RAUL ALFONSIN: Opinon from the main journals of the world
The Economist:
Raúl Alfonsín
An Argentine democrat
Apr 2nd 2009 BUENOS AIRESFrom The Economist print edition
A flawed politician of rare integrity
HE WAS perhaps the only Argentine political leader of recent times who deserved to be called a statesman. Raúl Alfonsín, a lawyer and lifelong Radical politician who died on March 31st at the age of 82, was justifiably seen as the father of his country’s current period of democracy. His victory in a presidential election in 1983 not only marked the end of the region’s most vicious military dictatorship, during which at least 9,000 Argentines “disappeared”. It also marked the first time the Peronist movement was defeated in a free election.
Mr Alfonsín won widespread praise for putting the dictators on trial (some were jailed) as well as setting up a truth commission into the political violence and repression of the 1970s. It helped that Argentina’s humiliation in the Falklands war had discredited the generals. But when several coup attempts followed, Mr Alfonsín felt he had no option but to halt further trials. That was partly because he had been weakened by his mishandling of the economy. An old-fashioned populist, he failed to understand that drastic reform was needed. When hyperinflation culminated in disorder and looting, he stepped down five months before the end of his term.
There was nonetheless a decency about Mr Alfonsín that marked him out. He believed in institutions. He was the only recent president not to pack the Supreme Court with friends. He was not corrupt. In death, he was praised across the spectrum. His democratic idealism seems to have moved a generation too young to remember his presidency. Thousands of ordinary Argentines waited with flowers and tears to pay their respects as his body lay in the Congress building. He had many flaws, but his virtues are sorely missed by his troubled country.
An Argentine democrat
Apr 2nd 2009 BUENOS AIRESFrom The Economist print edition
A flawed politician of rare integrity
HE WAS perhaps the only Argentine political leader of recent times who deserved to be called a statesman. Raúl Alfonsín, a lawyer and lifelong Radical politician who died on March 31st at the age of 82, was justifiably seen as the father of his country’s current period of democracy. His victory in a presidential election in 1983 not only marked the end of the region’s most vicious military dictatorship, during which at least 9,000 Argentines “disappeared”. It also marked the first time the Peronist movement was defeated in a free election.
Mr Alfonsín won widespread praise for putting the dictators on trial (some were jailed) as well as setting up a truth commission into the political violence and repression of the 1970s. It helped that Argentina’s humiliation in the Falklands war had discredited the generals. But when several coup attempts followed, Mr Alfonsín felt he had no option but to halt further trials. That was partly because he had been weakened by his mishandling of the economy. An old-fashioned populist, he failed to understand that drastic reform was needed. When hyperinflation culminated in disorder and looting, he stepped down five months before the end of his term.
There was nonetheless a decency about Mr Alfonsín that marked him out. He believed in institutions. He was the only recent president not to pack the Supreme Court with friends. He was not corrupt. In death, he was praised across the spectrum. His democratic idealism seems to have moved a generation too young to remember his presidency. Thousands of ordinary Argentines waited with flowers and tears to pay their respects as his body lay in the Congress building. He had many flaws, but his virtues are sorely missed by his troubled country.
Argentina loses a democratic hero
When a traumatised Argentina desperately needed an upright head of state, Raul Alfonsin proved to be the most upright of men
TA Frank
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 2 April 2009 17.00 BST
Article history
Few outside of Argentina remember him, but a good man died yesterday. Raul Alfonsin was the first democratically elected president of the Argentine Republic after seven years of military rule in which over 10,000 Argentinians were "disappeared" by the military in a "Dirty War" against leftist guerrillas.
The guerrilla groups, of whom the most prominent were the Montoneros, were active throughout the 1970s, and they were deadly. Anyone in the military, law enforcement, industry or finance risked being kidnapped or killed. The guerrillas bombed police stations, military barracks and apartment buildings. They were subversives whose ranks included members of normally peaceful occupations: priests, journalists, social workers, students, teachers. No one seemed able to discern who was a nonviolent leftist and who was secretly a violent revolutionary, and unrest spread throughout the country, threatening to devolve into outright civil war. Some Argentinians considered the Montoneros to be idealists, but Raul Alfonsin, a member of the centrist Radical party, never did. He condemned their cruelty and destruction.
In 1976, a military junta took control of the country and set about eradicating the guerrillas. The counterterrorist measures taken were of a brutality and magnitude that the country had never seen. The military kidnapped people it suspected of being involved in terrorism, secreting them away to hidden detention centres where they would be interrogated and tortured. Most of those kidnapped were killed, in some cases by being drugged and pushed alive out of airplanes. Mothers, fathers and relatives of people who were disappeared would go to police stations and ministries and courtrooms seeking information on those who had gone missing – only to be told that no one had any information to give.
Fearful of being placed on a target list by the government, most Argentinians fled or kept silent during those terrifying years. But Raul Alfonsin did not, loudly condemning the military government and offering help to families seeking information on their missing loved ones.
In 1983, Argentina finally ousted the military dictators and held genuine elections. No one expected Raul Alfonsin, whose Radical party had never enjoyed much public support, to win. But Alfonsin did win. He inherited a country beset by debt, inflation and bitter memories. Argentinians had high hopes that he could pull them out of the morass.
Alfonsin wanted to demonstrate to everyone that Argentina was once again a country ruled by laws, and he undertook two important things to put the Dirty War to rest: he assembled a commission to investigate the thousands of disappearances, and he put the leaders of the military junta on trial. Argentinians and observers around the world were shocked by the testimony of survivors, who gave accounts of beatings, electrocution and extrajudicial killings. A list of the missing was compiled and came to over 10,000. The generals were sentenced to prison (as were surviving guerrilla leaders), and Argentina tried to return to normal.
But the fight between extreme left and extreme right in Argentina persisted, albeit less violently. Rightists accused leftists of staging the trials of the generals as revenge for having been defeated on the battlefield. Leftists accused the centrists of going too easy on yesterday's torturers and killers. Alfonsin faced rebellions by military fascists and denunciations by neo-Stalinists.
Ultimately, as luck would have it, Alfonsin wound up stumbling as a leader for a more mundane and common reason: the economy worsened. He had inherited a budgetary disaster, and Argentinians were willing to be patient while he attempted to address it. In the end, however, Alfonsin shied away from making the choices necessary to set the country on a sustainable economic course, and inflation soared to 200 percent a month. Investment died out almost entirely, as Argentinians devoted all their economic energy to preserving what capital they could salvage. By 1989, Alfonsin had been voted out, and no one seemed to have anything kind to say about him.
Politics is unforgiving and unfair, and often scoundrels who have a run of economic good luck are remembered with undue fondness. Juan Peron subverted Argentine democracy in the 1940s and 50s, but he remains beloved by many Argentinians for having raided the national coffers showing everyone a good time. Raul Alfonsin erred on the side of fiscal timidity, but the economy wound up crushing him. His bravery and decency on more fundamental questions – his adherence to morality and legality in country that had been swept up in evil and illegality – were insufficiently acknowledged and quickly forgotten while he was in power.
But in the years after, people came to appreciate once again what he had done for Argentina and human rights. When a traumatised nation most desperately needed an upright head of state, Alfonsin proved to be the most upright of men.
When a traumatised Argentina desperately needed an upright head of state, Raul Alfonsin proved to be the most upright of men
TA Frank
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 2 April 2009 17.00 BST
Article history
Few outside of Argentina remember him, but a good man died yesterday. Raul Alfonsin was the first democratically elected president of the Argentine Republic after seven years of military rule in which over 10,000 Argentinians were "disappeared" by the military in a "Dirty War" against leftist guerrillas.
The guerrilla groups, of whom the most prominent were the Montoneros, were active throughout the 1970s, and they were deadly. Anyone in the military, law enforcement, industry or finance risked being kidnapped or killed. The guerrillas bombed police stations, military barracks and apartment buildings. They were subversives whose ranks included members of normally peaceful occupations: priests, journalists, social workers, students, teachers. No one seemed able to discern who was a nonviolent leftist and who was secretly a violent revolutionary, and unrest spread throughout the country, threatening to devolve into outright civil war. Some Argentinians considered the Montoneros to be idealists, but Raul Alfonsin, a member of the centrist Radical party, never did. He condemned their cruelty and destruction.
In 1976, a military junta took control of the country and set about eradicating the guerrillas. The counterterrorist measures taken were of a brutality and magnitude that the country had never seen. The military kidnapped people it suspected of being involved in terrorism, secreting them away to hidden detention centres where they would be interrogated and tortured. Most of those kidnapped were killed, in some cases by being drugged and pushed alive out of airplanes. Mothers, fathers and relatives of people who were disappeared would go to police stations and ministries and courtrooms seeking information on those who had gone missing – only to be told that no one had any information to give.
Fearful of being placed on a target list by the government, most Argentinians fled or kept silent during those terrifying years. But Raul Alfonsin did not, loudly condemning the military government and offering help to families seeking information on their missing loved ones.
In 1983, Argentina finally ousted the military dictators and held genuine elections. No one expected Raul Alfonsin, whose Radical party had never enjoyed much public support, to win. But Alfonsin did win. He inherited a country beset by debt, inflation and bitter memories. Argentinians had high hopes that he could pull them out of the morass.
Alfonsin wanted to demonstrate to everyone that Argentina was once again a country ruled by laws, and he undertook two important things to put the Dirty War to rest: he assembled a commission to investigate the thousands of disappearances, and he put the leaders of the military junta on trial. Argentinians and observers around the world were shocked by the testimony of survivors, who gave accounts of beatings, electrocution and extrajudicial killings. A list of the missing was compiled and came to over 10,000. The generals were sentenced to prison (as were surviving guerrilla leaders), and Argentina tried to return to normal.
But the fight between extreme left and extreme right in Argentina persisted, albeit less violently. Rightists accused leftists of staging the trials of the generals as revenge for having been defeated on the battlefield. Leftists accused the centrists of going too easy on yesterday's torturers and killers. Alfonsin faced rebellions by military fascists and denunciations by neo-Stalinists.
Ultimately, as luck would have it, Alfonsin wound up stumbling as a leader for a more mundane and common reason: the economy worsened. He had inherited a budgetary disaster, and Argentinians were willing to be patient while he attempted to address it. In the end, however, Alfonsin shied away from making the choices necessary to set the country on a sustainable economic course, and inflation soared to 200 percent a month. Investment died out almost entirely, as Argentinians devoted all their economic energy to preserving what capital they could salvage. By 1989, Alfonsin had been voted out, and no one seemed to have anything kind to say about him.
Politics is unforgiving and unfair, and often scoundrels who have a run of economic good luck are remembered with undue fondness. Juan Peron subverted Argentine democracy in the 1940s and 50s, but he remains beloved by many Argentinians for having raided the national coffers showing everyone a good time. Raul Alfonsin erred on the side of fiscal timidity, but the economy wound up crushing him. His bravery and decency on more fundamental questions – his adherence to morality and legality in country that had been swept up in evil and illegality – were insufficiently acknowledged and quickly forgotten while he was in power.
But in the years after, people came to appreciate once again what he had done for Argentina and human rights. When a traumatised nation most desperately needed an upright head of state, Alfonsin proved to be the most upright of men.
WHASHINGTON POST
Former Argentine President Raul Alfonsin dies
By DEBORA REYThe Associated Press Wednesday, April 1, 2009; 12:46 AMBUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Raul Alfonsin, the Argentine president who guided his country's return to democracy following a military dictatorship that left thousands missing, died on Tuesday. He was 82.
Alfonsin's personal doctor, Alberto Sadler, said he died of lung cancer. The government declared three days or mourning.
The presidential inauguration of the burly, mustachioed leader on Dec. 10, 1983, ended more than seven years of a repressive military regime that left at least 13,000 disappeared.
He won an open election that the military was forced to call, in disgrace, after the nation's defeat in the 1982 war with Britain over the Falklands Islands.
His presidency was marked by two milestones: his daring decision to bring to trial the leaders of the dictatorship for human rights violations, and an economic collapse that made him hand power to his successor six month early. Annual inflation had surpassed 3,000 percent.
Few discussed his crucial role in the restoration of democracy at a time when military regimes ruled most of South America, but his presidency came to be seen as a milestone in the region.
He was instrumental in getting several political groups to set aside differences and unite in a loose coalition that paved the way for the 1983 election. He garnered 51.7 percent of the vote, handing the powerful Peronist party its first election defeat ever.
In office, he quickly ordered the trial of nine members of the former ruling military junta, on charges including kidnapping, torture and the forced disappearances of thousands
Few discussed his crucial role in the restoration of democracy at a time when military regimes ruled most of South America, but his presidency came to be seen as a milestone in the region.
He was instrumental in getting several political groups to set aside differences and unite in a loose coalition that paved the way for the 1983 election. He garnered 51.7 percent of the vote, handing the powerful Peronist party its first election defeat ever.
In office, he quickly ordered the trial of nine members of the former ruling military junta, on charges including kidnapping, torture and the forced disappearances of thousands
It was a bold step in a country where the military dominated for decades, having taken power in six coups in the 20th century.
"I think that sometimes I take too many risks, because what we did no one had done before," he said looking back.
Alfonsin said the trials were needed to restore a strong judicial system and break the destructive cycle of political chaos and military coups.
The trials, unprecedented in Latin America, ended in December 1985 with the conviction and imprisonment of five former military rulers, including two ex-presidents. Four others were acquitted.
"I think that sometimes I take too many risks, because what we did no one had done before," he said looking back.
Alfonsin said the trials were needed to restore a strong judicial system and break the destructive cycle of political chaos and military coups.
The trials, unprecedented in Latin America, ended in December 1985 with the conviction and imprisonment of five former military rulers, including two ex-presidents. Four others were acquitted.
Alfonsin established a National Commission on the Disappearance of People which produced for the courts a lengthy report known as "Nunca Mas," or "Never Again," detailing the military's ruthless campaign against dissident based on testimony by hundreds of victims and their relatives and witnesses.
Official records now put the number of disappeared during Argentina's 1976-83 dictatorship at 13,000, while human rights groups say the toll is closer to 30,000.
Alfonsin was right about the risks involved in trying the military. He survived three military uprisings between 1987 and 1988, and as a result asked Congress to approve legislation ending the trials and exempting from guilt lower ranking officers.
Only now are many of the dictatorship's most notorious figures being prosecuted, after Argentina's Supreme Court struck down in 2005 sweeping amnesties from the 1980s that shielded hundreds of former officers from prosecution.
Alfonsin kept his aura as a key figure of democracy until the end.
"You are a symbol of democracy," Cristina Fernandez told him as she was sworn in as Argentina's Peronist president in 2008.
Alfonsin made clear, however, there was still work to be done.
"Our democracy is limp and incomplete," He said as the nation marked the 25th anniversary of civilian rule.
He explained his strong rejection of authoritarian rule as inherited from his father, a fervent supporter of the Republican Forces crushed by Gen. Francisco Franco in the Spanish civil war.
Alfonsin was right about the risks involved in trying the military. He survived three military uprisings between 1987 and 1988, and as a result asked Congress to approve legislation ending the trials and exempting from guilt lower ranking officers.
Only now are many of the dictatorship's most notorious figures being prosecuted, after Argentina's Supreme Court struck down in 2005 sweeping amnesties from the 1980s that shielded hundreds of former officers from prosecution.
Alfonsin kept his aura as a key figure of democracy until the end.
"You are a symbol of democracy," Cristina Fernandez told him as she was sworn in as Argentina's Peronist president in 2008.
Alfonsin made clear, however, there was still work to be done.
"Our democracy is limp and incomplete," He said as the nation marked the 25th anniversary of civilian rule.
He explained his strong rejection of authoritarian rule as inherited from his father, a fervent supporter of the Republican Forces crushed by Gen. Francisco Franco in the Spanish civil war.
After elementary school, however, he attended a military academy for five years.
"Those were five very good years, for they served to tire me of military officials," he later observed.
As a 23-year-old law graduate from the University of La Plata, Alfonsin married Maria L. Barrenechea, whom he knew since childhood and courted at neighborhood dances in Chascomus, outside Buenos Aires.
Law practice was a base for launching his political career: city commissioner in 1955, a provincial legislator three years later and a member of the national House of Deputies in 1963.
In 1976, the military toppled President Isabel Peron, who had succeeded her husband, Gen. Juan Domingo Peron at his death, and launched a harsh campaign to wipe out leftist subversion.
In response, Alfonsin and several prominent citizens formed the Permanent Assembly on Human Rights, which denounced rights abuse, challenging the regime.
Alfonsin was his party's uncontested presidential candidate when the military permitted elections in 1983. He won on a platform of human rights and honesty in government.
He is survived by his six children. A vigil will be held in his honor at midnight on Wednesday in Congress.
"Those were five very good years, for they served to tire me of military officials," he later observed.
As a 23-year-old law graduate from the University of La Plata, Alfonsin married Maria L. Barrenechea, whom he knew since childhood and courted at neighborhood dances in Chascomus, outside Buenos Aires.
Law practice was a base for launching his political career: city commissioner in 1955, a provincial legislator three years later and a member of the national House of Deputies in 1963.
In 1976, the military toppled President Isabel Peron, who had succeeded her husband, Gen. Juan Domingo Peron at his death, and launched a harsh campaign to wipe out leftist subversion.
In response, Alfonsin and several prominent citizens formed the Permanent Assembly on Human Rights, which denounced rights abuse, challenging the regime.
Alfonsin was his party's uncontested presidential candidate when the military permitted elections in 1983. He won on a platform of human rights and honesty in government.
He is survived by his six children. A vigil will be held in his honor at midnight on Wednesday in Congress.
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