THE GEOGRAPHY (Foregn Office UK)
Area: 1.08 million square miles
Population: 36.1 million (1998 official
figures); (37.3 million – 2001 est.)
Capital city: Buenos Aires (population
3.04 million; around 12 million live in the
greater Buenos Aires metropolitan
area)
People: Most Argentines are of
European origin, especially Spanish and
Italian; substantial numbers also came
from France, Poland, Russia and
Germany. The Jewish community,
located mainly in Buenos Aires, is
thought to be one of the largest in the
world outside Israel. The many other
ethnic groups include 1 million people of
Arab descent. Around 1% of the
population are indigenous people living
outside the capital, mainly in the north
and west.
Language: The official language is
Spanish.
Religion (s): Roman Catholic (90%);
Protestant (2%); other religions include
Judaism, Islam and some minority
Christian churches
Currency: Peso
Major Political parties: Partido
Justicialista (PJ): Peronist Party Union
Civica Radical (UCR): Radical Party
Alternativa por una Republica de Iguales
(ARI)
Government: Argentina is a
constitutional republic. The Argentine
Constitution was amended in 1994. The
President is directly elected for a
four-year term, which can be
renewed once. The legislature consists
of a bicameral National Congress, made
up of an Upper House Senate (72
members, three for each province)
and a lower house Chamber of
Deputies (257 deputies).
Head of State: President Eduardo
Duhalde (since 1 January 2002)
Appointed after a political crisis which
led to the resignation of the elected
president. Argentina will have new
Presidential Elections in April 2003 (see
below)
Foreign Minister: Dr Carlos Ruckauf
Membership of international
groups/organisations: Argentina is a
member of Mercosur, a regional
common market bloc (the other
members are Brazil, Uruguay and
Paraguay). Member of the United
Nations (UN) and many of its
subsidiary bodies, the G-77, the
Organisation of American States
(OAS), Rio Group, World Health
Organisation, International Labour
Organisation, International Maritime
Organisation, Intelsat, and Inmarsat.
Argentina is also a Party to many
international environmental
agreements, including the Antarctic
Treaty (whose Secretariat will be in
Buenos Aires), Biodiversity, Climate
Change, Endangered Species,
Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea,
Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer
Protection and Whaling.
GEOGRAPHY
Argentina is the second largest country
in Latin America after Brazil (almost all
the countries of Western Europe and
Scandinavia could fit inside
Argentina's land mass). The country is
widely diverse and includes rain forest
in the north, vast areas of fertile
farming land in the centre, the Andean
mountain range to the west and the
desolate plains of Patagonia in the
south, leading down to ice glaciers at
the southern tip. Argentina has the
world's southernmost city (Ushaia).
THE HISTORY (Foregn Office UK)
Argentina is reckoned to be one of the
last countries in Latin America to be
settled, with the original inhabitants
migrating down from the north some
25,000 years ago.
1516 Juan Diaz de Solis explores Rio de
la Plata estuary
1536 First foundation of Buenos Aires
by Pedro de Mendoza; Spanish
colonisation begins
1810 Buenos Aires revolutionary council
declares freedom from Spain
1816 Formal declaration of Argentine
independence
1880 Buenos Aires becomes capital of
Argentina
1916 First universal male suffrage;
Hipolito Yrigoyen (UCR) elected
President
1930 Hipolito Yrigoyen ousted from his
second presidency by the first military
coup in the twentieth century
1946 General Juan Peron elected
President
1951 General Peron re-elected
President
1952 Death of General Peron's wife
Eva Duarte
1955 General Peron ousted in military
coup and went into exile
1973 General Peron returned from
exile and elected President for the
third time
1974 General Peron dies; succeeded as
President by widow Isabel
1976 Military government takes over
1982 General Galtieri sends troops to
invade Falkland Islands; British task
force liberates them two months later
1983 Military government ends: Raul
Alfonsin elected President
1989 Alfonsin resigns five months
before end of presidential term and
hands over to President-elect Carlos
Menem
1994 New constitution approved,
allowing President to serve two
consecutive terms
1995 President Menem re-elected for
second term
1999 Fernando De La Rua elected
President
2001 President De La Rua resigns
following widespread civic unrest and
protests against Government's
economic policies (December).Adolfo
Rodriguez Saa elected President by
Congress but resigns a week later
2002 Eduardo Duhalde is elected
President by Congress (January)
POLITICS
Argentina has a system of presidential
democracy. There is universal
suffrage. Elections for the Senate and
half the Chamber of Deputies were
held in October 2001. The Partido
Justicialista (PJ, the Peronist party)
now controls the Senate and is also the
largest single bloc in the Chamber of
Deputies. The figures are as follows:
Senate: PJ 41; Alliance 25; others 6.
Chamber of Deputies: PJ 110; Alliance
90; others 57. The PJ also did well in
provincial elections and now controls 18
of the 24 provinces. The elections
were marked by a high level of
spoiled/blank votes (more than one
quarter in major conurbations).
Following the return to civilian
government in 1983, Argentina was
ruled by President Alfonsin's Radical
Party until his resignation in July 1989,
when he handed over power to his
elected successor Carlos Menem of
the PJ. Menem was re-elected in 1995.
Under the Constitution, Menem was
prohibited from running a third time
consecutively, and in the elections of
1999, Fernando De La Rua of the
Alliance coalition (made up of the UCR
and the FREPASO parties now virtually
defunct) won 49% of the vote,
defeating Eduardo Duhalde of the PJ,
who received 36%. Argentina suffered
increasing economic problems during
2000-1 (see below) and, following
widespread civic unrest and riots
which led to 27 deaths, De La Rua
resigned on 20 December 2001. Under
the terms of the Constitution, the
President of the Senate was appointed
interim President. Congress then
elected Adolfo Rodriguez Saa President
on 23 December. However, he resigned
a week later as he was unable to
command sufficient political support
for his policies. The President of the
Chamber of Deputies then became
interim President until on 1 January
2002, Eduardo Duhalde was elected
President by Congress. Duhalde initially
said that he intends to see out the
remainder of De La Rua's term, but
decided in July 2002, following public
pressure, that he would stand down in
May 2003, bringing elections forward
from September to 27 April 2003.
THE ECONOMY (Foregn Office UK)
Throughout the 1990s, the Menem
government pursued a policy of trade
liberalisation, deregulation and
privatisation. The peso was pegged one
to one with the US dollar (the
so-called 'convertibility'), which
helped to bring inflation down from the
high levels of the 1980s. For much of
the decade, Argentina enjoyed low
inflation and rising growth. However,
fundamental rigidities and fiscal
imbalances were not properly tackled,
external economic conditions worsened
and in 1998 Argentina entered a
recession which is still continuing. In
2001, Argentina agreed an economic
rescue package with the IMF worth
almost US$40 billion. However,
economic conditions continued to
deteriorate. Despite a series of
austerity measures and public spending
cuts, and further help from the IMF,
the Argentine government found it
increasingly hard to meet its debt
repayments during the year. Public
protests against the austerity
measures became more vociferous and
intensified in December after the
government announced measures to
restrict the amount of money people
could withdraw from their bank
accounts. The riots that followed led to
President De La Rua's resignation. In
early January 2002, Argentina
officially defaulted on its debt of
around US$100 billion. President
Duhalde announced that the new
government would abandon the peso
peg with the dollar, and on 11 February,
the currency was allowed to float.
Since then, the peso has fallen by
nearly 70% but has established since
late June below 3.7 pesos per dollar
(around 5.5 pesos per £). The change
in the monetary regime fuelled inflation
again, although significantly less than
the devaluation rate. Argentina is now
trying to negotiate with the IMF a new
agreement that would enable the
country to roll over forthcoming debts
to the international credit
organisations. Also on the
government's agenda are issues such
as the debt negotiation with private
creditors, the need to reduce public
spending and a new economic fr
amework for utilities whose contracts
have been broken. Social developments
are also key, as 56% of Argentines are
now considered poor and 21.5% of the
labour force is unemployed. On 14
November, Argentina defaulted on the
payment of a $720 million debt to the
World Bank.
Basic Economic Facts
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Argentina's relations with its
neighbours
Argentina is a key member of the
regional common market bloc
Mercosur, established in 1991, which
seeks to remove barriers to trade
between its members. Mercosur is the
world's fourth biggest integrated
market and the second largest in the
Americas after the North American
Free Trade Area (NAFTA) with a
combined population of about 200
million people. Trade flows between
Argentina and the other members
(Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay) have
increased significantly during the last
five years.
Argentina's Relations with the
International Community
Argentina plays an active role on the
international stage, especially in the UN
and OAS. Argentine troops have been
deployed on UN peacekeeping
operations in Cyprus, Kosovo and the
Middle East amongst other regions.
Argentina strongly condemned the
terrorist attacks against the USA in
September 2001.
ARGENTINA'S RELATIONS WITH THE
UK
Argentina has long and historic links
with the UK. British companies played a
vital role in Argentina's commercial
development during the 19th century.
The railways, food processing plant
and many of the financial services
were developed and managed by British
firms. A wide range of UK
manufactured goods was exported to
Argentina, and the UK in turn was a
major destination for Argentine
products. The main problem in bilateral
relations has been the Argentine claims
to the two UK Overseas Territories of
the Falkland Islands and South Georgia
and the South Sandwich Islands
(SGSSI). In April 1982, the Argentine
military government sent troops to
occupy the Falklands and South
Georgia. The British government sent a
task force to the South Atlantic; South
Georgia was liberated in April and the
Falkland Islands in June. Diplomatic
relations with Argentina were restored
in February 1990; this followed a series
of talks in Madrid in which the two
sides agreed a formula to protect their
respective positions on sovereignty
over the Falklands and SGSSI. This
formula has enabled the two
governments to make progress in
many areas of common interest.
Diplomatic Representation
British Embassy, Buenos Aires
Argentinian Representation in the UK
Trade and Investment with the UK
The UK is the 6th largest investor in
Argentina (over $2 billion in the last
three years). UK companies continue to
have an important stake in certain
sectors such as pharmaceuticals
(GlaxoSmithKline), banking (HSBC,
Lloyds) and energy (BG Group, BP and
Shell). UK exports consist mainly of
machinery and transport equipment,
chemicals and related products.
Argentine exports to the UK are mainly
food, live animals, beverages and
tobacco. The UK is now one of
Argentina's top export markets for
wine. UK exports to Argentina: £266
million (2001) Argentine exports to UK:
£215 million (2001)
Trade Partners UK Argentina
Cultural Relations with the UK
There has always been a strong British
cultural influence in Argentina, which
can be seen in everything from schools
to sport. Football, rugby, cricket and
polo were all imported from the UK
and taken up enthusiastically. One of
Argentina's most well known
footballers, Juan Sebastian Veron, now
plays for Manchester United. England
and Argentina played each other in the
World Cup on 7 June. The British
Council promotes an active academic,
cultural and educational programme in
Argentina. A British Cultural Centre
opened in Buenos Aires in 1997. The
Council and the British Embassy jointly
manage the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office's Chevening Scholarship
programme, which sends Argentine
postgraduate students to the UK each
year.
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