Argentina

Argentina is the second-largest country in South America and the eighth-largest country in the world.

It occupies a continental surface area of 2,791,810 km² (1,078,000 sq mi) and is located between the Andes mountain range in the west and the southern Atlantic Ocean in the east and south. It is bordered by Paraguay and Bolivia in the north, Brazil and Uruguay in the northeast, and Chile in the west and south. It also claims the British overseas territories of the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Under the name of Argentine Antarctica, it claims 969,464 km² (374,312 sq mi) of Antarctica, overlapping other claims by Chile and the United Kingdom.

The country is formally named the Argentine Republic (Spanish: República Argentina, IPA ), but for purposes of legislation, the form Nación Argentina (Argentine Nation) is used.

Origin and history of the name

The name Argentina derives from the Latin argentum (silver). The first Spanish conquistadors discovered the Río de la Plata ("River of Silver"). Indigenous people gave silver gifts to the survivors of the shipwrecked expedition, who were led by Juan Díaz de Solís. The legend of Sierra del Plata �" a mountain rich in silver �" reached Spain around 1524. The source of the silver was the area where the city of Potosí was to be founded in 1546. An expedition that followed the trail of the silver up the Paraná and Pilcomayo rivers finally reached the source of the silver only to find it already claimed by previous explorers that had reached it from Lima, the capital of the Viceroyalty.

The name Argentina was first used in Ruy Díaz de Guzmán's 1612 book Historia del descubrimiento, población, y conquista del Río de la Plata (History of the discovery, population, and conquest of the Río de la Plata), naming the territory Tierra Argentina (Land of Silver).

History

Río de la Plata aboriginals, as pictured by Hendrick Ottsen (1603)

The first signs of human presence in Argentina are located in the Patagonia (Piedra Museo, Santa Cruz), and date from 11,000 BC Piedra Museo. Around 1 AD, several corn-based civilizations developed in the western and northwestern Andean region (Ansilta, Condorhuasi, Ciénaga, Aguada, Santa María, Huarpes, Diaguitas, Sanavirones, among others). In 1480 the Inca Empire, under the rule of emperor Pachacutec, launched an offensive and conquered present-day northwestern Argentina, integrating it into a region called Collasuyu. In the northeastern area, the Guaraní developed a culture based on yuca and sweet potato. The central and southern areas (Pampas and Patagonia) were dominated by nomadic cultures, unified in the 17th century by the Mapuches, and never conquered by the Europeans.

Buenos Aires in 1536

Europeans arrived in 1502. Spain established a permanent colony on the site of Buenos Aires in 1580, and the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776. In 1806 and 1807 the British Empire invaded the Viceroyalty, but the creole population managed to repel the invasions. On May 25, 1810, after the confirmation of the rumors about the overthrow of King Ferdinand VII by Napoleon, the most prominent citizens of Buenos Aires took advantage of the situation and created the First Government Junta. Independence from Spain was declared on July 9, 1816. Centralist and federationist groups (Spanish: Unitarios and Federales) were in conflict until national unity was established and the constitution promulgated in 1853.

Foreign investment and immigration from Europe led to the adoption of modern agricultural techniques and integration of Argentina into the world economy in the late 19th century. In the 1880s, the "Conquest of the Desert" subdued or exterminated the remaining indigenous tribes throughout Patagonia.

From 1880 to 1930, Argentina enjoyed increasing prosperity and prominence. Conservative forces dominated Argentine politics until 1916, when their traditional rivals, the Radicals, won control of the government. The military forced Hipólito Yrigoyen from power in 1930, leading to another decade of Conservative rule.

President Juan Perón (1946)

Political change led to the presidency of Juan Perón in 1946, who tried to empower the working class and greatly expanded the number of unionized workers. The Revolución Libertadora of 1955 deposed him.

From the 1950s to 1970s, military and civilian administrations traded power. In those years the economy grew strongly and poverty declined (less than 6% in 1975) while political violence continued escalating. In 1973, Perón returned to the presidency, but he died less than a year after. His third wife Isabel, the Vice President, succeeded him in office, but a military coup removed her from office on 24 March, 1976.

The armed forces took power through a junta in charge of the self-appointed National Reorganization Process until 1983. The armed forces repressed opposition using harsh illegal measures (the "Dirty War"); thousands of dissidents "disappeared", while the SIDE cooperated with DINA and other South American intelligence agencies, and allegedly with the CIA in Operation Condor. Many of the military leaders that took part in the Dirty War were trained in the U.S.-financed School of the Americas, among them Argentine dictators Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola.

The first military junta of the Proceso (1976)

Economic problems, charges of corruption, public revulsion in the face of human rights abuses and, finally, the country's 1982 defeat in the Falklands War discredited the Argentine military regime.

Democracy was restored in 1983. Raúl Alfonsín's Radical government took steps to account for the "disappeared", established civilian control of the armed forces, and consolidated democratic institutions. The members of the three military juntas were prosecuted and sentenced to life terms. Failure to resolve endemic economic problems and an inability to maintain public confidence led to Alfonsín's early departure.

President Carlos Menem imposed a peso-dollar fixed exchange rate in 1991 to stop hyperinflation and adopted far-reaching market-based policies, dismantling protectionist barriers and business regulations, and implementing a privatization program. These reforms contributed to significant increases in investment and growth with stable prices through most of the 1990s.

Protest against the corralito (2002)

The Menem and de la Rúa administrations faced diminished competitiveness of exports, massive imports which damaged national industry and reduced employment, chronic fiscal and trade deficits, and the contagion of several economic crises. The Asian financial crisis in 1998 precipitated an outflow of capital that mushroomed into a recession, which led to a total freezing of bank accounts (the corralito), and culminated in a financial panic in November 2001. The next month, amidst bloody riots, President de la Rúa resigned.

In two weeks, several new presidents followed in quick succession, culminating in Eduardo Duhalde being appointed interim President of Argentina by the Legislative Assembly on 2 January 2002. Argentina defaulted on its international debt obligations. The peso's almost 11-year-old linkage to the U.S. dollar was abandoned, resulting in major depreciation of the peso and inflation, in turn triggering a jump in unemployment and poverty. Although it was one of Argentina's worst crises ever, a military coup did not materialize and democracy remained in place.

With a more competitive and flexible exchange rate, the country started implementing new policies based on re-industrialization, import substitution, increased exports, and consistent fiscal surplus. By the end of 2002, the economy began to become stabilized. In 2003, Néstor Kirchner was elected president. During Kirchner's presidency, Argentina restructured its defaulted debt with a steep discount (about 70 percent) on most bonds, renegotiated contracts with utilities, and nationalized previously privatized industries.

Politics

Congress building in Buenos Aires

Argentina's political framework is a federal presidential representative democratic republic, in which the President of Argentina is both head of state and head of government, complemented by a pluriform multi-party system. The Argentine Constitution of 1853 was revised several times. The last one was in 1994. It mandates a separation of powers into executive, legislative, and judicial branches at the national and provincial level.

Executive power resides in the President and his cabinet. The President and Vice President are directly elected to 4-year terms, limited to two consecutive terms, and the cabinet ministers are appointed by the president.

Legislative power is vested in both the government and the parliament: the bicameral National Congress or Congreso de la Nación, consisting of a Senate (Senado) of 72 seats, and a Chamber of Deputies (Cámara de Diputados) of 257 members. Senators serve 6-year terms, with one-third standing for reelection every 2 years. Members of the Chamber of Deputies are directly elected to 4-year term via a system of proportional representation, with half of the members of the lower house being elected every 2 years. A third of the candidates presented by the parties must be women.

The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The Argentine Supreme Court of Justice has 9 members who are appointed by the President in consultation with the Senate. The rest of the judges are appointed by the Council of Magistrates of the Nation, a secretariat composed of representatives of judges, lawyers, the Congress, and the executive. (see also law of Argentina)

Argentina also belongs to Mercosur, an international bloc which has some legislative supranational functions. Mercosur is composed of five full members: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Mercosur also has five associated members without full voting rights: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

Foreign relations

Current and Former Presidents of Brazil and Argentina on the 20th anniversary of the Mercosur.

Argentina was the only Latin American country to participate in the 1991 Gulf War under mandate of the United Nations and in every phase of the Haiti operation. It has also contributed worldwide in peacekeeping operations, including in El Salvador-Honduras-Nicaragua, Guatemala, Ecuador-Peru, Western Sahara, Angola, Kuwait, Cyprus, Croatia, Kosovo, Bosnia and East Timor. In recognition of its contributions to international security and peacekeeping, U.S. President Bill Clinton designated Argentina as a major non-NATO ally in January 1998. In 2005, it was elected as a temporary member of the UN Security Council.

As of 2006, Argentina is currently emphasizing Mercosur as its first external priority, in contrast with its reliance during the 1990s on the relationship with the United States.

In 2005, on November 4 and November 5, the Argentine city of Mar del Plata hosted the Fourth Summit of the Americas. This summit was marked by a number of anti-USA protests.

Argentina claims the sovereignty of the Falkland/Malvinas Islands, the South Shetland Islands, the South Sandwich Islands and almost 1 million km² in Antarctica, between the 25°W and the 74°W meridians and the 60°S parallel. This antarctic sector is called Argentine Antarctica and is considered as part of the national territory, for many reasons, among which is more than one century of permanent occupation.

Administrative divisions

Provinces of Argentina. Argentina claims control of the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and a slice of Antarctica, both of which it considers a part of its Tierra del Fuego province (23).

Argentina is divided into 23 provinces (provincias; singular: provincia), and 1 autonomous city (commonly known as capital federal), marked with an asterisk:{# Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires^*# Buenos Aires (Province)# Catamarca# Chaco# Chubut# Córdoba# Corrientes# Entre Ríos# Formosa# Jujuy# La Pampa# La Rioja

13. Mendoza
14. Misiones
15. Neuquén
16. Río Negro
17. Salta
18. San Juan
19. San Luis
20. Santa Cruz
21. Santa Fe
22. Santiago del Estero
23. Tierra del Fuego
24. Tucumán