Menem and the Roaring Nineties (1989-2001)

Uncharacteristically, the military watched from the sidelines as the 1989 presidential elections took place, ushering in an era of civilian governance that Argentina has had the good fortune to enjoy since. The winner was an earthy, self-styled man-of-the-people with enough charisma to match the old master himself. Carlos Menem was a politician's politician, a child of Syrian immigrants who projected himself as a classic yerba-mate-swilling Argentine caudillo, sideburns and all. Elected on a working-class platform, Menem stunned the world by fiercely embracing pro-market economic reforms, privatization of state industries, and a friendly relationship with the United States. To combat inflation, he instituted a new currency which was linked to the US dollar by law, preventing the government from printing its way out of financial trouble. This system, known as convertibility, brought inflation from 3000% to less than 20% and set the stage for a decade of economic growth.

Despite Menem's popularity and achievements, his two terms in office weren't without their darker aspects. To keep the military in line, he pardoned all the junta members serving time for their crimes in the Dirty War. Menem's autocratic tendencies manifested themselves both when he rammed a constitutional amendment through congress allowing himself a second term, and when he expanded the supreme court, stacking the new seats with his allies. Allegations of nepotism, illegal arms sales, and corrupt privatizations riddled his presidency. 10 million dollars mysteriously showed up in a Swiss bank account around the time of the 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. And the flipside of the new economy was rising unemployment and a poverty rate that reached 50%, not to mention massive government deficits.

As happens so often in the politics of democracy, the price of a failed policy is paid by the policymaker's successor. Thus Fernando De la Rúa of the Radical party, elected in 1998, inherited a slowing economy and an enormous foreign debt. He had little choice but to watch idly as the economy melted down, culminating in the financial crisis of 2001, which brought massive protests and a huge devaluation of the peso.

Nestor Kirchner and Argentina Today