agricultural products, namely, wool and cotton. It is concentrated in the cities of the Pampas, where the largest markets and labour pools are located.

      The Argentine sugar industry of the Northwest is centred mainly in San Miguel de Tucumán, but a few mills also operate in Salta and San Salvador de Jujuy. These mills fulfill domestic demand. Mendoza in the same region is the nation's centre for olive and olive oil production, as well as for wine bottling. Argentina exports wine to other South American countries and to Europe and North America, on the basis of a steadily improving reputation among consumers.

Oil, steel, and motor vehicles

      Argentina's refining industry has grown along the coast in Buenos Aires and nearby cities, supplied by crude oil taken there by tankers and pipelines from Comodoro Rivadavia and Venezuela. The refining industry has also found a base in the petroleum fields north and south of Mendoza, where petrochemical plants have been built.

      The steel industry in Argentina began in the 1940s and grew slowly during the following decades. The Zapla works in Jujuy, the integrated San Nicolás de los Arroyos mill between Rosario and Buenos Aires, and the mill in Rosario produce most of the nation's steel but fall short of supplying domestic demand.

      A developing automobile industry provides a market for Argentine steel producers. Production had stagnated for decades, and in the 1980s it was still common to see 1960s-era cars on the streets of Buenos Aires; in the 1990s, however, foreign investment and the construction of modern assembly plants revitalized this sector. There is a developing aircraft industry at Córdoba.

Finance and trade

      The economic sector that includes finance, insurance, real estate, and business services accounts for one-fifth of GDP and employs about one-twelfth of the workforce. The central bank issues currency, sets interest and exchange rates, and regulates the money supply by deciding the amount of reserve cash that banks must hold. The peso is the monetary unit.

      Prior to the establishment in the 1990s of the Southern Common Market (Mercado Común del Sur; Mercosur) with Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay, Argentine trade was mainly oriented toward Europe and the United States. Brazil is now Argentina's most important trading partner, representing about one-fourth of all foreign trade, followed by the countries of the European Union, the United States, Chile, Japan, and Uruguay.

      In the 19th century Argentine beef and grain helped feed Britain's rapidly rising urban population, and until 1945 Britain was Argentina's main trading partner. The United States then assumed greater importance, particularly as an importer of Argentine goods. Britain's share declined and virtually disappeared for a time after the Falkland Islands War of 1982.

      Argentina generally has had a favourable balance of trade, although it has occasionally experienced years with trade deficits since the Mercosur pact was enacted. The country's major exports are still agricultural products, notably grain; also important are petroleum, machinery and transport equipment, and chemicals. About half of its imports, by value, are machinery and transport equipment. Chemical products and consumer goods are significant as well.

Services

      More than three-fifths of the Argentine GDP and a comparable portion of the labour force are based on services, including retail trade, hotels, restaurants, trucking and other transportation, government, education, health care, and various other business and social services. Retail and wholesale commerce alone account for about one-seventh of GDP, and business services account for a slightly lesser portion.

 Tourism is growing in importance, and international visitors contribute large amounts of foreign exchange to the Argentine economy. The number of foreign tourist arrivals approached five million per year in the late 1990s; one-fourth of visitors were from Uruguay, followed by hundreds of thousands each from Chile, Brazil, the United States, and Paraguay. Major tourist sites include Iguazú Falls (Iguaçu Falls) and the former Jesuit missions in Misiones province, as well as the ski resorts of San Carlos de Bariloche in the Lake District. Adventure travelers are drawn to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Buenos Aires is often called the Paris of South America because of its European flair, its nightlife, and its many educational institutions, museums, monuments, and theatres, including the historic Colón Theatre.

Labour and taxation

      Argentina possesses a large and literate workforce. However, a sizable number of Argentine workers were unemployed at the turn of the 21st century. Strong labour laws were enacted during the Perón era, when unions wielded great power over the Argentine economy, but successive governments have attempted to reform or repeal some of the Peronist strictures. More than nine-tenths of Argentina's 1,100 labour unions are represented by the General Confederation of Labour (Confederación General de Trabajo), a Peronist organization. Dissident trade union confederations include the Argentine Workers' Movement (Movimiento de Trabajadores Argentinos).

      Women constitute more than one-third of the labour force, and about two-fifths of women labourers are employed as household servants. The number of women employed is increasing, which reflects both the necessity of two incomes to support families and an increase in the number of women heading households. Women tend to hold lower-paying jobs and to receive less pay than their male counterparts.

      Taxes contribute the great bulk of government revenue. In addition to income tax, the principal federal taxes include wealth tax, value-added tax, and excise taxes on specific commodities and luxury goods. Additional taxes are levied by local and provincial governments.

Transportation and telecommunications

      During the Spanish colonial period there were three principal overland transportation routes. The most important led from Buenos Aires to the wealthy mining centre in Upper Peru (now Bolivia) via the northwestern route through Córdoba, Santiago del Estero, San Miguel de Tucumán, and San Salvador de Jujuy. A second route linked Buenos Aires with Chile westward through Villa María, San Luis, and Mendoza. The third route extended north from Buenos Aires to Santa Fe and Corrientes. These and less-important side roads were used by mule drivers, horsemen, huge two-wheeled oxcarts called carretas, and stagecoaches drawn by teams of six to eight horses.

      The system was transformed not by modernizing the roads but rather by rapidly building rail lines during the period just after 1857. British and other foreign capital funded rail networks that radiated from Buenos Aires. Rail construction continued from that time into the 20th century, and the country developed the most extensive rail system in Latin America. After the railways expanded, the nation built up its road network. Argentina's roadway mileage is now outranked in Latin America only by Brazil and Mexico; nearly one-third of the roads are paved. The largest share of surface freight is now carried by road, with lesser amounts carried by river and railroad.

      Small ships that carry passengers and freight have served the coastal cities from Buenos Aires to Río Gallegos since the end of the 19th century. The ocean shipping fleet is not well developed, however, considering Argentina's extensive export trade. Airlines link all regions of the country. Every major city has an airport, and even small, remote centres such as Ushuaia in southern Patagonia have reliable air service. Nearly all the largest cities have international airports, the most important being Ezeiza outside Buenos Aires. The country's main air transport company, Aerolíneas Argentinas, was founded by the government in 1950 to handle domestic and international traffic. It was sold to a consortium headed by Spain's national carrier, Iberia, in 1992 and unsuccessfully restructured in the late 1990s. The airlines returned to state control in 2008.

      In November 2000 the telecommunications industry was deregulated in an attempt to open the market to competition, improve the speed and breadth of services, and lower costs. Argentina was experiencing a boom in Internet start-up companies, which the infrastructure was inadequate to support. By 2000 fewer than 10 percent of the people owned personal computers, and less had Internet access, but the numbers for both were growing rapidly. The two extant regional telecommunications companies, Telecom and Telefónica, in 1989–90 had replaced the state-owned Entel company, which was notorious for decade-long waits for installations. The system subsequently was modernized, with extensive fibre-optic lines installed throughout most of the market and service made available to remote locations. Cellular service was expanding as well, approaching the rate of traditional landline service.

Government and society

Constitutional framework

      Argentina is a federal union of 23 provincias and a federal capital district, the city of Buenos Aires. Federalism came to Argentina only after a long struggle between proponents of a central government and supporters of provincial interests. The constitution of 1853 was modeled on that of the United States. The constitution promulgated in 1994 provides for consecutive presidential terms (which had not been allowed previously), but few other changes distinguish it from the 1853 document; in its largely original form, the constitution has sustained Argentina with at least a nominal form of republican, representative, and federal government.

 Executive power resides in the office of the president, who is elected with a vice president to a four-year term (only two terms can be consecutive). The president is commander in chief of the armed forces and appoints all civil, military, and federal judicial officers, as well as the chief of the Cabinet of Ministers, the body that oversees the general administration of the country. The Argentine legislature, or National Congress, consists of two houses: a 72-seat Senate and a 257-seat Chamber of Deputies. The Senate, whose members are elected to six-year terms, consists of three representatives from each province and the federal capital. The Chamber of Deputies, whose members are elected to four-year terms, is apportioned according to population.

Provincial and local government

      Each province has its own government, with executive, legislative, and judicial branches similar to those of the federal government. The provinces retain all power not specifically reserved to the federal government in the constitution. Local government was nullified in 1966 and restored in 1973, only to be taken over again in 1976 by the military dictatorship. With the restoration of constitutional government in 1983, the provinces and municipalities once more exercised the authority of local government. Municipal governments vary in structure, but many towns and cities have elected mayors. The executive (jefe de gobierno) of Buenos Aires is directly elected to a four-year term and is eligible for immediate reelection.

Justice

      The Argentine judicial system is divided into federal and provincial courts. The nine federal Supreme Court judges are appointed by the president with approval of the Senate. Lower federal court judges are nominated by a Council of Magistrates and chosen by the president. Reforms begun in the 1990s addressed long-standing problems of inefficiency, corruption, and unfilled vacancies. There are federal courts of appeal in Buenos Aires and other large cities. The provincial justice system includes supreme courts, appellate courts, courts of first instance, and justices of the peace.

      The judiciary has been criticized as inefficient and open to political influence, despite recent reforms. Among the persistent problems cited are arbitrary arrests, lengthy pretrial detentions, and harsh prison conditions. However, cases involving human rights abuses have received increasing attention since the 1980s. The government has designated a prisons ombudsman since 1993 to monitor conditions and recommend prison reforms.

      The national prison system is directed by the Ministry of Justice. There are also separate provincial prisons. The number of prisoners in Argentina increased greatly in the 1990s, from roughly 21,000 to nearly 40,000, or to as many as 58,000 by some estimates. The rate of incarceration also increased rapidly. Pretrial detainees account for more than half of the prison population.

Political process

      The political party system in Argentina has been volatile, particularly since the mid-20th century, with numerous parties forming, taking part in elections, and disbanding as new factions evolve. Among the major parties are the Radical Civic Union (Unión Cívica Radical; UCR), a centrist party with moderate leftist leanings; the Justicialist Party (Partido Justicialista; PJ), more commonly known as the Peronist party (for its founder, former president Juan Perón), traditionally nationalist and pro-labour but supportive of neoliberal economic policies during the 1990s; the Front for a Country in Solidarity (Frente del País Solidario; Frepaso), a moderate leftist grouping of dissident Peronists; and the Union of the Democratic Centre (Unión del Centro Democrático; UCD, or UCéDé), a traditional liberal party. The PJ has controlled the government most of the time since civilian rule was restored in the early 1980s, notably under President Carlos Menem in the 1990s. Frepaso was founded in 1994 from the left-wing Broad Front, the Christian Democratic Party, and other groups; three years later it formed an alliance with the UCR and in 1999–2001 held the government. The UCéDé, which remained separate from many coalitions, had a limited power base.

      The national electoral code provides that 30 percent of candidates proposed by political parties for elected office must be women. About one-fourth of the members of the Chamber of Deputies are women, but the Senate remains overwhelmingly male.

      Women's rights have been established through a series of legislative acts guaranteeing the right to vote, to work and to receive equal pay for equal work, and to stand on equal footing in a marriage, including in the authority over children. In 1985 the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women was ratified, and in 1991 the Coordinating Council for Public Policies on Women was established to ensure its fulfillment. Departments of women's affairs operate within many federal and local agencies and in such institutions as labour unions.

Security

      The military has traditionally been a factor in Argentina's political life, and the country has experienced several periods of military rule, including 1976–83. Since then, however, annual military spending has fallen to only a tiny fraction of GDP. Of the roughly 70,000 active military personnel in the army, navy, and air force, some three-fifths of the total are in the army. The Coast Guard provides security and rescue services, and there is also an 18,000-member paramilitary Gendarmería Nacional under the direction of the Ministry of the Interior, deployable for both national and international security functions. Argentina has sent troops to UN missions in Cyprus, Iraq and Kuwait, and Serbia and Montenegro (Yugoslavia) and has provided observers in a number of other locations as well. Argentina also has a federal police force that is controlled by the president through the minister of the interior.

Health and welfare

      An extensive system of hospitals and clinics in Argentina is run by national, provincial, and local authorities as well as by private organizations. The cost of medical care is covered by a comprehensive array of occupational insurance plans. Public health and sanitation standards are particularly high in developed places but can drop off considerably in some of the undeveloped areas. Diseases such as smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, and tuberculosis have been brought under control or eliminated. Average life expectancy at birth exceeds 75 years, higher than that in many South American countries.

      Argentina's social welfare services were developed on a large scale during the first presidency (1946–55) of Juan Perón. A social security system was set up to provide extensive benefits for all workers. Housing, however, has become a problem in cities because of the movement of workers from rural areas, especially during periods of economic difficulty. These workers have congregated on the outskirts of urban zones—and more recently on vacant land in the inner cities—and assembled dwellings from corrugated iron and scraps of wood, cardboard, and other scavenged materials. The resulting shantytown communities, called villas miserias, lack amenities such as public utilities and paved roads.

Housing

 The quality and style of housing in Argentina vary considerably according to location and economic status. Many of the residents of Buenos Aires and other large cities live in high-rise apartments; those in the suburbs reside in ranch-style concrete homes with tile roofs. However, poorer families often inhabit substandard housing in tenements or shantytowns. More than two-fifths of homes in the city of Buenos Aires are rented. Apartments and condominiums account for three-fourths of homes in the capital but only about one-eighth of those in the surrounding suburbs. At least one-fifth of Argentines occupy substandard housing, lacking indoor plumbing (drinking water or toilets) or having either dirt floors or temporary flooring. The government classifies about half of the substandard homes as shacks or shanties. In many, more than three people are crowded into each room.

Education

      Argentina has one of the more educated populations in Latin America, which is reflected in its large number of schools and a nearly universal literacy rate. Primary education is compulsory and free; secondary and higher education is offered in free public schools and in private schools subsidized by the state. Higher education in Argentina was seriously hampered by the censorship and other strictures of the military government of 1976–83, but efforts to restore the system began after a civilian government was returned to power. The National University of Córdoba, founded in 1613, is the nation's oldest university, and the University of Buenos Aires, founded in 1821, is its largest. Other major national universities are at Mendoza, La Plata, Rosario, and San Miguel de Tucumán. The National Technical University is located at Buenos Aires.

Cultural life

      Almost all Argentines are descendants of immigrants from Europe, and Argentine culture is a lively blend of European customs and Latin American innovations. Whereas earlier generations of intellectuals, writers, composers, filmmakers, and visual artists looked to European models, the country has developed artistic forms that are uniquely Argentine—most famously the tango, the sexually charged dance of the Buenos Aires dockside district, as well as the dense, metaphysical stories of Jorge Luis Borges, which evoke the back alleys of the capital and the vast Pampas alike. The tensions between those two milieus are important in Argentine thought, for, although most Argentines are urban and look to porteños, or residents of Buenos Aires, as arbiters of taste and trends, the interior has given to all Argentines their symbol of national identity, the gaucho, who occupies a position in South American lore similar to that of the cowboy in the United States. Scorned in his heyday of the 18th and 19th centuries as a drinker and vagabond, this mestizo ranch hand rode the open rangeland of the huge estancias in pursuit of wild horses and criollo cattle. Eventually Argentines came to see him as a character whose solitary life taught him self-reliance, courage, indifference to hardship, and love of the land—traits that represented the ideal of their national character as set out in the national epic poem El gaucho Martin Fierro (1872) by José Hernández, in Ricardo Güiraldes's fictional classic Don Segunda Sombra (1926), and in works by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and Benito Lynch.

Daily life and social customs

      Daily life in Argentina's cities is much as it is in those of southern Europe: businesses and shops open early, close for a long break at midday, and stay open into the evening; social life takes place both in the streets and in lively bars and nightclubs; and meals are an opportunity for convivial exchanges. New and Old World cultures meet in the Argentine diet, where breakfast is generally a serving of three sweet rolls (medialunas) and coffee in the French fashion, and supper is taken, in the Spanish tradition, after 9:00 PM, often featuring Italian dishes. The New World asserts itself in the Argentine passion for beef cooked on the grill (parrilla), which is overwhelmingly preferred to other meats and fish. Argentina consumes more beef per capita than any other nation except Uruguay, twice the amount per capita as the United States. Buenos Aires is renowned for its steakhouses (asados criollos, but nearly every culinary tradition is represented in one or more of the city's restaurants. maté, the native tealike beverage brewed from yerba maté leaves, is popular in the countryside and is drunk from a gourd through a strainer; it is either sipped individually or shared in an important social ritual. Argentina is one of the largest wine producers in the world, and its varietal red wines are highly prized by connoisseurs, though most production goes toward supplying high domestic consumption.

      Most Argentines observe the Roman Catholic calendar of holidays, including Christmas and Easter. San Martin Day (August 17), Venticinco de Mayo (May 25, the anniversary of the revolution of 1810), and Nueve de Julio (July 9, Independence Day) are among the principal national holidays. Regional festivals include the Fiesta del Milagros (“Miracle Festival”) in Salta, commemorating the salvation of the city from an earthquake in September 1692, the celebration on July 6 of the founding of Córdoba, and the wine festival in Mendoza in March.

The arts

 The fine arts of Argentina historically found their inspiration in Europe, particularly in France and Spain, but the turbulence and complexity of Argentine national life—and of Latin America in general—have also found expression in the arts. In literature the Modernismo movement of the late 19th century and the Ultraísmo of the early 20th were both influenced by the French Symbolist and Parnassian poets. By composing verses of unconventional metre and by using unusual imagery and symbolism, such poets as Leopoldo Lugones (Lugones, Leopoldo) and Jorge Luis Borges (Borges, Jorge Luis) hoped to draw attention to the beauty of the Spanish language. Borges went on to become one of the most innovative fiction writers of Latin America. He prepared the way for experimental works of the later 20th century, such as the antinovel Rayuela (1963; Hopscotch) by the Argentine novelist Julio Cortázar (Cortázar, Julio). Adolfo Bioy Casares, a colleague of Borges, is particularly well known for his stories. Also notable is Ernesto Sábato (Sábato, Ernesto), author of the fictional work El túnel (1948; Eng. trans. The Outsider) and chair of the commission that produced Nunca más (1984; “Never Again!”), a shocking report on human rights abuses in Argentina. The novelist and screenwriter Manuel Puig (Puig, Manuel) is best known for his El beso de la mujer araña (1976; Kiss of the Spider Woman), a denunciation of sexual and political repression. Contemporary Argentine writers such as Alicia Partnoy and Luisa Valenzuela are well known within the country. Buenos Aires hosts an annual book fair highlighting the work of these and other authors, as well as a separate fair for children's books; Argentina remains the largest market in Spanish-speaking Latin America for trade books.

      Composers of the early 20th century such as Alberto Williams and Carlos López Buchardo contributed to a nationalist revival in music by adapting folk and gaucho themes to classical forms. A generation later Alberto Ginastera (Ginastera, Alberto) and Juan Carlos Paz experimented with musical forms that were current throughout Europe and the Americas. Painters and sculptors studied in Italy and France and took the academic, Impressionist, and Cubist styles back to Argentina. Later artists were inspired by Mexican murals and by abstract and Pop art in the United States.

      One of Argentina's great cultural hybrids is the tango, a music style and dance that emerged from the poor immigrant quarters of Buenos Aires toward the end of the 19th century and quickly became famous around the world as a symbol of Argentine culture. Influenced by the Spanish tango and possibly the Argentine milonga, it was originally a high-spirited local phenomenon, but, after it was popularized by romantic singers such as Carlos Gardel (Gardel, Carlos), it became an elegant ballroom form characterized by romantic and melancholy tunes. By the end of the 20th century, the tango had lost some of its appeal among the nation's youth, who generally preferred dancing to rock and pop music in local discotheques; nevertheless, it has remained popular among the older generation and foreigners and has continued to evolve under the influence of such artists as Astor Piazzolla and Roberto Fripo.

      Argentine cinema dates from the 1930s; notable among the works of the later 20th century is La historia oficial (1985; “The Official Version”), a drama regarding the extralegal adoption of children born to prisoners who were murdered during the “Dirty War” of 1976–83. Argentine film has experienced a renaissance since the 1990s, with the critical and commercial success of such productions as Enrique Gabriel-Lipschutz's Huella borrada (1999; “Erased Footprints”), Diego Arsuaga's El último tren (2002; “The Last Train”), Maria Teresa Constantini's Sin intervalo (2002; “Nonstop”), and Juan José Jusid's Apasionados (2002; “The Lovers”). Carlos Saura's Tango (1998) and Marcelo Pineyro's Cenizas del paraíso (1997; “Ashes from Paradise”) are among several broadly distributed Argentine films to have been nominated for Academy Awards or other international honours.

Cultural institutions

      Buenos Aires is home to the National Library, founded in 1810 and holding more than two million volumes, and to a host of specialized libraries as well. Museums of fine arts, natural history, decorative arts, ethnology and archaeology, and national history are also located there. Schools of fine arts in Buenos Aires offer instruction in visual arts, theatre, dance, and music. Provincial museums tend to focus on local arts, history, and sciences; in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the Western Hemisphere, the Museo del Fin del Mundo (Museum of the End of the World) concentrates on history and natural sciences. In La Plata the university's Natural History Museum contains fine examples of the rich fossil record of Patagonia, which helped inspire naturalist Charles Darwin.

Sports and recreation

      Argentina's worldwide preeminence on the polo field reflects the nation's divided social base, the hardiness of its horses, and the skills of its riders. Steeped in the gaucho tradition and having the open fields of the Pampas on which to practice, a ranch hand with the necessary talent can attain high renown and modest wealth at either polo or horse racing. Both the wealthy and the urban middle classes attend exclusive sporting clubs offering tennis, yachting, or power boating. Rugby football is played in several private schools. There are excellent hiking and fishing areas in the Lake District of the Patagonian Andes, where San Carlos de Bariloche attracts crowds of skiers during the winter. In the summer months bathers pack the beaches at resorts such as Mar del Plata, though the waters of the Río de la Plata itself, once available to all comers, are polluted and have been declared unsafe for swimming.

 The most popular sport among the Argentine working class is football (football (soccer)) (soccer), introduced by the British (as was polo) in the 19th century. Professional football offers players of even the poorest backgrounds a chance at wealth and fame; as inspiration they look to such national football stars as Diego Maradona, who was perhaps the world's leading player in the 1980s and '90s. Argentine teams are generally among the best internationally and are often contenders for the World Cup.

      A peculiarly Argentine game dating perhaps to the 17th century is pato (“duck”), which is played on an open field between two teams of four horsemen each. The riders attempt to carry a leather ball (originally a duck trapped in a basket) by its large handles and throw it through the opposing team's goal, which is a large hoop on a post.

      A majority of Argentines enjoy viewing televised sporting events as well as dramas, game shows, and other television programs, including North American comedies dubbed into Spanish. Telenovelas (soap operas) made in Argentina and other Latin American countries are particularly popular, and many locally produced serials are exported throughout the region. Movies, many of which originate in the United States or Europe, are also viewed avidly. Increasing numbers of Argentines have bought personal computers and begun accessing the Internet.

Media and publishing

      The mass media in Argentina are well advanced among Latin American nations. In Buenos Aires the largest newspapers are published, and many have electronic editions on the Internet. The largest daily circulation is claimed by Clarín; two other large-circulation dailies, La Nación and La Prensa, founded in 1870 and 1869, respectively, have high reputations in the Spanish-speaking world as well as among the international press. Página/12, a more recent addition, provides thorough independent coverage of Argentine politics and cultural affairs. The English-language daily Buenos Aires Herald is also widely available throughout the republic. Foreign-language papers are common in the capital. Buenos Aires is a centre of publishing in South America.

      The majority of radio and television stations are privately operated, although national and provincial governments operate some 15 television stations. Throughout the country's postwar history the broadcast media and press have periodically become agents of state propaganda, only to be returned to some independence by succeeding administrations.

Robert C. Eidt Peter A.R. Calvert

History

      The following discussion focuses on events in Argentina from the time of European settlement. For events in a regional context, see Latin America, history of. Events that affected northwestern Argentina prior to the 16th century are described in pre-Columbian civilizations: Andean civilization (pre-Columbian civilizations).

      The population of the area now called Argentina may have totaled 300,000 before the arrival of the Europeans. Some of the indigenous peoples were nomadic hunters and fishers, such as those in the Chaco, the Tehuelche of Patagonia, and the Querandí and Puelche (Guennakin) of the Pampas, but others, such as the Diaguita of the Northwest, developed sedentary agriculture. The highlands of the Northwest were a part of the Inca empire.

Early period

Discovery and settlement

      The main Atlantic outline of Argentina was revealed to European explorers in the early 16th century. The Río de la Plata (Plata, Río de la) estuary was discovered years before Ferdinand Magellan (Magellan, Ferdinand) traversed the Strait of Magellan in 1520, although historians dispute whether the estuary was first reached by Amerigo Vespucci (Vespucci, Amerigo) in 1501–02 or by Juan Díaz de Solís (Díaz de Solís, Juan) in his ill-fated voyage of 1516. Solís and a small party sailed up the Plata, which he called the Mar Dulce (“Freshwater Sea”), and made landfall. Ambushed by Indians, Solís and most of his followers were killed, and several disappeared. The survivors of the expedition returned to Spain.

      The Río de la Plata was not explored again until Magellan arrived in 1520 and Sebastian Cabot (Cabot, Sebastian) in 1526. Cabot discovered the Paraná and Paraguay rivers and established the fort of Sancti Spíritus (the first Spanish settlement in the Plata basin). He also sent home reports of the presence of silver.

      In 1528 Cabot met another expedition from Spain under Diego García, commander of a ship from the Solís expedition. Both Cabot and García had planned to sail for the Moluccas but altered their courses, influenced by excited tales about an “enchanted City of the Caesars” (a variant of the Eldorado legend), which later incited many explorations and conquests in Argentina. While Cabot was preparing to search for the fabled city, a surprise attack by the Indians in September 1529 wiped out his Sancti Spíritus base.

      Inspired by the conquest of Peru and the threat from Portugal's growing power in Brazil, Spain in 1535 sent an expedition under Pedro de Mendoza (Mendoza, Pedro de) (equipped at his own expense) to settle the country. Mendoza was initially successful in founding Santa María del Buen Aire, or Buenos Aires (1536), but lack of food proved fatal. Mendoza, discouraged by Indian attacks and mortally ill, sailed for Spain in 1537; he died on the way.

      In the same year, a party from Buenos Aires under Juan de Ayolas and Domingo Martínez de Irala, lieutenants of Mendoza, pushed a thousand miles up the Plata and Paraguay rivers. Ayolas was lost on an exploring expedition, but Irala founded Asunción (now in Paraguay) among the Guaraní, a largely settled agricultural people. In 1541 the few remaining inhabitants of Buenos Aires abandoned it and moved to Asunción, which was the first permanent settlement in that area. In the next half century Asunción played a major part in the conquest and settlement of northern Argentina. The main population of Argentina was concentrated there until the late 18th century. Buenos Aires, reestablished in 1580 by Juan de Garay with settlers from Asunción, was largely isolated from this northern area. Northern Argentina as well as Buenos Aires was settled mainly by the overflow from the neighbouring Spanish colonies of Chile, Peru, and Paraguay (Asunción). There was little direct migration from Spain, probably because the area lacked the attractions of Mexico, Peru, and other Spanish colonies—rich mines, a large supply of tractable Indian labour, accessibility, and the privilege of direct trade with Spain. Nevertheless, in the early communities a simple but vigorous society developed on the basis of Indian (South American Indian) labour and the horses, cattle, and sheep imported by the Spaniards, as well as native products such as corn (maize) and potatoes. Some of the Indians worked as virtual serfs, and densely populated missions (reducciones) established by the Roman Catholic church played a notable role in the colonizing process. European men often took Indian wives because there were few Spanish women among the settlers.

Colonial centres

      Politically, Argentina was a divided and subordinate part of the Viceroyalty of Peru until 1776, but three of its cities— San Miguel de Tucumán, Córdoba, and Buenos Aires—successively achieved a kind of leadership in the area and thereby sowed the regional seeds that later grew into an Argentine national identity.

      San Miguel de Tucumán's leadership lasted from the latter part of the 16th through the 17th century. Its political and ecclesiastical jurisdiction extended over most of northern Argentina, including Córdoba. San Miguel de Tucumán also dominated trade, which was the chief economic activity, by supplying the rich silver-mining area of Upper Peru (now Bolivia) with foodstuffs and livestock in return for European manufactures and other goods brought from Spain. Under the same economic system, Córdoba rose to leadership in the 17th and 18th centuries, because the expansion of settlement gave the city a central location and because the University of Córdoba, founded in 1613, put the city in the intellectual forefront of the region.

      Buenos Aires, which rose to leadership in the late 18th century, symbolized the reorientation of Argentina's economic, intellectual, and political life from the west to the east. On the economic front commerce was oriented away from the declining silver mines of Peru and toward direct transatlantic trade with Europe. Intellectually, interest in the new ideas of the European Enlightenment found fertile soil in cosmopolitan Buenos Aires. Political life was reoriented in 1776, when Spain created the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (Río de la Plata, Viceroyalty of the) (consisting of modern Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and southern Bolivia), with Buenos Aires as its capital. By carving the new viceroyalty from lands formerly part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, Spain intended to put its east-coast dominions in a better defensive position. The chief threat came from Brazil, which was growing rapidly in population, wealth, and military potential. For the first time, the port of Buenos Aires was opened to transatlantic trade with Spain and, through Spain, with other countries. This resulted in a great increase in both legal trade and smuggling.

Independence

      In Argentina the independence movement began in 1806–07, when British attacks on Buenos Aires were repelled in the two battles known as the Reconquista and the Defensa. Also important there, as elsewhere in Spanish America, were the ramifications of Napoleon I's intervention in Spain, beginning in 1808, which plunged that country into a civil war between two rival governments—one set up by Napoleon, who placed his own brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne, and the other created by patriotic juntas in Spain in the name of the exiled Ferdinand VII and aided by the British. In most of Spanish America there was general sympathy with the regency, but both claims were rejected, mainly on the ground that an interregnum existed and thus, under ancient principles of Spanish law, the king's dominions in America had the right to govern themselves pending the restoration of a lawful king.

      This view was sustained in Argentina by the Creoles (criollos; Argentine-born Europeans) rather than by the immigrant (“peninsular”) Spaniards, and it was put into effect by the Buenos Aires cabildo, or municipal council. This ancient Spanish institution had existed in all the colonies since the 16th century. Its powers were very limited, but it was the only organ that had given the colonists experience in self-government. In emergencies it was converted into an “open” cabildo, a kind of town meeting, which included prominent members of the community. On May 25, 1810 (now celebrated as Venticinco de Mayo, the day of the revolution), such an open cabildo in Buenos Aires established an autonomous government to administer the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in the name of Ferdinand VII, pending his restoration. When Ferdinand was restored in 1814, however, he was virtually powerless in Spain, which remained under the shadow of France. An assembly (Tucumán, Congress of) representing most of the viceroyalty met at San Miguel de Tucumán and on July 9, 1816 (Nueve de Julio), declared the country independent under the name of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata.

      Several years of hard fighting followed before the Spanish royalists were defeated in northern Argentina. But they remained a threat from their base in Peru until it was liberated by José de San Martín (San Martín, José de) and Simón Bolívar (Bolívar, Simón) in 1820–24. The Buenos Aires government tried to maintain the integrity of the old Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, but the outlying portions, never effectively controlled, soon were lost: Paraguay in 1814, Bolivia in 1825, and Uruguay in 1828. The remaining territory—what now constitutes modern Argentina—was frequently disunited until 1860. The root cause of the trouble, the power struggle between Buenos Aires and the rest of the country, was not settled until 1880, and even after that it continued to cause dissatisfaction.

Efforts toward reconstruction, 1820–29

      In 1820 only two political organizations could claim more than strictly local and provincial followings: the revolutionary government in Buenos Aires and the League of Free Peoples, which had grown up along the Río de la Plata and its tributaries under the leadership of José Gervasio Artigas (Artigas, José Gervasio). But both organizations collapsed in that year, and Buenos Aires seemed to be losing its position as the seat of national government. However, as the city regained its function as an intermediary between the nation and foreign governments, it regained its prominence.

Dominance of Buenos Aires

      By then, military leaders had assumed power in almost every province. Each provincial political regime soon acquired its own character, according to the relative power held by military strongmen (caudillos) and by local political interests. This differentiation was not, however, cause for friction between the provinces; rather, economic and geographic factors separated them. Buenos Aires made significant advances toward national leadership by taking advantage of the interprovincial rivalries.

      Within the province of Buenos Aires itself, the regime of the so-called Party of Order instituted popular reforms, including dismantling the military apparatus that had persisted from the war. The remaining armed forces were sent to defend the frontier areas and Pampas against attacks by Indians. This prudence on the part of the government won the support of the rural landowners as well as the urban businessmen, whose backing ensured victory at the polls.

      The political order that seemed to be taking hold was achieved by setting aside, rather than resolving, certain fundamental difficulties. In particular, the institutional organization of the country was not carried out, and nothing was done about the Banda Oriental (the east bank of the Uruguay River), which was occupied first by Portuguese and then by Brazilian troops. By 1824 both problems were becoming urgent. Britain was willing to recognize Argentine independence, but only if Argentina established a government that could act for the whole country. And in the Banda Oriental a group of eastern patriots had taken over large sectors of the countryside and agitated for their reincorporation into the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, forcing the Buenos Aires government to face the possibility of war with the Brazilian empire.

Presidency of Rivadavia

      In the meantime, an attempt was made to establish a national government through a constituent assembly that met in December 1824. Overstepping its legal authority, the constituent assembly in February 1826 created the office of president of the republic and installed the porteño (native of Buenos Aires) Bernardino Rivadavia (Rivadavia, Bernardino) as its first occupant. Civil war flared up in the interior provinces, soon dominated by Juan Facundo Quiroga—a caudillo from La Rioja who opposed centralization. When the assembly finally drafted a national constitution, the major portion of the country rejected it.

      Meanwhile, war against Brazil had begun in 1825. The Argentine forces were able to defeat the Brazilians on the plains of Uruguay, but the Brazilian navy blockaded the Río de la Plata and succeeded in crippling Argentine commerce. Rivadavia, unable to end the war on favourable terms, resigned in July 1827, and the national government dissolved. Leadership of the province of Buenos Aires was given to a federalist, Colonel Manuel Dorrego. Dorrego was backed by local interest groups whose political spokesman was the great landowner Juan Manuel de Rosas (Rosas, Juan Manuel de), who had been named commander of the rural militia. Dorrego made peace with Brazil, and in 1828 the disputed eastern province was constituted as the independent state of Uruguay. The Uruguayan lands, which Rivadavia had considered indispensable to the “national integrity” of Argentina, were never to be recovered. In December 1828 troops returning from the war overthrew Dorrego and installed General Juan Lavalle in his place; Dorrego was executed.

      Although there was little resistance to the new governor in the city of Buenos Aires, uprisings began promptly in the outlying areas of the province. A convention of provincial representatives met in Santa Fe; dominated by the federalists under Rosas, they called on the governor of Santa Fe to take steps against the Lavalle regime. Lavalle finally came to terms with Rosas, and they agreed to hold elections in Buenos Aires for a new provincial legislature. Under the compromise agreement Rosas and Lavalle appointed a moderate federalist governor of Buenos Aires, but political tensions were too great for this attempt at reconciliation. Rosas reconvened the old legislature, which Lavalle had disbanded when he came to power—a triumph for the most intransigent forces of federalism. The legislature unanimously elected Rosas governor on December 5, 1829.

Confederation under Rosas, 1829–52

      The regime of Rosas in Buenos Aires enjoyed far broader support than any of its predecessors. Special interest groups, landholders, and export-import merchants (along with the British diplomatic contingent that was identified with these interests) all fell behind the new governor. Practically all the influential sectors in the province identified Rosas's triumph with their own best interests.

Domestic politics

      The new governor saw clearly the ambiguities and dangers of such widespread support, and, although he was identified as a federalist, he ruled as a centralist, with Buenos Aires his main power base. Rosas manipulated factions of labourers, gauchos, and elites from the estancias and set himself up as the arbiter of a delicate and constantly threatened balance between the masses and the elites.

      By 1832 the opposition to federalism had disappeared throughout the country, and Rosas turned over the reins of the government of Buenos Aires to his legal successor, General Juan Ramón Balcarce. However, Balcarce's assumption of the office fanned sparks of dissidence among those who had pledged to uphold the principles of federalism. Balcarce was overthrown, and his successor took office with a cabinet composed of Rosas's friends. They adopted policies that were designed to lead to political and economic stability, but it was stability that Rosas feared, since it would have entailed the demobilization of his mass political following. The legislature in Buenos Aires was induced to designate Rosas governor of the province under conditions that Rosas successfully imposed: he was granted extraordinary resources, absolute public authority, and an extension of the governor's term of office from three to five years. Armed with these powers, he soon established a formidable dictatorship, hunting down his real and supposed enemies with the aid of the Mazorca, a ruthless secret police force whose members behaved like thugs and vigilantes. To show their loyalty, citizens were required to wear red favours, and priests had to display Rosas's portrait on the altars of their churches.

Foreign policies

      Rosas's foreign policies left no room for anything other than total success or total failure, and international difficulties arose as extensions of domestic turmoil. In January 1833 Britain reasserted an earlier claim to the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), and a British warship took possession of the islands. More troublesome was the growing independence of neighbouring Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay, which continued to pursue their destinies as independent states rather than as parts of a Buenos Aires-controlled federation. General Andrés de Santa Cruz, who had established a confederation of Peru and Bolivia (Peruvian–Bolivian Confederation), supported opponents of Rosas in Argentina. Rosas in turn aided the influential governor of the northern province of Tucumán when that governor decided to go to war against Santa Cruz's confederation. The northern Argentine forces, in alliance with Chile and Peruvian nationalist rebels, were victorious in 1839.

      Rosas's involvement in a trade dispute with Uruguay, however, proved to be costly and ended in failure. It contributed to the first open friction with France, which sent warships to blockade Buenos Aires in 1838. This caused dissension in the coastal region, which depended heavily on export trade. Argentine political exiles in Montevideo, Uruguay, received French backing in their efforts to overthrow Rosas, and in the north a league of dissident provinces was formed.

      This formidable coalition of adversaries soon fell apart. France, faced with other problems, abandoned its adventure in the Río de la Plata area and left its local allies to fend for themselves against Rosas. At the same time, an army organized in Buenos Aires and commanded by Manuel Oribe (Oribe, Manuel Ceferino) (the deposed second president of Uruguay) gained control of most of the Argentine interior. For the first time since 1820, troops from Buenos Aires had advanced as far as the Bolivian and Chilean frontiers. The hegemony of Buenos Aires under Rosas's system of federalism was not to be challenged again. Oribe went on to conquer most of Uruguay, and his predominantly Argentine army began a nine-year siege of Montevideo in February 1843. The city was supplied through the intervention of British warships, and in 1845 an Anglo-French fleet blockaded Buenos Aires while a British fleet sailed up the Paraná River. Eventually the British and French withdrew their aid to Montevideo and ceased hostilities with Rosas.

      The fact that Rosas was able to conduct a vigorous foreign policy for so many years was partly because of the weakness of Argentina's natural rival in the Río de la Plata area, Brazil, which had been involved in a civil war (1835–45) in Rio Grande do Sul. Once the rebellion was put down, it was only a question of time until Brazil again influenced the Río de la Plata region. This influence opposed Rosas, and it worked in support of a rebellion by General Justo José de Urquiza (Urquiza, Justo José de), governor of the province of Entre Ríos. In 1851 Urquiza formed an alliance with Brazil and Uruguay. The allies first forced Rosas's troops to abandon the siege of Montevideo and then defeated his main army in the Battle of Caseros (February 3, 1852), just outside Buenos Aires. Rosas, abandoned by most of his troops as well as his political supporters, escaped to England, where he died in 1877.

Economic development, 1820–50

      Argentina's society and economy underwent considerable changes in the 30 years after 1820. Buenos Aires was the province best adapted to the new era of free trade, exporting cattle products in return for consumer goods from overseas. The interior provinces adjusted slowly, replacing their traditional markets in Upper Peru with new ones in Chile, where a great expansion of the mining industry was taking place. The coastal provinces fared better, although their livestock industry suffered from the effects of the civil war. For Santa Fe, moderate prosperity returned in the 1830s, and a similar trend began in Entre Ríos and Corrientes provinces in the 1840s.

National consolidation, 1852–80

      General Urquiza called a constitutional convention that met in Santa Fe in 1852. Buenos Aires refused to participate, but the convention adopted a constitution for the whole country that went into effect on May 25, 1853. Buenos Aires recoiled from the new confederation, the first elected president of which was Urquiza and the first capital of which was Paraná. The porteño dissidence was a serious financial handicap to the state, since Buenos Aires kept for itself all the revenues from customs duties on imports. In 1859 Urquiza incorporated Buenos Aires by armed force, but he also agreed to a constitutional revision that underscored the federal character of the government.

      Before the unification took effect, however, Urquiza was succeeded in the presidency by Santiago Derqui. Another civil war broke out, but this time Buenos Aires defeated Urquiza's forces. Urquiza and General Bartolomé Mitre (Mitre, Bartolomé), governor of Buenos Aires, then agreed that Mitre would lead the country but that Urquiza would exercise authority over the provinces of Entre Ríos and Corrientes. Derqui resigned, and Mitre was elected president in 1862; Buenos Aires became the seat of government.

      The authority of the new president was progressively weakened by opposition within his own province of Buenos Aires. The pressures of this opposition forced Mitre to intervene in the political struggles of Uruguay and then to fight Paraguay in the War of the Triple Alliance (Triple Alliance, War of the). From 1865 to 1870 an alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay carried on a devastating campaign against Paraguay, employing modern weapons and tens of thousands of troops.

      The war with Paraguay did not disrupt Argentina's commerce, as other wars had. In the 1860s and '70s foreign capital and waves of European immigrants poured into the country. Railroads were built; alfalfa, barbed wire, new breeds of cattle and sheep, and finally the refrigeration of meat were introduced.

      The national armed forces became one of the cornerstones of the new centralized state; however, the army refused to uphold the policies of the president. One of Rosas's nephews rallied the support of the military behind the presidential candidacy of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (Sarmiento, Domingo Faustino), a native of San Juan. His victory was guaranteed by the influence of the military combined with the support of a liberal faction in Buenos Aires that opposed Mitre, and the new president (1868–74) held office without a political party of his own. Credit from abroad fortified the economy, moreover, and thereby allowed Sarmiento to engage in a costly civil war to put down an uprising in Entre Ríos.

      The next president, Nicolás Avellaneda (1874–80), was a native of San Miguel de Tucumán who had been Sarmiento's minister of justice, public education, and worship. Avellaneda's government faced serious financial difficulties engendered by the European economic crisis of 1873. Argentina defaulted on foreign loans and completed few public works projects, but it encouraged European immigration, largely into Patagonia, and it fully supported the Indian wars.

      General Julio Argentino Roca, who was also from San Miguel de Tucumán and who had influence in Córdoba, became the next president (1880–86). Roca had led a brilliant military career that included directing the Conquest of the Desert, the campaign that brought the Indian wars to a close in 1879. This opened the southern and western Pampas and the northern reaches of Patagonia to settlement, and it made Roca a political hero. His campaign for the presidency provoked a new rebellion in Buenos Aires, but the uprising was quickly suppressed. The perennial question of the city's status was then settled by making it a federal territory and converting it into the national capital; a new capital for the province of Buenos Aires was established at La Plata.

The conservative regime, 1880–1916

      The entire country was now dominated by the National Autonomist Party, which had originally supported Avellaneda's candidacy and was now an alliance of the various groups supporting Roca. These included many of the big ranchers, as well as commercial and business interests who were more than happy with Roca's formula of “peace and efficient administration.” Argentina's economy grew rapidly during this period, largely owing to British capital, which made it possible to build an extensive rail network from the upriver provinces to Buenos Aires and the sea. The new rail system facilitated the export of meat and other agricultural products, and ranching and farming thus became more profitable. Large-scale foreign investment sparked the expansion of other industries as well.

      In addition, the population grew rapidly during this era, from less than two million in 1869 to nearly eight million in 1914. In 1881 Argentina and Chile agreed to delimit their Andean frontier, including partitioning Tierra del Fuego. Argentina was to have exclusive rights to the Atlantic waters, and Chile to the Pacific.

The crisis of 1890

      The economic expansion led ultimately to inflation, the issuance of too much paper currency, and the onset of a financial crisis. A political crisis also followed. The government of Roca's successor, Miguel Juárez Celman (1886–90), had avoided launching an unpopular anti-inflationary program, but this inaction sparked criticism both within and outside the official party ranks. In July 1890 a revolt erupted that had strong support from within the army, but it was defeated by loyal elements. Even so, Juárez Celman was forced to step down in favour of the vice president, Carlos Pellegrini (1890–92), a solid ally of Roca.

The rise of radicalism

      A new party, the Radical Civic Union, was formed in response to the difficulties of the 1890s. It was strongly opposed to the ruling regime and to the compromise candidate, Luis Sáenz Peña, who was accepted in 1892 by Mitre and the more moderate opponents of the Roca–Juárez Celman regime. Sáenz was in turn replaced in 1895 by José Evaristo Uriburu (Uriburu, José Evaristo). In 1898 Roca returned to the presidency for a second term and attempted to bring the more moderate radicals back into the loose alliance of local political groups, which after 1890 had controlled the national government. The most intransigent radical factions remained in opposition; they were headed by Hipólito Irigoyen (Irigoyen, Hipólito), who later served twice as president.

      While political opposition declined, social unrest was becoming more widespread, and there was growing disarray within the government itself. Roca broke with Pellegrini, and the National Autonomist Party suffered because of the split. In 1904 Roca was barely able to avoid being succeeded in office by Pellegrini; moreover, the candidate Roca finally put into the presidency, Manuel Quintana, was not one of Roca's staunchest supporters. Quintana was forced to quell a radical revolution in 1905, and he died the following year. His death opened the way to the presidency for José Figueroa Alcorta, a Cordoban who turned immediately to the task of destroying Roca's political machine. In 1910 Alcorta installed as his successor Roque Sáenz Peña (Sáenz Peña, Roque), a brilliant politician who was fully prepared to construct a governing coalition on new foundations.

      The course of Argentine politics in the final stages of Roca's career had convinced many of his most influential and militant followers that the country needed electoral reform. These reforms were not seen as excessively dangerous, since the Radical opposition seemed to have limited support. In 1912 President Sáenz Peña had the Congress pass an electoral-reform law that called for a compulsory secret ballot for all male citizens. His death in 1914 deprived the national leadership of its guiding force, and the electoral law he had championed opened the gates of power to the Radicals. The interim presidency of Victorino de la Plaza (1914–16) was followed by that of the Radical leader Irigoyen (1916–22). He was the first Argentine president who owed his victory to the popular vote rather than to selection by the incumbent president from the members of a ruling oligarchy.

The radical regime, 1916–30

      The Radical front was a coalition of heterogeneous social groups whose competing interests slowed the passage of reforms, despite urgent calls for economic and social change. Not surprisingly, Irigoyen preferred to concentrate on the political ills he had inherited from the conservative regime. The most urgent measure involved political patronage, which had been used by the conservatives to keep their candidates in office. Patronage shifted to the service of the Radicals, who created a new political machine that was virtually unbeatable at the polls in almost every province.

      In other fields also the Radical administration attempted to expand its political base. Irigoyen achieved substantial rapport with the more moderate labour unions—a rapport expressed in a generally pro-labour policy. That policy was tempered after violent clashes occurred in the capital city during the general strike of January 1919, which caused the military to align itself with conservative interest groups. Irigoyen's administration supported organizations and movements among tenant farmers and also put through a university-reform plan.

      Irigoyen's influence was a deciding factor in the election of his successor, Marcelo T. de Alvear (Alvear, Marcelo T de) (1922–28), who represented a safe choice. Alvear was not content, however, with the restrictions that Irigoyen imposed upon him, and he reluctantly led a conservative wing hostile to Irigoyen. In the elections of 1928 Irigoyen ran for a second term and was elected by a margin of two to one, establishing him as head of his party.

      Irigoyen was not a revolutionary, but his victory over the economic, social, and political elites of the country nonetheless earned him their enmity. His political machine, though an excellent mechanism for securing power, proved to be incapable of governing during times of economic distress, such as late 1929, the eve of the Great Depression. Behind the nation's economic growth lay a shift in economic power from the Argentine landowning class to foreign merchants and processors. Before 1914 these foreign interests had been concentrated mainly in the grain-growing sector, but after 1920 they moved into the cattle-raising industry. Private investment still came primarily from Great Britain, which was also the main market for Argentine exports. The United States provided industrial and transportation equipment and was the government's principal source of credit, but it had erected tariff and other barriers to the importation of Argentine goods, and that prompted Irigoyen to adopt an anti-U.S. and pro-British line.

      Irigoyen's government could not cope with the onset of the global depression, and the army expelled him from office in September 1930. This marked the end of a constitutional continuity that had lasted for 68 years; it was also the end of a long period of economic expansion based on the export of raw materials.

The conservative restoration and the Concordancia, 1930–43

      During the next 13 years, which have often been termed “the Infamous Decade,” the armed forces sponsored a conservative restoration. After expelling Irigoyen they installed General José Félix Uriburu (Uriburu, José Félix) in the presidency (1930–32). Uriburu was a descendent of an old, conservative northern family, and he leaned toward fascism. His influence with the army, however, was not as great as that of General Agustín Pedro Justo (Justo, Agustín Pedro), a former minister of war under Alvear, who favoured a gradual conservative reorientation of the country. The Radicals, who had been reorganized under the leadership of Alvear, won an unexpected victory in trial elections held in the province of Buenos Aires in April 1931, but the Radicals' activities were then severely restricted (including the arrest or exile of their leaders), and their members either boycotted or were barred from the national election of 1931. General Justo, in contrast, had the backing of the Concordancia (a coalition of conservatives, a faction of the Radicals, and independent socialists), and, with only limited electoral fraud, he was elected by a large majority.

      The new president, facing a difficult economic situation (Great Depression), instituted several controversial reforms and initiatives. In 1933 he signed the Roca-Runciman Agreement with Great Britain (United Kingdom), which guaranteed Argentina a fixed share in the British meat market and eliminated tariffs on Argentine cereals. In return, Argentina agreed to restrictions with regard to trade and currency exchange, and it preserved Britain's commercial interests in the country. Many Argentines saw the treaty as a sellout to Britain, although from the British point of view the pact accorded privileges not given to any other country outside their empire. Other unpopular reforms included restructuring the monetary system and establishing agencies to control exports. After 1935 the economic climate improved.

      The election of 1937, in which the government retained its power, was marked by fraud and violence; however, the next president, Roberto M. Ortiz, returned to more proper electoral procedures, calling for federal intervention in the province of Buenos Aires, where a corrupt conservative machine had been in control. Ortiz's poor health obliged him to resign in 1940, and his successor, Ramón S. Castillo, restored the conservative coalition to power and gained the support of General Justo.

      At the outbreak of World War II, Argentina declared its neutrality, and it remained neutral even after the United States entered the conflict in 1941. Castillo's motives for this stance were largely economic, and he attempted to court trade agreements with both the United States and the Axis powers while maintaining a significant commerce with Britain; however, his policies were only partly successful, and Argentina struggled to arm and equip its military while other Latin American nations received generous lend-lease shipments from the United States. In the face of opposition from both pro-Allied and pro-Axis groups, as well as concerns over the increasing strength of the United States-supplied Brazilian military, Castillo imposed a state of siege. General Justo died in January 1943, leaving the president without his most influential supporter, and Castillo was overthrown in June.

The Perón era, 1943–55

Transitional period

      The military government faced several urgent and difficult problems, including the decision of whether to remain neutral or choose sides in the war. It also had to decide between the restoration of a representative system and the installation of a long-term military dictatorship. General Arturo Rawson was made president but resigned after two days when his anticonservative stance and his advocacy of the United Nations won no military support.

      General Pedro P. Ramírez replaced Rawson as president. He maintained neutrality in the war but faced increasing opposition from all political groups except the nationalist right wing and the fascist sympathizers. The government, reflecting an emergent authoritarianism, censored the press and dissolved political parties. Under pressure from the United States, the regime broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, but this deed was not favoured by many military officers, and Ramírez was removed by a coup. The presidency was turned over to General Edelmiro J. Farrell (1944–46), who led a military junta, but, under threat of international sanctions, his regime prepared for a return to representative democracy.

      The search for a solution ended in the rise of Colonel Juan Perón (Perón, Juan) to the office of president. From 1941 Perón had led the United Officers Group (Grupo de Oficiales Unidos; GOU), a secret military lodge that had engineered the 1943 coup. In October 1943 he secured the minor job of running the labour department and began building a political empire based in the labour unions. He helped the unions win favourable settlements from employers and pushed through a welfare program that provided vacations, retirement benefits, and severance pay. By 1945 Perón was also vice president and minister of war. His changes included giving autonomy to universities, reconstructing political parties (including the Communist Party, prohibited since 1936), and declaring war on Germany, thereby facilitating Argentina's admittance to the United Nations. But with the return of political freedom came renewed opposition, culminating in a mass demonstration in Buenos Aires in September 1945. Emergency measures were enacted. Seizing the opportunity, Perón's enemies in the navy reacted, and he was removed from office and arrested on October 9. At that point, however, Perón's adversaries in the military and the political sphere failed to agree on a further course of action. Perón's adherents in the unions organized a strike that found enthusiastic support among the people. He was released on October 17—a date still celebrated by Peronists (Peronist) as Loyalty Day—and his foes were forced to resign.

Perón in power

      Perón campaigned for the presidency in the elections of 1946. He organized the Labour Party, which was resisted by all the old parties and by the major vested-interest groups. His victory, though narrow, gave him control of both houses of Congress and all the provincial governorships. Perón's political strategy and tactics were authoritarian and personalistic. He politically “purified” the schools and courts, declared a state of internal war in order to expand his executive authority, redistributed revenues in favour of the workers, nationalized public services, and gave preferential treatment to urban and industrial areas over their rural counterparts. He rewarded the organized workers for their support by enforcing labour legislation, improving wages and working conditions, controlling rents, and introducing the aguinaldo (13th-month bonus). Perón was a charismatic figure who spoke to working people in a language that they could understand. His appeal among the descamisados (“shirtless ones,” underprivileged workers) was reinforced and further dramatized by his wife, Eva Duarte de Perón (Perón, Eva) (Evita), who unofficially led the Department of Social Welfare and presided over an extraordinary distribution of money, apartments, and jobs.

      Until 1949 Perón's economic policies were successful, largely because exporters were so successful during and just after the war. However, as inflation increased and trade became less profitable, it became more difficult to finance imports of vital raw materials. The constitutional reform of 1949 allowed Perón to be reelected in 1951, but his next government took on a more conservative hue, hastened by the death of his wife in July 1952. Evita had become a powerful political figure in her own right, burnishing the regime's image of popular democracy, although she had been obliged by the military to rescind her acceptance of the vice-presidential nomination in 1951. After 1952 Perón incurred the increasing hostility of the church and the students. His efforts to eliminate the political influence of the church provoked disaffection in the officer corps, and in September 1955 he was overthrown by General Eduardo Lonardi and fled the country.

Attempts to restore constitutionalism, 1955–66

      Lonardi recognized the strength of Peronism and sought a compromise, but he was displaced in November 1955 by General Pedro Eugenio Aramburu. The new administration was a military dictatorship that sought to restore constitutional government. Taking a fiercely anti-Peronist stance, it dissolved Perón's old party and placed the labour unions under state administration. The Peronists wielded considerable influence on the factions that were competing for power, and in 1958 they supported Arturo Frondizi, a Radical leader who promised to readmit them to political life in return for their support. Frondizi won the presidency and majorities in both houses of Congress.

      President Frondizi focused on economic development and showed a keen interest in reviving the flow of foreign investment. He devalued the currency to favour exporters and foreign investors; however, this had adverse effects on the middle and lower classes. Rapidly accelerating inflation and the campaign against it brought restrictions on credit, which increased the difficulties of industry, and Frondizi had to use the military to uphold his unpopular policies.

      In March 1962 the reorganized Peronists gained control of important districts, among them the province of Buenos Aires. The armed forces withdrew support from Frondizi, dissolved Congress, and set up a government in the name of José María Guido, president pro tempore of the Senate. Guido's 18-month administration was one of confusion as two military factions fought for control. The Colorados (“Reds”) sought a dictatorship that would deal strongly with the Peronists and extreme leftists. The Azules (“Blues”), who prevailed, favoured a constitutional government by a coalition including the Peronists, who would be confined to a weaker role than that indicated by their voting strength.

      The elections of July 1963 resulted in victory for Arturo Illia, the candidate of the Radical Civic Union. President Illia inherited Frondizi's economic problems, although the drastic reorientation of the economy had begun to show signs of success. Illia tried without success to split the resurgent Peronists, who now controlled the labour unions, from their exiled leader. The antagonized Peronists supported a coup in June 1966 that brought to power General Juan Carlos Onganía, a former Azul leader and commander in chief of the army.

Military government, 1966–73

      Adalbert Krieger Vasena, minister of economy and labour, attempted to stabilize the economy by again devaluing the currency and then undertaking programs in electric power, steel, roads, and housing. In May 1969 disturbances and riots in the cities of Corrientes, Rosario, and particularly Córdoba rose out of student and labour conflicts; these incidents, later known as the Cordobazo, were identified as resentment toward Krieger Vasena's economic policies. Krieger Vasena was removed, but the Onganía administration was unable to agree on an alternative economic policy, and the Cordobazo decisively affected the political climate. Underground activities were organized by a Trotskyite group, the People's Revolutionary Army (Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo; ERP), and by Peronist groups. In 1970 one of these Peronist organizations, the Montoneros (Montonero), destroyed the moderate Peronist union leadership and captured and killed former president Aramburu, who had been organizing a movement for a return to constitutional rule. The armed forces overthrew the Onganía government in June 1970. General Roberto Marcelo Levingston replaced Onganía, but inflation returned and terrorist acts increased; Levingston was overthrown in March 1971 and replaced by General Alejandro Agustín Lanusse, who promised to reestablish democratic elections by the end of 1973.

      Perón had supported the Peronist underground but also used other means in a new bid for power. He maintained a formal alliance with the Frondizi followers, but the cornerstone of his strategy was an understanding with the largest non-Peronist party, the Radicals. In addition, he was mindful of the Argentine elites' vested interests, and he purged his economic proposals of any motives that could alarm the propertied classes. The military government prevented Perón's own candidacy but could not stop the electoral victory of the Peronist coalition, the Justicialist Liberation Front (Frente Justicialista de Liberación; Frejuli), in March 1973.

The return of Peronism

      The newly elected president, Héctor J. Cámpora, took office in May 1973. It was immediately clear that he was merely preparing the way for the return of Perón from exile. Tensions rose sharply among Peronists as the organization's left wing fought with its right-wing Montoneros for influence. At the final return of Perón in June, there was a pitched battle between right and left at Ezeiza International Airport. The union leadership and José López Rega (López Rega, José), an associate of Perón, launched a violent antileftist campaign through a death squad organization, the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (AAA, or Triple A), which had the discreet support of Perón himself. In July Cámpora resigned, and new elections were presided over by another interim president, Raúl Lastiri, who began a purge of leftist influences in the government.

Perón (Perón, Juan)'s second presidency

      Perón was elected president with his third wife, María Estela Martínez de Perón (Isabel Perón (Perón, Isabel)), as vice president. Taking office in October 1973, he continued the campaign against the left, and in May 1974 the victims of the purge acknowledged the break with their former leader and passed into (still legal) opposition. Montonero activity increased, and the Triple A, suspected by many of being close to the police and intelligence branches of the administration, began to crack down on political, student, and union leaders.

      Perón's economic policies from 1973 included monetary stabilization, rigid control of prices and wages in order to favour wage earners, and limitations on the profits of agrarian exporters. Within a year the balance of payments suffered, however. The price of petroleum imports increased sharply, owing to the Arab oil embargo of 1973, and outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in Argentina caused many European nations to ban shipments of Argentine meat.

Perón's legacy

      When Perón died on July 1, 1974, he left to his widow a deeply compromised inheritance, yet the transition of power was smooth, and Isabel Perón was sworn in as the world's first woman president. Under the influence of López Rega, the government became even more inflexibly oriented toward the right, and violence reached new heights. López Rega, who used the rightist crusade to consolidate his power base, favoured labour and army leaders who personally supported him, and this style of favouritism created hostility among union, political, and military leaders. In 1975 he supported a drastic devaluation and a steep drop in real wages, whereupon inflation soared. Isabel Perón was persuaded to dismiss López Rega, but the unrest deepened. On March 24, 1976, military officers deposed the president and took over the government.

Tulio Halperin Donghi Peter A.R. Calvert

The return of military government

The Videla regime and the Dirty War

      Five days after the coup a three-man military junta filled the presidency with Lieutenant General Jorge Rafaél Videla (Videla, Jorge Rafaél). The junta closed Congress, imposed censorship, banned trade unions, and brought state and municipal government under military control. Meanwhile, Videla initiated the infamous Process of National Reorganization, known subsequently as the “Guerra Sucia” (“Dirty War”), in which some 13,000–15,000 citizens were killed, often following their imprisonment and torture. The Argentine government, which maintained that it was fighting a civil war, initially faced little public opposition, but this began to change in the late 1970s, with growing evidence of civil rights violations. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who lost children to the Dirty War, began calling international attention to the plight of the desaparecidos (“disappeared persons”) through weekly Thursday afternoon vigils in the Plaza de Mayo, fronting the presidential palace. A particularly vocal critic of both left- and right-wing violence was Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Pérez Esquivel, Adolfo), who was arrested and tortured in 1977 and received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1980. For the most part, however, opposition was choked off by rigorous censorship, strict curfews, and fear of the secret police.

      During this period the economy continued to lag. A civilian from an old family, José Martínez de Hoz, became economy minister, but, keen as he was to deregulate the economy, the armed forces were equally determined to keep control. Annual inflation dropped in 1976–82 from about 600 to 138 percent—a more manageable but still distended level. Argentina's balance of foreign trade initially improved, but by 1980 the overvalued peso had devastated Argentine industry, while uncontrolled spending had plunged the country into debt.

Galtieri and the Falklands War (Falkland Islands War)

      Videla was succeeded in March 1981 by General Roberto Viola, who, with the Dirty War near its end, was quite unable to control his military allies. In December he was shouldered aside by Lieutenant General Leopoldo Galtieri. Galtieri faced a slumping economy and increased civil opposition to military rule. His trump card was that he had promised his navy ally, Vice Admiral Jorge Anaya, that they could fulfill Argentina's historic claims to the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) by armed force.

 Nationalist sentiment over the Falklands had been precipitated in 1977, when Argentina's claim to another archipelago—the three Beagle Channel islands—was refused by the International Court of Justice in favour of Chile. (In 1979 the matter had again gone into negotiation, this time under Vatican auspices, and in 1984 Chile was awarded sovereignty.) In February 1982 Argentina increased pressure on the United Kingdom to relinquish the Falkland Islands. With popular support at home, Argentine troops landed on the Falklands and South Georgia island in early April, overcame the British Royal Marines stationed there, and raised the Argentine flag. For the next three weeks, while a British naval force sailed to the Falklands, the two belligerents failed to negotiate a solution. British forces retook South Georgia on April 25. A successful amphibious landing on San Carlos Water, Falkland Sound, followed, and after a brief land campaign the Argentine military governor surrendered the islands on June 14. (See also Falkland Islands War.)

      Galtieri resigned as commander in chief of the army and president three days later. General Reynaldo Bignone was installed as president on July 1. The members of the junta representing the air force and the navy resigned in protest over Bignone's appointment, but the junta was reconstituted on September 10. Under Bignone political parties were allowed to resume activities, and general elections were announced; meanwhile, elements of the armed forces worked to conceal evidence of crimes committed during the Dirty War. The Peronist party delayed choosing a presidential candidate and thus lost ground to the Radical Civic Union, led by Raúl Alfonsín (Alfonsín, Raúl), a civilian lawyer who had courageously defended victims of the military regime. Alfonsín won the election on October 30, 1983, and the Radicals gained a majority over the Peronists in the national Congress.

Restoration of democracy

      Soon after his inauguration in December 1983, Alfonsín reversed legislation passed under Bignone by announcing plans to prosecute several members of the defunct military government, including former presidents Videla, Viola, and Galtieri. He also repealed a law granting amnesty to those accused of crimes and human rights violations during the Dirty War, and hundreds of military personnel were prosecuted. In the trial of nine former junta members in 1985, five were convicted, including Videla and Viola. Galtieri was acquitted in that trial, but in 1986 he was convicted, along with two other officers, of incompetency in the Falkland Islands War. Rebellion broke out within the military in the spring of 1987, but most of the armed forces stayed loyal. Massive rallies voiced approval of Alfonsín's democracy, and the international community expressed support.

      Alfonsín launched the Austral Plan, an austerity program that implemented a new currency (the austral), wage and price controls, and currency devaluations. The measures initially brought down inflation and restored the confidence of international bankers. Argentina then restructured its foreign debts, which had reached crisis proportions. The inflation rate began to rise again, however, reaching almost 388 percent annually at the end of 1988, and the austral began a precipitous decline in value against the U.S. dollar.

      There were more rebellions in the last months of Alfonsín's tenure as the military remained discontented over wages, inadequate equipment, and the trials of its members stemming from the Dirty War. The military's hand was strengthened after insurgents carried out a bloody attack on a barracks outside Buenos Aires, and Alfonsín was forced to accept a military role in policy and to initiate a huge defense-spending program.

      Although Alfonsín remained personally popular, he was constitutionally ineligible to succeed himself. His government's poor handling of the economy contributed to the defeat of the Radical presidential candidate, Eduardo Angeloz, in May 1989. Instead, Carlos Saúl Menem (Menem, Carlos), the Peronist former governor of La Rioja, led his coalition to victory in the presidential and congressional elections. Throughout the campaign Menem had cultivated an image recalling Perón, and it was his appeal to the poor and working classes, the traditional supporters of Peronism, that clinched his victory.

The Menem (Menem, Carlos) era and the 21st century

      With the economy crumbling around him, Alfonsín resigned five months early, and Menem officially took over in July. Menem's moderate Peronist program called for a free-market economy with lower tariffs, based on a wage-price pact between labour, business, and government. To help carry out his economic scheme, Menem unexpectedly enlisted the aid of former top-level executives from Bunge y Born, one of Argentina's leading corporations.

      Menem, in turn, needed military support in a time of economic emergency, and he sought to draw a veil over the past by pardoning those accused of human rights violations. Criticism of this act was strong but somewhat tempered by the fact that Menem himself had been held in detention for five years. Former president Galtieri also was pardoned. Meanwhile, in October 1989, while quietly sidestepping the question of Falklands sovereignty, Argentina and Great Britain formally agreed to establish full diplomatic relations.

      Initially, Menem was no more successful than his predecessor in tackling the economy, and inflation continued unchecked. The situation changed in 1991 when Domingo Cavallo was appointed economy minister. Cavallo implemented a far-reaching program of economic stabilization, as well as measures to enhance revenue collection and prevent tax evasion. By August the annual inflation rate had fallen to 1.5 percent, the lowest in 17 years. The government then privatized numerous state-owned businesses and introduced a new currency, the Argentine peso, the value of which was pegged to the U.S. dollar. Capital flight was reversed, and in 1992 Argentina emerged with a reformed and apparently stable economy.

      In 1993 the ruling Justicialist Party (Partido Justicialista, or PJ; Menem's Peronist party) launched a campaign for a constitutional amendment that would permit the president to run for a second term. In elections held in October, the PJ gained a majority in the Chamber of Deputies but still needed support from the Radicals to change the constitution. Former president Alfonsín eventually consented to support the reforms, in an agreement called the Olivos Pact. The new constitution, promulgated in 1994, had few changes apart from the provision for consecutive presidential terms.

      Menem decisively won reelection in 1995. The beginning of his second four-year term was overshadowed by the impact caused by the abrupt devaluation of the Mexican peso (the “Tequila Crisis”) and by increasing disagreements with Cavallo over economic policy. In addition, the government's popularity was eroded by high unemployment and accusations of corruption, yet the president's political control remained strong. When Menem finally dismissed Cavallo in July 1996, the economy was unaffected. Within a year, however, another recession took hold, made worse by the overvalued Argentine currency. Abroad, the foreign minister, Guido di Tella, negotiated an agreement with Chile regarding the delineation of their southern borders, and in October 1998 Menem paid a state visit to the United Kingdom. Commercial flights were resumed between the islands and the Argentine mainland in 1999. Later that year Fernando de la Rúa was elected president, heading an alliance of parties led by the Radicals to victory over the Peronists.

      De la Rúa inherited a massive foreign debt, a deficit that was larger than expected, and a continuing recession. His administration responded by raising taxes, cutting the salaries of government employees, and encouraging the early retirement of others. As conditions deteriorated, the economy minister resigned, as did his replacement. De la Rúa then reappointed Domingo Cavallo to the post he had held under Menem. Cavallo's reforms, however, were largely ineffective, and investors and lenders lost confidence in the economy. On December 20, following antigovernment protests in Buenos Aires, both Cavallo and de la Rúa resigned. Under a succession of interim presidents, the government restricted access to bank accounts, defaulted on its foreign-debt payments, and allowed the Argentine peso to decline in value. The country was rocked by another economic collapse in 2002.

 The first round of the 2003 presidential elections was held in April against this backdrop of continuing economic and political turmoil. Menem, again a candidate, came out on top in the polling, followed closely by Néstor Kirchner (Kirchner, Néstor), the governor of Santa Cruz province in Patagonia. However, Menem dropped out of the race before a runoff election could be held, and Kirchner, a centre-left Peronist, was inaugurated in May. During his term, Kirchner helped stabilize Argentina's economy and paid back much of the country's debt to the International Monetary Fund. The second half of his term, however, was plagued by a countrywide energy crisis and high inflation. He did not run for a second term in 2007 and instead supported the candidacy of his wife, Sen. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Fernández de Kirchner, Cristina), who won by a significant margin and became Argentina's first elected female president.

Peter A.R. Calvert

Additional Reading

Geography

The land and the people

General descriptive information is available in The South American Handbook (annual); El país de los Argentinos, 6 vol. (1977–79), published by the Centro Editor de América Latina; and James D. Rudolph (ed.), Argentina: A Country Study, 3rd ed. (1986). Statistical information is presented in an appealing format in Statistical Yearbook of the Argentine Republic (annual). Basic geographic information is discussed in Preston E. James, C.W. Minkel, and Eileen W. James, Latin America, 5th ed. (1986); Federico A. Daus, Geografía y unidad argentina, 2nd ed. (1978); and Francisco de Aparicio and Horacio A. Difrieri (eds.), La Argentina: suma de geografía, 9 vol. (1958–63). Geographic distribution of animals and plants is discussed in E.J. Fittkau et al. (eds.), Biogeography and Ecology in South America, 2 vol. (1968–69). An early but still useful work on the animals of Argentina is W.H. Hudson, The Naturalist in La Plata (1892). Patterns of settlement are the subject of Carl-Christoph Liss, Die Besiedlung und Landnutzung Ostpatagoniens unter besonderer Berücksichtgung der Schafestancien (1979); Robert C. Eidt, Pioneer Settlement in Northeast Argentina (1971); Mark Jefferson, Peopling the Argentine Pampa (1926, reprinted 1971); and Richard W. Slatta, Gauchos and the Vanishing Frontier (1983, reissued 1992).

The economy

Economic conditions are documented by Jonathan C. Brown, A Socioeconomic History of Argentina, 1776–1860 (1979); Laura Randall, An Economic History of Argentina in the Twentieth Century (1978); Roberto Cortés Conde and Ezequiel Gallo, La formación de la Argentina moderna, 2nd ed. (1973); Pierre Denis, The Argentine Republic: Its Development and Progress (1922, reprinted 1976; originally published in French, 1920); and Guido Di Tella and D.C.M. Platt (eds.), The Political Economy of Argentina, 1880–1946 (1986). Agricultural economics is the focus of James R. Scobie, Revolution on the Pampas: A Social History of Argentine Wheat, 1860–1910 (1964, reissued 1967); Roberto Schopflocher, Historia de la colonización agrícola en Argentina (1955); and Peter H. Smith, Politics and Beef in Argentina: Patterns of Conflict and Change (1969). More-recent economic policy is discussed in Juan E. Corradi, The Fitful Republic: Economy, Society, and Politics in Argentina (1985); Gary W. Wynia, Argentina in the Postwar Era: Politics and Economic Policy Making in a Divided Society (1978); and Guido Di Tella and Rudiger Dornbusch (eds.), The Political Economy of Argentina: 1946–83 (1989). Also of interest is Argentina: Economic Memorandum, 2 vol. (1985), a World Bank country study.Labour movements are covered in Ronaldo Munck, Ricardo Falcón, and Bernardo Galitelli, Argentina: From Anarchism to Peronism: Workers, Unions, and Politics, 1855–1985 (1987); David Tamarin, The Argentine Labor Movement, 1930–45: A Study in the Origins of Peronism (1985); and Charles Bergquist, Labor in Latin America: Comparative Essays on Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, and Colombia (1986).

Cultural life

Works on literature include José Alberto Santiago (compiler), Antología de la poesía argentina (1973); Ricardo Rojas, Historia de la literatura argentina: ensayo filosófico sobre la evolución de la cultura en el Plata (1960); and David William Foster (compiler), Argentine Literature: A Research Guide, 2nd ed., rev. and expanded (1982). Art and music are covered in José León Pagano, El arte de los Argentinos, rev. ed., edited and updated by José León Pagano and Jorge Vehils (1981); Vicente Gesualdo, Historia de la música en la Argentina, 2nd ed. (1978– ); Ercilia Moreno Chá, “Argentina,” in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, vol. 2 (1998), pp. 249–272; and Jane L. Florine, “Cuarteto: Pop Music of Argentina,” in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, vol. 2 (1998), pp. 273–281.The role of the church is discussed in John J. Kennedy, Catholicism, Nationalism, and Democracy in Argentina (1958); and Daniel H. Levine (ed.), Churches and Politics in Latin America (1980).

History

Overviews

An excellent historical summary is Thomas E. Skidmore and Peter H. Smith, Modern Latin America, 4th ed. (1997), chapter 3, “Argentina: Prosperity, Deadlock, and Change,” pp. 68–113. Broader treatments can be found in Academia Nacional de la Historia, Historia de la nación argentina: desde los origenes hasta la organización definitiva en 1862, 3rd ed., 11 vol. in 15 (1961–63), and Historia argentina contemporánea, 1862–1930, 4 vol. (1965–67). The colonial and early national periods are variously covered in Eduardo Crawley, A House Divided: Argentina, 1880–1980 (1984); John Lynch, Argentine Dictator: Juan Manuel De Rosas, 1829–1852 (1981); David Rock, Argentina, 1516–1987: From Spanish Colonization to Alfonsín (1987); James R. Scobie, Argentina: A City and a Nation, 2nd ed. (1971); and Ione S. Wright and Lisa M. Nekhom, Historical Dictionary of Argentina (1978).

Political developments

Useful works include Tulio Halperín-Donghi, Politics, Economics, and Society in Argentina in the Revolutionary Period, trans. from Spanish (1975); David Rock, Politics in Argentina, 1890–1930: The Rise and Fall of Radicalism (1975); José Luis Romero, A History of Argentine Political Thought (1963, reissued 1968; originally published in Spanish, 3rd ed., 1959); and Susan Calvert and Peter Calvert, Argentina: Political Culture and Instability (1989, reprinted 1991). The rise of the armed forces is detailed in Robert A. Potash, The Army & Politics in Argentina, 3 vol. (1969–96); Mark Falcoff and Ronald H. Dolkart (eds.), Prologue to Perón: Argentina in Depression and War, 1930–1943 (1975); and Ruth Greenup and Leonard Greenup, Revolution Before Breakfast: Argentina, 1941–46 (1947, reprinted 1974). Works on Juan Perón and Peronism include Frederick C. Turner and José Enrique Miguens (eds.), Juan Perón and the Reshaping of Argentina (1983); Joseph A. Page, Perón: A Biography (1983); Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro, Eva Perón (1980, reissued as Evita, 1996); Jeane Kirkpatrick, Leader and Vanguard in Mass Society: A Study of Peronist Argentina (1971); and Guido Di Tella, Argentina Under Perón, 1973–76: The Nation's Experience with a Labour-Based Government (1983).

The Dirty War and the Falklands dispute

For vivid accounts of the Dirty War, see Andrew Graham-Yooll, A State of Fear: Memories of Argentina's Nightmare (1986); and Jacobo Timerman, Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number (1981, reprinted 1993; originally published in Spanish, 1981). Works on the Falkland Islands dispute and the war of 1982 include Raphael Perl, The Falkland Islands Dispute in International Law and Politics: A Documentary Sourcebook (1983); Alejandro Dabat and Luis Lorenzano, Argentina, the Malvinas, and the End of Military Rule (1984; originally published in Spanish, 1982); and Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins, The Battle for the Falklands (1983).

The return to democracy

The subsequent process of democratization is discussed in Philip O'Brien and Paul Cammack (eds.), Generals in Retreat: The Crisis of Military Rule in Latin America (1985); Jimmy Burns, The Land that Lost its Heroes: The Falklands, the Post-War, and Alfonsín (1987); Mónica Peralta-Ramos and Carlos H. Waisman (eds.), From Military Rule to Liberal Democracy in Argentina (1987); Colin M. Lewis and Nissa Torrents (eds.), Argentina in the Crisis Years, 1983–1990: From Alfonsín to Menem (1993); and Peter Calvert, “Argentina: Decline and Revival,” in Jan Knippers Black (ed.), Latin America, Its Problems and Its Promise: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, 3rd ed. (1998).Peter A.R. Calvert

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