Raúl Alfonsín | |
---|---|
President of Argentina | |
In office December 10 1983 – July 8 1989 | |
Vice President | Víctor Martínez |
Preceded by | Reynaldo Bignone |
Succeeded by | Carlos Menem |
Personal details | |
Born | March 13, 1927 Chascomús, Buenos Aires |
Nationality | Argentinean |
Political party | Radical Civic Union |
Profession | Lawyer |
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín Foulkes[1] (born 13 March 1927) is an Argentine politician, who was the President of Argentina from 10 December 1983 to 9 July 1989.
Life
Early life
Alfonsín was born in the town of Chascomús, in the eastern Buenos Aires Province of Argentina and raised in the Roman Catholic faith. Straight after his elementary schooling he took up studies at the General San Martín Military Academy, where he graduated after five years as a second lieutenant. In 1945, he entered the Radical Civic Union (UCR) while taking an active role in the reform group Movimiento de Intransigencia y Renovación. In 1946, he lost to Perón and at about that same time, he entered law school graduating in 1950 at the Universidad Nacional de la Plata and went back home in his birthplace. During the year of 1950, he took a wife in Maria Lorenza Barrenchea.[2] Back in his hometown, he took up a role as an attorney, newspaper publisher (El Imparcial,) and an elected member to the city council. 1955 was the year of the coup that brought Perón's reign to an end, and that gave the UCR more political strength.[3]
Entering politics
A member of the Radical Civic Union, he was elected to the Buenos Aires provincial legislature in 1958. He stood for the Radical Party nomination for the 1973 presidential election, but lost to Ricardo Balbín.[3]
After the collapse of the military junta of the National Reorganization Process in 1983 (among other reasons due to the disastrous Falklands/Malvinas War), new presidential elections were held. Alfonsín, who had been elected leader of the party in July that year, became president.
His government sponsored the Trial of the Juntas, prosecuting some of the top members of the previous military regime for crimes committed during the Dirty War, and created the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons to document their human rights abuses, but found resistance from the military and was plagued by economic and labour problems.
In 1984, he signed the Peace and Friendship Treaty with Chile, ending a border dispute over the Beagle Channel after mediation of the Holy See.
In 1985, in an attempt to control the country's chronic inflation, his government launched the Austral Plan, by which prices were frozen and the existing currency, the peso argentino, was replaced by the Argentine austral. It introduced a mechanism called desagio, by which creditors who received payments after the date of the start of the plan received a minor sum, the difference being the built-in inflation that was assumed when the transaction was agreed upon. The main figure behind the plan was his Minister of Economy, Juan Sorrouille.
End of reign
Alfonsín's government endured the rebellion of Army factions, the most notable of them during the long weekend of Easter in 1987, when a group identified as Carapintadas (lit. "painted faces", from their use of camouflage paint) and led by Army Major Aldo Rico took position in the Army's grounds of Campo de Mayo. After negotiating with the rebels, Alfonsín returned to the Casa Rosada, where an anxious population was waiting for news, and he uttered a then-famous sentence, "La casa está en orden" ("The house is in order"), to signify the end of the crisis.
In 1989, the economic situation in Argentina had deteriorated to the point of causing hyperinflation (over 200% monthly), and in some large cities (particularly Rosario) there were riots and looting. Alfonsín left office six months before the end of his term, to President elect Carlos Menem, of the Peronists.
In 1995 Alfonsín resigned as leader of the Radical Party after their poor election performance, but continued to be an important figurehead.