Posted on 01/01/2002 8:22:58 PM PST by Jack Black
Argentina's Congress Names Duhalde as President
By Alistair Scrutton
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - Argentina's Congress on Tuesday appointed Eduardo Duhalde, a populist powerbroker in the Peronist Party, as the new president until 2003, with the task of ending recession and social chaos in Latin America's third-largest economy.
Duhalde, a stocky 60-year-old who became the fifth president in two weeks, faces a nation plagued by bloody protests and looting as bankruptcies and unemployment grow and Argentina heads for a record sovereign debt default.
``My commitment from today is to finish with an economic model that has brought desperation to the vast majority of our people,'' Duhalde said in an inauguration speech littered with criticisms of the free market policies that have been implemented in Argentina over the last decade.
In just over a week, two presidents resigned as the country's once-proud middle class took to the streets with pots and pans and other, violent protests broke around the capital, including a brief looting of the legislature.
Pots and pans could again be heard in several districts of the capital after news of Duhalde's appointment.
Near a heavily guarded Congress, riot police briefly fired tear gas and rubber bullets at dozens of leftist militants and Duhalde supporters who battled each other along narrow streets. Many Argentines stayed at home this New Year and streets were mostly empty and restaurants boarded up amid fear of violence.
Duhalde, a populist who has advocated trade protectionism, could turn back the free market policies that transformed Argentina over the last decade but did little to reduce unemployment, now at nearly 20 percent of the workforce.
Duhalde must finish the mandate of the man he lost to in the 1999 presidential election: President Fernando de la Rua, a member of the center-left Radical Party who quit in December, midway into his four-year term, as his government shattered amid a run on banks.
SPITTING MAD
In this country of 36 million people, around 2,000 people a day fall below the poverty line and many are so angry at politicians seen as corrupt that they have insulted and spat on legislators and government officials in the street.
Many commentators say it is the worst crisis since the last military coup on 1976.
Argentine's middle class, used to one of the highest standards of living in Latin America, have gathered in city squares banging pots and pans and blocking streets on muggy summer evenings in spontaneous outbursts of protest.
On Tuesday, the Roman Catholic Church warned that the successive resignations of presidents brought the danger of anarchy. At least 27 people died in the looting of supermarkets last month that sparked De la Rua's resignation.
De la Rua's replacement, Adolfo Rodriguez Saa, quickly quit when his own Peronist Party turned against him as street protests continued -- but only after he ordered the suspension of payments on the country's $132 billion foreign debt,
Two lawmakers served as provisional 48-hour presidents.
Political analysts say Duhalde, elected to the Senate in an impressive victory in mid-term congressional elections in October, may be the only politician with the ability to garner legitimacy and popular backing to rule Argentina.
``We came here to propose one of the best men that the Peronist Party has,'' said Jose Luis Gioja, the head of the Peronist bloc of senators.
Others analysts worry about the track record of the former governor of Buenos Aires province, which racked up debts during his tenure. The province was also tainted with allegations of corruption.
DOMINO EFFECT?
Fears persist that Argentina's collapse could spread to other emerging markets, as well as hurting U.S., Spanish, Italian, French and British companies with investments here.
``No to Duhalde. Elections now,'' read pamphlets scattered across a Buenos Aires park after New Year's celebrations.
Political turmoil has been a constant in Argentina for decades as the country tumbled from the world's seventh-richest in the 1930s -- comparable to Canada -- to what many now see as a third-world pariah in global financial markets.
A run on banks amid fears of a currency devaluation, which would instantly bankrupt thousands of Argentines indebted in dollars, led De la Rua's government to slap curbs on banks, limiting people to $1,000 per month in cash withdrawals from their accounts.
Protesters demanded the repeal of the banking restrictions, but economists say that would spell instant closure for many Argentine banks.
Argentina's decade-old currency peg, which makes one peso equal to one dollar, is also considered on the brink of collapse. The peso already trades at half its theoretical value in neighboring Brazil and Uruguay.
But polls show an overwhelming majority of Argentines want to keep the peg, even though many hold it responsible for making the cost of living higher than some European countries when Argentina's average salary is only $600 a month.
Duhalde takes the reins from Eduardo Camano, head of the lower house of Congress who is now provisional president. Ramon Puerta, the head of the Senate, served as provisional president before Rodriguez Saa took over.
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