BY HILDA CUZCO
Reacting against high unemployment and austerity, voters in Argentina dealt the ruling party of President Carlos Menem a blow in the October 26 congressional elections. Leaders of the victorious opposition alliance have condemned the Menem administration for the high joblessness, but say they will keep the economic agenda of the government intact.

The ruling Justicialista Party, commonly known as the Peronists after former president Juan Domingo Perón, held the allegiance of the working class in Argentina for decades. The Peronists experienced their biggest loss in Buenos Aires province, a longtime stronghold. The Alliance, an electoral bloc between the Radical Party (UCR) and the Frepaso party, won 48.3 percent of the vote in that province, compared to 41.3 percent for the Peronists. The UCR is the traditional liberal party, and Frepaso is a bourgeois party that is supported by reformist left-wing forces.

Nationwide, the Alliance won 45.8 percent of the ballots or 61 seats, while the Peronists captured 35.5 percent or 52 seats, losing 13 seats. This meant Menem's party lost its majority in the lower house of congress, where half of the 257 seats were up for election.

The Alliance's lead congressional candidate, Graciela Fernández Meijide, a former teacher and senator, told El Clarín of Buenos Aires that she plans to defend the economic policies of the government by respecting "the privatizations, the opening of the economy, stability, and balanced fiscal spending." Fernández added that she also hopes the president "agrees to a dialogue." The Alliance campaign blamed Menem's regime for the high unemployment of 16.1 percent, down slightly from a peak of more than 18 percent two years ago.

During her congressional race, Fernández, who is now spoken of as a presidential hopeful for the Alliance, mentioned the problem of joblessness, but focused her campaigning mainly against corruption. "I voted for the Peronists in the last two elections and my life has only gotten worse because of it," said María Vareca, 50, a convenience store owner who attended a pro-Fernández rally in the working-class city of Moreno.

Fernández, 66, has cultivated an image as a "modern, honest, and austere" politician, and a defender of human rights. Her son was "disappeared" in 1976, one of thousands of victims of the Argentine military regime's "dirty war." She was elected to the Senate in 1995. "The disappearance of my son Pablo drove me into the political arena to fight for human rights," she told reporters. "I see this election as an extension of that - a fight for human dignity, and social and cultural and economic rights."

Hilda Duhalde, the wife of Buenos Aires province governor Eduardo Duhalde, was the Peronist candidate running against Fernández. Duhalde heads a charity network with a staff of some 17,000 women volunteers who hand out milk and eggs in working-class areas. Duhalde's defeat has been seen as a setback for her husband's hopes in securing a presidential bid within the Justicialista Party for the 1999 elections. In fact, his provincial government has come under fire for implications of police involvement in the bombing of a Jewish community center in 1994 and in the murder of journalist José Luis Cabezas last January.

A vote against Menem
Other prominent Alliance candidates who won congressional seats included Carlos Alvarez and Domingo Cavallo, Menem's former economy minister, both from the city of Buenos Aires. The city and province of Buenos Aires together make up half the national electorate.

"I didn't vote for anyone as much as I voted against President Menem," said Julio Arias, 45, after learning the victory of the Alliance. "I can't stand the corruption and the dishonesty any more."

Carlos Corach, minister of interior, admitted in a news conference, "The people [have sent] a message to the national government."

Meanwhile Menem, whose government has been plagued with corruption scandals in recent years, tried to downplay the defeat of his party, saying on national television that the election results merely showed "the existence of a strong opposition," and calling the vote a victory for his government.

Earlier this year thousands of workers, farmers, and youth responded to high unemployment and intolerable social conditions in Argentina with protests and roadblocks from Jujuy in the northwest to the depressed Patagonian oil-producing town of Cutral-Có in the south.

The outrage has not diminished. Hundreds of unemployed workers took to the streets in Jujuy in October to demand jobs.

Growing debt crisis in Latin America
The latest figures released by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) indicate that half the population in Latin America is now living below the official poverty level - that is 235 million people. According to the same report, urban unemployment in Latin America is up to 16.2 percent, and real minimum wages fell 30 percent between 1980 and 1996. More than half of all children do not finish elementary school. The IADB report states that in Argentina 18.4 of the population fell into the "new poor" - middle class layers and workers hit by unemployment or an abrupt fall in income.

The lending institution also reported that the foreign debt for Latin America climbed to more than $623 billion in 1996, from $419 billion in 1990. This represents a 7 percent annual increase, while growth in gross domestic product has averaged just 3.3 percent per year.

The impact of the devaluation of the Mexican peso in 1994, and loans to the governments of Mexico and Argentina, the IADB said, have contributed to the increase of the debt. Payment of interest on the debt in 1996 represented an equivalent of 15 percent of the official budgets of the governments of Latin America.

In Argentina, the Menem administration is under pressure to keep its fiscal deficit for the year down to the $4.5 billion target agreed to with the International Monetary Fund. Moreover, the currency crisis in Asia has sent shock waves through Latin America. On October 27, the Buenos Aires stock market plunged 13.7 percent. The same day the stock market in Sao Paulo, Brazil, dived 15 percent and the Mexican bolsa fell 13.3 percent, on top of a 10 percent devaluation of the peso.

The Menem government issued a decree last August to sell off 38 of Argentina's 59 airports, but has run into obstacles in the courts, which several times have declared the move unconstitutional.

Menem said he may resort to a so-called per saltum order, an immediate decision by the Supreme Court, and continue with the hand-over to private investors by December 1. A similar measure took place when Argentina's airline Aerolíneas Argentinas was put up for sale in 1991. The bid for the airports involves a 35- year lease with a 10-year option to renew. If the deal goes through, the operator would have to pay the government a minimum annual fee of $40 million and invest $2 billion in upgrading the airports.  
 
 
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