contents
- links to background information
- Lessons from Argentina
- Time to help Argentina's Jews
- Argentina's economic crisis
- Timeline: Argentina
A chronology of key events - Country profile: Argentina
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Background on Argentina and the IMF (english)
by features volunteer 5:51pm Wed Dec 19 '01 (Modified on 2:38pm Thu Dec 20 '01)
www-features@indymedia.org
1. links to background information on the current crisis in Argentina.
Don't Cry for the IMF, Argentina (english)
article from Z Mag, 29/05/01, by Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (http://www.cepr.net) in Washington, DC.
http://www.zmag.org/Sustainers/content/2001-05/29weisbrot.htm
The Victors, pII (english)
by lil' bro 7:25pm Wed Dec 19 '01
article from Z Mag, January 1991, by Noam Chomsky, about all of Latin America .. do a search for the word Argentina in the article and you'll find stuff..
http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/articles/z9101-victors-2.html
Tid Bits (english)
by lil' bro 7:28pm Wed Dec 19 '01
article from Z Mag, May 01 2001, by Robin Hahnel, predicting a financial crisis due to IMF and US Treasury policies
http://www.zmag.org/Sustainers/content/2001-05/01hahnel.htmc
Argentina (english)
by iago 11:58pm Wed Dec 19 '01
The consequences of neoliberalism on the educational prospects of Latin American youth
CICE article - Comparative Education
http://www.tc.columbia.edu/cice/vol01nr2/apart1.htm
Argentina
Global Policy Network
http://www.globalpolicynetwork.org/data/argentina.html
Is there a solution for Latin America?
International Socialist Review
http://www.isreview.org/issues/19/TomLewis.shtml
Crisis in Argentina is a challenge for Mercosur
Donau-Universität Krems
http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/en/presse/kat1_file118.html
Yahoo news full coverage global economy
http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/fc/Business/Global_Economy/
Globalization at work
The Labor Educator
http://www.laboreducator.org/globwrk.htm
Shortsighted IMF jumps onto floundering Argentine ship
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs
http://www.coha.org/00_36_IMF&Argentina.htm
Argentina - unlawful debt or financial crime against human development
Attac
http://www.debtchannel.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi?root=1410&url=
http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eattac%2Eorg%2Fgenes2001%2F
documents%2Fdocdet7en%2Ehtm
IMF "rescue" won't help Latin America
Mark Weisbrot
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11337
Argentina and the IMF
Institute for Public Accuracy
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11416
Jubilee Plus - It Takes Two To Tango (english)
by DC 3:43am Thu Dec 20 '01
The Jubilee Plus / New Economics Foundation paper It Takes Two To Tango - sub-titled "Creditor co-responsibility for Argentina's crisis - and the need for independent resolution"
This extensive report is a lot more readable that it sounds and covers the background to the debt situation, it's mismanagement and suggested strategies for resolution.
http://www.jubilee2000uk.org/analysis/reports/tango_exec.htm
Argentina and US Militarism (english)
by SOA Watch/NE 2:38pm Thu Dec 20 '01
phone: (215) 477-5892 SOAWatch@riseup.net
It is no surprise that as state sponsored violence is used to support economic injustices against the people in Latin America, graduates of the "School of Assassins" are consistently at the forefront.
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=108816
Meltdown in Argentina
DAWN newspaper, Pakistan
Following the financial collapse of Argentina, the new caretaker president has taken unprecedented measures to halt the economy from a further nosedive. The new government has announced the suspension of all foreign debt payments, diverting the resources to rebuild the shattered economy. With its debt standing at a massive 132 billion US dollars, the latest move represents the largest debt default in history. After the collapse of the previous administration following violent demonstrations, the Peronist Adolfo Rodriguez Saa has been elected as caretaker president till March when elections are to be held. The administration has also launched a new currency, the argentino, which will coexist with the peso and be used to pay public sector wages and reimburse depositors affected by a recent freeze on bank withdrawals. The previous government had decided to sharply cut wages and health services in order to finance its debt repayment burden, making it deeply unpopular. Fearing a steep devaluation in the value of the peso, Argentinians provoked a massive run on the banks. The administration responded by freezing accounts, leading to demonstrations that ultimately brought down the government.
According to economists, one of the main problems bedevilling Argentina was the pegging of the peso to the dollar. The move, fully backed by the IMF in a bid to stem inflation, ended up making Argentinian products uncompetitive and slowing down the economy to a crawl. The result was a vicious cycle of IMF-backed austerity measures that finally provoked massive social upheaval. While many people in the country enjoyed extremely high standards of living, the majority fell deeper into poverty. To add to the country's woes, corruption and mismanagement continued unabated under successive governments. The result is a financial and social meltdown. Any debt-ridden country burdened with an incompetent and corrupt elite that adopts prescriptions not appropriate to its particular predicament is likely to suffer a similar fate.
http://www.dawn.com/2001/12/27/ed.htm#2
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/World/Argentina/
2. Lessons from Argentina
http://www.dawn.com/2001/12/27/op.htm#3
By Sultan Ahmed
The melodramatic events in Argentina which led to the death of 28 persons in violent anti-economy street rioting and the emergence of a third president within four days, have valid lessons for Pakistan with its varied economic problems.
Many in Pakistan dismiss that validity or heave a sigh of relief saying Argentina's external debt is 132 billion dollars (after it had been 145 billion earlier) while Pakistan's external debt is only 38 billion dollars. And the IMF is now looking at us benignly, and the Paris Club of creditors has agreed to reschedule 12.5 billion dollars of that debt for a long period of time and at concessional interest rates.
But Argentina which is the third largest economy in Latin America has a gross domestic product of 300 billion dollars, which is five times that Pakistan's GDP of 61 billion dollars. Argentina, because of its small population of 38 million has a per capita income 8,000 dollars which is about 20 times Pakistan's per capita income of 425 dollars because of its population of 145 million. Hence Argentina's ability to overcome its economic crises is greater ordinarily than Pakistan's.
According to the "World in 2002" published by the "Economist" of London Pakistan has the lowest per capita income among significant countries in the region, except Vietnam which has a per capita income of 403 dollars. India which used to lag far behind Pakistan in this regard, has now a per capita income of 504 dollars - or 79 dollars per capita more than Pakistan's - while Thailand's per capita income is over four times that of Pakistan.
Argentina which was a shining growth model for developing countries, and its economy minister Domingo Cavallo a super economic wizard, has suffered 42 months of recession. The rate of recession since July has been 11 per cent, resulting in a high unemployment rate of 20 per cent. So the people were rioting in the city streets, banging their cooking utensils and crying for food.
Unable or unwilling to reverse his full free market economy policies and snap the Argentine pesos linkage to the US dollar and its one-to-one party Carallo resigned and along with him went the finance secretary. The vice-president too resigned and finally came the exit of the president Fernando de la Rua who took a helicopter from the roof of the presidential palace to avoid the crowds besieging it in absolute fury. The result has been the emergence of the opposition Peronist Adolfo Rodriguez Saa, a long-time provincial governor, as interim-president who will rule until the March 3 elections.
Some of the economic problems arose out of the peso's one-to-one parity with the dollar that began ten years ago. Initially that linkage was held as a symbol of the success of the Argentine economy but during the last four years that had become a millstone around the country's neck. Exports became non-competitive and foreign investment dwindled and the country found it too tough to repay the record foreign loans.
The new president has announced moratorium on repayment of the external loans and argued the foreign creditors would welcome that as Argentina would now open negotiations with them. Prior to that it had reduced interest payments on foreign loans to 4 per cent while paying 7 per cent interest on domestic loans.
Instead of opting for devaluing the peso or ending its parity with the US dollar, he says, he is introducing a new currency along with the peso which is pegged to the dollar. He says that with the money saved by the moratorium on repayment of loans he would create employment for a million of the unemployed. Along with that he has cut public salaries above 3,000 dollars, including for members of Parliament, announced sale of official cars and the presidential jet to appease the masses.
Critics of the government so far had advocated absolute dollarization of the economy or devaluation of the peso as a remedies for the economic crisis. President Saa has rejected both and come up with his new currency proposal.
The IMF's austerity package and heavy repayments to it have been blamed for the economic hardships of the people. Last Friday Argentina paid 1.1 billion dollars of its heavy external loans, but far heavier repayments are due this month which it cannot afford. Hence the moratorium. On repayments of foreign loans altogether. The IMF on its part has offered to negotiate with the new administration.
Political upheavals for economic reasons are not something new in Argentina. In 1989 Paul Alfonsin had resigned as president after the mobs began looting supermarkets protesting against hyper-inflation. Clearly the people are ready to put up with hardships up to a point, and not forever even in a rich economy like Argentina's.
What is even more striking is that the top people in authority are ultimately willing to accept their failure and quit their officers in large numbers, as happened this time as well, when the situation gets totally out of control.
President Fernando de La Rua had declared a state of emergency in the country to control the street rioting and looting of shops but that was for a month only, unlike the kind of indefinite state of emergency we are accustomed to. Clearly rulers there prefer to resign rather than shoot more of their people or arrest too many of them, like the 2,000 arrested there before the government fell.
The suggestion that instead of devaluing the rupee frequently Pakistan should have the dollar as its currency as Argentine had done has been made here from time to time. But a weak economy can't have the dollar as its currency unless we have a domestic dollar, more like Singapore's. The suggestion that Argentina should switch over to the dollar altogether has also been spurned with the argument it does not have enough dollars to repay those who want it. But in spite of the debt crisis in Argentina it has a foreign currency reserve of 18.1 billion dollars.
Pakistanis should not feel too relieved by the fact the Paris Club has agreed to reschedule 12.5 billion dollars of its total loans. We have a multilateral debt of 15.4 billion dollars to cope with or a total of 26 billion dollars to service after the Paris Club rescheduling which is pretty high based on our deficit in foreign trade as well as current account payments.
Above all, we have a domestic debt of Rs 1,783 billion as on June last which should have risen to Rs 1,850 billion by now. and the interest payments on that alone is Rs 198 billion in spite of the reduction in interest rates, and is about one-third of the expenditure on revenue account, and is much too heavy.
Now the IMF is reported to exert pressure on us to reduce the interest rates on national saving schemes, including Defence Savings certificates and Khas deposits by about 2 per cent, while the people are already protesting against the reduction of interest rates by about a third compared to the earlier rates. They do not find inflation as low as officially claimed. Such reduction along the rates of interest paid by the State Bank on Pakistan Investment Bonds and treasury bills can cause a good deal of unrest in the country, but the government wants to follow the IMF conditionalities rod, hook and sinker.
Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz says we are being rewarded heavily by the IMF, World Bank and donors in general for our good conduct as prescribed by the IMF. And the IMF now wants the 15 per cent General Sales Tax on all agricultural inputs and on electricity which will push up the cost of living, production and export. And the people are arguing while the government is becoming rich by getting grants and other aid from donors, it is impoverishing the people in the name of low inflation.
The fact is inflation is not low but the increase in inflation may be that too only for the lowest income groups. The accumulated inflation of decades has been very heavy, and if over that the current increase is not too high that is not a matter for rejoicing. Steps should be taken to bring down prices through the right fiscal and monetary mix, instead of saying the increase in inflation is low and hence the people should relax.
For that matter, inflation in Argentina is a minus 1.6 per cent, and that did not make the 20 per cent unemployed there feel any better. Electricity rates are to go up from January even without the levy of GST on that. And higher gas rates are to follow. And yet we would be told we are having a very low inflation.
If on one side the government wants to please the IMF and get more out of the donors, it is also cocksure it can come up with any kind of levy on the people to raise more revenues.
http://argentina.indymedia.org
Tuesday, January 01, 2002 Tevet 17, 5762
Israel Time: 04:08 (GMT+2)
3. Time to help Argentina's Jews
By Yair Sheleg
BUENOS AIRES - Even a country such as Israel, which is in the midst of an economic crisis and is experiencing a surge in unemployment and in the scale of poverty, can only be shocked by the data that reflects the plight of the Jewish community of Argentina. About 1,700 Jewish families in Buenos Aires alone are said to have lost their homes, and 300 of them are living in a neighborhood of shacks while the others crowd into rented apartments - several families in each flat.
The number of Argentine Jews who are in need of welfare from the community rose fivefold within a few years: from 4,000 to 20,000. According to some estimates, a quarter of the community is living below the poverty line. Even those who think that figure is exaggerated admit that the poverty in the community is nothing short of dramatic. Beyond the figures are the harsh sights, such as the sight of the people who until not long ago provided well for their families (and perhaps even donated to the community) but now must wait in line to receive food packages.
To a certain degree, this is a new situation for the Jewish world. This is not to say that until now poverty was unknown; for the past dozen years or so, world Jewry has mobilized (largely through the Joint Distribution Committee, usually known simply as the "Joint") to support the Jewish needy in the republics of the former Soviet Union. The difference is that the communities in these countries were always considered to be in distress, even before the rise of the Communist regime. The Communists did not permit the growth of strong Jewish organizations, so it was only natural that after their downfall, the Jewish world adopted these communities.
Argentina is a different case, ostensibly a developed country, even if it experienced political and economic crises. In Argentina the Jewish institutions, vibrant and vital, were for many years a model for emulation.
Those institutions still exist, but they have suffered serious setbacks both in the loss of economic sources and in terms of serious internal crises. Almost all of them are still concentrated in spacious offices in the building that was blown up in July 1994. They have not launched a campaign for assistance among the other communities of the Jewish world. How, then, should we treat their distress? Like someone who has just learned that a relative has suddenly lost everything, the Jewish world is looking on and hesitating: to offer help or not? Will the relative's sensitivities be offended? Moreover, this is a difficult time for everyone, from the United States to Israel.
There are, of course, some who did not wait and provided help immediately. The Joint gave $1 million dollars this year to the Argentine community. Jewish communities in the U.S. also donated large amounts of money. The Jewish Agency this year is investing $10 million in aid, which is earmarked largely for projects involving immigration to Israel (a good deal of the money will be spent in Israel, for absorption programs). Still, until 10 days ago, the sense of emergency that should have gripped the Jewish world did not exist. Now, because the escalating political crisis seems to have abated for the meantime, it is also possible that the sense of emergency will fade, too, though the economic and social situation has not improved by one iota.
It would be wrong to wait for the leaders of the Jewish community in Argentina to send an S.O.S. Whether their silence derives from natural considerations of self-respect, or they do not want to undermine what remains of their status in the community, we should not castigate them for not calling for help. The situation speaks louder than words.
The major Jewish organizations should set in motion emergency programs, including an emergency fund-raising campaign, for the community in Argentina.
Israeli society apparently needs to overcome another inhibition in this connection. Last week, the discussion in Israel of the serious crisis in Argentina seemed to be focused almost exclusively on one question: why aren't they packing their bags and immigrating to Israel?
But even if immigration to the Jewish state is the proper direction - and not only as a reaction to situations of distress, in Argentina or elsewhere - this does not mean that immigration is the sole parameter for examining the subject. Certainly it cannot be posited as a condition for helping brethren who are in distress.
Even a Zionist maximalist like Ze'ev Jabotinsky spoke, in the early 20th century, about the need to "work the present," by which he meant that the hardships of the present should not be neglected in order to cultivate the Zionist future.
The State of Israel and Israeli society, which did not reject money sent by Argentina's Jews (including those who did not immigrate to Israel) when it was needed, must not make their assistance to the Jewish community of Argentina contingent on immigration to Israel. Even those who remain in Argentina have the right to expect that Israel, which views itself as the leader of the Jewish people, will take the lead in launching a campaign to assist a Jewish community that is undergoing a very serious crisis.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=111494&contrassID=
2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
Monday, 31 December, 2001, 08:35 GMT Q&A:
4. Argentina's economic crisis
In the mid-1990s Argentina was lauded as an economic miracle. Today, after three years of stagnation, it represents one of the world's most intractable economic trouble spots. Why? BBC News Online maps the country's fall from grace.
So Argentina was once an economic force?
Indeed. In the 1930s Argentina was, thanks largely to beef exports, a global power, boasting income per capita similar to that of France.
But from the 1940s the country tumbled from the international stage, weakened first by isolationism, then military rule and internal conflict.
With the crisis-stricken government printing cash wholesale, inflation had soared to 200% a month by the end of the 1980s.
Shoppers would pay more for goods in the afternoon than they had in the morning.
How did Argentina escape that crisis?
Carlos Menem, on gaining presidency in 1989, liberalised trade, privatised many state businesses and cut red tape in a bid to foster industrial growth.
The programme initially failed, undermined by concerns over levels of state deficits.
But a decision in 1991, during Domingo Cavallo's first spell as economy minister, to peg the peso to the US dollar restored confidence - investors deemed dealing in greenbacks a safer bet.
The move also fostered financial stability - prices denominated in dollars could hardly be adjusted so quickly.
With world economic conditions fair, and seeds of recovery sown, Argentina became locked in a virtuous circle of foreign investment fostering growth which attracted further cash.
From 1991-94, Argentina's economic output expanded by an average of 7.7% a year.
How did it all go wrong?
By linking the peso to the dollar, Argentines adopted a currency whose exchange rate bore little relation to their own economic conditions.
This was a boon in times of hyperinflation.
But when stability returned to Argentina, the inability of its currency to respond proved more of a burden than a benefit.
Argentina had, in effect, ceded control over monetary policy - consider how important cutting interest rates has been to the US and UK this year.
Buenos Aires was left dancing disco when the tango would have been wholly more appropriate.
And while Argentina was able to sidestep the fallout from the Mexican currency collapse of 1995, the so-called Asian crisis, which began two years later, provided a more troublesome beat.
When the Brazilian real plummeted in 1999, the peso was unable to follow suit, leaving Argentine exports vastly more expensive than those of its neighbour.
A decline in world prices for farm products, and the global economic slowdown of recent months, only worsened Argentina's problems.
Lower export takings have limited the country's ability to earn the foreign currency needed to repay dollar-denominated debts.
Allowing industrial activity has denied the government the cash to balance budgets, while seeing levels of unemployment and "underemployment" top 30%.
How will Argentina's "third currency" work?
Argentina was widely expected to choose between the two 'd's - devaluation or dollarisation - in order to regain control over the economy.
Acting President Adolfo Rodriguez Saa's decision on Sunday to plump for a third option - issuing a "third currency" to circulate alongside the dollar and the dollar-linked peso - introduces a further element of uncertainty.
Dual currency systems of this kind, which have been used at various times in many south American countries as well as South Africa and Cuba, are designed to devalue the currency in the domestic economy while protecting the interests of lucrative foreign-owned businesses.
Full details will not be announced until next week, but the third currency is expected to take the form of a non-exchangeable peso which, unlike the dollar-linked peso, will not have to be underpinned by dollars in central bank vaults.
This means that the government will have greater freedom to print non-convertible peso notes and use them to pay domestic salaries and pensions.
Foreign investors in Argentine businesses will probably be allowed to convert hard currency into pesos at a favourable rate.
The government may also try to boost its own hard currency reserves by forcing Argentine exporters to convert their dollar earnings into pesos at a less favourable rate.
But the mass of the Argentine people will be left with vastly reduced purchasing power, especially where imported goods are concerned.
This will do nothing to calm the social unrest that has crippled the country in recent days.
What happens now?
In the meantime, Argentina's debt problems have not gone away.
The default may have bought the country some breathing space, but it is sure to make negotiating a final deal with its creditors that much harder.
However, the sums Argentina owes are so massive that it is very much in its creditors' own interest to come to an arrangement.
The suspension of debt payments announced on Sunday should be viewed as a temporary measure.
To paraphrase the old adage, if you owe the bank $1,000, it's your problem, but if you owe it $132bn, it's the bank's.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1721000/1721061.stm
Monday, 31 December, 2001, 09:59 GMT
5. Timeline: Argentina
A chronology of key events:
1916 - Hipolito Irigoyen of the Radical party is elected president. He introduces a minimum wage to counter the effects of inflation. Irigoyen is elected again in 1928.
1930 - A coup involving all services of the Argentine armed forces and led by General Uriburu overthrows Irigoyen. Civilian rule is restored in 1932.
1939 - Outbreak of World War II. Argentina proclaims its neutrality.
1942 - Argentina, along with Chile, refuses to break diplomatic relations with Japan and Germany after the Japanese attack on the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour.
1943 - Military regime seizes power. It is known to favour Japan and Germany. One of its leading figures is Colonel Juan Peron.
1944 - Argentina breaks diplomatic relations with Japan and Germany.
1945 - Argentina declares war on Germany and Japan.
The Peron era
1946 - Peron wins elections for the presidency. He had promised workers higher wages and social security. His wife, Eva Peron ('Evita'), is put in charge of labour relations in the new government.
1949 - A new constitution strengthens the power of the president. The Congress - which is dominated by Peron's supporters - passes legislation providing jail terms for anyone showing disrespect for the government. Regime opponents are subsequently imprisoned. Independent newspapers are suppressed.
1951 - Peron is re-elected president with a huge majority.
1952 - Peron's wife dies of cancer. Peron's support among the army, church and middle classes begins to decline.
1955 June - An attempted coup by the Argentine navy is crushed as the army remains loyal to Peron.
1955 September - Attempted coup by all three branches of the armed forces succeeds after three days of fighting, during which thousands are killed. Peron resigns and takes refuge on a Paraguayan gunboat. He subsequently goes into exile in Paraguay, and later in Spain. The federal constitution of 1853, based on that of the United States, is restored.
1966 - Military rule is imposed again with a coup led by General Juan Carlos Ongania.
The return of Peron
1973 - The Peronist party wins elections in March. Hector Campora is inaugurated president. Argentina is wracked by terrorist violence. Peron returns to Buenos Aires in June. Campora resigns and Peron becomes president in September.
1974 - Peron dies in July. His third wife, Maria, succeeds him. Terrorism from right and left escalates, leaving hundreds dead. There are strikes, demonstrations and high inflation.
1975 - Inflation rises to more than 300%.
1976 - A military junta under General Jorge Videla seizes power. Parliament is dissolved. Opponents of the regime are rounded up in the 'Dirty War', which is to see thousands of people 'disappear'.
1981 - General Leopoldo Galtieri heads the military regime.
The Falklands War
1982 April - Argentine forces occupy the British-held Falkland Islands, which Argentina calls Islas Malvinas and over which it had long claimed sovereignty. The United Kingdom dispatches a force to re-take the islands, which it does in June. More than 700 Argentines are killed in the fighting. Galtieri is replaced by General Reynaldo Bignone.
1983 - Argentina returns to civilian rule. Raul Alfonsin becomes president. Argentina begins to investigate the 'Dirty War' and charge former military leaders with human rights abuses. Inflation is running at more than 900%.
1989 - Carlos Menem of the Peronist party is elected president. He imposes an economic austerity programme.
1990 - Full diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom are restored, with Argentina still maintaining its claim to the Falklands.
1992 - Argentina introduces a new currency, the peso, which is pegged to the US dollar. A bomb is placed in the Israeli embassy, 29 people are killed.
1994 - A Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires is bombed. 86 people are killed and more than 200 injured.
1995 - Menem is re-elected.
1996 - Finance Minister Domingo Cavallo is dismissed. Economic hardship leads to a general strike in September.
1997 - A judge in Spain issues orders for the arrest of former Argentine military officers on charges of participating in the kidnapping and killing of Spanish citizens during the 'Dirty War'. Argentine amnesty laws protect the accused.
1998 - Argentine judges order arrests in connection with the abduction of hundreds of babies from women detained during the 'Dirty War'.
1999 - Fernando de la Rua of the centre-left Alianza opposition coalition wins the presidency. Economic problems continue.
2000 - Strikes and fuel tax protests. Beef exports slump after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. Soya exports suffer from concerns over the use of genetically modified varieties. The IMF grants Argentina an aid package of nearly 40 billion dollars.
2001 February - Argentina recalls its ambassador to Cuba after President Castro accuses Argentina of 'licking the yankee boot'. Castro made the remarks in an apparent reference to Argentina's support for US condemnation of Cuba's record on human rights.
Argentina and the United Kingdom agree that Argentine private aircraft and vessels may now visit the Falkland Islands again.
2001 March - President de la Rua forms a government of national unity and appoints three finance ministers in as many weeks as cabinet resignations and protests greet planned austerity measures.
2001 May - Argentina orders its ambassador in Cuba to leave the island permanently, following the ambassador's temporary recall in February.
2001 July - Former President Carlos Menem is charged with heading an 'illicit organisation' that sold arms to Croatia and Ecuador in the early 1990s in violation of international embargoes.
2001 July - Much of the country is brought to a standstill by a general strike in protest against proposed government spending cuts. Country's credit ratings slip.
2001 October - The opposition Peronists take control of both houses of parliament in Congressional elections.
2001 November - President De la Rua meets US President George W Bush in a last-ditch attempt to avoid an economic crash in Argentina. Share prices reach record lows.
A court throws out all arms trafficking charges against Menem, freeing him after five months of house arrest.
2001 December - Economy Minister Cavallo announces sweeping restrictions to halt an exodus of bank deposits.
2001 December - The IMF announces it won't disburse $1.3 billion in aid for the month, pushing Argentina closer to the brink of default.
2001 13 December - Much of Argentina grinds to a halt due to a 24-hour general strike by public workers protesting against new government curbs on bank withdrawals, a delay in pension payouts and other economic measures.
2001 20 December - President Fernando de la Rua resigns after widespread street protests and rioting leave at least 25 people dead.
2001 23 December - Adolfo Rodriguez Saa named new interim president, presidential election set for 3 March 2002. Rodriguez Saa says Argentina will suspend foreign debt payments.
2001 28 December - Fresh protests in anger over Rodriguez Saa's appointment of officials seen as corrupt and his decision to maintain unpopular banking curbs. Demonstrators loot Congress.
2001 30 December - Rodriguez Saa resigns, citing a lack of support within his own party.
Monday, 31 December, 2001, 09:51 GMT
6. Country profile: Argentina
A country of diverse terrain, Argentina is nearly 4,000 km long from the subtropical north to the subantarctic south. It encompasses part of the Andes mountain range, swamps, the large plains of the Pampas, and a lengthy coastline. In the past twenty-five years Argentines have had to struggle with military dictatorship, a lost war over the Falkland Islands, and severe economic difficulties.
OVERVIEW
OVERVIEW | FACTS | LEADERS | MEDIA
Argentina is rich in resources and has a well-educated workforce. But economic growth has not matched President de la Rua's predictions.
An IMF bail-out package of nearly 40 billion dollars was agreed in December 2000. But planned austerity measures - tax rises and cuts in social welfare programmes - led to a political crisis in March 2001 with three cabinet ministers resigning.
The economic crisis worsened and in December 2001 popular protests against austerity measures pressured de la Rua to quit.
Corruption in the judiciary, police and civil service still remains to be tackled.
The legacy of military rule from 1976-1983 is still an open wound. The fate of many of the thousands of 'disappeared' - opponents of the junta - is still unclear. And investigations are under way into what happened to the babies of women detained by the regime.
Argentines gave the world the tango. They are mad about soccer, and are reckoned to be the best polo players. Their love of horses is best personified by the figure of the Argentine 'gaucho', the solitary, independent ranch-hand, who has become known throughout the world.
FACTS
OVERVIEW | FACTS | LEADERS | MEDIA
ARGENTINA FACTS
Population: 37 million
Capital: Buenos Aires
Major language: Spanish
Major religion: Christianity
Life expectancy: 70 years (men), 77 years women)
Monetary unit: 1 peso = 100 centavos
Main exports: Food and live animals, mineral fuels,
cereals, machinery
Average annual income: US $7,550
Internet domain: .ar
International dialling code: +54
LEADERS
OVERVIEW | FACTS | LEADERS | MEDIA
Interim President: Adolfo Rodriguez Saa (resigned)
Rodriguez Saa was chosen by the Peronist party, which controls parliament, after the resignation in December 2001 of president Fernando de la Rua, following violent street protests over the government's handling of the economic crisis.
Rodriguez Saa was due to serve as president until elections in March 2002, but resigned a week after taking office. He said he had failed to win the backing of his party for his answers to the economic crisis.
MEDIA
OVERVIEW | FACTS | LEADERS | MEDIA
Since the return to democracy, journalists in Argentina have generally been able to carry out their work freely. But there have been exceptions - isolated murders, beatings, kidnappings, and death threats still occur, particularly when the media investigate corruption or irregular business activities.
In March 2000 a federal judge charged five military intelligence officers with spying on journalists in contravention of national security laws.
The media scene in Argentina includes well over 150 daily newspapers, hundreds of commercial radio stations, and an expanding TV sector with more than 40 stations.
The press
Buenos Aires Herald English-language daily
Clarin
Cronica
El Cronista
La Nacion
La Prensa
Pagina/12
Television
Argentina Televisora Color Canal 7
Telefe
Canal 13
AzulTV Canal 9
Radio
Radio Nacional Argentina
FM Hit
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Radio Rivadavia
RAE - external service
News Agencies
DYN
Telam