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Ciria, Alberto. “The Individual in History: Five Latin American Biographies.” Latin American Research Review 20, no. 3 (1985): 247–267. Davis, H. F. “The Presidency in Chile.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 15 (fall 1985): 707–724. Kofas, J. “The Politics of Foreign Debt: The IMF, the World Bank, and U.S. Foreign Policy in Chile, 1946–1952.” Journal of Developing Areas 31 (winter 1997): 157–182. Nunn, Frederick M. “A Latin American State within a State: The Politics of the Chilean Army, 1924–1927.” The Americas 27, no. 1 (1970): 40–55.
Alfonsín, Raúl (1927– ) president of Argentina Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín was born in Chascomus, Argentina, on March 13, 1927, and he attended military academies in his youth. However, he forsook military service in favor of pursuing law, and in 1945 he joined the Unión Cívica Radical (UCR), the Radical Civic Union, a traditional party with strong roots in the democratic tradition. Over the next 20 years, Argentina was ruled by the Justicialist Party of JUAN PERÓN, periodically interrupted by military coups against the government. In 1958 Alfonsín was elected as a UCR provincial deputy, but his term was suspended four years later after the military again seized power. He was reinstated a year later, and by 1973 Alfonsín felt emboldened enough to seek the presidency as the UCR candidate. He was defeated in the primaries by Ricardo Balbín, who went on to lose the general election when the Peronists returned to power. In 1976 the government was again upended by the military, and a three-man junta next assumed control of the country. Their top priority now was waging a ruthless campaign against leftist guerrilla forces, the so-called Dirty War. The insurgency was contained with great brutality. Thousands of civilians simply disappeared and were assumed to have been murdered by soldiers. Political parties and activities were also summarily suspended. However, in the wake of General LEOPOLDO GALTIERI’s botched 1983 Falkland Islands war against Great Britain, the military fell under increasing pressure to allow free elections. By that time in 1984, Alfonsín had established himself as a leading candidate with solidly democratic credentials. Prior to being elected president, Alfonsín took the courageous step of publicly criticizing the military for their zealotry in pursuing guerrillas. He also founded a reform
movement with the UCR to clean out the political deadwood and bring the party closer to its constituents. On October 30, 1983, the Argentine people elected him president with 52 percent of the vote, and also delivered control of the legislature to the UCR. He assumed office amid high public expectations but confronted by two nearly insurmountable tasks. The first was prosecution of military officers accused of human rights abuses, including murder. Once in office, Alfonsín repealed a blanket amnesty the military had voted for itself, and began jailing and trying senior military figures. Attempts to punish junior officers stimulated several military insurrections, however, so to preserve the peace Alfonsín prosecuted only senior officers who issued the actual orders. It was a compromise that failed to please everybody, especially mothers of the 5,000 desaparecidos (disappeared), but the army was placated. Argentina thus remains the only Latin American country to successfully try to imprison military leaders for crimes against civilians. Alfonsín had much less success in confronting his next challenge: the economy. Eight years of military rule racked up an $85 billion national debt, which induced hyperinflation and deep recession. The president fought back by adopting extreme austerity measures, the so-called Austral Plan, which temporarily brought down inflation. But such was the magnitude of Argentina’s economic malaise that necessary wage freezes and layoffs incited mass demonstrations. By May 1989 food prices were rising 30 percent every month, a condition that greatly reduced Alfonsín’s chances for reelection. Consequently he was handily defeated by the Peronist candidate, Carlos Saúl Menem. To emphasize the gravity of the situation, Alfonsín surrendered his office six months ahead of schedule. For many years thereafter, he served as nominal head of the UCR and of the opposition. In 1999 he also experienced a severe car accident and has since retired from politics. Alfonsín’s tenure in office was in many respects far from successful, but it marked Argentina’s return to the rule of law and democracy. Further Reading Epstein, E. C., ed. The New Argentine Democracy: The Search for a Successful Formula. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1992. Erro, Davide G. Resolving the Argentine Paradox: Politics and Development, 1966–1992. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Pubs., 1993.