Timeline Argentina
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Argentina is about 3/10 the size of all 50 US states.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, Par p.27)
The capital is Buenos Aires. In 2005 Buenos Aires accounted for 32% of
Argentina’s GDP and 40% of its people.
(SSFC, 7/20/03, p.C6)(Econ, 11/19/05, p.81)
The 24 provinces include: Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Corrientes, Entre
Rios, Jujuy, Salta, Misiones, Neuquen, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Tucuman,
and Tierra del Fuego.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.C1)
Daro Roca founded La Plata, the provincial capital of Buenos Aires
province.
(WSJ, 8/21/01, p.A1)
180Mil BC-70Mil BC
Dinosaur fossils of this age were later found in the
El Chocon region of Patagonia. They included the plant-eating
Gasparinisaura.
(NG, 12/97, p.123)
135Mil BC A fierce marine crocodile, with a dinosaur
head and a fish-like tail, inhabited a vast southern ocean that covered
much of what became Argentina. Discovery of a fossil skull with 52
jagged teeth was reported in 2005 for a 12-foot specimen nicknamed
“Godzilla” and chico malo.” It was named Dakosaurus andiniensis.
(SFC, 11/11/05, p.A2)(WSJ, 11/11/05, p.A1)
100Mil BC In 2000 It was reported
that researchers had unearthed a pack of large predatory dinosaurs in
Patagonia that dated back to this time. The fossils were found in
Neuquen province and were named Mapusaurus roseae.
(SFC, 3/11/00, p.A1)(SFC, 4/18/06, p.A3)
90Mil BC Mudstone of this age from Plaza Huincul in
Patagonia revealed fossil pieces in 1996 of the huge Megaraptor.
(NG, 12/97, p.134)
90Mil BC Scientists in 2005 announced the discovery
in Argentina of a rooster-size fossil named Buitreraptor gonzalezorum.
It dates back 90 million years and closely resembles fossils from the
North. It was part of the class called dromaesaurs believed to have
originated 180 million years ago in Laurasia. The new find was evidence
that dromaesaurs originated in Pangea, before it broke apart to form
Laurasia and Gondwanaland.
(www.livescience.com/animalworld/051012_new_dino.html)
90Mil BC The fossil of a snake that lived in
Patagonia at this time was found in 2006 with 2 small rear legs. The
snake, under 3 feet long, was named Najash rionegrina.
(SFC, 4/20/06, p.A2)
88Mil BC In 2000 Scientists in Argentina began
uncovering the skeleton of what is believed to be a new dinosaur
species, a 105-foot plant-eater that is among the largest dinosaurs
ever found, has been uncovered in Argentina. They named it
Futalognkosaurus dukei after the Mapuche Indian words for "giant" and
"chief," and for Duke Energy Argentina, which helped fund the
skeleton's excavation. The skeleton dated to 88 million years BC.
(AP, 10/15/07)
80Mil BC Fossil eggs and embryos of titanosaurs and
apatosaurus of this age were later found in the Patagonian badlands of
Argentina.
(SFC, 9/28/01, p.D8)
15Mil BC The fossil of a large bird from this time
was found in Patagonia, Argentina, in 2004. The skull of the
10-foot-tall, flightless predator measured 28 inches and was identified
in 2006 as an offshoot of the phorusrhacids (terror birds).
(SFC, 10/26/06, p.A8)
3.3Mil BC A mile-wide asteroid hit the coast of what
became Argentina. It may have abruptly cooled the climate and caused
the deaths of 36 species of huge animals, that included giant
armadillos and sloths.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D11)
c1500 In northern Argentina 3 Inca
children were sacrificed. In 1999 a team of archeologists discovered
their frozen mummies on Mount Llullaillaco.
(SFC, 4/7/99, p.A11)
1515 Juan Diaz de Solis, Spanish
navigator, reached the Rio de la Plata in South America and discovered
Argentina.
(TL-MB, p.11)
1516 Juan Diaz de Solis, Spanish
explorer, was killed on the coast of Argentina.
(TL-MB, p.11)
1520 Oct 21, Ferdinand Magellan
arrived at Tierra Del Fuego (Argentina-Chile).
(MC, 10/21/01)
1535 Spanish conquistadors
attempted to create a settlement in the Buenos Aires area but were
driven away by the Karandias Indians.
(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.T5)
1535 The Spaniards founded a
temporary settlement on the banks of the Rio de la Plata that 45 years
later becomes the city of Buenos Aires.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.15)
1536 Feb 2, The Argentine city of
Buenos Aires was founded by Pedro de Mendoza of Spain. The memorial
Column standing at the center of Buenos Aires, gives the date as 1500.
(AP, 2/2/97)(MC, 2/2/02)
1577 In Cordoba, Argentina, the
Iglesia Cathedra Plaza San Martin was started.
(SSFC, 7/20/03, p.C6)
1580 A 2nd Buenos Aires was
founded near the mouth of the Rio de la Plata.
(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.T5)
1770-1779 Blacks were 1st brought to Argentina in the
1770s to toil on large haciendas and work as domestic servants.
(SSFC, 11/27/05, p.A24)
1774 Spain established a small
settlement on the Falkland Islands, which lasted to 1811. An Argentine
outpost was established in the 1820s.
(Econ, 4/7/07, p.36)
1778 Feb 25, Jose Francisco de San
Martin (d.1850) was born in Argentina. He liberated Argentina, Chile
and Peru. Protector of Peru (1821-1822).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_de_San_Mart%C3%ADn)(ON, 10/09,
p.8)
1778 A census in Argentina showed
that about 30% of the 24,363 residents of Buenos Aires were African.
(SSFC, 11/27/05, p.A24)
1806 Jun 27, Buenos Aires was
captured by British. [see Jul 5]
(SC, 6/27/02)
1806 Jul 5, A Spanish army
repelled the British during their attempt to retake Buenos Aires,
Argentina.
(HN, 7/5/98)
1810 May 25, Argentina declared
independence and began its revolt from Napoleonic Spain.
(AP, 5/25/97)(HN, 5/25/98)
1810 Aug 29, Juan Bautista Alberdi
(d,1884), Argentine politician, writer, was born.
(www.taringa.net/posts/21963/Juan-B.-Alberdi---El-Gran-Pensador.html)
1810-1817 Colonial revolts against Spain started in
Chile in 1810 and ended in victory in 1817 under the leadership of
Bernardo O‘Higgins and Argentina‘s Jose de San Martin.
(HNQ, 3/30/00)
1813 Argentina was the first
country in the Americas to abolish slavery.
(Hem., 1/96, p.11)
1814 Jose Francisco de San Martin
(1778-1850) became general in chief of Argentina’s Army of the North.
His primary mission was to protect Argentina against Spanish royalists
in Peru.
(ON, 10/09, p.8)
1815 Jose Francisco de San Martin,
governor of Cuyo, Argentina, founded a militia and prepared for an
attack on Spanish royalists in Chile.
(ON, 10/09, p.8)
1816 Jul 9, Argentina declared
independence from Spain. Argentina assumed that the Malvina Islands
(Falkland Islands) were included.
(AP, 7/9/97)(SFC, 6/19/98, p.A12)
1817 Jan 17, Jose Francisco de San
Martin led a revolutionary army from Argentina over Andes into Chile.
(ON, 10/09, p.10)
1817 Feb 12, Argentina’s Jose de
San Martin, having led a revolutionary army over the Andes into Chile,
helped defeat the Spanish forces at Chacabuco.
(www.gdws.co.uk/chacabuco.htm)(Econ, 4/25/09, p.87)
1820 Oct, Argentina’s Jose de San
Martin blockaded Lima, Peru, and urged the people of Peru to join in
the uprising against Spain.
(www.gdws.co.uk/chacabuco.htm)(Econ, 4/25/09,
p.87)(ON, 10/09, p.10)
1821 Jul 28, Peru declared its
independence from Spain. Lima had been the seat of the Spanish viceroys
until this time. Jose Francisco de San Martin of Argentina had
blockaded Lima and forced the Spanish viceroy to abandon the city.
Martin returned to Argentina in 1822
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B4)(AP, 7/28/97)(ON, 10/09, p.10)
1826 In Argentina Bernardino
Rivadavia (1780-1845) was chosen as the first president of the United
Provinces of La Plata. He was forced to resign in 1827. His political
opponents called him the “Chocolate Dictator.”
(www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0841998.html)(SSFC,
11/27/05, p.A24)
1833 Jan 3, Britain seized control
of the Malvina Islands (Falkland Islands) in the South Atlantic. In
1982 Argentina seized the islands, but Britain took them back after a
74-day war.
(AP, 1/3/98)(SFC, 4/3/02, p.A7)
1833 Sep 20, Charles Darwin rode a
horse to Buenos Aires.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1833 Oct 1, Charles Darwin reached
Rio Tercero, Argentina.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1833 Dec 13, HMS Beagle and
Charles Darwin arrived in Port Deseado, Patagonia.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1833 Dec 25, Charles Darwin
celebrated Christmas in Port Desire, Patagonia.
(MC, 12/25/01)
1834 Apr 13, HMS Beagle anchored
at river mouth of Rio Santa Cruz, Patagonia.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1834 Apr 29, Charles Darwin's
expedition saw the top of Andes from Patagonia.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1834 May 5, Charles Darwin's
expedition continued at Rio Santa Cruz.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1842 Italian revolutionary
Garibaldi married Anita Ribeiro and joined the Uruguayan navy in a war
against Argentina.
(ON, 10/06, p.5)
1845 Bernardino Rivadavia
(b.1780), the first president of the United Provinces of Argentine
(1826), died under exile in Spain.
(www.rarebooks.nd.edu/exhibits/riverplate/09-biographies/rivadavia.shtml)
1850 Aug 17, Jose Francisco de San
Martin (b.1778), Argentine-born South American revolutionary hero, died
in France. In 2009 John Lynch authored “San Martin: Argentine Soldier,
American Hero.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_de_San_Mart%C3%ADn)(Econ,
4/25/09, p.87)
1851 May 25, Jose Justo de Urquiza
of Argentina led a rebellion against his former ally, the absolute
ruler Juan Manuel de Rosas.
(HN, 5/25/99)
1853 Argentina abolished slavery.
(SSFC, 11/27/05, p.A24)
1862-1868 Bartolomé Mitre served as
Argentina’s 1st constitutional president.
(WSJ, 1/9/02, p.A14)
1865 Some 153 settlers from Wales
arrived on the ship Mimosa and founded the coastal city of Puerto
Madryn, named after Sir Parry Madryn, a nobleman who assisted them.
(SFEC, 5/9/99, Z1 p.6)
1865 Leonardo Villa made the first
attempt at oil exploration and production. Since the subsurface
resources were owned by the government he had to seek a permit and was
denied.
(WSJ, 10/4/96, p.A9)
1865-1870 South America’s War of the Triple Alliance
saw Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay aligned against Paraguay. The Triple
Alliance believed Paraguay was undermining the region’s political
stability. The war ended in crushing defeat of Paraguay.
(HNQ, 6/22/99)
1876 Feb 26, Agustin P. Justo y
Rolon, President of Argentina (1931-38), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1877 The 1st shipload of frozen
beef was carried to France from Argentina.
(Econ Sp, 12/13/03, p.7)
1880 Buenos Aires was divided into
4 quadrants.
(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.T5)
1884 Jun 19, Juan Bautista Alberdi
(b.1810), Argentine politician, writer, died in Paris. His writings
inspired Argentina’s 1853 constitution.
(www.taringa.net/posts/21963/Juan-B.-Alberdi---El-Gran-Pensador.html)(Econ,
3/10/07, p.35)
1884 Ushuaia was founded in
southern Argentina as a remote penal colony.
(SSFC, 4/30/06, p.G5)
1885 Avenida de Mayo opened in
Buenos Aires.
(SSFC, 7/20/03, p.C6)
1887 In Argentina the last census
to include blacks as a separate category indicated that about 2% of the
population in Buenos Aires was African.
(SSFC, 11/27/05, p.A24)
1889 Argentina established a
reputation for having a troubled currency. After a few years Finance
Minister Ernesto Tornquist put the country on a gold standard and
limited the issue of money to the holdings in the treasury. The economy
expanded to become one of the leading economies in the world.
(WSJ, 2/28/97, p.A15)
1890 Argentina defaulted on its
foreign debt and caused a near-collapse to Barings Bank.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R48)
1892 May 29, Alfonsina Storni,
Argentine poet (La inquietud del rosal), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1895 Oct 8, Juan Peron,
Argentinean dictator, was born. He served as President from
1946-55 and 1973-74.
(HN, 10/8/98)(MC, 10/8/01)
1896 Argentina became the first
nation to adopt fingerprint identification.
(SFC, 6/30/96, Z1 p.5)
1897 Jan 14, The 6,960-m (22,834')
Cerro Aconcagua in Argentina was 1st climbed.
(MC, 1/14/02)
1899 Aug 24, Jorge Luis Borges
(d.1986), Argentine poet and philosophical essayist, was born in Buenos
Aires.
(WUD, 1994, p.171)(WSJ, 9/21/98, p.A26)(AP, 8/24/99)
1900 The 3 major businesses in
Argentina at the turn of the century were corn and beef, railways, and
prostitution.
(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.T5)
1901 Jun, Robert Leroy Parker and
Harry Longabaugh, known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, settled
in the Cholila Valley of southwestern Argentina after fleeing US
Pinkerton agents. They bought a 12,000-acre ranch with stolen loot.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)(http://tinyurl.com/p5amt)
1903 Jan 10, Argentina banned the
importation of American beef, because of sanitation problems.
(HN, 1/10/99)
1905 Robert Leroy Parker and Harry
Longabaugh, known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, held up a bank
in Santa Cruz province.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)
1907 Feb 8, Revolution broke out
in Argentina.
(HN, 2/8/98)
1907 Jun 1, In Sarmiento,
Argentina, a South American record of -27 degrees F (-33 degrees C) was
recorded.
(DT, 6/1/97)
1907 Dec 13, The Ministry of
Agriculture struck oil while drilling for water in Comodoro Rivadavia.
(WSJ, 10/4/96, p.A9)
1907 Robert Leroy Parker and Harry
Longabaugh, known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, held up
another bank. They sold their ranch in Patagonia to a beef syndicate
and went to Bolivia where they were gunned down by soldiers after
robbing a mine payroll.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)
1908 May 25, Argentina’s opera
house Teatro Colon, modeled after Milan’s La Scala opened in Buenos
Aires. In 2006 it closed for refurbishment. A 2008 finish date was
missed and officials hoped to have it reopen in 2010.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.48)
1912 Calle Florida, the premier
shopping street in Buenos Aires, opened.
(SSFC, 7/20/03, p.C6)
1913 Ricardo Roth Schutz, a guide
of Swiss descent, began leading groups of tourists across Lakes
Crossing (Cruce de Lagos), linking Bariloche in northern Argentina to
Puerto Varas in Chile’s Lakes District.
(SSFC, 1/6/08, p.G4)
1914 Citibank, USA, opened a
branch in Buenos Aires, Arg. “The history of Citibank” was written by
Phillip L. Zweig in 1996 and titled: Wriston: Walter Wriston, Citibank,
and the Rise and Fall of American Financial Supremacy.
(WSJ, 3/28/96,p.A-12)
1916 Apr 11, Alberto E. Ginastera,
composer (Panambi), was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1919 May 7, Eva (Evita) Peron,
first lady of Argentina, was born. She helped her husband, Juan,
achieve office.
(HN, 5/7/99)
1919 “Economic Development of the
Argentine Republic in the Past 50 Years” was published by Banco
Tornquist.
(WSJ, 2/28/97, p.A15)
1923 Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)
published his first book of verse: “Fervor de Buenos Aires."
(SFEC, 4/18/99, BR p.3)
1928 May 14, Ernesto “Che” Guevara
Serna (d.Oct 9, 1967) was born to an aristocratic family in Misiones
province, Argentina. A biography was written in 1997 by Jon Lee
Anderson: “Che Guevara: A Revolutionary of Life.” Ernesto “Che”
Guevara, chief lieutenant in the Cuban revolution and active in other
Latin American revolutionary movements, was born Ernesto Guevara de la
Serna in Rosario, Argentina. “Che” was a nickname meaning “pal.” He
played a leading role alongside Fidel Castro in the overthrow of Cuban
dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, wrote the book Guerrilla Warfare in
1960 and, as Cuban Minister of Industries from 1961-‘65, led the
nationalization of industry and agriculture. He left Cuba in 1965. In
1967 he was tracked down and executed by the Bolivian army.
(SFC, 6/16/97, p.D3)(HNQ, 12/2/98)(HNQ, 2/10/00)
1928 Dec 11, Police in Buenos
Aires thwarted an attempt on the life of President-elect Herbert
Hoover.
(AP, 12/11/97)
1928 Argentina established a
212-sq. mile national park at the Iguacu Falls site on the Brazil
border.
(SFEM, 10/8/00, p.15)
1929 Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)
authored his poem: “The Mythical Foundation of Buenos Aires."
(WSJ, 1/15/02, p.A14)
1930 Jul 2, Carlos Menem,
president of Argentina (1989-1999), was born. He had Muslim ancestry
and ties to the Syrian-Lebanese community.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A20)(SFC, 7/22/02, p.A6)
1931 Feb 4, Isabel Peron, [Maria
Martinez], dancer, president of Argentina, was born.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1932 Jun 21, Lalo [Boris]
Schifrin, composer, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
(MC, 6/21/02)
1934 The private sector was
producing 62.5% of the country’s crude oil output.
(WSJ, 10/4/96, p.A9)
1935 Jun 24, Carlos Gardel,
Argentine tango singer, died with 17 others, including three of his
guitarists, when the propeller plane they were traveling in collided
with another on takeoff from Medellin, Colombia, and burst into flames.
(AP, 6/25/05)
1935 New laws pushed the private
sector out of the upstream development of natural resources.
(WSJ, 10/4/96, p.A9)
1935 Carlos Gardel, musician and
composer, died.
(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.T5)
1936 Feb 14, Fanne Foxe,
[Annabella Battistella], (Wilbur Mills companion during Congressman’s
drunken romp in the fountain), was born in Argentina.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1941 Oct, Eduardo Duhalde, chosen
as president in Jan, 2002, was born in Lomas de Zamora.
(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A5)
1941 Jorge Amado (1912-2001),
Brazilian Communist novelist, was exiled to Argentina.
(SFC, 8/9/01, p.D2)
1941 Natalio Botana, Argentine
newspaper magnate, died.
(SFC, 2/13/99, p.A24)
1942 Jan, Chile and Argentina were
the only two Latin American countries that did not comply at once with
the Rio de Janeiro Conference recommendation to those countries who had
not already done so to sever diplomatic and commercial relations with
the Axis powers, Germany, Italy and Japan. Chile eventually broke Axis
relations in January 1943 and Argentina complied in January 1944. The
conference of Western Hemisphere foreign ministers also called for
suppression of pro-Axis activity in the Americas, establishment of an
Inter-American defense board and economic cooperation within the
hemisphere.
(HNQ, 9/24/00)
1942 Nov 15, Daniel Barenboim,
Israeli pianist and conductor, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
(HN, 11/15/00)(MC, 11/15/01)
1942 Camilo Jose Cela (d.2002),
Spanish author, published “The Family of Pascual Duarte” in Argentina
because it was considered too violent and crude for Spain. Cela won the
Nobel Prize in Literature in 1989.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A23)
1943 Jun 4, In Argentina, Gen
Rawson and Col. Juan Peron led the military coup that overthrew Ramon
S. Castillo.
(HN, 6/4/98)(MC, 6/4/02)
1943 Laszlo Biro, fled his native
Hungary to Argentina, where he patented his ballpoint pen. England soon
manufactured some 30,000 pens for use by RAF navigators in
unpressurized cockpits, where fountain pens failed.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.B7)
1944 Feb 24, Col. Juan Peron,
Argentine minister of war, staged a coup.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1944 Mar 4, The U.S. declared the
non-recognition of Argentina because of their collaboration with the
Axis.
(HN, 3/4/98)
1944 Argentine writer Jorge Luis
Borges published his collection of stories “Ficciones.”
(WSJ, 9/21/98, p.A26)
1944 Juan Peron met Eva Duarte
(Evita).
(SFC, 1/1/97,p.D1)
1945 Mar 6, Federico Garcia
Lorca's "La Casa," premiered in Buenos Aires.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1945 Oct 17, Col. Juan Peron, the
future president of Argentina, was released from prison after protests
by trade unionists, ending a crisis that began with his forced
resignation from his government posts and his arrest.
(AP, 10/17/06)
1945 Nov 27, Argentina declared
war on Axis.
(HN, 11/27/98)
1946 Feb 24, Argentineans went to
the polls to elect Juan D. Peron (50) their president. He held the
office until 1955.
(PCh, 1992, p.899)(AP, 2/24/08)
1946 Jun 4, Juan Peron was
installed as Argentina's president.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1946 Zvi Kolitz (d.2002 at 89)
wrote the story “Yosl Rakover Talks to God,” for a Jewish newspaper in
Buenos Aires. It became a classic of Holocaust literature.
(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A21)
1946 Carlos and Jorge Companac
begin the family business with borrowed money used to buy used US Navy
landing craft. Business expands to become Argentina's second largest
oil and gas producer with major holdings in other publicly traded
energy companies.
(WSJ, 12/12/95, p.A-15)
1947 Astor Piazzolla (d.1992),
bandoneon player, recorded his album “El Desbande” with Orquesta Tipica
in Buenos Aires.
(BAAC, 1/96, p.4,5)(Esq., 5/91, p.60,61)
1949 Constitutional amendments
nationalized all energy resources.
(WSJ, 10/4/96, p.A9)
1951 Apr 17, Olivia Hussey,
actress (Romeo and Juliet, Death on Nile), was born in Buenos Aires.
(MC, 4/17/02)
1951 Dec 23, Benito Lynch (66),
Irish-Argentine writer (Palo Verde), died.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1952 Apr 25, President Juan Peron
of Argentina won re-election.
(HN, 4/25/98)
1952 Future revolutionary Che
Guevara took a 4,000-mile moped trip alone through northern Argentina
and in the next two years traveled throughout South America on a 500cc
motorcycle nicknamed "La Poderosa" (The Powerful One). On these trips
he directly observed the lives of workers and peasants and ultimately
changed the direction of his life. He was captured and executed by the
Bolivian army on October 8, 1967.
(HNQ, 12/2/98)
1952 Evita Peron (b.1919), the
first lady of Argentina, died of cancer at age 33. Her biography: “Eva
Peron” was written by Alicia Dujovne Ortiz. “Santa Evita” was a (1996)
novel by Tomas Eloy Martinez based on the fate of her corpse. Eva wrote
a little book “Mi Mensaje” (My Message, or In My Own Words) that was
unfinished and lost until 1987 and published in English under the title
“In My Own Words.” “My Mission In Life” was ghostwritten under Eva’s
name by Manuel Penella de Silva.
(SFEC, 8/18/96, PM p. 8)(SFEC, 11/3/96, BR p.1)(AP,
7/26/97)
1955 May 20, Argentine parliament
accepted the separation of church & state.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1955 Jun 16, Pope Pius XII
excommunicated Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron. The ban was
lifted eight years later.
(AP, 6/16/98)
1955 Sep 19, President Juan Peron
of Argentina was ousted after a revolt by the army and navy. The
military leaders confiscated the body of Eva Peron to keep opposing
political forces from using her body to rally the masses.
(TMC, 1994, p.1955)(SFC, 12/24/96, p.A8)(AP,
9/19/97)(SFC, 2/3/98, p.A15)
1955 Oct 11, All Peron feast days
were abolished in Argentina.
(MC, 10/11/01)
1955 Nov 3, Argentine ex-president
Peron arrived in Nicaragua.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1955 Nov 21, Argentina asked
Panama for the return of ex-president Peron.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1955 Nov 30, Argentine government
disbanded the Peronist party.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1956 Col. Hector Eduardo
Cabanillas (d.1998 at 84), head of military intelligence, was ordered
by junta leader, Gen’l. Pedro Eugenio Aramburu, to transport the
embalmed body of Eva Peron to Italy for burial in a secret grave in
Milan.
(SFC, 2/3/98, p.A15)
1957 Argentina signed a treaty
with the Vatican that created the post of military bishop.
(Econ, 4/2/05, p.34)
1959 Fidel Castro visited
Argentina following his revolution in Cuba.
(AP, 7/22/06)
1960 May 11, Israeli soldiers
captured Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires as he returned home from his
job at the Mercedes factory. Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal, was
nabbed by Peter Malkin. Eichmann was taken to Israel where he was
tried, found guilty and hung in 1962.
(SFEC, 11/3/96, Par. p.13)(WSJ, 4/28/97, p.A17)(HN,
5/11/98)(MC, 5/11/02)
1960 May 23, Israel announced
Israeli agents had captured former Nazi official SS Lt. Col. Adolf
Eichmann in Argentina. Eichmann was tried in Israel, found guilty of
crimes against humanity, and hanged in 1962. [see May 11]
(WSJ, 4/28/97, p.A17)(AP, 5/23/02)
1960-1970 Around this time Rodolfo Barra, later
minister of justice, belonged to a neo-Nazi organization, Tacuara, that
committed acts of anti-Semitic brutality.
(SFC, 7/12/96, p.A14)
1961 Jorge Luis Borges, a blind
librarian, shared the Prix Formentor with Samuel Beckett. English
translations appeared in 1962.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, BR p.1)
1962 Feb 25, Maria Ludovica De
Angelis (b.1880) died in Argentina. She helped expand hospital services
for children. In 2004 she was beatified by Pope John Paul VI.
(AP, 10/3/04)
1963 Feb 12, Argentina asked for
the extradition of ex-president Peron.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1963 Nov 15, Argentina voided all
foreign oil contracts.
(HN, 11/15/98)
1966 May 25, Peru and Argentina
soccer fans fought in Lima and 248 died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1968 Astor Piazolla collaborated
with poet Horacio Ferrer on the work “Maria,” a succession of tangos,
waltzes and a fugue, that tells the story of a prostitute in Buenos
Aires. The tango had originated from the sultry milonga and the older
habanera in the brothels of Buenos Aires.
(WSJ, 10/27/98, p.A20)(SFC, 12/9/99, p.B1)
1970 Feb 1, In Buenos Aires,
Argentina, an express train rammed stationary commuter train and 236
people were killed.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)
1970 In Argentina the Montonero
Peronist Movement formed about this time as a radical terrorist,
leftist, nationalist, and catholic guerrilla group. The Movimiento
Peronista Montonero was active during the 1970s. Its motto was
venceremos ("we'll win"). Their activity provided a pretext for the
1976 military coup.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montoneros)
1971 Mar 23, In Argentina General
Alehandro Lanusse seized power in a bloodless coup from General Roberto
Levingston. He proceeded to re-establish ties with China and allowed
Juan Domingo Peron to return to Argentina after 17 years of forced
exile.
(SFC, 8/27/96, p.A17)(WUD, 1994, p. 1688)
1971 May, Jacobo Timerman founded
the La Opinion newspaper.
(SFC, 11/12/99, p.D6)
1971 Jul 1, Great Britain and
Argentina signed an accord on sea and air links to the Falkland
Islands, which later caused a war (1982).
(www.bartleby.com/67/2791.html)
1971 Jul 22, Salvador Allende and
Alejandro Lanusse, Presidents of Chile and Argentina, signed an
Arbitration Agreement formally submitting the dispute concerning the
territorial and maritime boundaries between them and the title to the
islands Picton, Nueva and Lennox near the extreme end of the American
continent to binding arbitration under auspices of Queen Elizabeth II
of the United Kingdom.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_Channel_Arbitration)(SFC, 8/27/96,
p.A17)
1971 Aug 22, A coup led by Col.
Hugo Banzer Suarez deposed leftist army Gen’l. Juan Jose Torres, who
had created a Soviet-style legislature. Torres fled to Argentina.
(WUD, 1994, p. 1688)(SFC, 3/15/97, p.A11)(SFC,
11/23/99, p.A16)
1971 Oct 9, In Argentina an armed
uprising challenged Gen’l’. Lanusse but he secured the backing of the
Navy and Air Force and broke the challenge.
(SFC, 8/27/96, p.A17)(http://tinyurl.com/5ubr76)
1971 Hoof-and-mouth disease hit
Argentine cattle.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.A16)
1972 Aug 15, In Argentina 22
members of guerrilla groups escaped from prison in the city of Rawson
and took over the airport in nearby Trelew, about 800 miles south of
Buenos Aires. Military forces guarding the airport managed to arrest
19, while three escaped by plane to Chile. 19 guerrillas were
transferred to the base Almirante Zar. On August 22 they were
machine-gunned in their cells. Alberto Camps, Mary Berger and Ricardo
Haidar survived the attack and reported the crime, only to disappear in
the late 1970s during the military dictatorship that lasted from 1976
to 1983. In 2008 federal police arrested two retired military officers
in connection with the massacre of the 16 leftist guerrillas. In 1973
journalist Tomas Eloy Martínez authored “The Passion According
to Trelew.” It was banned by the Argentine dictatorship.
(AP, 2/10/08)(
www.bither-terry.org/latinamerica/?cat=20)
1972 Nov 17, Juan Peron
(1895-1974) returned to Argentina from Spain for a short time after 17
years of exile.
(www.jstor.org/pss/2502592)(www.mofa.go.jp/policy/other/bluebook/1972/1972-1-11.htm)
1973 Mar 12, Argentina held
elections. Pres. Gen’l. Lanusse (1918-1996) called elections and the
Peronists led by Hector Campora (1909-1980) and Vicente Solano Lima
returned to power.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1973-3/1973-03-12-CBS-8.html)(SFC,
8/27/96, p.A17)(WSJ, 11/14/96, p.A20)
1973 May 25, Argentine Peronist
Hector Campora (1909-1980) was installed as president.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9ctor_Jos%C3%A9_C%C3%A1mpora)
1973 Jun 20, Juan Peron
(1895-1974) returned to Argentina.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Peron)(SFC,
12/24/96, p.A8)
1973 Sep 23, Juan Peron was
re-elected president of Argentina after being overthrown in 1955. His
second wife, Isabel, became vice president, the first woman vice
president in Latin American history. She succeeded him when he died 10
months later.
(AP, 9/23/97)(HN, 9/23/98)
1973 Oct 12, Juan Peron was
inaugurated as president of Argentina.
(http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/2004-10/12/Columns/In%20History.htm)
1973 Antonio Berni (1905-1981), an
Argentine artist, made his mixed media piece "La Gallina Ciega," (The
Blind hen). In 1997 it sold for $607,500.
(SFC,11/26/97,
p.A9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Berni)
1973 Colonel Cabanillas returned
to Italy to oversea the exhumation of the body of Eva Peron and its
return to Buenos Aires.
(SFC, 2/3/98, p.A15)
1974 May 11, In Argentina leftist
liberation theology priest Carlos Mugica (b.1930) was killed by
ultra-right groups.
(AP,
11/4/08)(http://news.notiemail.com/noticia.asp?nt=10955952&cty=200)
1974 Jul 1, Juan D. Peron
(b.1895), president of Argentina (1946-55, 73-74), died. Isabel Peron
succeeded her husband Juan as president.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Per%C3%B3n)
1974 Sep 30, Argentina passed the
economic-subversion law that provided prosecutors with a legal umbrella
to pursue anyone suspected of undermining public disorder. It was
repealed in 2002 under IMF pressure.
(WSJ, 5/31/02,
p.A7)(www.glin.gov/view.action?glinID=93488)
1974 Sep 30, Gen. Carlo Prats, a
former Chilean army chief, was killed with his wife by a car bomb in
Buenos Aires. In 2000 an Argentine judge called for the extradition of
Augusto Pinochet for the slaying. In 2000 Enrique Arancibia Clavel was
sentenced in Argentina to life in prison for his role in the murder.
(SFC, 10/28/00, p.A14)(SFC, 11/22/00, p.C6)
1976 Jan 13, Argentina ousted a
British envoy in dispute over the Falkland Islands War.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1976 Mar 24, In Argentina the
military overthrew the government of Isabel Peron. Gen. Jorge Rafael
Videla led the military coup. Jose Siderman, a Jewish businessman, was
forced with death threats to leave the country. He filed suit in the US
in 1982 in the first trial of a foreign government for human-rights
abuses and won a default settlement. Argentina won a reversal in an
appeals court but in 1996 Argentina dropped opposition to the suit.
(SFC, 9/14/96, p.A9)(AP, 3/23/97)(SFC, 6/10/98,
p.A10)
1976 Mar 24, Argentine Sen.
Guillermo Vargas Aignasse disappeared on the day of a military coup. In
2008 an Argentine court convicted retired Gens. Antonio Bussi and
Luciano Menendez for the murder of the senator and sentenced them to
life in prison. They were found guilty of kidnapping, torturing and
murdering.
(AP, 8/29/08)
1976 Mar 26, In 2006 an NSA
transcript from this day indicated that US Sec. of State Henry
Kissinger was informed in the meeting by then-Assistant Secretary for
Latin America William D. Rogers, that if the Argentine military regime
succeeded (March 24 coup), it would make a "considerable effort to
involve the United States — particularly in the financial field."
Kissinger, the NSA's transcript further stated, responded, "Yes, but
that is in our interest."
(AP, 3/24/06)
1976 Apr 15 In Argentina Floreal
Avellaneda (14), the son of a Communist trade union leader of Greater
Buenos Aires, was kidnapped from his house with his mother, by an Army
contingent looking for his father. On May 14, 1976, Floreal’s corpse
was found on the coast of Montevideo, Uruguay, hands and feet bound and
with signs of torture. Iris Pereyra, the boy’s mother, was released
after three years. In 2009 former general Santiago Omar Riveros (86)
and 4 others were found guilty of involvement in the boy’s murder.
(www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/87.88eng/chap5.htm)(AP,
8/12/09)
1976 May 18, Zelmar Michelini and
Hector Gutierrez, prominent Uruguayan lawmakers, were seized from their
homes in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Their bullet-riddled bodies were
found days later along with those of suspected rebels suspected
guerrillas William Whitelaw and Rosario Barredo.
(AP, 11/17/06)
1976 May, Monica Mignone (24) was
arrested at her family home and never seen again. Her father Emilio
Mignone (d.1998), founding rector of a university in Lujon, became a
leader of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights. He also founded the
Center for Legal and Social Studies. He wrote "Dictatorship and the
Church," in which he criticized the inaction of the church during the
"dirty war."
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.A23)
1976 Jun 2, Gen’l. Juan Jose
Torres (b.1920), ousted as president of Bolivia in 1971, was kidnapped
by a death squad in Argentina and killed. He was a victim of the Condor
Plan, a South American military pact between Argentina, Brazil,
Bolivia, Chile and Paraguay to exchange intelligence information and
help each other hunt down suspected leftists.
(SFC, 11/23/99,
p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Jos%C3%A9_Torres)
1976 Jun, US ambassador Robert C.
Hill cautioned Argentina’s new government over wholesale violations of
human rights. Sec. of State Henry Kissinger responded: “In what way is
it compatible with my policy?”
(SFC, 10/1/04,
p.A18)(www.nytimes.com/2004/10/01/politics/01kissinger.html)
1976 Aug 24, In Buenos Aires a
government task force kidnapped Marcelo Gelman (20) and his pregnant
wife Maria Claudia Garcia Irureta (19). Marcelo was shot and killed 2
months later and packed in cement in an oil drum. His wife disappeared
after giving birth in a military hospital in Uruguay. Juan Gelman, the
poet father of Marcelo, later campaigned in search of his grandchild
and authored the book "Not Even God's Feeble Pardon." In 2008 the
granddaughter of Argentine poet Juan Gelman urged Uruguayan courts to
reopen a probe into the 1976 disappearance of her dissident mother,
weeks before her grandfather was scheduled to receive the
Spanish-speaking world's most prestigious literary prize.
(SFC, 12/9/99, p.A16)(AP, 2/27/08)
1976 Oct 15, French-Argentine
citizen Marianne Erize (22) was kidnapped and disappeared. In 2008
retired army major Jorge Antonio Olivera was arrested for the "forced
disappearance, kidnapping and torture" of Erize when Olivera was a
lieutenant in the 22nd Mountain Infantry Regiment. In August 2000,
Olivera was detained in Italy at the request of French authorities, but
was freed after presenting what was later found to be a falsified death
certificate saying Erize had died on Nov. 11, 1976 — 26 days after
being illegally detained.
(AP, 11/4/08)
1976 Nov 11, In Argentina
journalist Claudio Adur (26) disappeared. This marked the beginning of
a large number of journalists who disappearing following the March
military coup.
(www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16842)
1976 Four members of a Spanish
family were killed in Rosario. Pres. Gen’l. Leopoldo Galtieri was later
accused of being responsible by a Spanish court. In 1999 Spanish Judge
Baltasar Garzon named former Argentine Pres. Leopoldo Galtieri in an
indictment along with 95 other military officers, who presided over the
"Dirty War" (1976-1983).
(SFC, 1/1/98, p.A14)(SFC, 11/3/99, p.C3)
1976-1983 In 1998 prosecutors identified 4
ex-military men as holders of Swiss bank accounts pillaged from
political prisoners of this era. Former Gen’l. Antonio Bussi, former
Sergeant Carlos Vega, former Lt. Alfredo Astiz, and Col. Roberto
Roualdes (d.1995), were cited.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A11)
1976-1983 In 1998 Emilio Massera, a former junta
admiral, was arrested for his role in stealing babies from killed
leftists during the “dirty war.” In 1999 former Pres. And Gen'l.
Reynaldo Bignone was also arrested for his role in the baby thefts. In
2000 retired Gen. Juan Sasiain was arrested for his role.
(WSJ, 11/25/98, p.A1)(SFC, 1/21/99, p.A14)(SFC,
3/17/00, p.D2)
1976-1983 Mass killings marked these years known as
Argentina’s “Dirty War” period. At least 9,000 people, suspected by the
government of being leftist dissidents, were arrested, tortured and
never seen again. In 1997 Adolfo Scilingo, a former naval officer,
testified in Spain that as many as 1,500 Argentine navy officials
participated in death flights, where people were hurled into the ocean.
In 1998 Marguerite Feitlowitz published “A Lexicon of Terror,” covering
the “Dirty War.” In 2000 an Italian court convicted 7 Argentine
officers in absentia for kidnapping and killing Italian citizens in the
“dirty war.” The military and police operated about 10 detention
centers during the dictatorship in La Plata, a city of universities
south of Buenos Aires where the crackdown's toll on college students
was particularly severe.
(SFC, 10/10/97, p.D2)(SFC, 7/1/98, p.A8)(WSJ,
12/7/00, p.A1)(AP, 12/9/08)
1977 Jan 17, In Argentina Abel
Madariaga last saw his wife, a surgeon who treated the poor in a Buenos
Aires suburb, being pushed into a Ford Falcon by army officers dressed
as civilians as she walked to a train. He and Silvia Quintela (28) were
members of the Montoneros, a leftist group targeted for elimination by
government death squads. Quintela gave birth to a son the couple had
planned to name Francisco in July 1977, while imprisoned in the Campo
de Mayo, one of the notorious clandestine torture centers in suburban
Buenos Aires. A military intelligence officer, Victor Alejandro Gallo,
brought the baby, his umbilical cord still attached, home to his wife,
Ines Susana Colombo. Silvia disappeared shortly thereafter. In 2010
Abel was reunited with his son and Gallo was arrested on suspicion of
illegal adoption.
(AP, 2/24/10)
1977 Mar 9, Activist Elisabeth
Kaesemann (30), a German sociologist, was abducted in Argentina. Her
bullet-riddled body was later found dumped on the outskirts of Buenos
Aires.
(www.hrw.org/reports/2001/argentina/argen1201-08.htm)
1977 Mar 25, In Argentina
political writer Rodolfo Walsh was murdered one day after writing the
“Open Letter to the Military Junta” on the first anniversary of the
military coup. He had reported on tortures, mass killings, and
thousands of disappearances.
(http://americas.irc-online.org/am/3170)
1977 Apr 15, Some 20 armed men
broke into the home of journalist Jacobo Timerman. He was seized and
held for over a year with beatings, electrical shocks and solitary
confinement.
(SFC, 11/12/99, p.D6)
1977 Apr 30, In Argentina 14 women
whose children had disappeared went to the Plaza de Mayo to demonstrate
their cause. Police said they could not stay there so they began to
walk around the pyramid in the center of the plaza. In 2006 they
completed their 1,500th and last demonstration [see Dec 1977].
(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.E3)
1977 Nov, In Argentina Hilda
Palacios, Humberto Brandalisi, Carlos Laja and Ruben Cardozo were
kidnapped. Prosecutors later said they were taken to the clandestine
prison and torture center known as La Perla on the outskirts of Cordoba
and killed the following month. Their bodies were then dumped in the
street to make it look like they died in a shootout with officials. In
2008 former army chief Luciano Benjamin Menendez (81) was convicted of
kidnapping, torturing and killing the left-wing militants. He was
sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 5/27/08)(AP, 7/24/08)
1977 Dec 8, In Argentina Leonie
Duquet, a French nun, was abducted in a commando-style operation by
state security agents. Alice Domon, another French nun, was abducted
later this month, but her remains were never recovered. They were
killed after befriending mothers of detained dissidents, who were among
the first victims of a crackdown on dissent against the 1976-83
dictatorship.
(AP, 12/9/07)
1977 Dec 10, In Argentina Azucena
Villaflor, along with mothers Esther Ballestrino de Careaga and Maria
Eugenia Ponce de Bianco, were kidnapped by state security agents. In
2005 Investigators recovered the remains of Villaflor and 2 colleagues
at a rural cemetery. Villaflor had founded the Mothers of the Plaza de
Mayo, the legendary protest group against Argentina's Dirty War.
(AP,
7/8/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azucena_Villaflor)
1977 Dec 20, Bodies of women began
to wash up on a beach in southern Argentina. They were among the
leaders of the "Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo" representing relatives of
thousands of disappeared. The US soon learned that the ruling junta was
responsible. The Carter administration went on to authorize $120
million in military sales and approved over 30 training slots for
Argentine officers at US military installations.
(SFC, 12/17/02,
p.A9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Domon)
1977 In Argentina Carlos Perez
Companac, head of Perez Companac SA, died. His adopted son Goyo manages
to steer the company forward.
(WSJ, 12/12/95, p.A-15)
1978 Jun 25, Argentina, host to
the World Cup, beat Netherlands in the soccer World Cup championship in
Buenos Aires. It was later alleged that the ruling military junta
bribed an opposing team to ensure Argentina’s progress and eventual
victory.
(SFC, 2/4/97,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_FIFA_World_Cup)(Econ, 8/15/09,
p.32)
1978 Sep 25, Jacobo Timerman was
released by Argentina’s ruling junta under international pressure. His
citizenship was stripped, his newspaper confiscated and he was put on a
plane for Israel.
(SFC, 11/12/99, p.D6)
1979 Jan 9, The Act of Montevideo
was signed in Uruguay pledging Argentina and Chile to a peaceful
solution and a return to the military situation of early 1977. Cardinal
Antonio Samore (1905-1983), Vatican representative, mediated the Beagle
conflict.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_conflict)
1979 Marta Minujin (b.1943),
Argentine artist, made her monumental "The Obelisk of Raising Bread."
It was made of 40,000 panetone and was later distributed to the crowd.
(WSJ, 4/15/98, p.A20)
1980 Dec 25, The paintings "La
route" (Bend of the road) by Paul Cezanne, "La tete de jeune fille au
Ruban bleu" (Portrait of a Lady) by Auguste Renoir, and "Le cri" (The
cry) by Paul Gauguin were among nearly 2 dozen stolen from the
Argentine National Fine Arts Museum in Buenos Aires. The art works were
located at a Paris gallery in 2002, where they had been brought by a
Taiwanese man claiming to represent a Chinese investor. The investor
said he bought them from a Brazilian senator who said he inherited them
from his family.
(AP,
11/25/05)(http://cpprot.te.verweg.com/2003-July/000215.html)
1981 Mar 29, General Roberto
Eduardo Viola was sworn in as the President of Argentina.
(HN, 3/29/98)
1981 Jul 10, Isabel Peron,
ex-president of Argentina, flew in exile to Spain after being paroled
following conviction for corrupt practices.
(http://tinyurl.com/3bygk7)
1981 Jacobo Timerman (d.1999 at
76), Argentine journalist, published "Prisoner Without a Name, Cell
Without a Number" from Israel.
(SFC, 11/12/99, p.D6)
1982 Apr 2,
Several thousand troops from Argentina seized the disputed Falkland
Islands, located in the south Atlantic, from Britain but Lady Thatcher
had Britain take them back the following June. Britain fought with
Argentina in the Falkland Islands War, also known as the Falklands War,
the Malvinas War and the South Atlantic War. The short, undeclared war
between the two nations was fought over claims to the Falkland Islands
(Islas Malvinas) and neighboring islands. Argentina had laid claims to
the territories since the 19th century, but spurred by a related
dispute on South Georgia island and political expediency, the military
government of Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands. A British naval
task force was assembled and headed towards the war zone by late April.
British forces established a beachhead on the Falklands in late May.
With the surrender of the Argentine garrison at Stanley on June 14, the
conflict was essentially over.
(TMC, 1994, p.1982)(AP, 4/2/99)(HNQ, 1/10/01)
1982 Apr 3, Britain dispatched a
naval task force to the south Atlantic to reclaim the disputed Falkland
Islands from Argentina. The UN Security Council demanded Argentina
withdraw from Falkland Islands.
(AP, 4/3/02)
1982 May 2, In the Falklands War
the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by the British
submarine Conqueror, killing more than 350 men. Some 600 Argentine
sailors were killed when the Belgrano was sunk. Lord Terence Thornton
Lewin (d.1999 at 78), British military commander, was regarded as the
one who persuaded Margaret Thatcher to order the sinking.
(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A20)(http://tinyurl.com/gbplz)
1982 May 4, The British destroyer
HMS Sheffield was hit by Exocet rocket off the Falkland Islands. 20 men
died and a further 24 were injured in the sinking of the Sheffield, the
first British warship to be lost in 37 years.
(http://tinyurl.com/htt3d)
1982 May 21, During the Falklands
War, British amphibious forces landed on the beach at San Carlos Bay.
(AP, 5/21/07)
1982 May 23, The British HMS
Antelope was attacked. It sank the next day after an unexploded bomb
detonates. Ten Argentine aircraft were destroyed.
(www.yendor.com/vanished/falklands-war.html)
1982 Jun 14, Argentine forces
surrendered to British troops on the disputed Falkland Islands. 970
people were killed including 255 British soldiers. Argentine dictator
Leopaldo Galtieri led the initial attack in the 72-day war. The dead in
the ten-week war included 712 Argentines, 255 Britons and 3 islanders.
In 2003 it was revealed that some British ships carried nuclear depth
charges. In 2005 Lawrence Freedman authored “The Official History of
the Falklands Campaign, Volumes I and II. In 2007 Hugh McManners
authored “Forgotten Voices of the Falklands: The Real Story of the
Falklands War in the Words of Those Who Were There.”
(AP, 6/14/97)(WSJ, 12/8/03, p.A1)(Econ, 7/16/05,
p.81)(Econ, 5/19/07, p.88)
1982 Jun 17, Pres. Galtieri
resigned after leading Argentina to defeat in Falkland Islands War.
(www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/B189501.htm)
1982 Jul 1, General Reynaldo
Bignone (b.1928) was sworn in as president of Argentina following the
Falklands War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynaldo_Bignone)(SFC,
1/21/99, p.A14)
1982 Aug 26, The Argentine
government lifted a ban on political parties.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1983 Apr 28, Argentine government
declared all 15-30,000 "missing persons" dead from "Dirty War."
(www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB85/)
1983 Sep 23, The so-called Law of
National Pacification was issued two weeks before the election that
brought President Alfonsín to power. Argentina’s military regime
gave a blanket amnesty to military and political killers and torturers.
(www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/83.84.eng/chap.4.htm)
1983 Oct 30, Argentina held
general elections. The democratic government of Raul Alfonsin replaced
the 7-year-old military junta and formed a national human rights
commission. The first act of the government was to annul the amnesty
rushed through by the junta just before it fell.
(www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/83.84.eng/chap.4.htm)(SFC, 8/25/00,
p.D4)(Econ, 4/14/07, p.40)
1983 Nov 18, Argentina announced
its ability to produce enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.
(HN, 11/18/98)
1983 In Argentina shortly after
the restoration of democracy Gen’l. Reynaldo Bignone ordered the
burning of all documents regarding the disappeared. As president from
1982 to 1983, it fell to Bignone to protect the military as Argentina
returned to democracy. He granted amnesty to human rights violators and
ordered the destruction of documents related to torture and
disappearances of political opponents before agreeing to transfer power
to the democratically elected Raul Alfonsin. In 2003 Bignone was
charged for holding ultimate responsibility for cases of torture,
illegal break-ins and deprivations of freedoms from 1976 to 1978. His
trial in open court began in 2009.
(SFC, 1/1/98, p.A18)(AP, 11/2/09)
1983 Wenseslao Bunge, a lawyer,
established himself as a informal bridge between the US and Argentina
and founded the Argentine-American Forum. He later became the confidant
and intermediary for Alfredo Yabran.
(SFC, 2/28/98, p.A7)
1984 The Argentine writer, Julio
Cortazar, died. His novels included “Final Exam” “Cronopios and Famas,”
and “Hopscotch.” The English translation of Cronopios by Paul Blackburn
was published in 1962 and reissued in 2000.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, BR p.8)(SFEC, 8/6/00, BR p.12)
1985 Argentine army
commander Jorge Rafael Videla (b.1925), former president (1976-1981)
was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the death squads
during a 7-year dictatorship. He was pardoned by Pres. Menem in 1990.
He was arrested and indicted again in 1998 for covering up the
identities of abducted children. In 2006 a federal court judge ruled
that the presidential pardon was unconstitutional.
(SFC, 6/10/98, p.A10)(SFC, 7/15/98, p.C12)(AP,
9/6/06)
1985 Marcelo Carvalho de Andrade
(26) of Brazil, mountain climber, former model and surgeon, came up
with a plan to help protect the rain forest while waiting out a storm
on the north face of Argentina’s Aconcagua mountain, the highest peak
in South America.
(SFC, 7/7/99, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/22ekjj)
1986 Apr 29, Raul Prebisch
(b.1901), Argentine policy maker and economic diplomat, died in
Santiago, Chile. In 2009 Edgar J. dosman authored “The Life and Times
of Raul Prebisch.”
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.90)(http://tinyurl.com/cgd359)
1986 May 16, Argentine
ex-president Galtieri (1926-2003) was sentenced to 12 years.
(www.cnn.com/almanac/9805/16/)
1986 Jun 19, Argentina beat West
Germany 3-2 in soccer's 13th World Cup in Mexico.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_FIFA_World_Cup)
1986 Jun 14, Jorge Luis Borges
(b.1899), Argentine author (Book of Sand), died in Geneva. In 1998 a
new English translation by Andrew Hurley of his "Collected Fictions"
was published. In 1999 Alexander Coleman edited "Selected Poems." Also
in 1999 Eliot Weinberger edited "Selected Non-Fictions." In 2004 Edwin
Williamson authored “Borges: A Life.”
(SFEC, 12/13/98, BR p.1)(SFEC, 4/18/99, BR p.3)(WSJ,
8/17/99, p.A18)(WSJ, 8/5/04, p.D8)
1986 The band Los Fabulosos
Cadillacs began with bassist Flavio Oscar Cianciarulo and keyboardist
Gabriel Fernandez Capello (Vincentico). They did their first gig as Los
Cadillacs at a pub called the Blues in Buenos Aires.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, DB p.52)
1987 Apr 19, Argentina’s President
Raul Alfonsin obtained the surrender of dozens of armed rebel soldiers
who had been holed up at a military base for three days.
(AP, 4/19/97)
1987 Jun, Prominent politicians in
Argentina received a letter with a message that robbers had made off
with the hands of General Juan Peron, deceased since 1974, and demanded
$8 million for their return. No deal was made and numerous people
related to the investigation died in strange circumstances.
(WSJ, 4/6/95, p.A-1, A-5)
1987 Argentina legalized divorce.
Prior to this Argentineans went to Uruguay for divorces and continued
to go there for legal abortions.
(WSJ, 5/16/02, p.A14)
1987 A law was passed that
absolved most military personnel of their alleged crimes on the grounds
that they were only following orders.
(WSJ, 2/28/96, p.A-1)
1988 Dec 4, The government of
Argentina announced that hundreds of heavily armed soldiers had ended a
four-day military revolt.
(AP, 12/4/98)
c1988 The band Los Reconditos de
Ricota (The Little Rolls of Ricotta - cheese) began performing. They
became wildly popular and at the same time rejected commercializing
their work.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, Z1 p.5)
1989 Feb 7, In Argentina
devaluation caused a wild panic in the financial district of Buenos
Aires.
(www.studybuddy.nl/english/start.html)
1989 May 7, Guy Williams (b.1924),
actor (Zorro, Lost in Space), died in Argentina. He was born as Armando
Catalano in NYC.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/g/guy_williams)
1989 May 14, Peronist candidate
Carlos Saul Menem won Argentina's presidential election with Eduardo
Duhalde as VP. He was a Muslim who converted to Catholicism, which was
previously a requirement for the presidency. The annual inflation rate
was 5000%.
(WSJ, 12/12/95, p.A-15)(Hem., 1/96, p.11)(SFC,
12/24/96, p.A8)(AP, 5/14/99)
1989 May 19, In Argentina shortly
after the presidential elections, stores and supermarkets in several
cities were looted.
(www.studybuddy.nl/english/start.html)
1989 Jul 8, Carlos Saul Menem was
inaugurated as president of Argentina in the country's first transfer
of power from one democratically elected civilian leader to another in
six decades.
(AP, 7/8/99)
1989 Oct, Pres. Menem issued
pardons to 277 of those already convicted or indicted for crimes during
the rule of the military junta, including nearly 40 generals and
several guerrilla leaders.
(Econ, 4/14/07,
p.40)(www.hrw.org/reports/1989/WR89/Argentin.htm)
1989 Alberto Calderon (1920-1998),
born in Argentina, won the Wolf Prize, the highest award in
mathematics. He contributed to developing singular integrals and with
his mentor, Antoni Zygmund, founded the Chicago school of analysis.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A26)
1989 Argentina broke with the past
and positioned itself as a US ally. Castro’s Cuba was denounced and
frigates were sent to support Desert Storm.
(SFC, 10/12/97, p.A15)
1989 The central bank of Argentina
suffered losses in Q2 worth 23.5% of GDP.
(Econ, 4/30/05, p.74)
1989-1999 Carlos Menem served as president. He raised
the number of Supreme Court justices from 5 to 9 with personal
supporters and questioned credentials.
(WSJ, 2/19/02, p.A20)
1990 Apr, Argentina’s Congress
under Pres. Carlos Menem added 4 new seats to the 5-member Supreme
Court.
(Econ, 10/8/05, p.46)
1990 Jul 8, West Germany won the
World Cup soccer championship by defeating Argentina, 1-to-0.
(AP, 7/8/00)
1990 Sept 10, In Catamarca,
Argentina, the body of 17-year-old Maria Soledad Morales was found. She
had been tortured, mutilated and killed. Her murder was covered up by
local authorities and as of 1996 no one had yet been charged.
(WSJ, 4/16/96, p.A-1)
1990-1999 The Funa movement developed in Argentina
where it was known as escrache. Protesters marched to the homes or
workplaces of former military agents involved in “disappearances,”
where they chanted “If there isn’t any justice, there’s La Funa!” The
movement expanded to Chile especially after Pinochet was arrested in
1998.
(SSFC, 11/11/01, p.F1)
1991 Mar 26, The Treaty of
Asuncion established the southern common market: (Mercado Comun del
Sur) Mercosur, between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
They were later joined by associate members Chile (1996), Bolivia
(1997), Peru (2001) and Venezuela (2004). Mexico was granted observer
status in 2004.
(www.itcilo.it/english/actrav/telearn/global/ilo/blokit/mercoa.htm)
1991 Mar 29, Argentine soccer star
Diego Maradona was suspended by the Italian League for testing positive
on March 17 for cocaine use.
(http://tinyurl.com/e34y9)
1991 Pres. Carlos Menem signed an
accord to open secret government files to researchers of the Delegation
of Jewish Argentine Associations (DAIA).
(SFC, 4/25/97, p.A12,15)
1991 Carlos Bastos took over as
energy secretary. The first thing he did was to divide the utilities
into 3 discreet lines of business: generation, transmission and
distribution.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, p.A1)
1991 Domingo Cavallo, economic
minister, instituted a convertibility program that required each
Argentine peso in circulation be backed by a dollar in reserves.
(WSJ, 7/29/96, p.A8)
1991 Argentina passed legislation
that required 30% of candidates on party lists for Congress to be women.
(Econ, 12/15/07, p.44)
1991 Argentina’s overall
government spending was $47.3 billion.
(WSJ, 8/2/96, p.A13)
1991 Eduardo Duhalde resigned as
VP and was elected as governor of Buenos Aires. He served 2 terms and
ran for the presidency in 1999.
(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A5)
1991-1995 Argentina shipped weapons to Ecuador and
Croatia. The guns were initially shipped to Panama and Bolivia and the
Argentine government later blamed arms dealers for their diversion. In
1996 Oscar Camilion stepped down as defense minister for his roll in
the arms shipments. In 1998 Horacio Estrada, a retired navy captain,
was found shot to death. Four days earlier prosecutors had begun
questioning him about the 1991-1995 arms shipments.
(SFEC, 10/25/98, p.A24)
1992 Mar 17, A truck bombing
at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killed 29 people.
Iran denied any role. Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh was suspected of
involvement. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
(AP, 3/17/97)(WSJ, 11/24/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/19/01,
p.A14)(NYT, 10/8/04, p.A12)
1992 Argentina privatized its
natural gas industry.
(Econ, 5/12/07, p.40)
1992 Astor Piazzolla, Argentine
Bandoneon player and composer, died. His albums included : “El
Desbande” (1947), “The Vienna Concert” (1981), “Tango Zero Hour”
(1986), “The Lausanne Concert” and “Five Tango Sensations” (1989), and
“The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night.”
(BAAC, 1/96, p.4,5)(Esq., 5/91, p.60,61)
1993 Argentina’s Pres. Menem made
a deal with congress known as the Olivos Pact. The congressional
opposition allowed him to run for re-election and changed the
constitution to make lawful decrees that he had issued in exchange for
a term reduction from 6 years to 4 along with a reduction in influence
over other branches of government.
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.29)
1993 Gen’l. Lanusse was place
under house arrest for after he accused Pres. Carlos Menem of being
“frivolous” and a “womanizer.”
(SFC, 8/27/96, p.A17)
1993 In Argentina Father Julio
Grassi became widely known after starting the "Happy the Children"
Foundation, opening several homes for poor children and doing other
charitable work.
(AP, 6/11/09)
1994 Jan 21, In Argentina a fire
near Puerto Madryn killed 25 fire cadets.
(http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/75ea/)
1994 Jul 18, In Buenos Aires a
terrorist attack killed 85 people at the city’s Jewish Center, the
Argentine Israelite Mutual Aid Society (AMIA). Some 300 people were
injured. In 1996 three senior policemen and a retired officer were
charged in connection to the bombing. Iran denied any role. Police
inspector, Juan Jose Ribelli, accepted a $2.5 million several days
before the attack for providing the car in which the bomb exploded. It
was later revealed that he and his colleagues sold protection to car
thieves in return for stolen goods. In 2000 Ahmad Behbahani (32) told a
60 Minutes journalist from a refugee camp in Turkey that Iran was
behind the 1994 bombing in Argentina. In 2002 it was reported that Iran
paid Pres. Menem $10 million to cover up Iran’s involvement. In 2004 a
federal court acquitted 5 men of being accessories to the bombing. [see
Nov 9, 2005] In 2009 a court ruled that Carlos Alberto Telledin,
accused of loading the van with explosives, should be tried again for
his participation in the bombing.
(WSJ, 8/1/96 p.A1)(WSJ, 11/24/97, p.A1)(SFC,12/9/97,
p.B10)(HN, 7/18/98)(SFC, 6/6/00, p.A10)(SFC, 7/22/02, p.A1)(SFC,
9/3/04, p.A18)(NYT, 10/8/04, p.A12)(SSFC, 12/20/09, p.A31)
1994 Aug 20, Buenos Aires
Archbishop Quarracino called for a zone of exclusion for all
homosexuals in Argentina.
(http://tinyurl.com/b87et)
1994 Sep 30, Roberto Viola,
Argentine general and president (1981), died at 69.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1994 The main postal office was
privatized. A proposed split for control was made between Alfredo
Yabran and Domingo Cavallo. Economy Minister Cavallo refused to grant
the concession to Yabran.
(SFC, 2/28/98, p.A7)
1994 Argentina under conservative
Pres. Carlos Menem began to allow private retirement funds as an
alternative to state pension funds. As of 2008 the funds yielded an
average return of 13.9%. In 2008 the government proposed to nationalize
the private pensions in order to meet debt payments.
(WSJ, 7/30/02, p.A11)(WSJ, 10/22/08, p.A8)(Econ,
10/25/08, p.47)
1994 Economy Minister Domingo
Cavallo accused Alfredo Yabran, a courier company magnate, of heading
an organized crime ring. The accusations cost Cavallo his job in 1995.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A13)(SFC, 2/28/98, p.A7)
1994-1995 It was alleged that IBM offered government
officials up to $21 million to win a contract with the Banco de la
Nacion.
(SFEC, 10/25/98, p.A24)
1995 Feb, Carlos Menem Jr. (27)
was killed in a helicopter crash. It was later reported that the copter
was shot down. A number of witnesses and people involved in the
investigations were also killed. His mother, Zulema Yoma, later pressed
for an investigation and in 1997 staged a sit-in a police headquarters
in Buenos Aires to get a report released that indicated sniper fire in
the crash.
(SFC, 7/24/97, p.A13)
1995 Nov 8, An air force Fokker 27
crashed in central Argentina’s mountains and killed all 57 on board.
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A18)
1995 Nov 21, Former Nazi Capt.
Erich Priebke was extradited from Argentina to Italy to face trial for
his role in the Ardeatine Caves massacre. A court found him guilty in
1996 but released him because too much time had elapsed since the
crime. There was a major uproar and he was again arrested and a 1997
trial convicted him and co-defendant Major Karl Hass. Priebke was
sentenced to 5 years in prison. Hass was convicted but released due to
mitigating circumstances. face charges in the massacre of 335
Italian civilians in Nazi-occupied Rome.
(AP, 3/23/97)(WSJ, 10/3/95, p.A-21) (WSJ, 11/21/95,
p.A-1)(SFC, 7/23/97, p.A9)
(AP, 11/21/02)
1995 Dec, Dow Chemical was to take
control of Petroquimmica Bahia Blanca SA. Dow would own 70% of the
company it designed in the late 60s and was forced to turn over to the
military.
(WSJ, 12/20/95, p.A-10)
1995 Carlos Menem was re-elected
to a 4-year term.
(SFC, 12/24/96, p.A8)
1995 Antonio Domingo Bussin was
elected governor of Tucuman province. Under a prior stint as governor
twenty years ago, a civil rights commission found that Mr. Bussin
oversaw a campaign of terror against a band of left wing guerrillas and
that he ordered the detention of at least 387 people, all of whom
remain missing.
(WSJ, 2/28/96, p.A-1)
1995 The overall government
spending was $47.3 billion.
(WSJ, 8/2/96, p.A13)
1995 Pres. Carlos Menem
expropriated 54,000 acres of Tabacal land for the Kolla Indians.
(WSJ, 11/14/97, p.A1)
1995 Argentina and Chile signed an
energy agreement that allowed Argentina to cut supplies in an
emergency, but only in the same proportion as they are restricted at
home.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.34)
1996 Feb 15, In the Toronto Globe
and Star there was a report by Peter Whelan that “pesticides sprayed on
fields in Argentina were killing tens of thousands of wintering
Swainson’s hawks that nest on the Canadian prairies and the adjacent US
Great Plains.”
(NH, 10/96, p.51)
1996 Jul 7, The average cost of a
Big Mac in Argentina was $3.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Parade, p.17)
1996 Jul 11, The minister of
justice, Rodolfo Barra, resigned his post due to his past association
as a teen-ager in the 60s with the anti-Semitic group, Tacuara.
(SFC, 7/12/96, p.A14)
1996 Aug 12, Economy minister
Roque Fernandez announced a new round of austerity measures that
included higher fuel prices and tax boosts on everything. Cash will be
raised by selling commercial airports, military installations, nuclear
power plants and cracking down on tax-evasion.
(WSJ, 8/13/96, p.A7)
1996 Aug 26, Alexander Lanusse,
military president of Argentina (1971-73), died.
(http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Alejandro+Agust%edn+Lanusse)
1996 Oct, Director Juan Carlos
Desanzo produced his film “Eva Peron.”
(Hem., 1/97, p.106)
1996 In Argentina Maria Lamadrid
founded “Africa Lives,” a black rights group based in Buenos Aires.
(SSFC, 11/27/05, p.A21)
1996 Oscar Camilion stepped down
as defense minister for his roll in the 1991-1995 arms shipments to
Ecuador and Croatia.
(SFEC, 10/25/98, p.A24)
1996 Argentina, Brazil and the US
acted to forestall a coup in Paraguay.
(Econ, 6/12/04, p.35)
1996 The Argentine oil firm
Compania General de Combustibles (CGC) received a contract to drill for
oil in Sarayaca, Ecuador, home to some 2,000 Quichua Indians. Natives
fended off oil drilling well into 2004.
1996 It was reported that
hantavirus in Argentina had caused the death of 12 people this year.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.A27)
1997 Jan 4, In Argentina thieves
tunneled into a Buenos Aires bank and robbed as much as $25 million.
(SFC, 1/16/96, p.A12)
1997 Jan 25, In Argentina Noticias
photojournalist Jose Luis Cabezas was found murdered in the Atlantic
resort of Pinamar. He had been handcuffed, tortured and burned alive
near a meeting place of the Justicialist Party. It was later revealed
that police officers carried out the murder under orders from Alfredo
Yabran. In 2000 a tribunal found 3 former provincial police officers
guilty in the murder along with a former security guard and 4 civilians.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A15)(SFC, 10/2/97,
p.A13)(SFC,12/9/97, p.B10)(SFC, 2/28/98, p.A7)(SFC, 2/3/00, p.A13)
1997 Mar 27, It was reported that
former economy minister Domingo Cavallo claimed that Alfredo Yabran,
the country’s most successful businessman, led an all-powerful mafia of
businessmen, politicians and judges.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A14)
1997 Apr 17, The government
announced the formation of a commission to “clarify what happened in
Argentina in the last years of WW II and the postwar.”
(SFC, 4/25/97, p.A12)
1997 Apr 24, The Argentine film
"Wake Up Love" opened at the SF film festival.
(SFC, 4/25/97, p.D6)
1997 Apr, The sci-fi thriller
"Moebius" was made by students at the Univ. of Cinema in Buenos Aires
at a cost of $250,000.
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.E1)
1997 May 31, It was reported that
high joblessness (17.3%) was causing riots in various provinces outside
the capital. Neuquin, Jujuy, Salta and Santa Fe had all experienced
riots.
(SFC, 5/31/97, p.A13)
1997 Aug 7, Pres. Eduardo Frei of
Chile and Argentine Pres. Carlos Menem opened a $325 million pipeline
for natural gas from Argentina to Santiago.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.E3)
1997 Aug 14, Public sector and
opposition unions called for a 24-hour strike to protest the nation’s
16.1% unemployment rate and proposed labor reforms.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A15)
1997 Aug 15, It was reported that
the country would issue bonds to pay indemnities to the relatives and
descendants of the 1970s “dirty war.” As many as 30,000 people
disappeared and about 8,000 families have applied for payments
authorized at $224,000 per victim.
(WSJ, 8/15/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug, Argentine beef was
allowed to be imported fresh to the US market.
(WSJ, 5/26/98, p.B1)
1997 Sep 5, A group headed by
Sociedad Macri SA took over the postal service with an offer to pay the
state about $102 million annually for 20 years.
(WSJ, 9/8/97, p.A15)
1997 Sep, Adolfo Scilingo, a
former navy officer, had his face slashed by unknown assailants in a
Buenos Aires street. He and Horatio Verbitsky wrote “El Vuelo,” (The
Flight), a best -seller about the death flights during the “dirty war.”
(SFC, 1/1/98, p.A18)
1997 Oct 10, Adolfo Scilingo was
jailed in Spain after appearing to voluntarily testify on his crimes.
He admitted to hurling 30 prisoners from airplanes during the “dirty
war.”
(SFC, 1/1/98, p.A18)
1997 Oct 10, An Argentine DC-9
with 75 people crashed in Uruguay. All 74 were killed when the plane
crashed during a torrential rainstorm.
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.A10)(SFC, 10/12/97, p.A16)
1997 Oct 16, Pres. Clinton
designated Argentina a “non-NATO ally” during a speech in Buenos Aires.
(SFC,10/17/97, p.A25)
1997 Oct 26, In congressional
elections in Argentina the opposition coalition led the Peronists 46%
to 36%. The opposition Alliance, led by Fernandez Maijide, was composed
of the centrist Civic Radical Union and the left-leaning Frepaso
coalition.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.A8)(SFC,10/28/97, p.A8)
1997 Oct, Alberto Pedroncini filed
a suit on behalf of relatives of 13 “disappeared” people. He argued
that the government pardons of military officials were illegal because
forced kidnapping is an ongoing offense since the victims have never
been found.
(SFC, 1/1/98, p.A14)
1997 Dec 30, A Spanish judge
accused 36 Argentine military and police officers of involvement in
torture and the disappearance of 600 Spaniards during the dirty war
from 1976-1983. Most of those named served in the ESMA, a torture
center used by the military regime.
(SFC,12/31/97, p.A9)
1997 Dec, Alfredo Yabran sold his
main businesses to a Cayman Islands-based holding company known as
EXXEL for $600 million. He was believed to be the head of a powerful
mafia empire. Former US ambassador Terence Todman was a representative
of the EXXEL group. Todman was US secretary of Latin American Affairs
in 1990 and called off the US Drug Enforcement Agency from pressuring
Yabran, whose operations included airport customs operations, duty-free
shops, cargo transportation and armored car services.
(SFC, 2/28/98, p.A1,7)
1997 Federico Andahazi, Argentine
psychologist authored "The Anatomist." The novel was about a
16th-century Italian anatomist who became interested in the function of
the clitoris while examining corpses and of his subsequent attempts to
research the subject in bed with Venetian prostitutes. The book was
virtually unknown before the scandal but went to the top of the
best-seller list. It won the prestigious Fortabat Foundation prize for
the best first novel by an Argentine. But the award ceremony was
canceled by the sponsor, Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat, a wealthy
businesswoman, leading to a national debate over freedom of expression.
(www.literatura.org/Andahazi/anatomista/faanatnyt2.html)(NYT, 5/16/97)
1997 The New Order Party, a
fascist political group, was founded by Alejandro Franze.
(SFC, 6/8/98, p.A10)
1997 Paleontologists found an area
in Patagonia over a mile square that was once a dinosaur nesting site
estimated from 70-90 million years old. Fossilized embryos revealed a
delicate skin of reptilian scales.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.A4)
1998 Jan 23, Pres. Carlos Menem
ordered the navy to expel Alfredo Astiz, a former death squad officer.
Astiz was sentenced in absentia to life in prison in France for the
murder of 2 nuns and was wanted in Sweden for the murder of Dagmar
Hagelin, a teenage girl. Astiz surrendered to Interpol in 2001. In 2009
Astiz went on trial for the deaths of 2 French nuns, a journalist and 3
founders of a human rights group.
(SFC, 1/24/98, p.A10)(SFC, 7/3/01, p.A7)(SFC,
12/11/09, p.A2)
1998 Feb, Eduardo Eurnakian (65),
head of a billion dollar media empire, won a 30-year concession to run
33 of Argentina’s main airports.
(WSJ, 2/24/98, p.A18)
1998 Mar 27, Argentina, Brazil and
Paraguay signed a pact to heighten security on their triple frontier.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A9)
1998 Mar, In Buenos Aires a law
was repealed that granted police wide authority to arrest prostitutes
and drunks. A new law allowed prostitutes on the streets.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.T13)
1998 May 20, Alfredo Yabran, a
businessman wanted in connection with a 1997 murder, committed suicide
in Entre Rios province.
(SFC, 5/21/98, p.A14)
1998 Aug 25, In Argentina Horacio
Estrada, a retired navy captain, was found shot to death. Four days
earlier prosecutors had begun questioning him about the 1991-1995
weapons shipments to Ecuador and Croatia.
(SFEC, 10/25/98, p.A24)(http://tinyurl.com/9r9z7)
1998 Sep 15, For Argentina a World
Bank loan of some $4.5 billion was almost completed to help stabilize
the economy.
(WSJ, 9/16/98, p.A19)
1998 Oct 4, Marcelo Cattaneo, the
younger brother of Pres. Menem’s former deputy chief of staff, was
found hanging by the neck outside Buenos Aires. He had been named 2
months earlier as the man who tried to bribe former directors of the
Banco de la Nacion. A newspaper article on the 1994-1995 IBM-Banco de
la Nacion bribery scheme was stuffed in his mouth.
(SFEC, 10/25/98, p.A24)
1998 Nov 10, A 160-nation
conference on global warming met in Argentina.
(WSJ, 11/11/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 11, Argentina and
Kazakhstan pledged to abide by the treaty to cut emissions of gases
that cause global warming. This put a crack in a united front of
developing nations opposed to cuts before 2012.
(WSJ, 11/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 14, In Argentina
negotiators from 150 countries agreed to set a 2 year deadline for
adopting operational rules for cutting emissions of industrial waste
gases that were believed to cause global warming.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A21)
1998 Dec 28, Ruben Franco, a
former Admiral, was arrested on charges of being a central organizer of
the baby kidnappings during the dirty war.
(SFC, 12/31/98, p.D2)
1998 The anthropologist, Julie
Taylor, published “Paper Tangos,” a personal account of the elements of
the dance and the “diffuse nature of violence.”
(SFEC, 9/6/98, BR p.9)
1999 Jan 15, A Liberian tanker
collided with a German vessel and leaked over 65,000 gallons of crude
oil near the Rio de la Plata, 50 miles north of Buenos Aires.
(SFC, 1/23/99, p.C1)
1999 Jan 22, A federal judge
indicted 7 former military officials for the disappearances of over 200
babies during the 1976-1983 dictatorship.
(SFC, 1/23/99, p.C1)
1999 Feb 14, A blackout began in
south and central Buenos Aires. At the height of the outage some
500,000 people were without power.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A9)
1999 Feb 18, Protests occurred in
Buenos Aires by residents angry over 4 days of power outages.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.A17)
1999 Feb 25, The power outage in
Buenos Aires ended. Edesur, the Chilean electricity distributor, blamed
the outage on power lines, but cable supplier, Italy's Pirelli, denied
responsibility.
(SFC, 2/26/99, p.E2)
1999 Mar 16, In northern Argentina
a team of archeologists discovered 3 frozen Inca mummies on Mount
Llullaillaco. The mummies were of children sacrificed about 500 years
ago.
(SFC, 4/7/99, p.A11)
1999 Mar 28, In Paraguay Pres.
Raul Cubas resigned and ended a week of political turmoil. Senator Luis
Gonzalez Macchi was sworn in as president. Gen'l. Lino Oviedo was
granted asylum in Argentina.
(SFC, 3/29/99, p.A9)(SFC, 3/30/99, p.F2)
1999 Jul 12, In Argentina stocks
fell nearly 9% as investors worried over the local political and
economic factors.
(WSJ, 7/13/99, p.C16)
1999 Jul 26, Brazil said it would
temporarily suspend all trade talks with Argentina after Argentina
moved to curb certain Brazilian exports.
(WSJ, 7/28/99, p.A20)
1999 Aug 13, Protests and riots
raged out of control in Neuquen province where unemployment was 40%.
Skirmishes were also reported from Tucuman, Cordoba, Corrientes, and
Tierra del Fuego.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.C1)
1999 Aug 31, In Argentina 72
people were killed, including 5 on the ground, when a Lapa Airlines
Boeing 737 crashed after takeoff from Jorge Newberry airport in Buenos
Aires. There were 26 survivors.
(SFC, 9/1/99, p.A12)(WSJ, 9/1/99, p.A1)(SFC, 9/2/99,
p.A14)(WSJ, 9/3/99, p.A1)(AP, 8/31/00)
1999 Sep 17, A botched holdup in
Villa Ramallo left 2 hostages dead and a 3rd wounded. A gunman was also
killed and 2 arrested in the 20-hour standoff that was covered live on
TV.
(SFC, 9/18/99, p.A11)
1999 Oct 24, Elections were
scheduled with Buenos Aires Gov. Eduardo Duhalde as the candidate for
the ruling Peronists. Fernando de la Rua (62) of the center-left
Alliance led with a 48% to 38% margin.
(WSJ, 8/3/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/22/99, p.A1)(SFC,
10/25/99, p.A10)(WSJ, 10/26/99, p.A1)
1999 Nov 2, Spanish Judge Baltasar
Garzon named former Argentine Pres. Leopoldo Galtieri in an indictment
along with 95 other military officers, who presided over the "Dirty
War" from 1976-1983.
(SFC, 11/3/99, p.C3)
1999 Nov 11, Argentine journalist
Jacobo Timerman died in Buenos Aires at age 76.
(AP, 11/11/00)
1999 Nov, Peronist Eduardo Duhalde
lost the presidential elections to Fernando de la Rua.
(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A5)
1999 Dec 10, Pres. Fernando de la
Rua was inaugurated. His campaign promised to revive the economy.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/23/01, p.A9)
1999 Dec, The offices of the
National Pensioners Health Care Agency under Victor Alderete were
raided and evidence was found for fraud in the hundreds of millions of
dollars.
(SFC, 3/14/00, p.A8)
1999 The Argentine comedy film
"Silvio Prieto" was directed by Martin Rejtman.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, DB p.37)
1999 In Morón,
Argentina, Martin Sabbatella (28) was elected mayor and began an active
campaign against corruption. His predecessor was convicted in 2000 of
misappropriating public funds.
(WSJ, 7/1/03, p.A1)
2000 Jan 12, An Argentine a tour
bus crashed into a 2nd local bus in Brazil and 42 people were killed.
(WSJ, 1/13/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 15, In Argentina it was
reported that a Pres. Fernando de la Rua had ordered a purge of the
military and civilian intelligence apparatus and that over 1,500 agents
had been fired or retired. Fernando de Santibanes, the new head of the
Secretariat of State Intelligence (SIDE), fired a third of his 3,100
member staff a week earlier due to budget cuts.
(SFC, 2/16/00, p.A8)
2000 Mar 11, It was reported that
researchers had unearthed a pack of large predatory dinosaurs in
Patagonia that dated back to about 100 million years BP.
(SFC, 3/11/00, p.A1)
2000 May 12, At least 23 police
and 22 protestors were injured in the province of Salta where thousands
of jobless workers had blocked a federal highway for 10 days to protest
welfare cuts.
(SFC, 5/13/00, p.A9)
2000 May, The $5.6 billion beef
industry won its 33-year battle to control hoof-and-mouth disease and
was declared free of the illness by the Paris-based World Organization
for Animal Health.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.A14)
2000 Jun 9, In Argentina millions
of workers went on strike to protest the economic austerity policies of
Pres. Fernando de la Rua and the 14% unemployment rate.
(SFC, 6/10/00, p.A14)
2000 Jun 13, Pres. Fernando de la
Rua apologized for his country’s role in providing sanctuary to Nazis
after WW II.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A13)
2000 Aug 24, Ricardo Miguel
Cavallo, a suspected torturer from the Argentine “dirty war,” was
arrested in Mexico after former political prisoners identified him.
Cavallo was extradited to Spain in 2003 and charged with genocide and
terrorism.
(SFC, 8/25/00, p.D4)(AP, 6/30/03)
2000 Sep 1, A judge moved to strip
immunity from 8 senators who allegedly received bribes from the
administration of Pres. Fernando de la Rua for votes on labor reform.
(SFC, 9/2/00, p.C16)
2000 Sep 18, In Buenos Aires 2
men, suspected in the assassination of Paraguayan Vice Pres. Luis Maria
Argana, escaped from jail.
(SFC, 9/19/00, p.A10)
2000 Oct 6, Vice President Carlos
Alvarez resigned amid a fallout over a corruption scandal and a Cabinet
shake-up.
(SFC, 10/7/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 14, It was reported that
unemployment stood at 15% as the country faced a 3rd year of an
economic slump. Workers had begun staging road blocks in the provinces
to protest their plight.
(SFC, 12/14/00, p.C4)
2000 Dec 18, The government
announced a $39.7 billion financial rescue package led by the IMF.
(SFC, 12/19/00, p.B4)(WSJ, 8/23/01, p.A9)
2000 Dec 28, Government officials
announced plans to spend $20 billion on public works programs.
(SFC, 12/29/00, p.B5)
2000 Argentine composer Osvaldo
Golijov composed his “La Pasión Según San Marco.” It was
commissioned for the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death and made its NYC
premiere in 2002.
(WSJ, 11/5/02, p.D8)
2001 Feb 14, Buenos Aires Gov.
Carlos Ruckauf declared that he would be the next president.
(WSJ, 2/16/01, p.A9)
2001 Mar 3, Pres. Fernando De la
Rua asked his entire cabinet to submit their resignations a day after
Economy Minister Jose Luis Machinea submitted his resignation.
(SSFC, 3/4/01, p.A27)
2001 Mar 6, Federal Judge Gabriel
Cavallo struck down amnesty laws that protected hundreds of soldiers
accused of torture, murder and kidnapping during the dictatorship of
1976-1983.
(SFC, 3/7/01, p.A9)
2001 Mar 16, Ricardo Lopez Murphy,
the Economy Minister, proposed $4.5 billion in budget cuts over the
next 2 years to revive the economy.
(WSJ, 3/20/01, p.A19)
2001 Mar 17, Colombia suspended
meat and livestock imports from Argentina for 60 days due to fears of
foot-and-mouth disease. Only Israel and Russia still imported Argentine
meat.
(SFC, 3/19/01, p.A9)
2001 Mar 19, Ricardo Lopez Murphy,
the Economy Minister, resigned.
(WSJ, 3/21/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 20, In Buenos Aires
thousands demonstrated against plans to cut government spending.
Domingo Cavallo was named to succeed Ricardo Lopez Murphy as economy
minister.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 29, Domingo Cavallo won
congressional approval of his emergency financial package. He was
expected to soon announce tax decreases.
(SFC, 3/30/01, p.D3)
2001 Apr 28, A plane crash killed
10 people near Roque Perez.
(WSJ, 4/30/01, p.A1)
2001 May 17, In Argentina a Fokker
F27 air force plane crashed on takeoff in Medoza and all 5 officers
aboard were killed.
(SFC, 5/18/01, p.D4)
2001 Jun 7, In Argentina former
Pres. Carlos Menem was arrested for leading a conspiracy to sell $100
million worth of weapons to Croatia and Ecuador while in office in 1991
and 1995. He was indicted July 4.
(SFC, 6/8/01, p.A16)(WSJ, 6/8/01, p.A13)(SFC,
7/5/01, p.A8)
2001 Jun 19, Argentina adopted a
dual exchange rate.
(WSJ, 6/20/01, p.A12)
2001 Jul 10, Former army commander
Jorge Rafael Videla (75) was indicted again for conspiring to eliminate
political opponents in the 1970s.
(SFC, 7/11/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 12, Argentine stocks
plummeted with growing worries on the country’s ability to maintain
debt payments.
(SFC, 7/13/01, p.B1)
2001 Jul 17, Pres. De la Rua
signed a plan to slash the deficit.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.C4)
2001 Jul 19, Workers staged a
nationwide strike due to government spending cuts.
(SFC, 7/20/01, p.A17)
2001 Jul 30, The Senate passed a
tough austerity package supported by Pres. de la Rua.
(SFC, 7/31/01, p.A7)
2001 Aug 8, Thousands of state
workers, students and jobless marched on Buenos Aires for a 2nd day to
protest government plans to cut wages and pensions.
(SFC, 8/9/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 10, In Buenos Aires
nearly 1 million people gathered to pray to St. Cayetano, patron of
work and bread, for an easing of the economic crises that has left 1 in
3 Argentines in poverty. The government struggled to keep from
defaulting on a $127 billion debt.
(SFC, 8/11/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 21, It was planned to
begin the use of the patacon, a negotiable bond, as legal tender in the
Buenos Aires province. The IMF announced plans to add $8 billion to a
$14 billion Argentine rescue package.
(WSJ, 8/21/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/22/01, p.A3)
2001 Oct 14, Elections for
Congress were scheduled. Rev. Luis Farinello led the Social Pole Party
with an anti-globalization message. The midterm elections handed a
decisive defeat to Pres. Fernando de la Rua’s coalition. The Peronist
Party led nationwide results.
(SFC, 10/12/01, p.D4)(SFC, 10/15/01, p.E3)
2001 Oct 20, It was reported that
record flooding around Buenos Aires had damaged some 8.6 million acres
of prime farmland. The area was declared a national disaster and losses
were estimated at $300 million.
(SFC, 10/20/01, p.A17)
2001 Nov 5, Domingo Cavallo, the
economy minister, said Argentina planned to restructure $95 billion of
debt to avoid default.
(SFC, 11/6/01, p.B11)
2001 Nov 14, Provincial governors
agreed to drastic spending cuts.
(WSJ, 11/15/01, p.A22)
2001 Nov 20, The Supreme Court
ruled that prosecutors failed to prove that former Pres. Carlos Menem
had led a conspiracy to smuggle weapons to Croatia and Ecuador while in
office.
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.A21)
2001 Nov 22, Former Pres. Carlos
Menem (71) announced a bid for the presidency in 2003.
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.A21)
2001 Dec 3, The government put a
90-day partial freeze on bank accounts to help stem a run on banks.
Weekly withdrawals were limited to $250.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A3)(WSJ, 12/4/01, p.A12)
2001 Dec 5, Domingo Cavallo
changed the bank rules to allow $1,000 withdrawals once per month and
for travelers to remove up to $10,000.
(SFC, 12/11/01, p.A6)
2001 Dec 9, Domingo Cavallo
announced that he would annul $4 million in business tax cuts and push
for the release of $1.3 billion IMF loans.
(SFC, 12/11/01, p.A6)
2001 Dec 13, Argentine workers
staged a strike, the 8th one against the 2-year-old administration of
Pres. de la Rua. Unemployment was reported to have risen to 18.3% in
October from 16.4% in May.
(WSJ, 12/14/01, p.A11)
2001 Dec 19, In Argentina Pres. de
la Rua declared a state of siege as looters ransacked shops and markets
in Buenos Aires and across the north. Domingo Cavallo, economy
minister, resigned.
(SFC, 12/20/01, p.A1,3)(WSJ, 12/20/01, p.A1)(WSJ,
12/21/01, p.A9)
2001 Dec 20, Argentine President
Fernando De la Rua resigned, hours after his economy minister,
following two days of anti-government unrest that left 22 people dead
and more than 200 injured. The foreign debt stood at $132 billion.
(SFC, 12/21/01, p.A1)(AP, 12/20/02)
2001 Dec 21, Ramon Puerta, head of
the Senate, became president following an extraordinary session of both
houses.
(SFC, 12/22/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 23, In Argentina Adolfo
Rodriguez Saa, governor of San Luis province, was sworn in as the new
interim president until elections on March 3. He said he would not
devalue the peso. Saa said he would suspend payment on the foreign debt.
(SSFC, 12/23/01, p.A13)(SFC, 12/24/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 24, In Argentina Pres.
Saa planned a new works program to create a million jobs.
(SFC, 12/25/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 26, Argentina planned a
new currency, the argentino, to circulate along with the peso and
dollar.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 28, Thousands of people
flooded banks in Buenos Aires as the government eased a 5-day bank
holiday. Demonstrations ensued and riot police used rubber bullets and
tear gas to quell violence at the Government House known as Casa Rosada.
(SFC, 12/29/01, p.A5)
2001 Dec 29, In Argentina at least
12 police officers were injured during protests in Buenos Aires. The
entire cabinet offered to step down.
(SSFC, 12/30/01, p.A12)
2001 Dec 30, In Argentina Pres.
Saa resigned after one week in office. Senate leader Ramon Puerta
resigned his post so as not to become interim president again. Eduardo
Camano, Peronist lawmaker, was next in line. Saa returned to San Luis
province and with his brother began producing films with financing from
the San Luis Ministry of Progress.
(SFC, 12/31/01, p.A3)(WSJ, 2/24/05, p.A1)
2001 Dec 31, Guido di Tella,
former foreign minister, died at age 70. The helped reconcile Argentina
and Britain after the Falkland war.
(SFC, 1/3/02, p.A16)
2001 Dec, Argentina halted
payments on its $88 billion in bonds. In 2005 Paul Blustein authored
“And the Money Kept Rolling In (And Out),” an account of 2001 the debt
moratorium.
(WSJ, 1/14/04, p.A1)(Econ, 3/5/05, p.82)
2001 In Argentina Doug Tompkins,
founder of Esprit Corp., purchased a 153,000-acre Patagonian sheep
ranch and donated it to the government. Pres. Nestor Kirchner named it
Monte Leon National Park.
(SFCM, 9/10/06, p.12)
2001-2002 Argentina’s financial crisis during this
period involved institutional breakdown, a huge monetary devaluation,
destruction of the financial system and a default on the public debt.
(Econ, 4/5/08, p.20)
2002 Jan 1, Eduardo Duhalde, a
Peronist and former vice-president, was chosen as Argentina’s new
president, the 5th in less than 2 weeks.
(SFC, 1/2/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 2, Eduardo Duhalde was
sworn in as president.
(SFC, 1/3/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 3, Argentina failed to
make a $28 million payment on a foreign loan. A devaluation of the peso
by 30-40% was expected soon. Duhalde named Jorge Remes Lenicov, former
economic chief of Buenos Aires, as his finance minister.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A5)(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A5)
2002 Jan 4, Pres. Duhalde
acknowledged that the nation will devalue the peso.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 6, Argentina devalued its
currency 29% with an official exchange rate of 1.4 pesos to the dollar
and promised to ease limits on cash withdrawals. This ended a
decade-long policy pegging the currency one-to-one with the U.S.
dollar. In the year that followed, the peso lost 70 percent of its
value against the dollar.
(SFC, 1/7/02, p.A3)(WSJ, 1/7/02, p.A3)(AP, 1/6/03)
2002 Jan 10, Thousands of
middle-class families protested in Buenos Aires. The government had
ordered checking deposits of $10k and savings over $3k switched to
fixed-term deposits and out of reach for at least a year.
(SSFC, 1/13/02, p.A17)
2002 Jan 11, The Argentina peso
sank 40% on its 1st day of floating trade.
(SFC, 1/12/02, p.A14)
2002 Jan 15, Protesters rioted in
3 provinces as the peso fell to 1.95 to the dollar from 1.7
(SFC, 1/16/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 17, Roque Maccarone,
president of the Central Bank, resigned in a dispute with Economic
Minister Remes Lenicov over ways to preserved the value of the peso.
(SFC, 1/18/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 24, Argentina approved a
law allowing the Central Bank to print nearly $13 billion in new
money to help pay salaries and bills as citizens protested over their
frozen accounts.
(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A15)
2002 Feb 1, In Argentina the
Supreme Court ruled 5-0 that the banking freeze was unconstitutional.
(SFC, 2/2/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 3, Argentina unveiled a
plan to rescue the economy that included a partial easement of the
banking freeze and a free-floating peso.
(SFC, 2/4/02, p.A4)
2002 Feb 11, The Argentine peso
was put to float for the 1st time in a decade and dropped about 5% to
2.1 pesos to the dollar.
(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A10)
2002 Feb 13, Argentina adopted a
20% tax on energy exports.
(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A14)
2002 Mar 22, The Argentine peso
closed down 18% to 3.1 to the dollar. IMF loans appeared distant.
(WSJ, 3/25/02, p.A12)
2002 Mar 25, The Argentine peso
fell to 3.4-3.8 to the dollar. Long lines formed outside banks and
exchange houses in Buenos Aires.
(SFC, 3/26/02, p.B3)(WSJ, 3/26/02, p.A14)
2002 Mar, Michael Mussa, former
IMF chief economist, released a 50-page treatise called “Argentina and
the Fund: From Triumph to Tragedy.”
(WSJ, 4/5/02, p.A9)
2002 Apr 2, Argentina marked the
20th anniversary of the Falklands War and Pres. Duhalde said the
Falkland Islands would be regained through diplomacy.
(SFC, 4/3/02, p.A7)
2002 Apr 3, Domingo Cavallo,
former economy minister (1991-1996), was arrested for illegal arms
sales to Croatia and Ecuador in the 1990s, diverting 6,500 tons of
weapons worth over $100 million. He was indicted Apr 10 for “aggravated
contraband.”
(SFC, 4/4/02, p.A7)(SFC, 4/11/02, p.A10)
2002 Apr 22, Argentina closed its
banks and foreign-exchange markets indefinitely to stop the flow of
money out of the country.
(WSJ, 4/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 23, Jorge Remes Lenicov,
the economy minister, resigned and the senate refused to consider
legislation to convert bank deposits into low-interest, longterm bonds.
(SFC, 4/24/02, p.A7)
2002 Apr 26, Pres. Duhalde
enlisted Roberto Lavagna, ambassador to the EU, as economy minister.
Banks gradually re-opened after a 4-day shutdown.
(SFC, 4/27/02, p.A10)
2002 Jun 1, Argentina announced a
plan to phase out the banking freeze that included 3-10 year bonds for
savings account holders.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.A12)
2002 Jun 26, In Argentina police
and national guardsmen fired tear gas at hundreds of jobless protesters
trying to blockade highways around the capital. Two people were killed
and at least 90 injured.
(AP, 6/26/02)(SFC, 6/27/02, p.A14)
2002 Jun 27, In Argentina
thousands of government opponents marched in anger after a police
crackdown on jobless protesters a day earlier left two dead and 90
wounded.
(AP, 6/27/02)
2002 Jul 9, Thousands of
unemployed Argentines, university students and labor activists marched
on the presidential palace to protest the government's failure to end
the country's deep economic crisis.
(AP, 7/9/02)
2002 Jul 11, Former Argentina
junta leader Leopoldo Galtieri was arrested for the torture and
execution of leftists during the military dictatorship (1976-1983).
(SFC, 7/12/02, p.A10)
2002 Jul 23, Maria Adela Gard de
Antokoletz (90), one of the founding members of the Argentine human
rights group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, died.
(AP, 7/23/02)
2002 Jul 26, In Argentina an new
Evita Museum opened in Buenos Aires on the 50-year anniversary of her
death.
(SFC, 7/26/02, p.A16)
2002 Aug 7, Treasury Secretary
Paul O'Neill urged Argentina to adopt a sound recovery strategy. As
O'Neill prepared to leave Argentina, more than 5,000 people rallied
near the president's downtown offices to protest his visit.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Sep 10, In Argentina
thousands of people staged a 10-minute demonstration in Buenos Aires to
protest a crime wave that has engulfed this country as it falls deeper
into economic crisis.
(AP, 9/10/02)
2002 Sep 13, Argentine police
arrested Luis Ramirez Pineda (77), a retired Chilean army general, at a
Buenos Aires hotel on an international warrant for alleged involvement
in human rights abuses stemming from the 1973 coup in Chile.
(AP, 9/13/02)
2002 Sep 14, Lolita Torres (72), a
singer and one of the top actresses of Argentina's golden era of
cinema, died of complications from a lung infection.
(AP, 9/15/02)
2002 Sep 16, In Argentina a bus
filled with Catholic pilgrims fell into a deep gorge some 50 miles from
Catamarca, killing 38 and injuring 27.
(AP, 9/16/02)
2002 Nov 3, In Argentina Leonardo
Bertulazzi (51) was arrested. He was believed to be head of logistics
for the Red Brigades, which is blamed for the kidnapping and
assassination of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978.
(AP, 11/4/02)
2002 Nov 14, Argentina will not
fully meet an $809 million World Bank debt payment deadline, resulting
in a multilateral debt default that will likely cut off one of its last
avenues to aid.
(Reuters, 11/14/02)
2002 Nov 21, The International
Monetary Fund agreed to Argentina’s request to postpone for a year a
$141 million loan payment due the next day.
(AP, 11/21/02)
2002 Dec 27, Argentine lawmakers
approved the 2003 budget and ratified a new central bank chief, helping
President Eduardo Duhalde's efforts to secure an aid agreement with the
IMF.
(AP, 12/27/02)
2003 Jan 12, In Argentina former
military dictator Leopoldo F. Galtieri (76), who in 1982 led Argentina
into the Falkland Islands war against Britain, died.
(AP, 1/12/03)
2003 Jan 16, Argentina reached a
preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund to avoid
default.
(AP, 1/17/03)
2003 Jan 24, The IMF approved a
$6.78 billion land package to Argentina.
(SFC, 1/25/03, p.A5)
2003 Jan, In Argentina Leyla
Bshier was killed during an orgiastic party in Santiago del Estero and
her body was fed to animals at a private zoo belonging to Musa Azar, a
former security chief. Patricia Villalba was killed after she learned
of Bshier’s murder.
(Econ, 3/13/04, p.39)
2003 Mar 5, In Argentina
the Supreme declared unconstitutional a government decree that
converted dollar bank accounts to devalued pesos.
(AP, 3/5/03)
2003 Mar 8, An
Argentine judge asked Interpol to arrest four Iranian diplomats,
accusing them of responsibility in a deadly terrorist attack that
destroyed a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994.
(AP, 3/9/03)
2003 Apr 21, Luis Moreno Ocampo of
Argentina, currently a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, was
elected as the chief prosecutor of the world's first permanent war
crimes tribunal, headquartered in The Hague.
(AP, 4/22/03)
2003 Apr 27, In Argentina former
President Carlos Menem (72) finished first in presidential elections
but failed to win an outright victory in his comeback bid, setting up a
runoff vote with Nestor Kirchner, governor of Patagonia.
(AP, 4/28/03)(SFC, 4/28/03, A3)
2003 May 1, Flooding hit
northwestern Argentina and at least 13 people were killed and 50,000
driven from their homes.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 14, In Argentina Carlos
Menem withdrew from the presidential elections making Nestor Kirchner,
governor of Santa Cruz province, the new president-elect.
(SFC, 5/15/03, p.A12)
2003 May 25, Nestor Kirchner took
office as Argentina's sixth president in 18 months.
(AP, 5/25/03)
2003 Jun 23, The head of the IMF
met with Argentina's new government, opening a 2-day visit to hear how
Pres. Kirchner plans to confront the country's worst economic crisis in
history.
(AP, 6/23/03)
2003 Aug 12, Legislators in
Argentina's lower house voted to throw out amnesty laws that
effectively ended trials over abuses during the country's military
dictatorship.
(AP, 8/13/03)
2003 Aug 21, Argentina's Senate
voted overwhelmingly to scrap a pair of amnesty laws dating to the
1980s that had ended trials for human rights abuses committed during
the country's military dictatorship.
(AP, 8/21/03)
2003 Sep 9, Argentina missed a
$2.9 billion payment to the IMF.
(Econ, 9/13/03, p.32)
2003 Sep 10, Argentina refinanced
$21 billion in debt including $12.3 billion with the IMF.
(Econ, 9/13/03, p.32)
2003 Oct 6, In Argentina newly
released archives of police intelligence, first discovered in 1998
behind a wall in a building that now houses the Commission for Memory,
indicated that police infiltrated unions and dissident groups before
and during the 1976-83 military dictatorship, monitoring tens of
thousands of people for a quarter of a century.
(AP, 10/6/03)
2003 Oct 31, Thousands of
Argentines banged pots and pans on street corners and apartment
balconies across the capital to protest rising crime.
(AP, 10/31/03)
2003 Nov 12, In Argentina
thunderstorms swept across the country, causing widespread damage and
at least 12 deaths from accidents, falling trees and electrocutions.
(AP, 11/12/03)
2003 In Argentina the government
of Nestor Kirchner approved a law that lifted all restrictions on
immigration from South America and guaranteed access to public health
and education to all migrants, including illegals.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.35)
2003 In Argentina the Justicialist
Party failed to hold a primary this year leading the courts to prohibit
any presidential candidate from this using this name.
(Econ, 2/16/08, p.46)
2003 Argentina’s population was
about 36 million. The population of Buenos Aires was some 12 million.
(AP, 4/26/03)(Econ, 11/19/05, p.81)
2004 Jan 2, In Argentina near
Buenos Aires an explosion at a supermarket that sold illegal fireworks
left five people dead and injured more than a dozen others. A gas leak
was blamed.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 12, Juan Barrionuevo,
Argentine legislator from Tierra del Fuego, was arrested and charged
with committing crimes and torture during the 1976-83 military
dictatorship.
(WPR, 3/04, p.26)
2004 Jan 15, In Argentina Pres.
Nestor Kirchner ordered an investigation into charges the army operated
training camps on torture techniques during the mid-80s.
(AP, 1/16/04)
2004 Jan, In Argentina the Pierre
Auger observatory began operating. It covered 3,000 square km. and was
named after the physicist who discovered extensive air showers induced
by high energy cosmic rays.
(Econ, 11/10/07,
p.100)(www.auger.org/news/PRagn/AGN_correlation_more.html)
2004 Mar 10, Argentina and the IMF
signed an accord to release a $3.1 billion loan. Meetings with
creditors were scheduled to re-schedule $82 billion in loans that the
government defaulted on in 2002. Bondholders were being offered 25
cents on the dollar.
(WSJ, 3/11/04, p.A14)
2004 Mar 17, Axel Blumberg (23),
the son of businessman Juan Carlos Blumberg, was seized in Buenos
Aires. Kidnappers demanded a ransom of 50,000 pesos (16,000 dollars).
(www.jang.com.pk/thenews/apr2004-daily/24-04-2004/world/w10.htm)
2004 Mar 19, An Argentine federal
judge declared unconstitutional a presidential decree that pardoned
several high-ranking military officers accused of human rights abuses
during Argentina's Dirty War.
(AP, 3/19/04)
2004 Mar 24, Argentine Pres.
Nestor Kirchner rallied thousands of supporters on the grounds of a
Dirty War torture camp, announcing it would become a memorial to
victims of the past dictatorship. The "Museum of Memory" on the grounds
of the Navy School of Mechanics, the most infamous detention center of
the 1976-83 military dictatorship, marked a new step toward reconciling
the legacy of the repression.
(AP, 3/25/04)
2004 Mar 24, In Argentina Axel
Blumberg (23), the kidnapped son of businessman Juan Carlos Blumberg,
was murdered following an attempt to escape. This prompted his father
to initiate a high-profile public campaign against impunity for violent
crimes.
(Econ, 9/9/06,
p.39)(www.answers.com/topic/2004-in-argentina)
2004 Apr 20, In Argentina a
federal judge issued an international arrest warrant for former
President Carlos Menem who has refused to appear for questioning in a
corruption probe.
(AP, 4/21/04)
2004 Apr, Some 130,000 marched in
Buenos Aires demanding criminal-justice reform.
(Econ, 4/10/04, p.28)
2004 May 26, Argentina said it is
imposing a 20% tax on natural gas exports. Chile, which imports 90% of
Argentina’s gas, would be hard hit.
(WSJ, 5/27/04, p.A18)
2004 Jun 25, Martin Cisneros, a
“piquetero” activist from the Land and Housing Federation (FTV), was
shot dead at his home in Buenos Aires.
(WSJ, 6/29/04, p.A12)
2004 Sep 1, An Argentine Supreme
Court justice resigned rather than face Senate impeachment proceedings,
the 4th judge targeted in a high court purge led by Pres. Nestor
Kirchner.
(AP, 9/1/04)
2004 Sep 28, In southern Argentina
a student (15) drew a handgun and opened fire in a classroom, killing 3
classmates and wounding 5 at the Islas Malvinas Middle School No. 2.
(AP, 9/30/04)
2004 Nov 1, Roberto Lavagna
unveiled a plan to restructure, at about 30% the original debt, $100
million of sovereign bonds that Argentina defaulted on 3 years earlier.
(Econ, 11/6/04, p.40)
2004 Dec 16, An Argentine judge
struck down an arrest warrant for former President Carlos Menem, who
was wanted for questioning in a federal court probe of
multimillion-dollar accounts in Switzerland.
(AP, 12/16/04)
2004 Dec 22, Former Argentine
president Carlos Menem returned to Argentina following months abroad to
avoid arrest. Menem announced he would run again for the presidency
after an Argentine judge last week dismissed a warrant against him.
(AP, 12/22/04)
2004 Dec 30, In Argentina a flare
lit during a rock concert ignited the foam ceiling of the Cromagnon
Republic nightclub in Buenos Aires packed with teenagers, starting an
inferno that killed 194 people. Omar Chaban, promoter and owner of the
club, later faced charges of manslaughter. In 2006 the Buenos Aires
city council sacked Mayor Anibal Ibarra for failing to root out a
culture of bribery and bureaucratic sloth. In 2009 judges convicted the
concert promoter, three city officials and a band manager in the fire.
The court absolved the Callejeros band of criminal responsibility for
the blaze caused by fans' fireworks.
(AP, 12/31/04)(AP, 12/30/05)(Econ, 3/11/06,
p.35)(AP, 8/20/09)
2004 The extreme poverty rate in
Argentina fell to15% compared to 20.5% in 2003.
(WSJ, 3/16/05, p.A23)
2005 Jan 1, Argentina was forecast
for 4.4% annual GDP growth with a population at 39.1 million and GDP
per head at $3,800.
(Econ, 1/1/05, p.92)
2005 Jan 3, Thousands of
Argentines angered over safety lapses at a nightclub where a fire
killed 183 people, many of them teenagers, marched through capital
streets holding pictures of the victims and demanding the resignations
of key city officials.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2005 Feb 10, In central Argentina
a riot broke out at the San Martin Prison housing 2,000 prisoners,
leaving at least three inmates dead and two dozen guards hostage.
(AP, 2/11/05)
2005 Feb 25, Argentina’s debt swap
offer, to cover a total debt of $102.6 billion, closed. Argentina
planned to issue $35.2 billion in new bonds to those who accepted the
swap. Owners of 76% of the 2001 defaulted bonds accepted the swap
losing 65% of their investment. In 2008 a proposal was in the works to
settle with the remaining holdouts.
(WSJ, 3/28/05, p.A14)(Econ, 9/27/08, p.49)
2005 Mar, Pres. Nestor Kircher
stripped Bishop Baseotto of the state salary he received as chaplain to
the army following scathing anti-abortion remarks directed at health
minister Gines Gonzalez.
(Econ, 4/2/05, p.34)
2005 Apr 11, In central Argentina
a riot broke out in a crowded prison after a fight between rival gangs,
killing 13 people.
(AP, 4/13/05)
2005 Apr 19, A Spanish court
convicted Adolfo Scilingo (58), a former Argentine naval officer, of
crimes against humanity for throwing 30 naked and drugged prisoners
from planes during his country's "dirty war" more than two decades ago.
It sentenced him to 640 years in prison. During the trial, Scilingo
insisted he fabricated the taped testimony to trigger an investigation
into Argentina's "dirty war."
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 May, Energy ministers from
Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela agreed to develop a field in
Venezuela’s heavy-oil belt in the Orinoco, a refinery in Brazil’s
north-east and an oil and gas venture in Argentina under the name
Petrosur.
(Econ, 7/30/05, p.33)
2005 Jun 14, The Argentine Supreme
Court struck down 2 amnesty laws passed in the 1980s. Hundreds of
people could be charged with torture, disappearances and babynapping
during Argentina's "Dirty War" against dissidents.
(AP, 6/14/05)(Econ, 6/25/05, p.39)
2005 Jul 18, Argentina issued
dollar bonds for the 1st time since its massive default in 2001.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.34)
2005 Jun 21, In Argentina retired
Gen. Guillermo Suarez Mason (81), a former junta commander under arrest
in connection with probes of suspected illegal adoptions dating to the
past dictatorship.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jul 26, In Argentina
provincial Sen. Victor Hugo Luna offered a bill that would confiscate
196,000 acres from US rancher Peter McBride’s Taco Pampa property in La
Paz in order to recognize land rights of local goat herders. McBride
had purchased his 286,000 acres for $500,000.
(WSJ, 8/23/05, p.A9)
2005 Aug 8, Milan Lukic, a former
Bosnia Serb paramilitary leader, was captured in Argentina. He was
wanted by a U.N. tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity.
(AP, 8/8/05)
2005 Aug 11, Argentina and
Venezuela signed an accord to set up a joint trust fund aimed at
providing export financing to small businesses. Presidents Kirchner and
Chavez signed a series of accords during the Chavez visit that included
an expansion of Venezuelan fuel oil imports. Kirchner thanked Chavez
for the purchase of $500 million of Argentine government bonds over the
last few months.
(WSJ, 8/12/05, p.A7)
2005 Aug 24, Strong thunderstorms
rolled through Argentina and Uruguay, slowing air traffic, felling
trees and leaving at least eight people dead.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Sep 19, Rescue teams searched
for two Argentine men whose snowmobile plunged into a deep ice crevasse
in Antarctica over the weekend, but hopes of pulling them out alive
were fading.
(AP, 9/19/05)
2005 Sep 28, Argentina’s Senate
removed Antonio Boggiano from the Supreme Court finding him guilty of
arbitrary, biased and inconsistent rulings. He was last of justices
left from the 1990 Supreme Court additions made under Pres. Menem.
(Econ, 10/8/05, p.46)
2005 Sep 30, South American
presidents committed themselves to establishing a continental free
trade zone. The South American summit was attended by the presidents of
Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil and
Argentina.
(AP, 10/1/05)
2005 Oct 13, Scientists announced
the discovery in Argentina of a rooster-size fossil named Buitreraptor
gonzalezorum. It dates back 90 million years and closely resembles
fossils from the North. It was part of the class called dromaesaurs
believed to have originated 180 million years ago in Laurasia.
(www.livescience.com/animalworld/051012_new_dino.html)
2005 Oct 13, Argentina and Chile
suspended imports of Brazilian meat, joining 28 other countries with
similar bans after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.
(AP, 10/13/05)
2005 Oct 16, In Argentina a fire
apparently set by rebellious inmates swept through a prison southeast
of Buenos Aires, killing at least 17 inmates.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 23, Argentina's ruling
party dominated midterm elections seen as a test of President Nestor
Kirchner's two-year-old government, with his Peronist party picking up
support in Congress and his wife winning a Senate seat. Christina
Fernandez de Kirchner won 46% to 20% over Hilda Gonzalez de Duhalde to
represent the province of Buenos Aires.
(AP, 10/24/05)(Econ, 10/29/05, p.37)
2005 Oct 28, In Argentina
indigenous leaders from around the Americas met in Buenos Aires to
draft a declaration of rights to present to world leaders at next
week's Summit of the Americas.
(AP, 10/28/05)
2005 Nov 2, In Argentina thousands
opposed to Pres. Bush held a massive rally at a basketball arena just
days before he arrives at Mar del Plata for the Summit of the Americas.
(AP, 11/2/05)
2005 Nov 3, Leaders from across
the Americas headed to Argentina in another attempt to end Latin
America's chronic poverty, with Washington promoting liberalized trade
and opponents fearful that it will allow corporations to dominate the
poor.
(AP, 11/3/05)
2005 Nov 4, In Argentina crowd of
10,000 people chanting "Get out Bush!" swarmed the streets of Mar del
Plata, hours before the hemisphere's leaders sat down to debate free
trade, immigration and job creation at the fourth Summit of the
Americas. Pres. Bush worked to smooth the United States' troubled image
in Latin America, commending Argentina's efforts to improve its damaged
economy. More than 1,000 masked, anti-US demonstrators clashed with
police, shattered storefronts and torched businesses.
(AP, 11/4/05)(AP, 11/5/05)
2005 Nov 4, In Argentina Mexico’s
Pres. Vicente Fox said that a majority of nations in the Western
Hemisphere will consider moving forward with negotiations to create a
huge new free trade zone without the participation of dissenting
countries like Venezuela.
(AP, 11/4/05)
2005 Nov 5, Leaders from across
the Americas ended their tumultuous 2-day summit in Mar del Plata,
Argentina, without agreeing to restart talks on a US-favored free trade
zone stretching from Alaska to Chile. 5 of 34 participating countries
thwarted the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). They included
Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Venezuela.
(AP, 11/6/05)(SSFC, 11/6/05, p.A15)
2005 Nov 9, Argentine prosecutors
said a Hezbollah militant has been identified as the suicide bomber who
flattened a Jewish community center in 1994, killing 85 people in
Argentina's worst terrorist attack. Hussein Berro, a 21-year-old
Lebanese citizen who "belonged to Hezbollah," was driving the van
packed with explosives July 18, 1994. He was identified by friends and
relatives in Detroit, Mich., from a photograph.
(AP, 11/9/05)
2005 Nov 21, In Venezuela Pres.
Chavez pledged to help build a natural gas pipeline stretching from
Venezuela to Argentina during talks with Argentine leader Nestor
Kirchner.
(AP, 11/21/05)
2005 Dec 30, In Argentina Pepe
Eliaschev, radio broadcaster and government critic, was informed that
management had ordered his show to be dropped.
(Econ, 1/14/06, p.44)
2005 In Argentina lawmakers
approved a plan to extend to migrants most rights enjoyed by Argentine
citizens, while reducing black market labor and registering immigrants.
Implementation of the plan began in 2006.
(SFC, 5/6/06, p.A6)
2006 Jan 3, Argentina repaid $9.57
billion in debt to the International Monetary Fund, a measure officials
depicted as a means to help reclaim Argentina's economic independence.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan, The presidents of
Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil met in Brazil and promised to come up
with the first set of preliminary studies in March for a $20 billion,
5,000-mile gas pipeline, stretching from Venezuela to Argentina.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Feb 9, Spanish police in
Madrid arrested Ricardo Taddei (63), a former Argentine police officer,
wanted in connection with kidnappings and torture during his country's
"dirty war" against leftist dissidents.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 20, Milan Lukic, a
Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect who had been indicted by a UN tribunal
in connection with atrocities during the former war in Bosnia, was
extradited from Argentina to The Hague.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 24, It was reported that
Uruguay’s Pres. Tabare Vazquez backed two enormous plants that would
produce the raw material for paper on Uruguay's border with Argentina
while protesters, worried about the plants' impact on Argentina's
environment, have repeatedly blockaded border bridges, stalling crucial
truck and tourist traffic.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Mar 7, In Buenos Aires,
Argentina, Mayor Anibal Ibarra was removed from office over allegations
that poor government safety regulation contributed to the death of 194
people in a December 2004 nightclub fire.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 8, Argentina suspended
most beef exports for at least 180 days to prevent surging int’l. beef
prices from pushing local prices beyond the power of Argentine
families. Exceptions included the EU due to a quota program and
countries with bilateral beef-import accords.
(WSJ, 3/10/06, p.A15)
2006 Mar 9, In Argentina Raul
Castells opened a soup kitchen in the posh Puerto Madero section of
Buenos Aires near an outlet to the River Plate, with volunteers serving
fried bread cakes and hot herbal tea to about 600 people.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 9, An Argentine air force
plane providing aid for Bolivian flood victims crashed outside of La
Paz, killing all six people on board.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 21, Argentina's naval
chief said he has ordered all in-country intelligence operations by the
navy to be temporarily suspended while officials probe reports of
spying at the southern Admiral Zar naval air base.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 22, In Brazil the US
Embassy said agents from the US Department of Homeland Security will
soon be helping Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay combat money laundering
and terrorism financing.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 28, Spain’s ENCE said it
will suspend construction of a controversial pulp mill in Uruguay to
allow Argentina and Uruguay to resolved their differences over the
environmental impact of the project. In October ENCE announced that it
was abondoning the project.
(FT, 3/29/06, p.8)(Econ, 10/7/06, p.46)
2006 Apr 5, Britain reiterated its
sovereignty over the Falkland Islands and rejected Argentina's claims
in a letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 26, Argentina’s President
Nestor Kirchner announced plans for a high-speed train from Buenos
Aires to Cordoba. A contract for construction was signed in 2008.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenos_Aires-Rosario-C%C3%B3rdoba_high-speed_railway)
2006 May 4, Brazil’s President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met with Argentina’s Pres. Nestor Kirchner,
Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez and Bolivia’s Pres. Morales in response to
Bolivia’s decision to nationalize its oil and gas industry. Morales
offered to refrain from cutting off supplies and to negotiate prices.
(Econ, 5/13/06, p.43)
2006 May 8, Argentina requested
the extradition of five former Uruguayan military officers and a former
police officer wanted in the 1976 disappearance of Maria Claudia
Garcia, the missing daughter-in-law of poet Juan Gelman.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 11, Environmentalists and
authorities said about 100 oil-coated penguins have turned up dead in
recent weeks off the coast of Argentina, most in a nature reserve near
the frigid southernmost tip of Patagonia. The source of the oil was not
known.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 Jun 10, Argentina reaffirmed
its claim of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, known here as the
Malvinas, and said it was ready for talks with Britain over the issue.
Argentina and Britain have disputed the sovereignty of the remote south
Atlantic islands since 1833.
(AFP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 29, Argentina’s President
Nestor Kirchner met Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales and agreed to a
47% price hike for the Bolivian natural gas Argentina needs to fuel
South America's second-largest economy.
(AP, 6/29/06)
2006 Jul 21, Venezuela formally
entered Mercosur, increasing the South American trade bloc's economic
might and vowing to transform the policy organization into a force for
profound social change. Cuba’s Fidel Castro signed a modest trade at
the 2-day Mercosur meeting in Cordoba, Argentina.
(AP, 7/21/06)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.36)
2006 Aug 4, In Argentina Julio
Simon, a former police officer, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for
human rights abuses in connection with the 1978 disappearance of
Chilean Jose Poblete and his Argentine wife, Gertrudis Hlaczik, during
the military dictatorship.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 9, In Buenos Aires Raul
Antonio Guglielminetti, a former intelligence agent and two retired
military officers, were arrested in connection with human rights abuses
dating to Argentina's "Dirty War" against political dissent.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 23, Argentina announced
an ambitious plan to expand its nuclear program to meet rising energy
demands, including extending the life of existing plants and possibly
resuming uranium mining.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 31, In Argentina tens of
thousands gathered in the central square of Buenos Aires for one of the
biggest anti-crime rallies ever seen there. It was organized by Juan
Carlos Blumberg, a businessman and leader of the law-and-order movement.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.39)
2006 Sep 5, A federal judge in
Argentina ruled unconstitutional a 1990 presidential pardon extended to
Jorge Rafael Videla, who led Argentina's military junta during the
worst periods of the so-called "Dirty War" crackdown on dissidents
between 1976 and 1983. A day earlier the same judge ruled that pardons
for Albano Harguinday, the interior minister under Videla, and Jose
Martinez de Hoz, the economy minister under Videla, were also
unconstitutional.
(http://tinyurl.com/0)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.47)
2006 Sep 19, In Argentina Miguel
Osvaldo Etchecolatz (77) a former police investigator, was sentenced to
life in prison in connection with the disappearance of six people
during the so-called "Dirty War" against political dissent.
(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Sep 22, Enrique Gorriaran
Merlo (65), a former Argentine rebel, died. He claimed that he led the
squad that killed exiled Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1980.
(AP, 9/22/06)
2006 Oct 8, In northern Argentina
a bus carrying high school students home from a charity event in an
impoverished community collided head-on with a truck, killing at least
12 people.
(AP, 10/9/06)
2006 Oct 25, Argentine prosecutors
asked a federal judge to order the arrest of former Iranian President
Hashemi Rafsanjani and seven others for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish
cultural center that killed scores of people.
(AP, 10/25/06)
2006 Nov 10, Iran's state media
paid scant attention to an Argentine's judge request for the arrest of
former President Hashemi Rafsanjani and other officials for the 1994
bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 25, In Argentina Nora
Dalmasso (51) was strangled in her Buenos Aires suburban home. In 2007
her son, Facundo Macarron (20), was charged with her murder and
aggravated sexual abuse.
(SSFC, 6/17/07, p.A16)
2006 Nov 17, In southern Argentina
President Nestor Kirchner inaugurated Puerto Belgrano naval base, a new
military academy. The old Navy Mechanics' School in Buenos Aires, a
prestigious school founded in the late 19th century and chief torture
compound during Argentina's Dirty War, is now is being converted into a
museum honoring Dirty War victims.
(AP, 11/17/06)
2006 Nov 28, A protest against
Argentina's former military dictatorship turned into a clash in Buenos
Aires between police with tear gas and rubber bullets and demonstrators
with Molotov cocktails.
(AP, 11/29/06)
2006 Dec 1, In Argentina a court
declared former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani and eight others
fugitives from justice in Argentina, where they are wanted in
connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 29, A key witness in a
human rights trial stemming from Argentina's military dictatorship was
found beaten, two days after he went missing. Luis Gerez (51), who has
accused a former police chief of torturing him during the 1966-73
dictatorship, was found by a police patrol in a street of Garin, north
of Buenos Aires.
(AP, 12/29/06)
2006 Gas reserves in Argentina
fell to fewer than 10 years’ worth of production.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.52)
2007 Jan 11, An Argentine judge
ordered the arrest of the third wife of former political strongman Juan
Domingo Peron, saying he has questions about her chaotic 20-month rule,
a time when shadowy right-wing violence destabilized Argentina ahead of
her political downfall. Isabel Peron has lived in exile in Spain since
1981.
(AP, 1/12/07)
2007 Jan 26, Argentina authorized
officials to reveal state secrets if called to testify in human rights
trials, a move intended to speed up prosecution of atrocities committed
during the country's 1976-1983 military dictatorship.
(AP, 1/27/07)
2007 Mar 1, Argentine President
Nestor Kirchner trumpeted his government's performance on the economy
and human rights during his state-of-the-nation address, and also
defended his ties to Venezuelan leftist Hugo Chavez. Argentina under
Kirchner had begun doctoring inflation statistics to keep them in
single digits while the true rate this year rose to around 25%. The
government was able to save some $500 million in payments on bonds
linked to the consumer price index, but destroyed its credibility.
(AP, 3/1/07)(Econ, 9/27/08, p.49)
2007 Mar 8, In Argentina a federal
judge ordered former de facto president Reynaldo Bignone arrested in
connection with human rights abuses stemming from the 1976-83
dictatorship.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 9, Nearly 20,000 fans
gathered at a stadium in Buenos Aires, not to watch soccer but to hear
Hugo Chavez bash George W. Bush.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 14, In Argentina police
clashed with protesters and ousted Gov. Angel Maza from his offices,
after he refused to leave despite his suspension over corruption
allegations. The La Rioja provincial legislature had voted the night
before to suspend him and start impeachment proceedings over
allegations that he manipulated bids for mining concessions.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 14, In Italy 5 former
members of Argentina's military were convicted in absentia of murdering
three Italians during the Argentina’s "dirty war" (1976-83).
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, Interpol said it
plans to issue international requests for the arrest of five prominent
Iranians and a Lebanese militant in connection with the 1994 bombing of
a Jewish cultural center in Argentina.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 31, In Argentina
authorities said rising rivers due to 5 days of rain in three provinces
have forced some 38,000 people to flee their homes. The floodwaters
have claimed 7 lives.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Mar, Some 70,000 visitors
descended on Mendoza, the wine capital of Argentina, for the start of
its annual grape harvest. Argentina ranked as the world’s 5th largest
wine producer. Local grapes included Malbec (red) and Torrontes (white).
(Econ, 3/17/07, p.44)
2007 Apr 4, Argentina's main
teachers' union called for a one-day national strike next week after
protesting colleagues seeking higher pay clashed with riot police in
two provinces.
(AP, 4/4/07)
2007 Apr 9, Thousands of teachers
walked out of public schools across Argentina in a daylong strike to
demand higher pay and justice for a slain colleague.
(AP, 4/9/07)
2007 Apr 17, Argentina said will
not send former junta leader Jorge Videla to Germany to face charges in
the March, 1977, abduction and murder of activist Elisabeth Kaesemann,
a German woman, during the Dirty War. Her bullet-riddled body was later
found dumped on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
(AP, 4/18/07)
2007 Apr 25, In Argentina a
federal court threw out amnesties for former military President Jorge
Videla (81) and Navy chief Eduardo Massera, two leaders of the former
military dictatorship, saying they must serve their life terms in
prison for crimes against humanity.
(AP, 4/25/07)
2007 May 8, In Argentina 7
managers of Skanska, a Swedish construction firm, were arrested for tax
evasion. Skanska sacked the managers and paid the tax authority almost
$5 million.
(Econ, 5/12/07, p.42)
2007 May 15, Argentine commuters
in Buenos Aires enraged by delays in evening train service set fire to
parts of a railroad station, looted nearby shops and clashed with riot
police.
(AP, 5/15/07)
2007 May 17, In Argentina leftist
union members shut down the Buenos Aires subway system with a one-day
strike, causing huge traffic jams as commuters drove, packed buses or
struggled to hail taxis.
(AP, 5/17/07)
2007 May, In Argentina a cold snap
late this month and the failure of a power plant caused the collapse of
the power grid and fuel supply system. Service stations ran out of
compressed natural gas, which powers many Argentine cars, including 90%
of the taxis in Buenos Aires.
(Econ, 6/16/07, p.47)
2007 Jun 13, Heavy snows hit the
Andean border region of Argentina and Chile, forcing the closure of a
key mountain highway connecting the two countries and idling thousands
of trucks.
(AP, 6/13/07)
2007 Jun 24, Argentines in Buenos
Aires voted for a new mayor. Pre-election polls suggested most would
swing right and elect Mauricio Macri (48), the president of Argentina's
most popular soccer team.
(AP, 6/24/07)
2007 Jun 29, Mercosur, South
America’s biggest trade block (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay),
held a presidential summit in Asuncion, Paraguay.
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.40)
2007 Jul 1, Argentina’s official
government news agency said President Nestor Kirchner has tapped his
wife to take his place as the ruling coalition candidate in October
presidential elections.
(AP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 9, Buenos Aires
experienced its first major snowfall since June, 1918.
(WSJ, 1/10/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 16, Argentina’s President
Nestor Kirchner's economy minister resigned after a prosecutor ordered
her to testify about $64,000 in cash that was found in a bag in her
office bathroom. Kirchner accepted Felisa Miceli's resignation and
appointed economist and Industry Secretary Gustavo Peirano as her
replacement.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Aug 7, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez said Venezuela would invest in a regasification plant for
liquid natural gas for Argentina, which is weathering an energy crisis.
Chavez was in Argentina as part of a regional tour.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, Argentine authorities
said they were investigating why Venezuelan businessman Antonini Wilson
was carrying $800,000 in undeclared cash aboard an executive jet
charted by Argentina's state energy company. In December US prosecutors
said that the suitcase full of Venezuelan cash was intended to finance
the presidential campaign of Cristina Kirchner.
(AP, 8/8/07)(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Aug 25, In Buenos Aires an
Argentine couple captured the stage category at the World Tango
Championships, followed by Chilean and Japanese pairs.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Oct 9, In Argentina former
police chaplain Christian von Wernich was found guilty of being a
"co-participant" with police in seven homicides, 31 torture cases and
42 kidnappings, ending a trial that has focused attention on the church
during the 1976-83 military rule.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 23,
Fernando de la Rua, Argentina’s former president (1999-2001), was
charged with manslaughter in connection with bloody street riots in
2001.
(WSJ, 10/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 28, In Argentina Cristina
Fernandez de Kirchner, the other half of the power couple credited with
the country’s rebound from an economic collapse, overshadowed 13 rivals
as voting opened in Argentina's presidential elections. Cristina
Fernandez, claimed victory in the country's presidential election; she
became the first woman elected to the post.
(AP, 10/28/07)(AP, 10/28/08)
2007 Oct 29, In Argentina partial
results indicated voters had elected a female president for the first
time and launched their country's most powerful political dynasty since
Juan and Evita Peron. President Kirchner and first lady Cristina
Fernandez were poised to switch jobs in December.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Nov 4, In Argentina a fire
apparently set as part of an escape attempt swept through a prison
cellblock and killed at least 30 inmates in the central province of
Santiago del Estero.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 7, Argentina's Pres.
Nestor Kirchner unveiled a memorial in Buenos Aires to victims of the
so-called Dirty War that claimed some 13,000 lives during the country's
military dictatorship, using the occasion to urge judges to speed human
rights trials.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 7, Interpol put Ali
Fallahian, Iran’s former intelligence chief, Mohsen Rezai, a former
leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Ahmad Vahidi, a Revolutionary
Guards general, and 2 other Iranians and Imad Mugniyah, a Lebanese
militant on its most-wanted list for a 1994 bombing that killed 85
people at a Jewish center in Argentina.
(AP, 11/8/07)(WSJ, 1/15/08, p.A6)
2007 Nov 10, Some 20,000
demonstrators marched to Argentina's river border with Uruguay to
protest the impending startup of a paper pulp plant they fear will
pollute the environment. The cellulose mill in Fray Bentos was built by
Metsa-Botnia, a Finnish company, at a cost of $1.2 billion.
Construction was completed in October and Uruguay’s Pres. Vazquez
ordered it opened in November despite protests from Argentina.
(AP, 11/10/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.44)
2007 Dec 10, Cristina Kirchner was
sworn in as president of Argentina. Hector Febres (66), accused of
kidnapping and torturing dissidents during Argentina's past military
dictatorship, was found dead in his cell at a navy brig four days
before an expected verdict in his high-profile case. On Dec 14 police
detained the wife and two grown children of the former coast guard
officer hours after an autopsy found cyanide in his blood.
(WSJ, 12/8/07, p.A1)(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 11, US officials in
Florida arrested 4 people, 3 from Venezuelan and one from Uruguay, and
accused them of being agents of the Venezuelan government. Prosecutors
later said the 4 were seeking to silence Guido Alehandro Antonini
Wilson, a citizen of both the USA and Venezuela. In August Wilson was
detained in Argentina for carrying $800,000 in a suitcase, which
prosecutors said was intended to aid the campaign of Cristina Kirchner.
Franklin Duran, multimillionaire owner of Industrias Venoco CA, was one
of the arrested Venezuelans. In 2008 a federal jury convicted Duran on
charges that he was a foreign agent involved in a conspiracy.
(WSJ, 12/13/07, p.A16)(WSJ, 3/10/08, p.A5)(SFC,
11/4/08, p.A4)
2007 Dec 13, Argentina's new
president reacted furiously to accusations by US prosecutors that an
intercepted suitcase full of cash from Venezuela was meant to finance
her election campaign, calling the charge "garbage in international
politics."
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 16, Argentina and Brazil
successfully launched a rocket into space in the first joint space
mission by the two South American nations. The VS30 rocket, which
carried experiments from both countries, blasted off from Brazil's
Barreira do Inferno launch center in northern Rio Grande do Norte state.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 18, In Argentina 7 former
army officers and an ex-police official were convicted and sentenced to
at least 20 years in prison for human rights abuses during Argentina's
bloody dictatorship.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 18, The leaders of
Argentina and Venezuela closed ranks against the United States,
rejecting US court charges in a campaign cash scandal as one more
example of Americans treating their nations like subservient colonies.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Juan Gelman (b.1930),
Argentine poet, won the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious award for
Spanish-language literature.
(AP,
8/28/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Gelman)
2008 Jan 12, At Argentina's main
airport frustrated passengers smashed ticket counters and threw objects
at airline staff after the country's flagship airline canceled
international flights for a 2nd day due to delays caused by a baggage
handlers strike and a walkout by ticket counter workers.
(Reuters, 1/12/08)
2008 Jan 25, In Miami Moises
Maionica (36) of Venezuelan pleaded guilty in a scheme to cover up the
source of $800,000 seized in a suitcase in Argentina that was allegedly
sent by Venezuelans as a donation to Cristina Fernandez's presidential
campaign.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Feb 23, The presidents of
Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia gathered in Buenos Aires to try to agree
on how to divide scarce supplies of Bolivian natural gas.
(WSJ, 2/23/08, p.A6)
2008 Feb 25, In Argentina the body
of Paul Alberto Navone, a retired army officer, was found dead of a
gunshot in an apparent suicide. He had been called to testify about the
fate of twins born to a political prisoner in 1978.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Mar 9, In Argentina a
passenger train slammed into a bus at a rural rail crossing before
dawn, killing 18 people and leaving at least 47 others injured.
(AP, 3/9/08)
2008 Mar 25, Argentina’s President
Cristina Fernandez refused to ease tax hikes on agricultural exports,
facing down angry farmers embroiled in a nationwide strike that has all
but halted production in one of the world's biggest beef-exporting
nations. The tax on soybeans had been raised to 40%, up from 27% in
2007.
(AP, 3/26/08)(Econ, 3/29/08, p.49)
2008 Apr 1, Argentina’s President
Cristina Fernandez blasted striking farmers at a rally of 20,000
supporters, comparing their nearly three-week-old protest to a 1976
strike that sowed chaos one month before a military coup.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 2, Argentine farmers,
rebelling over soaring export taxes on their crops, declared a 30-day
truce suspending a three-week-long strike that has stripped grocery
shelves of beef and produce, granting Cristina Fernandez a reprieve in
the first major crisis of her presidency.
(AP, 4/3/08)(WSJ, 4/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 4, In Argentina a court
sentenced the adoptive parents of a baby born to a missing political
prisoner to up to eight years in prison for concealing the child's
identity, in a landmark case with roots in Argentina's dictatorship.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 11, Runners surrounded by
rows of security carried the Olympic flame past thousands of jubilant
Argentines in the most trouble-free torch relay in nearly a week.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 19, In Argentina
President Cristina Fernandez surveyed more than 200 raging brush fires
by air as a thick cloud of smoke covered Buenos Aires for a fifth day.
She vowed to prosecute anyone who lit the blazes that have sent smoke
clouding highways and grounding jetliners.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 24, In Argentina
authorities detained Luis Abelardo Patti, a politician and former
police officer targeted in a Dirty War-era human rights probe in
Argentina, just hours after Congress barred him from taking up a seat
that would have afforded him immunity.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 29, Argentina’s
government signed a $3.7 billion contract for a high-speed train from
Buenos Aires to Cordoba.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenos_Aires-Rosario-C%C3%B3rdoba_high-speed_railway)
2008 May 19, Argentine farmers
announced plans to suspend a 13-day strike and resume grain sales,
paving the way for talks with the government to end contentious export
restrictions.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 27, Argentine farm groups
vowed to suspend grain exports and meat sales, resuming protests
against controversial export taxes a day after talks with the
government stalled. DNA tests established the identity of an Argentine
woman taken from her parents during the country's military
dictatorship, the 90th such child identified by a group of grandmothers
searching for their missing relatives.
(AP, 5/27/08)(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 29, Argentina's
government set a ceiling on variable grain export taxes, but farmers
said the change wasn't enough to make them lift a weeklong suspension
of beef and grain exports.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 Jun 10, In Argentina a new
consumer price index came into effect. Under the new methodology every
time a product’s price rises too sharply, it will be removed on the
ground that consumers will switch to other goods. The official current
inflation was in single digits, as the true figure soared above 20%.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.48)
2008 Jun 14, Argentine police in
riot gear broke up a farmers' highway blockade, briefly arresting 19
demonstrators including a prominent leader of a three-month protest
against an increase in grain export taxes.
(AP, 6/14/08)
2008 Jul 5, Argentina's lower
house of Congress approved a package of grain-export taxes that have
sparked nationwide farm protests and food shortages.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 15, Tens of thousands of
Argentine farmers and government supporters staged dueling protests
ahead of a Senate vote on a package of grain-export taxes that
generated months of bitter farm strikes.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 17, Argentina's Senate
narrowly rejected a grain-export tax package, a government-backed
proposal that has led to nationwide farm strikes and regional food
shortages.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 18, Argentina’s President
Cristina Fernandez canceled a widely protested farm export tax hike
following months of protest and a stunning rejection by the Senate. She
issued a resolution reducing the export taxes to their previous level.
(AP, 7/18/08)(Econ, 7/26/08, p.43)
2008 Jul 28, Hernan Arbizu, former
JPMorgan Chase & Co private banking executive, was arrested in
Argentina following an indictment on charges of embezzling about $5.4
million. He fled to Argentina before being fired in June.
(Reuters, 7/29/08)
2008 Aug 2, Perez Celis (b.1939),
a prestigious Argentine muralist, painter and sculptor, died in Buenos
Aires.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 13, Argentine senators
approved a bill declaring obesity and other eating disorders diseases
covered by the nation's public and private health care programs.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 18, Argentina announced
its first nationwide gay-rights measure: granting same-sex couples the
right to claim their deceased partners' pensions.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 28, An Argentine court
convicted two former generals for the murder of a senator during the
country's seven-year military dictatorship and sentenced them to life
in prison. Retired Gens. Antonio Bussi and Luciano Menendez were found
guilty of kidnapping, torturing and murdering Sen. Guillermo Vargas
Aignasse, who disappeared March 24, 1976, the day of a military coup.
(AP, 8/29/08)
2008 Sep 2, Argentina’s Pres.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner promised to repay $6.7 billion that
Argentina owed to the Paris Club of 19 foreign governments following
its 2001 default, It will use part of its $47 billion in foreign
currency reserves to pay the debts. The government still refused to
negotiate with private holders of $20 billion of its bonds, who held
out against the 2005 debt restructuring.
(WSJ, 9/3/08, p.A12)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.45)
2008 Oct 11, It was reported that
the population of adult hake fish off Argentina’s coast has declined by
70% in the past 20 years. Skippers reportedly paid some $2-3 million in
bribes to inspectors and routinely underreported their catches.
(Econ, 10/11/08, p.53)
2008 Oct 21, Argentina proposed to
nationalize the private pensions in order to meet debt payments.
(WSJ, 10/22/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 22, The DJIA tumbled
514.45 to close at 8519.21, its 7th biggest point drop in history, as
investors believed that the global economy is heading into a deep
recession. Hungary’s central bank raised interest rates by 3 points,
from 8.5% to 11.5%, to prevent a run on its currency. Argentine and
Brazilian stock markets each fell about 10%. Former Fed Chief Alan
Greenspan said he was wrong to think that financial markets could
police themselves.
(WSJ, 10/22/08, p.A1)(SFC, 10/24/08, p.C1)(Econ,
10/25/08, p.33)
2008 Nov 17, Algeria and Argentina
signed an agreement to boost cooperation over civil nuclear energy as
part of Argentine President Cristina Kirchner's tour of northern Africa.
(AFP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 21, Mario Ferreyra (63),
an ex-Argentine police commander, committed suicide in front of rolling
television cameras as he was about to be arrested for alleged human
rights violations during the country's dictatorship.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 28, In Argentina a
three-judge panel formally charged former President Carlos Menem with
arms trafficking as he watched on live video from hundreds of miles
away because doctors say he is too ill to travel.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Dec 9, In Argentina officials
announced that 10,000 bone fragments had been unearthed between
February and September, inside the once-secret Arana detention center
in La Plata. Political dissidents were tortured and killed there during
the 1976-1983 “Dirty War.”
(AP, 12/10/08)
2009 Jan 7, In Argentina an
Italian climber and an Argentine guide both died when a storm trapped
five mountaineers just below the summit of the Aconcagua peak, the
highest mountain in the Americas. The three others survived.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 10, In Argentina 6
children died in Buenos Aires after a fire ripped through a former bank
being used as a home by poor families.
(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 18, The Polar Mist
unexpectedly sank 25 miles (40 kilometers) off the Argentine coast,
near the mouth of the Straits of Magellan, as it was being tugged to
dry land. 8 crew members had been rescued 2 days earlier. The owners of
its cargo said nearly $22 million in unrefined gold and silver went
down with it, and they asked insurer Lloyd's of London to foot the bill
for the costly recovery operation. Argentine news media and maritime
experts asked whether the precious metals were aboard at all. On July
14 divers recovered nearly a ton of unrefined silver from the ship
easing suspicions about insurance claims on the vessel. Divers
concluded their mission on August 2 to retrieve 9.5 tons of unrefined
gold and silver.
(AP, 4/8/09)(AP, 7/16/09)(AP, 8/3/09)
2009 Jan 26, Argentina's Pres.
Cristina Fernandez declared an agricultural emergency in the nation's
breadbasket provinces, responding to a key demand by powerful farm
organizations amid the worst drought in decades.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Feb 9, In Argentina the
ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X said British Bishop Richard
Williamson, whose denials of the Holocaust led to Vatican demands he
recant, has been removed as the head of an Argentine seminary. On Feb
19 the bishop was ordered to leave Argentina within 10 days.
(AP, 2/9/09)(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 9, In Argentina at least
12 people were missing and over 1000 evacuated after a mudslide swept
away a railroad bridge and homes in the northern border town of
Tartagal.
(SFC, 2/10/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 27, In Argentina a new
rule took effect in which members of the armed forces, related to
crimes under the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, will be tried by
civil courts rather than military tribunals.
(SFC, 2/28/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 6, In Argentina Claudio
Lifschitz, a criminal attorney who accused former President Carlos
Menem of covering up the nation's worst terrorist attack, was kidnapped
and tortured by masked gunmen seeking information about the case.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 8, In Argentina Matthew
Lizotte (25) of Aspen, Colorado, died while scaling the 11,411-foot
(3,480-meter) Mount Tronador in Nahuel Huapi National Park. Two
unidentified students were injured when the ice bridge they were
crossing broke.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 30, Banking officials
meeting in Colombia said Argentina and China have tentatively agreed to
swap $10 billion worth of their currencies to enable South America's
second-largest economy to avoid using dollars in trade between the
nations.
(AP, 3/30/09)
2009 Mar 30, Argentina’s health
minister acknowledged that the country was in the middle of a dengue
fever epidemic with nearly 8,000 people infected. Neighboring Bolivia
had about 51,000 cases reported, while Brazil counted some 40,000 cases.
(http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46371)(SSFC,
4/19/09, p.G3)
2009 Mar 31, Raul Alfonsin
(b.1927), former Argentine president (1983-1989), died. He guided his
country's return to democracy following a military dictatorship that
left thousands missing.
(AP,
4/1/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raul_Alfons%C3%ADn)
2009 May 7, Argentina and Brazil
confirmed five swine flu cases within their borders as the virus
affects more nations in South America.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 29, In Argentina Swiss
architect Peter Zumthor (66) received the 2009 Pritzker Architecture
Prize. He compared his creative process to the arc of a love affair.
(AP, 5/30/09)
2009 Jun 9, In Argentina judge
Rodolfo Canicoba Corral asked Interpol to detain Samuel Salman (43),
who is believed to be living in Lebanon, for involvement in the July
18, 1994, bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires that
killed 85 people.
(AP, 6/9/09)
2009 Jun 10, In Argentina Father
Julio Grassi (52), a Roman Catholic priest who won fame running an
Argentine foundation for poor youths (1993), was convicted of sexually
molesting a boy who participated in the program. He was sentenced to 15
years in prison. Grassi continued to proclaim his innocence, saying he
was "the victim of an injustice."
(AP, 6/10/09)
2009 Jun 28, Argentina's first
couple suffered a stunning setback in an election seen as a referendum
on their political dynasty, losing control of both houses of Congress.
The loss weakened President Cristina Fernandez's government two years
before she leaves office by diminishing her ability to push legislation
through Congress. Former President Nestor Kirchner, lost a bid for a
seat from Buenos Aires province. Allies of the first couple also lost
key races in the election in the city of Buenos Aires and Cordoba and
Santa Fe provinces.
(AP, 6/29/09)
2009 Jun 30, Authorities in
Argentina's capital and Buenos Aires province declared health
emergencies and extended school vacations as the nation's swine flu
death toll surged to 35.
(AP, 6/30/09)
2009 Jul 1, In Argentina Juan Luis
Manzur, a doctor and vice governor in Tucuman province, replaced Health
Minister Graciela Ocana, who resigned on June 29 as concerns over the
virus rose. He announced plans to boost public health spending by $263
million this year and said pregnant women could miss work for 15 days
to avoid contracting swine flu.
(AP, 7/2/09)
2009 Jul 7, Spanish police
arrested Jorge Alberto Soza (72), an ex-Argentine police official
suspected of human rights abuses committed during the South American
country's dirty war. Soza was wanted in Argentina in connection with 18
cases of kidnapping and torture between 1975 and 1977 when he was an
assistant Federal Police commissioner and chief delegate in the
southern Argentine city of Neuquen.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 10, Millions of
Argentines stayed home from work, churches in Bolivia canceled Mass and
Ecuador announced its first fatalities from swine flu, as the virus
continued its spread during the South American winter season.
(AP, 7/11/09)
2009 Aug 12, In Argentina Retired
Gen. Santiago Riveros and four other members of the military were
convicted and sentenced to long prison terms in the 1976 killing of
Floreal Avellaneda (14), the son of a communist activist.
(www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/87.88eng/chap5.htm)(AP,
8/12/09)
2009 Aug 12, Argentina’s customs
service confiscated a total of 4.2 metric tons (4.6 tons) of
pseudoephedrine, chemical that can be used to make methamphetamine, at
several government warehouses at the port in Buenos Aires during an
investigation into drug traffickers with ties to Mexico.
(AP, 8/13/09)
2009 Aug 24, Argentine federal
police uncovered four tons (4,200 kilograms) of ephedrine worth
millions in oil drums and boxes to be sent to Mexico and the US. The
lead investigator called it the largest illegal shipment of the
methamphetamine precursor ever seized there.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 25, Argentina's Supreme
Court ruled out prison for pot possession, saying the government should
go after major traffickers and provide treatment instead of jail for
consumers of marijuana.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Sep 8, Across northern
Argentina and southern Brazil a violent storm that spawned a tornado
and mudslides killed at least 15 people. Dozens were injured in the
winds and hail as their homes were destroyed.
(AP, 9/8/09)
2009 Sep 22, In Spain Julio
Alberto Poch, an Argentine-born pilot for a low-cost airline, was
arrested during a stopover in a Spanish airport on suspicion of
piloting planes that carried hundreds of dissidents to their deaths
during his country's 1976-1983 "dirty war." He was wanted for
questioning in four probes of more than 1,000 deaths during his time as
a pilot at the Navy Mechanics School.
(AP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 30, The 24 members of
UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee of Intangible Heritage granted the
tango dance and its music protected cultural status at its meeting in
Abu Dhabi. The designation may make Argentina and Uruguay, which both
claim to be tango's birthplace, eligible to receive financial
assistance from a specialized fund for safeguarding cultural traditions.
(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Oct 4, Mercedes Sosa (74),
Argentine singer, died. Her music was banned after the generals seized
power in 1976. She had released over 70 albums and turned the songs of
others into great anthems of the left.
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.42)
2009 Oct 7, Pedro Elias Zadunaisky
(b.1917), Argentine astronomer and mathematician, died. His
calculations helped determine the orbit of Saturn's outermost moon,
Phoebe, as well as Halley's Comet.
(AP, 10/7/09)
2009 Oct 10, Argentina's Senate
overwhelmingly approved a law that transformed the nation's media
landscape. President Cristina Kirchner said she would sign it
immediately. The new law preserved two-thirds of the radio and TV
spectrum for noncommercial stations, and required channels to use more
Argentine content. It also forced Grupo Clarin, the country's leading
media company, to sell off many of its properties.
(AP, 10/10/09)
2009 Oct 20, Representatives of
Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay announced a joint plan in Buenos Aires
to establish protected zones to halt deforestation in their countries
by 2020.
(SFC, 10/21/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 2, The Swiss government
said it has handed banking documents over to Argentina in a $25 million
dollar corruption probe linked to former President Carlos Menem and
French defense company Thales.
(AP, 11/2/09)
2009 Nov 16, In Argentina 2 men
were granted a marriage license in Buenos Aires, breaking ground in a
country and region where laws ban gay marriage.
(AP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 18, Argentina's Congress,
valuing truth over the right to privacy, authorized the forced
extraction of DNA from people who may have been born to political
prisoners slain a quarter-century ago, even when they don't want to
know their birth parents.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 25, Officials said
flooding from heavy rains has killed 12 people in Argentina, Brazil and
Uruguay and forced more than 20,000 to flee their homes. Most of the
dead were in southern Brazil, including eight in Rio Grande do Sul.
(AP, 11/25/09)
2009 Nov 29, In Argentina Solange
Magnano (38), a mother of twins who won the Miss Argentina crown in
1994, died of a pulmonary embolism after three days in critical
condition following a gluteoplasty in Buenos Aires.
(AP, 11/30/09)
2009 Nov 30, An Argentine judge
issued an order blocking the continent's first gay marriage scheduled
for Dec 1. National Judge Marta Gomez Alsina ordered the wedding
blocked until the issue can be considered by the Supreme Court.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 28, In Argentina two men
succeeded in becoming Latin America's first same-sex married couple.
Gay rights activists Jose Maria Di Bello (41) and Alex Freyre (39) took
their civil ceremony to the capital of Argentina's Tierra del Fuego
province, where a sympathetic governor backed their bid to make Latin
American history.
(AP, 12/29/09)
2009 Dec 30, An Argentine judge
convicted former Santa Fe Roman Catholic Archbishop Edgardo Storni of
sexually abusing a seminarian in 1992.
(AP, 12/30/09)
2010 Jan 6, Argentine President
Cristina Fernandez ordered the military to declassify all "dirty
war"-related documents.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 23, Brazil extradited
Manuel Juan Cordero Piacentini, a retired Uruguayan military officer,
to Argentina to face charges of human rights abuses allegedly committed
more than 30 years ago. Under "Operation Condor," the military
dictatorships that ruled much of South America in the 1970s and 1980s
secretly cooperated in the torture and disappearances of each others'
citizens.
(AP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 31, In Argentina Tomas
Eloy Martinez (75), author and journalist famed for his writings about
former President Juan Domingo Peron and his glamorous wife Eva, died.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Feb 22, Latin American and
Caribbean nations backed Argentina's claim of sovereignty to the
Falkland Islands in a growing dispute with Britain over plans to drill
for oil off the islands in the Atlantic. British exploration company
Desire Petroleum PLC said it started drilling for oil about 62 miles
north of the disputed islands.
(AP, 2/23/10)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A2)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Argentina
End of file.