THE ARGENTINIAN SOLUTION
March 28, 2005

            Buenos Aires. Gauchos play a very difficult and dangerous game on the Pampas; the rider, galloping at full speed and practically standing on his horse, attempts to pass a pencil through a ring that is hanging at a height of over nine feet above a long stretch of muddy track. The gaucho who manages to tear the ring free with the pencil is the winner (and at the turn of the century, in passing carried off the prettiest girl there).  Not many can manage it. Which is also how difficult it will be for the current administration in Argentina to free the nation from a perceived permanent state of crisis.

            The panorama that spread before me was as follows: According to official estimates, twelve out of every 100 Argentinians is out of work, but given the number of itinerant vendors crowding the streets, one might easily suppose that these numbers have been pared down and are inaccurate.  The middle class, with its belt tightened to the last notch, is swelling the ranks of the poor (who comprise over half the population.)  The Argentinian Peso is so devalued that dinner for two at a good restaurant with wine and a top cut of steak can cost only $20 or less. And inflation is threatening to skyrocket at any moment.

            Faced with this panorama, logic would dictate lending an ear to the by now familiar complaints of the Argentinian people.  What is surprising is that there is a sense of patent approval of and confidence in President Nestor Kirchner’s governance.  And that is the big news coming out of Argentina. “We’re getting out of it,” was the optimistic comment I heard from a former student of economics who now makes his living driving a taxi. (Let there be no doubt--Argentina has the most highly educated cab drivers in the world.)

            Admittedly, left-of-center Kirchner is a daring man. Not only did he wrest the presidency from boorish but fabulously wealthy Carlos Menem, but also demonstrated extraordinary shrewdness in renegotiating the Argentina’s exorbitant foreign debt of over $200 billion. In a singular example of political sleight-of-hand, he managed to convince most of the international banks and creditors to accept repayment on the order of a mere 30 cents on the dollar loaned.

             That is almost magic. Black magic. And Argentina’s success paves the way for other countries worldwide that are in similar circumstances to do likewise and drive a hard bargain from a position of strength. And what position is that? This one:  Unless you deal with me, you’ll get nothing at all. That simple. (Let’s see if Mexico and Brazil are paying attention.)

             Kirchner also attracted attention when he led a boycott of Anglo-Dutch Shell when it raised the price of gasoline by 4 percent. At the very outset sales at Shell’s 939 service stations in Argentina fell by 70 percent.  Never before had a Latin American president launched a similar attack or so accurately gauged public sentiment among the constituency.

             Daring and bold? Yes. But also populist. Had Kirchner dealt similarly with private enterprise across the board, he would have also boycotted the cheese industry, for example, for having raised prices by 5 percent last month. But he dared not do so because cheese production is heavily dependent upon Argentinian companies.

 “Nac and Pop,” the students of political science in Buenos Aires have christened Kirchner’s style of government. Translation: Nationalism and populism. An enormous Argentinian flag (that could provide refuge for a hundred people on a cold night) waves beside the Casa Rosada presidential palace, and despite its serious economic difficulties, the administration insists on subsidizing transportation and postal services, as well as many other programs, in addition to pouring more Pesos into the traditional health and education spheres.  

            It is the Argentinian solution: Tough with outsiders and easy on the locals.  So far, the formula seems to be working.  78 percent of Argentinians have a “favorable opinion” of Kirchner according to the latest poll by the Public Opinion Research Center, and thanks to sustained growth, the country is coming out of the hole it found itself in as of 2001. But this is a critical year. If Kirchner cannot keep inflation down (below 10 percent per year), and create millions of jobs right away, his positive image will deflate like a child’s party balloon.

At the international level, the Kirchnerian administration is taking a turn to the left along with the rest of Latin America, owing to the failure of neoliberal policies and the unjustifiable increase in the numbers of the poor.  Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Ecuador and Chile all have center-left governments. But Kirchner’s overtures to Hugo Chavez’s Venezuelan brand of authoritarianism (with his support of the Telesur/TeleChavez project), and his conspicuous relationship with Fidel Castro’s dictatorship stand out in sharp contrast.

How ironic:  Argentinians want democracy for themselves but not for Cubans. Predictably, books by Che Guevara can be found at the entrance of Buenos Aires’ many bookstores, alongside the ones by soccer star Diego Maradona, psychologist Jorge Bucal, actress Susana Jimenez and journalist Hector Verbitsky. Obviously the success of the film “The Motorcycle Diaries” has made a “SuperChe” of Che Guevara.

This rebirth of interest in Che is not, however, a veiled attempt to return to an authoritarian or dictatorial system. No.  It is something more innocent and less dramatic: This is “Che light,” sanitized and receiving a Hollywood Oscar. Deep down, though, it is really Argentine society’s desire to give recognition to one of their own. It is a momentous event.

Buenos Aires, for example, is also experiencing a veritable tango revival. Young people like Lucy, 26, whom I met during a visit to the charming town of San Antonio del Areco, meet once a week at friends’ houses to learn to dance the tango. The pages of the El Clarín and La Nación newspapers teem with ads for tango classes.  And every performance of the play “Tanguera” [“Tango Dancer”] now playing—where else—on Corrientes Street and featuring dancing superstar Mora Godoy, is always sold out. It is, without exaggeration, one of the best musicals I have ever seen. After seeing “Tanguera,” a mere beginner like me makes an almost religious conversion to the cult of the tango.

But it is more than just the tango. A stroll through the Buenos Aires neighborhoods of La Boca, San Telmo, Palermo or La Recoleta leaves one with the curious sensation that life here  is imbued with the delights one finds in the music, in the designs, in the literature and in that marvelous (and very personal) architecture that blends dwellings with small businesses, bars and restaurants. It is a real pleasure to wander the streets of Buenos Aires (even though children playing their concertinas and begging for money will break your heart more than once in the length of a day).

In the final analysis, it would seem that Argentina is getting to the point where it can believe in itself once more.  And the challenge, just as it is for a good gaucho, is to stay on the horse and ride out whatever is coming its way.