Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and rule of law are other matters. President Raúl Alfonsín intervened
so successfully in the court proceedings for the crimes of the Dirty War,
for example, that the trials resulted in the convictions of only a handful
of generals and guerrilla leaders, and even they later received pardons.
In essence, the murderers of thousands of citizens and the torturers of
thousands more went free. This kind of impunity extends to corrupt
politicians as well. Perhaps today, trial of the
represores
might promise
justice, at least with regard to murderers.
Competing politicians may wish to expose each other's graft in order
to gain political leverage, but they do not prosecute the bribe takers, lest
they too may one day end up in court. Carlos Saúl Menem further weak-
ened the judicial system during his terms in office to such a degree that
Argentines had to laugh at the irony implicit in one joke circulating in
the 1990s. Menem was on a state visit to Bolivia, so the apocryphal story
goes, and his counterpart was introducing the Argentine head of state
to the Bolivian cabinet ministers. “And this is our minister of the navy.”
“Minister of the navy!” Menem exclaimed. “Bolivia is a landlocked
country and has no navy. Why do you have a minister of the navy?”
“Well,” replied the Bolivian president, “you have a minister of justice.”
A Positive Trend
Perhaps the foregoing analysis will leave readers, particularly those
who love Argentina and have good friends there, all too depressed.
Some rays of light have shone through these pages, specifically the tre-
mendous achievements of individual Argentines in the world of letters,
music, sports, and international affairs. The nation has produced five
Nobel laureates, after all. In politics, the electoral process has yielded
encouraging results. The parties have successfully and peacefully trans-
ferred power between them on numerous occasions, including during
economic crises (which, admittedly, are far from over). There remains
one major triumph, however, that deserves mention.
The residents of the Southern Cone have created a nongovernmental
environment that encourages businesspeople and workers to produce
tremendous economic growth; in fact, the economic record is the more
remarkable for all the corruption, violence, civil warfare, and govern-
ment regulation that have throttled innovation down through the ages.
For most of the colonial period, the Spanish monarchs issued decree
upon decree intending to restrict trade in the Río de la Plata. Despite
this, commerce and production became so prominent that Crown offi-
cials eventually anointed them with a new political regime, the vice-
