Raul Alfonsin, RIP

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Events
Posted on Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 10:07:32 PM EST
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Former Argentinian President Raul Alfonsin, who courageously governed Argentina through one of its most difficult periods, after a disastrous and inhuman military dictatorship (remember the Falklands War, the "Desaparcidos" and the film "La Historia Oficial"), has passed away. He was a great man. NYTimes obit:

Raul Alfonsin, who guided Argentina's return to democracy in the 1980s after seven years of brutal military rule but failed to stave off a deep economic crisis, died Tuesday of lung cancer. He was 82. Alfonsin was president from 1983 to 1989 and won international admiration for putting on trial and jailing the former military leaders who tortured and killed thousands of suspected leftists in a vicious "dirty war." He had been a prominent opponent of the junta that took power in 1976 and his presidency restored respectability to a country regarded as a pariah after decades of coups and often thuggish rule.

RIP, Raul Alfonsin.

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Raul Alfonsin, RIP | 4 comments (4 topical)

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And now Argentina parties with the G-20 (none / 0) (#1)
by Militarytracy on Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 10:23:52 PM EST

I read that he said that maybe he took too many risks but it was what had to be done to return a judicial system and break the cycles of chaos and coups.

I Still Have My Copy of Nunca Mas (none / 0) (#2)
by kaleidescope on Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 11:22:25 PM EST

It would never have been published without Alfonsin.

Remembering the Argentine (none / 0) (#3)
by oldpro on Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 11:32:39 PM EST

exchange student we had in the mid 70s while my kid was exchanging in Australia.

It was a very unusual 'cultural' experience. From a privileged family - his parents were professionals - the boy had never eaten a regular sitdown meal with his parents. Or so he said...always ate with the servants, he said. Our normal, everyday household seemed a tremendous shock to his sensibilities. At 19, he was a bit old for the program, felt he was too old to have to 'follow the rules!' Hooboy...

Remembering, too, a Peruvian college friend who told me he had to bribe his way out of Argentina in the late 80s. He had two passports as he was born in Argentina but lived in Peru since childhood, so they confiscated one passport at the airport. Took him 3 weeks, he said. Some vacation in "BA"...

I might also recommend ... (none / 0) (#4)
by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 05:50:37 PM EST

... the acclaimed 2005 Argentine film, Blessed by Fire, which highlighted the plight of a significant number of Falklands War veterans, who have either attempted or committed suicide since being repatriated by British forces back to Argentina following their surrender in June 1982.

Based on a memoir by Esteban Leguizamón, who saw combat in the Falklands as a malnourished and ill-equipped 18-year-old Army conscript, the film graphically portrays the utter and complete rout that inexperienced Argentine troops suffered at the hands of a professional British military force comprising half their numbers, and their subsequent return as chastened warriors to a deeply humiliated nation. Ironically, it was that military fiasco that provided the political catalyst necessary for the Argentine people to topple Army Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri's corrupt junta in 1983 and elect Raúl Alfonsín president.

However, a quarter-century later, the Argentine national psyche has yet to fully reconcile their country's now-moot claims to Las Mavinas with the reality of continued British hegemony over the Falkland Islands for the foreseeable future.