At 05:09 PM 1/3/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>Alan Cibils wrote: > > > > > > However, I think the people have got a taste of their own power in recent > > weeks (two presidents and a finance minister ain't bad!) > > >From what I have read, the "puebolo" was prepared to support Saa, and it >was precisely that popular support that moved two powerful "Peronist" >governors to refuse even to attend a conference he had called. Otherwise >this Alan's analysis seems convincing. > >Carrol Rodriguez Saa said a lot of the things people wanted to hear: default on debt, minimum wage, job creation. However, it is well known here that Rodriguez Saa is quite corrupt (he has become unbelievably rich in his many years as governor) and he has also been involved in several scandals of repression of journalists investigating his wealth. Still, if he delivered the goods on the economic front, maybe he would have been tolerated. The problems with Rodriguez Saa, according to most of the protesters who participated in the cacerolazo against him were: the naming of corrupt Menem era people to his cabinet, and the upholding of the clamp on people's bank deposits. The lack of support from the peronist governors finally did him in. I think that there were two fundamental issues in Rodriguez Saa's decision to quit: 1) Internal struggles within Peronism: Peronist primarys have always been bloody (literally). There are many "presidenciables" (potential presidential candidates) within peronism, and none wants to relinquish whatever chance they think they might have. I think this will even affect the current president (Duhalde) as the days or weeks go by. 2) Peronists don't seem to have understood the message from the people in the streets (or don't care to understand it). People were very clear that they wanted an end to the economic model, and an end to political business as usual. In other words, none of those who think they might be presidential candidates within peronism (or most other parties, for that matter) would make a satisfactory president. However, Peronists took the protests to mean that now it is their turn, when that was very clearly not the message in the streets. Certainly Duhalde with his Menemist background, and multiple corruption scandals doesn't fit the bill. The question is whether he will deliver on the economic front and whether he will have a relatively clean and transparent administration. The moment he is percieved to slip on either front, he might suffer the same fate as De la Rua and Rodriguez Saa. Alan _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
