Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín was an Argentine lawyer and statesman who served as president of Argentina from 10 December 1983 to 8 July 1989. He was the first democratically elected president after the National Reorganization Process. Ideologically, he identified as a radical and a social democrat, serving as the leader of the Radical Civic Union from 1983 to 1991, 1993 to 1995, 1999 to 2001. His political approach was known as "Alfonsinism".
Born in Chascomús, Buenos Aires Province, Alfonsín began his studies of law at the National University of La Plata and was a graduate of the University of Buenos Aires. He was affiliated with the Radical Civic Union, joining the faction of Ricardo Balbín after the party split. He was elected a deputy in the legislature of the Buenos Aires province in 1958, during the presidency of Arturo Frondizi, and a national deputy during the presidency of Arturo Umberto Illia. He opposed both sides of the Dirty War, and several times filed a writ of Habeas corpus, requesting the freedom of victims of forced disappearances, during the National Reorganization Process. He denounced the crimes of the military dictatorships of other countries and opposed the actions of both sides in the Falklands War as well. He became the leader of the UCR after Balbín's death and won the presidency in the 1983 elections as the Radical candidate.
After being elected president, Alfonsín revoked the self-amnesty law established by the military. He established the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons to investigate the crimes committed by the military, which led to the Trial of the Juntas and resulted in the sentencing of the heads of the former regime. Discontent within the military led to the mutinies of the Carapintadas, which Alfonsín appeased with the full stop law and the law of Due Obedience. He also had conflicts with the unions, which were controlled by the opposing Justicialist Party. He resolved the Beagle conflict, increased trade with Brazil, and proposed the creation of the Contadora support group to mediate between the United States and Nicaragua. He passed the first divorce law of Argentina. He initiated the Austral plan to improve the national economy, but that plan, as well as the Spring plan, failed. The resulting hyperinflation and riots led to his party's defeat in the 1989 presidential elections, which was won by Peronist Carlos Menem.
Alfonsín continued as the leader of the UCR and opposed the presidency of Carlos Menem. He initiated the Pact of Olivos with Menem to negotiate the terms for the 1994 amendment of the Argentine Constitution. Fernando de la Rúa led a faction of the UCR that opposed the pact, and eventually became president in 1999. Following de la Rúa's resignation during the December 2001 riots, Alfonsín's faction provided the support needed for the Peronist Eduardo Duhalde to be appointed president by the Congress. He died of lung cancer on 31 March 2009, at the age of 82, and was given a large state funeral.
Early life and career
Raúl Alfonsín was born on 12 March 1927, in the city of Chascomús, 123 km south of Buenos Aires. His parents, who worked as shopkeepers, were Serafín Raúl Alfonsín Ochoa and Ana María Foulkes. His father was of Galician and German descent, and his mother was the daughter of Welsh immigrant Ricardo Foulkes and Falkland Islander María Elena Ford. Following his elementary schooling, Raúl Alfonsín enrolled at the General San Martín Military Lyceum. Although his father disliked the military, he thought that a military high school would have a similar quality to a private school without being as expensive. Alfonsín disliked the military as well, but this education helped him to understand the military mindset. He graduated after five years as a second lieutenant. He did not pursue a military career and began studying law instead. He began his studies at the National University of La Plata, and completed them at the University of Buenos Aires, graduating at the age of 23. He was not a successful lawyer: he was usually absent from his workplace and frequently in debt. He married María Lorenza Barreneche, whom he met in 1949 at a masquerade ball. They moved to Mendoza, La Plata, and returned to Chascomús. They had six sons, of whom only Ricardo Alfonsín would also follow a political career.Alfonsín bought a local newspaper. He joined the Radical Civic Union in 1946, as a member of the Intransigent Renewal Movement, a faction of the party that opposed the incorporation of the UCR into the Democratic Union coalition. He was appointed president of the party committee in Chascomús in 1951 and was elected to the city council in 1954. He was detained for a brief time, during the reaction of the government of Juan Perón to the bombing of Plaza de Mayo. The Revolución Libertadora ousted Perón from the national government; Alfonsín was again briefly detained and forced to leave his office in the city council. The UCR broke up into two parties: the Intransigent Radical Civic Union, led by Arturo Frondizi, and the People's Radical Civic Union, led by Ricardo Balbín and Crisólogo Larralde. Alfonsín did not like the split but opted to follow the UCRP.
Alfonsín was elected deputy for the legislature of the Buenos Aires province in 1958, on the UCRP ticket, and was reelected in 1962. He moved to La Plata, the capital of the province, during his tenure. President Frondizi was ousted by a military coup on 29 March 1962, which also closed the provincial legislature. Alfonsín returned to Chascomús. The UCRP prevailed over the UCRI the following year, leading to the presidency of Arturo Umberto Illia. Alfonsín was elected a national deputy, and then vice president of the UCRP bloc in the congress. In 1963 he was appointed president of the party committee for the province of Buenos Aires. Still in his formative years, Alfonsín was still in low political offices and held no noteworthy role in the administrations of Frondizi and Illia.
Illia was deposed by a new military coup in June 1966, the Argentine Revolution. Alfonsín was detained while trying to hold a political rally in La Plata, and a second time when he tried to re-open the UCRP committee. He was forced to resign as a deputy in November 1966. He was detained a third time in 1968 after a political rally in La Plata. He also wrote opinion articles in newspapers, under the pseudonyms Alfonso Carrido Lura and Serafín Feijó. The Dirty War began during this time, as many guerrilla groups rejected both the right-wing military dictatorship and the civil governments, preferring instead a left-wing dictatorship aligned with the Soviet Union, as in the Cuban Revolution. Alfonsín clarified in his articles that he rejected both the military dictatorship and the guerrillas, asking instead for free elections. The UCRP became the UCR once more, and the UCRI was turned into the Intransigent Party. Alfonsín created the Movement for Renewal and Change within the UCR, to challenge Balbín's leadership of the party. The military dictatorship finally called for free elections, allowing Peronism to take part in them. Balbín defeated Alfonsín in the primary elections but lost in the main ones. Alfonsín was elected deputy once more.
Illia was invited in 1975 to a diplomatic mission to the Soviet Union; he declined and proposed Alfonsín instead. Upon his return, Alfonsín became one of the founding members of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights. He served as the defense lawyer for Mario Roberto Santucho, leader of the ERP guerrillas, but only to carry out due process of law, and not because of a genuine desire to support him. The 1976 Argentine coup d'état against President Isabel Perón started the National Reorganization Process. Alfonsín filed several Habeas corpus motions, requesting the freedom of victims of forced disappearances. The UCR stayed silent over the disappearances, but Alfonsín urged the party to protest the kidnapping of senators Hipólito Yrigoyen and Mario Anaya. He also visited other countries, denouncing those disappearances and violations of human rights. He established the magazine Propuesta y control in 1976, one of the few magazines that criticized the military dictatorship during its early stages. The magazine was published up to 1978. His editorials were collected in 1980 in the book La cuestión argentina.
Alfonsín expressed opposition to the 1982 Falklands War, criticizing the deployment of troops by both sides during the conflict. He rejected the invasion of the islands, which he considered an inevitable logistic and diplomatic failure, being one of the few politicians who opposed the war from the start. He proposed an emergency government headed by Illia, with ministers from all political parties, who would call for a ceasefire with the British and call for elections. He reasoned that the British would be magnanimous in victory if negotiating the transition with a civilian government, that all Argentine parties would be involved with such negotiations, and provide greater guarantees. The proposal did not get enough support, as Peronist Deolindo Bittel proposed another post-war scenario: electing a prime minister selected by a committee of generals and politicians. In this scenario, the military would keep a veto power and would guide the new government for at least two years. This proposal implicitly intended to remove Bignone and appoint a figure akin to the late Juan Perón, but it did not get support either because the current context did not provide any such figure that would have both support from the military and from the population. Antonio Trocolli, former leader of the Radical Congress, rejected both proposals as impracticable.
The Falklands Wars were lost, and the military lifted the ban on political activities on the promise to hold elections. This was a calculated move to make the politicians focus on internal infighting, instead of blaming the military for the defeat. The plan did not work as intended, as the political parties united in a ad hoc coalition, the "Multipartidaria", that rejected the military attempt to control the new government and asked to speed up the elections, which were called for October 1983. The Movement for Renewal and Change organized the first political event in a stadium in the Buenos Aires suburbs. As Balbín had died in 1981, the UCR had no strong leadership at the time.