Politics

We'd decided to do a 'political tour' of Buenos Aires. As a country that has had so much upheaval in fairly recent times, it seemed like an interesting way to find out more about where we were and what had gone on.

We were met by a driver and a guide at our apartment and taken on a tour of some of the more important, historically speaking, parts of the city.

According to our guide, Argentina's recent history falls into four eras. (Forgive my lack of exactness in the dates and my paraphrasing of her titling)

1. 1880 - 1930: The halcyon days
   
2. 1930 - 1980: The military days
   
3. 1980 - 2001: Head in the sand days
   
4. 2001 - present day: Renewal
   

So, Argentina was a Spanish colony and all that, but the real fun starts in the 1930's when the world recession starts to bite exports and there is a real downtrun in the economy that causes the military (and, for periods, weak elected governments) to take over.

This period inculdes the Eva Peron (Evita) days, popularised by Andrew Lloyd-Webber and includes the creation of the Peronist movement, which seems to be something of a mix of National Socialism, Pragmatism, Union manipulation and out and out corruption. The movement is named after her manipulative husband (she was wife two of three) and not her - just for the record.

Things seemed to get pretty hairy every now and then, with the military bombing the president's palace; people being arrested left-right and centre and mass demonstrations seeming to be de-riguer.

By far the most sinister of the things that happened was the whole 'disappearing' thing. Where thousands of people were dissappeared; usually killed; without trial or, indeed, any records being made. Also, pregnant women were incarcerated and, once they had given birth, 'dissappeared' whilst their children were given to high-ranking officals and their wives. All pretty scary stuff.

Once this had all come to and en, there proceeded to be a period of 'let's just forget about it'. Which didn't really help to heal the wounds. Laws were passed that limited culpability ("I was just following orders") and some ex-military types, after being arrested, were simply released.

After moves by various human rights groups, including the graffiti-ing of former illicit detention centres and political lobbying - the current government has started to make moves to acknowledge the state terrorism that went on and preserve buildings 'lest we forget' and create monuments in public spaces to the dissappeared. All quite moving, as this is clearly a very sore, open wound that a society is trying to deal with.

On a more parochial note, it was quite interesting to see the 'Englishman's Tower' (as it is known) - a present from the British goverment in 1910 (a centannial of something) as bearing logos of the various British countries. President Menem (who, according to our guide was a manipulative Peronist) had built the memorial to the dead of the Falklands war directly facing the tower. A big - "screw you". The whole issue of the Falklands (Islas Malvinas) war is still very topical. Last Monday (2nd) was the first Veteran's day holiday - a public holiday created to commemorate the Falklands war. There seems to be a populist feeling that the islands rightfully belong to Argentina and that they will again some day.