Argentina's new government issues controversial decrees.

AutorGaudin, Andres

For the first time in its democratic history, Argentina, South America's number-two power, is under the leadership of a right-wing government. The new administration was sworn in Dec. 10 following transparent elections that ended the dozen-year tenure of the Frente para la Victoria (FPV), an updated version of the traditional Partido Justicialista (Peronism), which was formed in the mid-1940s in opposition to the neoliberal tendencies that prevailed during the first half of the 20th century (NotiSur, Dec. 4, 2015).

Although the elections left the country divided in almost equal parts--the candidates were separated by approximately 600,000 votes out of nearly 26 million cast--President Mauricio Macri came into office determined to undo everything that the three previous FPV governments had accomplished. The FPV came into power in 2003 under the late Nestor Kirchner (2003-2007), who was succeeded by his wife, two-term President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (2007-2015). One of Macri's first moves was to issue executive orders imposing policies that had long been debated in the legislature--but never agreed upon--such as the authority to down planes suspected of involvement in drug trafficking. As of Jan. 19, the authority to carry out that most sensitive of actions rests in the hands of the military, whose power vis-a-vis the other institutions of state had purposely been whittled down during the previous 17 years.

In his first days as president, Macri rescinded key laws, censored journalists and media outlets, laid off some 60,000 public employees, devalued the national currency by 43% and, in a move only previously seen in dictatorships, used an executive order to designate two judges to the Corte Suprema de Justicia (CSJ). He signed 72 such decrees in just his first three days on the job. In recent years, Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa has warned of a possible "right-wing restoration" in the region (NotiSur, Sept. 19, 2014). Argentina, according to Eugenio Zaffaroni, a former CSJ judge who recently joined the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, is now the first country to put that concept into practice. "It has become a testing ground for what will be the dictatorships of the 21st century," he said during a Jan. 17 rally in Buenos Aires.

Corporate Cabinet

After winning the election, Macri waited just hours to announce the names of his new Cabinet ministers, most of whom had worked until just the day before as top-level business...

Para continuar leyendo

Solicita tu prueba

VLEX utiliza cookies de inicio de sesión para aportarte una mejor experiencia de navegación. Si haces click en 'Aceptar' o continúas navegando por esta web consideramos que aceptas nuestra política de cookies. ACEPTAR