Some generals are out--now what about the economy?
New Argentine president raises hopes of masses
By Alicia Jrapko
Every May 25, Argentineans celebrate the
anniversary of their independence from Spain. This year,
thousands took to the streets to celebrate the departure of
Carlos Menem, the infamous former president who had followed
the dictates of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank
and who withdrew from the runoff election for president at the
last minute.
Argentineans are trying to hold onto the dream of a better
future for their families. They have been devastated by these
neoliberal policies, which led to an implosion of the economy.
In this once prosperous country, half the population now lives
at or under the poverty line.
As the people were celebrating, Nestor Kirchner, former
governor of the province of Santa Cruz, became the 49th
president of Argentina. Kirchner is the first president to come
from the generation of leftists and progressives that opposed
the bloody military dictatorship of the 1970s. Thousands were
"disappeared"--kidnap ped and secretly killed by the right-wing
military.
Twelve heads of state attended the presidential
inauguration, including Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil,
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Fidel Castro of Cuba. The Bush
administration gave a lukewarm response to Kirchner's victory
by sending Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel
Martinez as its representative.
One of the highlights of the days preceding Kirchner's
inauguration was a speech by President Castro at the Faculty of
Law. He was supposed to address some 1,200 students, but 40,000
people came to hear him. He electrified the crowd, saying, "The
people of Buenos Aires are sending a message to those in the
world who want to ride roughshod over our cities and our
countries in Latin America."
The visit of Fidel Castro comes at a time when Argentina is
moving closer to Cuba.
In his inaugural speech, the new president of Argentina
criticized neoliberal policies and promised that he would not
ask the poor for more sacrifice to pay the foreign debt. He
declared, "Creditors have to understand that they can only
collect if Argentina is doing well." He stressed the need to
create new jobs and make education and health care accessible
to all.
Kirchner promised to reshape Argen tina's military to
reflect "a commitment to the future and not to the past," a
reference to the dictatorship of 1978 to 1983. After the
inauguration he replaced Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ricardo
Brinzoni with Gen. Roberto Bendini and forced other
high-ranking members of the army, the navy and the air force
into early retirement.
Brinzoni was surprised and angered by the decision, saying
that he was stepping down in "inexplicable circumstances." But
for many Argentineans, the wounds of the seventies are still
open. In 1990 Menem had pardoned the leaders of the bloodiest
military dictatorship in the history of Argentina. In reference
to these years, Kirchner said, "We arrive without rancor but
with memory."
The new president vowed that his foreign policy would give
priority to strengthening ties with neighboring countries,
especially with members of Mercosur, the South American common
market, as part of what he called "a new model of nation."
The U.S. corporate media, uneasy with the nomination of
prominent leftists in Kirchner's new cabinet and with his
presidential campaign speeches against the IMF and other
creditors, are portraying him as a populist and predicting a
catastrophe.
But while Kirchner has made great changes in the military,
he reappointed Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna, a holdover
from the default presidency of Eduardo Duhalde, and Central
Bank President Alfonso Prat Gay. This indicates his difficulty
in breaking from the imperialist-dictated economic policies of
the past. Lavagna was able to make an agreement with the IMF to
hold off loan repayments, but the challenges ahead are great.
If the government takes economic measures to help the
unemployed and the poor, it will face the opposition of the IMF
and the World Bank. If it does not, it will face the opposition
of the people.
New winds are blowing throughout Latin America. The
progressive new presidents in the region owe their seats to the
struggles of the people, who voted to distance themselves from
the neoliberal policies dictated by the United States and its
financial institutions.
Only time will tell if the new president can or will fulfill
his promises to a people who view his election as a ray of
hope. In the meantime, those who have been in the streets
struggling know that this is just one phase in a long battle
for real and profound changes in Latin America and in the rest
of the world.
Reprinted from the June 12, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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