Alfonsín's Argentina: The Ties That Bind
"NEARLY TWO YEARS AFTER RETURNING to democracy," wrote The Wall Street Journal in 1985, "Argentina is struggling with an old problemthe lack of a strong and constructive political...
...Both Peronism and Radicalism have modified their traditional discourse...
...and maintaining the state sector, which Alfonsin has pledged to dismantle...
...Caridi, who, while not encouraging insubordination, has repeatedly expressed admiration for the heroes of the "dirty war...
...Banned by the military, traditional political parties have reclaimed traditional roles, and the elections seem to have buttressed two-party dominance...
...Rico's stand [has] been at least partially successful...
...Just two weeks JULY/AUGUST 1987 Pq, v2,v,* Z& A4,e -- ---- -- w.- M...
...I will strive to interpret their wishes to the best of my ability...
...Alfonsin's Argentina: The Ties That Bind" looks at a re-democratizing society, where pressing issues are far more complex than the black and white of dictatorship versus democracy...
...Gen...
...S6 1JS THE LEFT IN INTENSIVE THERAPY...
...La Tablada is only the most recent incident in the continuing "unrest" among the armed forces...
...Enrique Jorge Bianchi was loudly offering his advice to Gen...
...And throughout September and October, bombs continued to explode at the homes of political leaders and union offices---testimony to the continuing threat posed by the radical violent Right [see " Desecrating Democracy...
...And while the president says he does not support an amnesty for the torturers, his Obediencia Debida law removes all but some 30 to 50 officers from the reaches of prosecution...
...By not doing so, says Americas Watch, Argentina is not fulfilling its obligations under international law...
...greater social spending...
...Together eight Left parties drew 6.5% of the vote, down from 9.3% in 1985...
...In a luncheon meeting on October 29, the high command reportedly told Defense Minister Jaunarena that more such incidents were likely...
...Yet September's mid-term elections show how far the country has come in two years...
...r 13RTepT or, Th AmiC s The Ties That Bind earlier some 50 soldiers carried out unauthorized "exercises," challenging frightened police and firemen at gunpoint...
...WHEN THE MUTINY AT CAMPO DE MAYO was put down last Easter, it was termed an unequivocal victory for Alfonsin and democracy...
...Some sectors have not yet found a voice or form...
...Vice President Victor Martinez called it "an act of indiscipline, not a crisis...
...6 VY OU'VE GOT TO GO OUT THERE, GRAB SMaguer by the ear, and install [the new commander...
...Caridi quelled the rebellion in two visits to the base, and five officers are in detention...
...Addressing the annual dinner of the Argentine Industrial Union, he pledged to "absolutely respect the people's will...
...In "The Movement: Eclipsed by Democracy...
...In the years since the generals withdrew to the barracks, Argentines have been struggling to reconstruct public political life after a seven-year hiatus...
...The men do indeed seem a new breed...
...President Rail Alfonsin's government-widely heralded as the dawn of democracy-came to office in 1983 with an impressive 52% of the vote...
...According to Americas Watch, "the officers who are gaining influence in the armed forces today are, if anything, more totalitarian and fanatic than the generation that took over the country in 1976...
...Gen...
...The Peronists called for a moratorium on payments on Argentina's $54 billion foreign debt...
...If not therapy, the Left does seem engaged in a serious election post mortem...
...Mignone, director of the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), is the author of Iglesia y Dictadura, to be published in English by Orbis Books this spring...
...Elected governor of the populous Buenos Aires province, Cafiero, 65, is virtually ensured his party's presidential nomination in 1989...
...The Radicals lost seats in the Senate and control of the lower House of Deputies...
...And now, Mignone argues, consolidation of true democracy presupposes a thoroughgoing military reform...
...asked a Periodista columnist...
...A presidential secretary said the rumors were part of a "perfectly coordinated destabilizing campaign" related to the "situation of uncertainty in which the population is living...
...Several small, conservative parties showed gains and in Tucumdn province, a retired general accused of serious human rights violations garnered a shocking 18% of the vote [see "A Panoply of Political Parties...
...NEARLY TWO YEARS AFTER RETURNING to democracy," wrote The Wall Street Journal in 1985, "Argentina is struggling with an old problemthe lack of a strong and constructive political opposition...
...Jos6 Dante Caridi, who was called away from a September 28 high command meeting to the Third Infantry Regiment...
...abandoning wage bargaining restrictions...
...He accepted the resignation of five in his eight-person cabinet, while keeping on three key aides: Foreign Minister Dante Caputo...
...Argentine lawyer Emilio F. Mignone shows how "the officer corps came to view itself as an aristocratic caste, bearers of the nation's fundamental values, responsible for and destined to control Argentina's future...
...Now, the military is advancing decidedly toward the consolidation of a single power, which will function as always behind the throne as long as it is possible and convenient...
...A human rights leader during the dictatorship, Mignone's own daughter is among the "disappeared...
...And last spring, when Alfonsin stared down a military uprising, Argentines rallied round by the thousands, casting their vote for civilian rule and their charismatic president, or so it seemed...
...His first step was a cabinet re-shuffle, announced on September 16...
...Several points in the Justicialista platform had sent shivers through the financial community at home and abroad...
...His Radical Civic Union party had every reason to expect a resounding reconfirmation...
...Yet according to a recent report by the New York-based human rights monitor, Americas Watch, "Col...
...Cafiero told Le Monde that the party had not advocated a moratorium, but proposed "a new way of handling the foreign debt...
...Ultrarightist, they are said to have developed new political relations, for example with right-wing Peronists...
...Still, most observers agree that the vote was more a gesture of punishment for Alfonsin's unpopular handling of the economy and the armed forces than an endorsement of 1 9 8 7 -style Peronism...
...Alfonsin, meanwhile, was contrite...
...The rules of the game are new and not clearly defined...
...And there are signs that the Right is growing in strength...
...The Justicialista Party, founded 40 years ago by Juan Domingo Per6n, made a surprising come-back, attracting 41.5% of the electorate...
...An economist, Cafiero has served in several Peronist cabinets and was twice jailed for his beliefs...
...Still bitter over Washington's lack of support in the Malvinas and Margaret Thatcher's continuing refusal to give up the islands, the officers talk an antiimperialist, nationalist line...
...The poor state of the economy has prompted denunciations of Argentina's oligarchy as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF...
...In a post-election interview, Cafiero rebuffed suggestions that the Peronists would threaten economic recovery and political stability...
...Defense Minister Horacio Jaunarena...
...In this issue's centerpiece, "The Military: What is to be Done...
...Our candidates were all democratically elected and we have expelled the extreme Right elements who had seized control...
...Aldo Rico, who remains under house arrest, would face prosecution...
...Argentina's recent experience illustrates that civilian rule and access to the ballot box do not guarantee democracy, particularly when the government's every move is conditioned by a strong military...
...Junior officers at La Tablada on the outskirts of Buenos Aires had locked themselves in their barracks two days earlier, attempting to block the removal of their commander in punishment for his role in last April's Holy Week uprising...
...Since the Peronists had successfully made an issue of Argentina's sorry economic picture, Sourrouille had been widely expected to depart...
...He describes himself as a Christian Democrat, but is reportedly linked to the right-wing Roman Catholic movement, Opus Dei...
...This weak electoral showing suggests that these parties, like the country's grassroots interest groups, may have not yet found a rhythm in the post-dictatorship period...
...By mid-October, rumors that Alfonsin planned to resign, or faced removal, gained enough momentum that military as well as government spokesmen felt compelled to squelch them...
...T HE ELECTION'S BIG WINNER WAS ANTONIO Cafiero, head of the Justicialistas' Renewal faction, which has promoted democratization and reform toward a more traditional party, rather than the movement Peronism has been...
...Some, admirers of Muammar Qadhafi, have been called qadhafianos...
...others have fallen into old patterns of behavior...
...S EPTEMBER'S CONTEST SEEMS TO HAVE further complicated conditions for Argentina's "fragile democracy...
...Not bound by prior commitments to the military, Alfonsin has nonetheless backpedaled on campaign promises to prosecute those responsible for Argentina's brutal "dirty war" of 1976-1983...
...The men said the transfer violated "assurances" given by Alfonsin that only Col...
...While the press ran banner headlines about "the rebellion" and the progressive weekly El Periodista called it "72 hours of anguish," the government as well as the high command seemed intent on downplaying the insubordination...
...The commander-inchief of the armed forces was replaced by Gen...
...This is a misunderstanding of the process of renovation within the Justicialista Party," he told Le Monde...
...A researcher at the Center for the Study of State and Society (CEDES) in Buenos Aires, Jelin is the editor of two anthologies...
...As one commentator put it: "The crisis of the Left in electoral terms is almost 50 years old: I think we've gotten to the point where it's not possible to drop further...
...But on September 6, Argentina's civilian government met humiliating defeat in the capital as well as 16 of the 22 provinces...
...The Justicialista victory could prove a turning point in Peronism's checkered history, if Cafiero and younger reform-minded activists are able to definitively wrest control from the old guard of extreme rightists and labor bosses...
...The Left, which seems intent on repeating theirs, should today begin mapping out new space...
...In a version of the boys-willbe-boys argument, Defense Minister Jos6 Horacio Jaunarena said that "at the end of the year some unrest is always felt due to expectations raised by upcoming promotions...
...and Economy Minister Juan Vital Sourrouille...
...Argentine sociologist Elizabeth Jelin traces the development and successes of the popular movement under the military, but finds them "glaringly absent in the current political panorama...
...This is inexcusable...
...Since Easter, wrote Periodista columnist Carlos Gabetta, Argentina has had "dual power...
Vol. 21 • July 1987 • No. 4
