Raúl Alfonsín (1927-2009) of Argentina

Raúl Alfonsín, President of Argentina 1983-89, passed away on Tuesday evening due to complications from lung cancer.

Alfonsín was an attorney by profession. He was affiliated with the Radical Civic Union (UCR) party and served in local and national posts, including as a senator. During the military dictatorship of 1976-83, he founded the Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos (Permanent Assembly for Human Rights) and defended political prisoners. He became leader of the UCR in 1981 upon the death of the previous leader, Ricardo Balbín.

Despite the "radical" in its name, the UCR was and is basically a conservative, democratic party. But ideological labels are very tricky with Argentine parties, and Alfonsín himself was more of a social-democratic viewpoint and was said to have been influenced by German utopian thought and French humanism.

The Mavinas War of 1982 with Britain, called the Falklands War by the British, destroyed what public support the brutal military junta still enjoyed. And they found themselves forced to step down and agree to a transition back to democratic government. Alfonsín and the UCR won a clear majority with 52% of the vote. As one of the Clarín articles cited below puts it, "Tenía 56 años y la potencia política para encarar la transición de la dictadura a la democracia." (He was 56 years old and had the political power to confront the transition from dictatorshiop to democracy.)

A major task of Alfonsín's was to deal with the crimes of the outgoing dictatorship. As part of the deal for the junta to step down, the civilian parties had agreed to an amnesty law for crimes committed by the junta. Alfonsín annulled it two days into his first term and put senior officials of the dictatorship on trial in what is known as the Juicio a las Juntas. Some leaders of the violent guerrilla opposition were also put on trial at the same time. He also established the Comisión sobre la Desaparición de las Personas Comisión sobre la Desaparición de las Personas (CONADEP) that investigated those who went missing, most of them murdered, during El Proceso, the self-designation of the military dictatorship.

But, under the pressure of two coup attempts by the military, he later approved two laws known as "Punto Final" and "Obediencia Debida", that put an end to further prosecutions until they were revived a few years ago. Alfonsín also framed the period of the dictatorship as one of two evils, the other being the guerrilla/terrorist movement that led the military to overthrow the previous democratic government. It's still a matter of not-inconsequential dispute whether that framing of the issues may have given excessive credence to the military's justification for their coup and the "dirty war" against real and alleged subversives that ensued.

I discussed the transition period in more detail in Remembering military dictatorship in Argentina 12/11/08.

His administration ended in 1989 with inflation at galloping rates, in major part a result of the huge debts taken on by the junta's government.

He was widely respected and honored as the President who led the successful transition to democracy and began to re-establish the rule of law after a difficult period of lawless government.

Not only Argentines have found lessons and inspiration in his example.

Former President and current leader of the Partido Justicialista (PJ; Peronist) Néstor Kirchner remembered him as a "political leader of the highest stature":

Los argentinos van a tener un profundo reconocimiento porque encabezó el proceso democrático a partir de 1983, pero además el juicio a las juntas militares fue un parangón histórico que le deberán reconocer.

[Argentines are going to have a deep gratitude [to Alfonsín] because he embodied the democratic process startingin 1983, but in addition, the trial of the members of the military junta was an historic paragon that should be remembered.]

Aurora Kochi in a blog post (Adiós Alfonsín Madre Padre Tutor o Engargado blog 04/02/09) recalled the sense of freedom that she felt as a young person then along with others:

De golpe, nos sentíamos libres. Algo nuevo y prometedor comenzaba. Alfonsín representó para muchos de nosotros, una época llena de esperanzas de cambio. Representó la recuperación de aquellos sueños, y el entusiasmo con el nuevo modo de vida, la democracia, incipiente, a la que apostábamos con mucha vitalidad.

La sensación de apertura. La efervescencia de la expresión después de tanto silencio, de tanta mordaza. Las instituciones educativas habían estado comandadas por personajes con pensamiento arcaico y los planes de estudios plagados de contenidos extemporáneos. Todo ello empezaba a ser sustituído. La emoción que sentíamos cuando en las librerías encontrábamos nuevamente los libros de autores que se habían prohibido, la posibilidad de poder elegir qué leer; las carteleras de cines y teatros que nos ofrecían una variedad en cantidad y calidad de temáticas, qué películas ver, qué música escuchar, qué poder decir, sin censuras...dejar de estar silenciados....no fue poca cosa...

Se nos abría un futuro. Sentíamos aires de libertad, y con fervor participábamos en proyectos impensables hasta ese momento.

[Suddenly we felt free. Something new and promising was beginning. Alfonsín represented for many of us an era full of hopes of change. He represented the recuperation of those dreams, and the enthusiasm about the new style of life, democracy, in its beginning, with which we aligned ourselves with much vitality.

The sensation of openness. The effervescence of expression after all the silence, of so much of being gagged. Educational institutions had been headed by people with archaic thinking and the study plans plagued by extemporaneous restraints. All that began to change. The emotion we felt when we newly encountered in the bookstores books by authors that had been prohibited, the possibility to choose what to read; the billboards for movie houses and theaters that offered us a variety in quantity and quality of themes, what movies to see, what music to listen to, what we could say, without censorship ... no longer being silenced ... it was not a small thing.

A future opened up before us. We felt the air of freedom, and participated with fervor in projects that had been unthinkable before this moment.

Being remembered as a symbol and embodiment of freedom and democracyis a real tribute. Jimmy Carter (see link below) calls him "uno de los líderes más importante de la recuperación de la democracia en América Latina" (one of the most important leaders in the recuperation of democracy in Latin America). Carter says that during Alfonsín's presidency, the Argentine leader "abrió un nuevo ciclo de libertad en la región por su fuerte compromiso con los derechos humanos" (opened a new cycle of freedom in the region by his strong engagement with human rights). Alfonsín worked with Carter in monitoring elections in Nicaragua and Venezuela. "El ha mantenido un firme compromiso con sus ideales de justicia social a lo largo de su vida, y yo estoy muy orgulloso de haber sido su amigo personal." (He maintained a firm commitment to his ideals of social justice throughout his life, and I am very proud to have been his personal friend.)

Articles from Clarín:

Murió Raúl Alfonsín, primer presidente y símbolo de la democracia 31.03.2009

Una vida dedicada a la lucha y a la política 31.03.2009

Kirchner habló de "un hombre de muy fuertes convicciones al que los argentinos reconocerán" 31.03.2009

Del oficialismo a la oposición, todas las voces lamentan la pérdida 31.03.09

Raúl Alfonsín: El símbolo de la democracia (I) 01.04.2009

Kirchner, emocionado, se despidió de Alfonsín en el Senado 01.04.2009

Una multitud aún hace fila para dar el último adiós al ex presidente 01.04.2009

"Abrió un ciclo de libertad" by Jimmy Carter 01.04.2009

"Fue un símbolo del espíritu de reconquista de la libertad" por Julio María Sanguinetti (Ex Presidente de la Republica de Uruguay) 01.04.2009

Articles from Página 12:

La clase política homenajeó al ex presidente 02.04.2009

El día que desfilaron veinticinco años de historia por Miguel Jorquera 02.04.2009

Articles from El País (Spain):

El demócrata que juzgó a la Junta por S. Gallego-Díaz 02.04.2009

Argentina se vuelca en el entierro del 'padre de la democracia' por Alejandro Rebossio 03.04.2009

Miles de argentinos despiden al ex presidente Raúl Alfonsín por Leandro Kobisz 03.04.2009

Raúl Alfonsín, la audacia y la honradez por Rodolfo Terragno [a minister in Alfonsín's government and a former head of the UCR] 03.04.2009

Tags: argentina, cristina fernández, el proceso, luis alberto romero, néstor kirchner

If Argentina can do it, so can the US

I'm expecting Barack Obama's Inauguration a week from Tuesday to be a real moment of celebration for most people. And I do mean most people, not just most Americans.

And I expect for most Americans there will be a sense that a renewal of democracy is taking place.

A feeling not entirely unlike those in the celebration depicted in the video below of the 1983 Inauguration of human rights advocate Raúl Alfonsín as President of Argentina, restoring democracy after seven years of grim military dictatorship.

No, the Cheney-Bush administration didn't rule domestically as a dictatorship. But the torture policy, the claim that the President on his own authority can declare American citizens "unlawful combatants" without judicial review, and Cheney's absurd theory of the Unitary Executive really were dictatorial claims and, in some cases, practices. As Gene Lyons puts it in Unfinished business Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 01/07/09 with reference to torture policy:

... it's nothing short of pathetic to observe pundits who urged President Bill Clinton's impeachment for lying about a private sexual matter rending their garments over the prospect of holding Bush administration insiders responsible for war crimes including kidnapping, torture and even murder. ...

It's time we pulled ourselves together. Torture's a coward's idea of toughness; it represents exactly the kind of tribal obscurantism represented by al-Qa'ida. In that respect, the Bush administration's outrages handed Osama bin Laden a huge propaganda victory. The Bush White House panicked in the wake of 9/11, magnifying a band of stateless religious zealots into an existential threat to the republic. Violating their oath to protect and defend the Constitution, they descended to a level of barbarism. As the sadism appeared at Abu Ghraib, the damage to American interests was profound.

Incoming President Barack Obama can't simply pretend these things didn't happen. Whether the situation warrants a special prosecutor, or a commission of inquiry such as those used in nations like Chile, Argentina and South Africa to deal with government-sanctioned barbarism, something must be done. [my emphasis]

Here is the video of Alfonsín's Inauguration ceremonies. He's the guy with black hair and a mustache that's in the scene most of the time (it's in Spanish):



When the military dictatorship agreed to step down in 1983, they insisted on a law of indemnification for their crimes, acts which were illegal under Argentine law. After democracy was restored, Alfonsín insisted successfully that the Congress revoke the amnesty. And he held a trial - not just a "truth commission", they had that, too - that convicted the top leaders of the junta, a trial known as the Juicio a las Juntas. Alfonsín had to suppress more than one coup plot during his Presidency. But he insisted on legal accountability. And Argentina has maintained unbroken democratic governments for over 25 years now, no small thing in a country where the conservative economic powers had preferred military to democratic governments for decades.

Alfonsín discontinued the legal processes after the junta leaders were convicted. But working over the history of that period, including still trying to account for all the victims, has been a major social effort in Argentina since then. When Néstor Kirchner assumed the presidency in 2002, followed by his wife Cristian Fernández in 2007, they have made it a priority to continue legal processes against junta criminals.

Jorge Rafael Videla, a man after Dick Cheney's own heart

For instance, in Confirmaron un nuevo procesamiento para Videla Clarín 09.01.2009 it's reported:

La Cámara Federal confirmó un nuevo procesamiento, con prisión preventiva, para el detenido dictador Jorge Rafael Videla, esta vez por 30 homicidios agravados, entre otros gravísimos delitos cometidos en la órbita del Primer Cuerpo de Ejército durante la última dictadura militar.

La sentencia también atribuye al represor la responsabilidad en 571 secuestros y 268 tormentos cometidos en centros clandestinos de detención que funcionaban en esa jurisdicción.

[The Federal Chamber [court] has confirmed a new prosecution, with preventive prison [presumably something like denial of bail] against the detained dictator Jore Rafael Videla, this time for 30 aggravated homicides, among other serious offenses committed on the authority of the First Body of the Executive during the last military dictatorship [1976-83].

The charge also attributes to the repressor [Videla] responsibility for 571 kidnappings and 268 cases of torture committed in clandestine detention centers that operated in that jurisdiction.]

One of the other serious offenses includes a plan to steal children born to those in detention on political charges during the dictatorship and have them adopted, often by members of the military or others supporting the junta.

Torture, kidnapping, clandestine detention centers, murder, all justified in the name of fighting terrorism. It sounds sadly familiar. A lot like the list Gene Lyons gave in the quote above.

If Argentina can do it, we can, too. But I don't think the US has a real option to postpone any key prosecutions for as long as 25 years. Without legal accountability and prosecutions of high-level perpetrators, especially on the torture policy, the Dick Cheneys of the next Republican administration will assume they can get away with such things, too.

And so far, the senior leaders of this outgoing administration have gotten away with outrageous misconduct, including torture, much of which goes to the heart of not just democracy but the rule of law. The Founders envisioned the "checks and balances" of the division of powers among the federal government and the states and among the three branches of the federal government as being the best shield against dictatorial acts. But Cheney hit on the right formula, based on an authoritarian Republican Party and a mass fear of terrorism, that overcame the balance of power in the last eight years. The system failed.

Establishing legal accountability for senior Bush officials will be a critical step in getting the system to work again. Congress needs to be able to make laws that are actually obeyed. And the courts need to be willing to step in aggressively when needed to put an end to abuses like we've seen these last eight years.

Congressman John Conyers has proposed a National Commission on Presidential War Powers to look at war-related abuses during the Cheney-Bush years. In the context - especially the fact that the Republican Party is authoritarian and intransigent - I actually think such a commission would be worse than nothing if it forestalls actual prosecutions. We say how seriously Bush, Cheney and the Republicans took that blue-ribbon Iraq Study Group report in 2006, i.e., they couldn't have cared less what it said. Sure, we'll get Jim Baker and Lee Hamilton and maybe a few other octogenarian Establishment figures to spend a year working on a report, which will conclude that "mistakes were made" and recommend some new federal office to worry about war crimes and suggest that everyone be more diligent to avoid "abuses".

Then the more timid Democrats in Congress, of which there are far too many, will breathe a sigh of relief and hope it helps them in the 2010 mid-term elections. The Republicans will dismiss it out of hand. Maybe that bold Maverick McCain will offer a toothless resolution condemning "excesses". The Big Pundits will praise the wisdom and moderation of all involved. Sad characters like Ruth Marcus will gush about how foolish it was for anyone to suggest that those fine folks be prosecuted for well-intentioned mistakes.

Then, when Jeb Bush runs as a new "compassionate conservative" and moves into the White House ...

Tags: argentina, gene lyons, raúl alfonsín, torture

25 years of democracy in Argentina

Raúl Alfonsín, President of Argentina 1983-1989

Today (Dec. 10) is the 25th anniversary of the return of democratic government to Argentina after the brutal military dictatorship of 1976-83. That was the day Raúl Alfonsín took office as President following the elections that the junta was forced by public pressure to hold in October of 1983.

Alfonsín was the candidate of the Unión Cívica Radical (UCR) and he defeated his main opponent, Ítalo Argentino Luder of the Partido Justicialista (PJ), the Peronist Party. Argentina's political parties are, shall we say, complicated. I'm hoping to do a post sometime soon about Peronism. But for now, I'll leave it at saying that the PJ campaign was not terribly impressive.

Alfonsín in the 1970s was part of a group called Renovación y Cambio, which tried to take the UCR more in the direction of being a social-democratic party along the lines of the Socialist International Parites. (Yes, there is such a thing and it includes, among others, Britain's Labour Party, France's Socialist Party, and what's left of Israel's Labor Party.)

During the military dictatorship, a period which is also called El Proceso after the junta's own self-description of their rule as "El Proceso de Reorganizatión Nacional", Alfonsín was a prominent defender of human rights. He was a co-founder of the Asamblea Permanente de los Derechos Humanos (Permanent Sssembly for Human Rights) and authored a book, La cuestión argentina (1981) that criticized El Proceso.

In April of 1983, Alfonsín also exposed a plan between some union leaders and some military officers to establish an authoritarian regime on the model of Juan Perón's first regime. This was a significant boost to Alfonsín's democratic credentials, as well.

Historian Félix Luna writes of Alfonsín's victory in El largo camino a la democracia (1997):

La alegría que tiñó la presencia popular en la historica journada del 10 de diciembre de 1983 no era irresponsable ni frívola. Era la expresión de la serena confianza con que el pueblo de este país se ponía de cara al futuro, sin ignorar los probelmas que su gobierno tendría que afrontar. Era, además, la muestra indiscutible de que, a pesar de infortunios y frustraciones arrastrades durante tantos años, la gente de esta tierra tenía un ancha disponibilidad de corazón para intentar sin desfallecimientos la conquista de su destino.

[The joy that colored the presence of masses of people [in Buenos Aires celebrating Alfonsín's victory] on the historic date of December 10, 1983 was neither irresponsible nor frivolous. It was the expression of the serene confidence with which the people of this country turned their faces toward the future, without ignoring the problems that his government would have to confront. It was also the undeniable demonstration that, despite the bad fortunes and frustrations dragged through so many years, the people of this land had a broad openness of heart to undertake, without weakness, the conquest of their destiny.]

During his Presidency, Alfonsín concluded the Treaty of Peace and Frindship with Chile in 1984, resolving a dipute over the Beagle Canal in the southern tip of the South American continent, a dispute which had very nearly led to war under the military junta.

But he is most remembered for putting Argentina on a permanent road of being a stable democracy. As Soledad Gallego-Díaz writes:

Un cuarto de siglo después, Alfonsín se ha convertido en el símbolo de la democracia y a sus 81 años, enfermo, en uno de los pocos personajes de la vida política argentina que concita el homenaje de prácticamente todo el país.

[A quarter of a century later, Alfonsín has become the symbol of democracy. And, at 81 years of age, in poor health, he is one of the few perons in the political life of Argentina who arouses the respect of practically the whole country.]

When Alfonsín turned the Presidency over to his successor, Carlos Menem, in 1989, it was the first time two civilian governments had suceeded each other since 1916.

Raúl Alfonsín with the Presidential sash, 1983

One of the ways he employed in establishing democracy firmly was to take steps to make sure the country and the world new the full, ugly story of the brutal period of El Proceso. Among other things, he put on trial those who had led the dictatorship, including Jorge Videla and Emilio Massera. And they were convicted and sent to prison for their crimes. In order to put them on trial, he had to annul an amnesty they had granted themselves before leaving office.

Let me repeat that: They put the leaders of the previous government who had committed serious crimes on trial.

He also established the Comisión sobre la Desaparición de las Personas Comisión sobre la Desaparición de las Personas (CONADEP) that investigated those who went missing during El Proceso, most of them murdered. Just this week, Argentine authorized publicly confirmed that cremated human bones had been found in a location, Pozo de Arana in the city of La Plata, that former prisoners had identified as a detention and execution center.

Alfonsín's record on that score wasn't perfect. Pressured by two coups attempts, in 1987 and 1988, he approved two ill-advised laws, known as "Punto Final" and "Obediencia Debida", that put an end to further prosecutions. But Néstor Kirchner, President 2003-2007 and the husband of the current President, Cristina Fernández, persuaded the Congress to annul those laws, opening the way for additional prosecutions, though obviously a lot of time had been lost. Fernández is also committed to continuing legal charges against those who committed crimes during El Proceso. The Argentine Supreme Court also held that the Punto Final and Obediencia Debida measures were unconstitutional, after the Congress had already annulled them.

As a commemorative article in the paper Página 12 puts it, Alfonsín's Presidency "representaba el fin de casi siete largos años de lo que fue la más atroz, sangrienta y nefasta dictadura, signada por el terrorismo de Estado y el aniquilamiento de las bases productivas" (represented the end of almost seven years of what was the most atrocious, bloody and ominous dictatorshiop, marked by terrorism of the state and the destruction of the bases of production).

Argentine President Cristina Fernández and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in the Kremlin

Cristina Fernández on the anniversary date was in Moscow signing agreements between Argentina and Russia on techology, energy, space and commerce. (Firma de acuerdos entre Argentina y Rusia Official Argentine Presidencial Web site 10.12.08) In her breakfast speech of the 10th, she said among other things:

La subordinación, donde los países centrales imponían políticas tanto en lo económico como en materia de seguridad no funcionó ni en materia de seguridad ni en materia de economía y los resultados van a tener que ser abonados en escala mundial.

[The subordination in which central countries impose policies as much in the economy as in matters of security doesn't work, neither in matters of security nor in economic matters. And the results are going to have costs on a global scale.]

References:

En el cumpleaños número 25 Página 12 10.12.2008

El complicado camino de la democracia argentina por Soledad Gallego-Díaz El País (España) 10.12.2008

Hallados huesos humanos calcinados en un centro de detención de la dictadura argentina El País (España) 10.12.2008

Veinticinco años que cambiaron la historia La Nación 10.12.2008

Hallan huesos humanos y un paredón de fusilamiento en lo que fue el "Pozo de Arana" Clarín 09.12.2008

La democracia que supimos conseguir Especial mulitmedia La Nación

Tags: argentina, cristina fernández, raúl alfonsín