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Argentina: on the verge of political and institutional chaos

Rights & Democracy and International Human Rights Federation Mission Concludes

The economic collapse in Argentina has brought the country to the edge of political and institutional chaos, said a representative of Rights & Democracy who returned from a fact-finding mission to the South American country this week

MONTREAL, March 13, 2002 - The economic collapse in Argentina has brought the country to the edge of political and institutional chaos, said a representative of Rights & Democracy who returned from a fact-finding mission to the South American country this week.

"The acute economic crisis that we had expected to witness has been compounded by the fact that Argentina's entire political class as well as its most basic institutions have been severely discredited," said Yasmine Shamsie, a York University specialist on political economy and development, who represented Rights & Democracy on the mission.

Organized by the International Federation of Human Rights, the mission set out to gather information on the reported violations of civil and political rights as an official response to widespread protests at the government's failure to guarantee citizens' basic social, economic and cultural rights.

It found an alarming deterioration in the living standards of the majority of Argentines and clear evidence that the government is not meeting its obligations to its citizens, as set out in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ratified by Argentina in 1986. Official statistics show that currently 15 million of a population of 37 million live beneath the poverty line, with the numbers rising daily, and the middle classes affected as much as the poorer classes. Domestic production is virtually paralyzed, and the government, with its tax and debt revenues shrunk by 50%, is on the brink of bankruptcy.

As the fissure deepens daily between the citizens of Argentina and the state institutions, the Mission was also alarmed to note the state's response of criminalization of legitimate social protest. Hundreds of cases, such as that of illegally imprisoned anti-hunger activist Emilio Ali, who has become a symbol of the government's attempts to delegitimize democratic dissent, only further discredit the judiciary, already dishonoured by its failure to bring to justice past military rulers for their crimes against humanity.

"It was distressing to see how Argentines have lost faith in their political, judicial and economic leadership," noted Yasmine Shamsie. Ms. Shamsie and her colleagues noted a vacuum in the political arena, and expressed their fear that the likelihood of future chaos in the country was reflected in a slogan that they heard repeated several times: ?Que se vayan todos! (Throw them all out.)

The mission expressed its concern that given the breakdown of state institutions, the country's current vulnerability to the policies of international financial institutions and the economic interests of transnational corporations will only serve to deepen the crisis affecting democratic institutions and governance.

"The current situation in Argentina has confirmed the indivisibility of social and economic and civil and political rights," Yasmine Shamsie said. "By criminalizing and repressing Argentine citizens' demands for their basic economic needs, the state has accelerated a spiral of institutional breakdown that we fear can only lead to chaos."

Yasmine Shamsie will address a public meeting organized by Rights & Democracy on Thursday 14 March at 7pm, at Rights & Democracy's offices. She will be accompanied by UQAM sociology lecturer Victor Armony, who has recently returned from a fact-finding mission to his native country, Argentina.