Word: alfonsin
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Since coming to power in 1983, Argentine President Raul Alfonsin has tried a variety of economic programs in an attempt to control inflation, now steaming ahead at an annual rate of 1,010%. While well intentioned, his efforts have generally been viewed with the same skepticism that attends an inveterate smoker's vow to quit even as he reaches for his third pack...
...weeks ago, Alfonsin announced his latest program, which features a new currency and a wage and price freeze. An opinion survey showed that more than 80% of Argentines polled support this ambitious reform. Still, some experts are doubtful that the politically difficult plan will survive...
...bankers have little reason to rest easy, however. To satisfy the IMF, Argentina made promises that will be very hard to keep. The country pledged to slash its 1,010% inflation rate to 150% by next spring. To help do that, the government of President Raul Alfonsin agreed to cut public spending by 12%, to hold wage hikes to only 90% of inflation and to set up a new unit of currency called the austral that will be worth 1,000 old pesos. Such measures could increase social unrest, but Alfonsin seems determined to see them through. Said...
Three days after he took office in December 1983, Alfonsin told Argentines that the members of the juntas that ruled during the dirty war would be charged with murder, kidnaping and torture. After nine months of deliberation, however, the Supreme Military Council announced that it found nothing "objectionable" in the juntas' directives. As a result, the cases were moved to the civilian federal appeals court, where Prosecutor Julio Cesar Strassera is detailing 709 representative incidents of transgressions by security forces. Some time before midterm congressional elections in November, the judiciary is expected to hand down stiff sentences against the generals...
What is not clear is what will happen to 1,200 junior officers accused in specific instances. Alfonsin hopes that civilian courts will deal with them, but Argentine human rights organizations are agitating for a thorough cleansing of the entire military. Says Hebe de Bonafini, president of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who for eight years have staged protests against the disappearance of their relatives: "When my son was taken, five cars came to the house. He was tortured for hours. They are all responsible, and we will fight to the end of our days...