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Néstor Kirchner, Santa Cruz, and the Hielos Continentales Controversy 1991–1999*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2007

LAURENCE ALLAN
LAURENCE ALLAN
Affiliation:
Laurence Allan is Lecturer in Latin American Politics, Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London.
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Abstract

This article traces the development of the political controversy in Argentina over the resolution of border issues between Argentina and Chile during the 1990s, examining provincial opposition to the Menem government's proposals for the Hielos Continentales zone in the far southern Andes. It argues that territorial perceptions held by Argentine opponents of the proposals, whilst highly significant, are insufficient to explain domestic opposition to the territorial accords. Instead it suggests that the sensitivity and longevity of the controversy reflected both specific territorial perceptions and anti-Menem dynamics in Argentina. Whilst the article highlights citizen opposition to government policy, it also points to the key role of Néstor Kirchner, at the time governor of the province of Santa Cruz, and subsequently Argentina's president. Kirchner's role in the decade-long controversy highlights two key factors. First, the potential utility of foreign policy issues, and particularly those centred on territory, as a resource in the domestic political environment, and, second, the fact that Kirchner's opposition itself responded at least in part to disputes within Peronism during the 1990s.

Resumen

Este artículo rastrea el desarrollo de la controversia política surgida en Argentina alrededor de la resolución de asuntos fronterizos entre Argentina y Chile durante los años 1990. El material examina la oposición provincial a las propuestas del gobierno de Ménem sobre la zona de los Hielos Continentales en el extremo sur de los Andes. Además señala que las percepciones territoriales mantenidas por quienes se oponían a las propuestas, mientras que eran altamente significativas, son insuficientes para explicar la oposición doméstica a los acuerdos territoriales. Más bien, sugiere que la sensibilidad y longevidad de la controversia reflejó tanto percepciones territoriales específicas como desarrollos anti-Ménem en Argentina. Mientras que el artículo subraya la oposición ciudadana a la política gubernamental, también señala al papel clave del Néstor Kirchner, en ese tiempo gobernador de la provincia de Santa Cruz, y subsecuentemente presidente de Argentina. El papel de Kirchner en la controversia de una década resalta dos factores clave: primero, la utilidad potencial de los asuntos exteriores, particularmente aquellos centrados sobre el territorio, como un recurso a utilizar en el ambiente político doméstico y, segundo, el hecho que la misma oposición de Kirchner respondió, al menos en parte, a las disputas al interior del peronismo durante los años 1990.

Palabras clave: Kirchner, territorio, provincial, congreso, peronismo, política exterior, Ménem

Resumo

Este artigo aborda o desenvolvimento da controvérsia política argentina que tratava da resolução de questões fronteiriças entre a Argentina e o Chile durante a decada de 1990. Ele examina a oposição provinciana às propostas do governo Menem sobre a zona dos Hielos Continentales nos Andes do extremo sul. É argüido que enquanto percepções territoriais defendidas por argentinos que se opõe às propostas são altamente significativas, elas são insuficientes para explicar a oposição doméstica aos acordos territoriais. Ao invés disso é sugerido que a sensibilidade e a longevidade da controvérsia refletiam percepções territoriais específicas assim como dinâmicas anti-Menem na Argentina. Embora o artigo destaque a oposição cidadã à política do governo, ele também aponta o papel indispensável de Néstor Kirchner que naquela época era governador da província de Santa Cruz e atualmente é presidente da Argentina. O papel de Kirchner durante dez anos dessa controvérsia aponta dois fatores-chave. Primeiramente, o proveito potencial de questões de política externa como recurso no ambiente político doméstico, especialmente aquelas baseadas em territorialidade; em segundo lugar, o fato de que a própria oposição de Kirchner era, ao menos parcialmente, uma resposta às disputas dentro do peronismo durante a década de 1990.

Palavras-chave: Kirchner, território, provinciano, congresso, peronismo, política externa, Menem.

Keywords

KirchnerterritoryprovincialcongressPeronismforeign policyMenem
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , November 2007 , pp. 747 - 770
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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References

1 The one unresolved territorial issue not dealt with in the Menem-Aylwin accords was that of the Antarctic Peninsula, which was subject to a mutually agreed moratorium on claims by all parties signatory to the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. Although the UK also claims sovereignty over that zone, a 1948 Argentina-Chile agreement implicitly denies the UK Antarctic claim. ‘Both governments will act in mutual agreement in the protection and juridical defence of South American Antarctica, between 25° and 90° of longitude east of Greenwich, where the Republics of Argentina and Chile recognise their unquestionable rights of sovereignty.’ Declaración Conjunta Argentino-Chilena, Santiago, 4 March 1948.

2 Juan Carlos Olima, Versiones Taquigráficas, Comisión de Relaciónes Exteriores y Culto, Honorable Cámara de Diputados de La Nación, Reunión sobre los Hielos Continentales, 5 December 1996.

3 Anexo 1, Declaración Presidencial sobre Límites entre la República Argentina y la República de Chile, 2 August 1991, Buenos Aires.

4 Constitución de la Nación Argentina, articulo 75, inciso 15. The total surface area of the province of Santa Cruz is 243 943 square kilometres.

5 Kacowicz, Arie M., ‘Geopolitics and Territorial Issues: Relevance for South America’, Geopolitics, vol. 3, no. 1, 2000, p. 82Google Scholar. On civil-military relations in Argentina, see for example, David Pion-Berlin, Through Corridors of Power: Institutions and Civil-Military Relations in Argentina (Pennsylvania 1997); Carlos Acuña and Smulovitz, Catalina, ‘Ajustando las Fuerzas Armadas a la Democracia: Las Fuerzas Armadas como actor político en la experiencia del Cono Sur’, Agora, no.5, 1996Google Scholar; Trinkunas, Harold A, ‘Crafting civilan control in emerging democracies: Argentina and Venezuela’, Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, vol. 42, no. 3, 2000CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hunter, Wendy, ‘Continuity or Changes? Civil-Military relations in democratic Argentina, Chile and Peru’, Political Science Quarterly, vol. 112, no. 3, 1997CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 For commentary on this policy change, see Alfredo Bruno Bologna, La política exterior del gobierno de Menem: Seguimiento y reflexiones al promediar de su mandato and Dos modelos de inserción Argentina en el mundo: las presidencias de Alfonsín y Menem (Rosario, 1994), Andrés Cisneros, ‘Foreign policy and Argentina's national interest’, in Colin Lewis and Celia Szusterman (eds.), Argentina: foreign relations and the new foreign policy agenda (London, 1991); Cisneros, Política exterior 1989–1999: História de un éxito (Buenos Aires, 1998); Paola Di Chiaro & Christian Bonfili, Política Exterior Argentina: Integración en la agenda de los '90, (Buenos Aires, 1997); Guillermo Miguel Figari, De Alfonsín a Menem:Política Exterior y Globalización (Buenos Aires, 1997); Sebastian Mazzuca, ‘Los “poderes” del regimen político. La política exterior de la nueva democracia argentina’, in Eugenio Kvaternik (ed.), Elementos para el análisis político: La Argentina y el Cono Sur en los '90 (Buenos Aires, 1998).

7 On Latin American foreign policies see, for example; Mario Ojeda Gomez, ‘Nuevas Prioridades de la Diplomacia Mexicana’, in Ilán Bizberg (ed.), México ante el fin de la Guerra fría (Mexico, 1998); José Miguel Insulza, ‘Mexico and Latin America: Prospects for a New Relationship,’ in Riordan Roett (ed.), Mexico's External Relations in the 1990s (Boulder/London, 1991); Guadalupe González and Jorge Chabat, ‘Mexico's hemispheric options in the post Cold War era’, in Gordon Mace and Jean-Philippe Therién (eds.), Foreign Policy and regionalism in the Americas (Boulder/London, 1996); Guadalupe González, ‘Foreign Policy Strategies in a Globalized World: The Case of Mexico’, in Joseph Tulchin and Ralph Espach (eds.), Latin America in the New International System (Boulder/London, 2001); Aravena, Francisco Rojas, ‘El Cono Sur Latinoamericano y la Iniciativa para las Américas,’ in Estudios Internacionales, vol. 26, no. 101, January-March 1993Google Scholar; Alejandra Mizala, ‘Chile frente al Mercosur: la falsa disyuntiva del todo o nada’, in Francisco Rojas Aravena and William Smith (eds.), El Cono Sur y las transformaciones globales (Santiago, 1994); Francisco Rojas Aravena, ‘Consolidando una inserción múltiple en el sistema internacional: La política exterior chilena en 1992’, in FLACSO, Consolidando una inserción múltiple en el sistema internacional (Santiago 1993). Monica Hirst, ‘La participación de Brasil en el proceso de Mercosur: Evaluando costos y beneficios’ in Rojas Aravena and Smith, El Cono Sur; Maria Regina Soares de Lima, ‘Brazil's response to the “New regionalism”’, in Mace and Thérien, Foreign Policy; Thomaz Guedas da Costa, Brazil in the New Decade: Searching for a Future (Washington D.C. 2000); Monica Hirst, ‘Mercosur's Complex Political Agenda,’ in Riordan Roett (ed.), Mercosur: Regional Integration, World Markets (Boulder/London, 1999); Riordan Roett, ‘Brazil's Role as a Regional Power’, in Riordan Roett & Guadalupe Paz [eds.] Latin America in a Changing Global Environment (Boulder/London 2003).

8 Russell, Roberto and Zuvanic, Laura, ‘Argentina: Deepening Alignment with the West’, Journal of Inter-American Studies and World Affairs, vol. 33, no. 3, 1991, p. 117CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 For an explicit formulation of citizen-centric foreign policy, see Carlos Escudé, El realismo de los estados débiles: la política exterior del gobierno de Menem frente a la teoría de las relaciones internacionales (Buenos Aires, 1997).

10 Escudé, El realismo de los estados débiles, p. 83.

11 Escudé, El realismo de los estados débiles, p. 54.

12 See Anabella Busso and Alfredo Bruno Bologna, ‘La política exterior argentina a partir del gobierno de Menem: una presentación’, in Bologna (ed.), La política exterior del gobierno de Menem.

13 For example, Figari fiercely criticised the influence of peripheral realism in Argentine international politics because, in his view, ‘realism is a theory for the great powers’. Figari, De Alfonsin a Menem, p. 121.

14 See Jack Child, Geopolitics and Conflict in South America: Quarrels amongst neighbours (New York/Stanford, 1988); Klaus Dodds, ‘Geopolitics and the geographical imagination of Argentina’, in Dodds and David Atkinson, Geopolitical traditions: A century of geopolitical thought (London/New York, 2000).

15 Most notably seen in the Menem government's non-confrontational approach to the Malvinas/Falklands issue.

16 Clarín 23 April 1997, p. 80.

17 According to the constitution, no Argentine province, irrespective of population, can have less that five deputies in the lower chamber of congress, and no less than three senators, making the Argentine senate amongst the least proportional of any nation's upper chamber. David Samuels and Richard Snyder, ‘El valor de un voto: una perspectiva comparada sobre la desproporcionalidad territorial’, in Ernesto Calvo and Juan Manuel Abal Medina (eds.), El federalismo electoral argentino: Sobrerepresentación, reforma política y gobierno dividido en la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 2001). See also, Guillermo N. Molinelli, M.Valeria Palanza, Gisela Sin, Congreso, Presidencia y Justicia en Argentina – materiales por su estudio (Buenos Aires, 1999); Gibson, Edward and Calvo, Ernesto, ‘Federalism and low maintenance constituencies: Territorial dimensions of economic reform in Argentina’, Studies in International Comparative Development, 2000, vol. 35, no. 3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Molinelli et al., Congreso,Presidencia y Justica en Argentina, p. 116.

19 Gibson and Calvo, Federalism and low-maintenance constituencies, p. 9; Mariano Tommassi, Federalism in Argentina and the reforms of the 1990s, August 2002, p. 16. Retrieved from http://webudesa.udesa.edu.ar/departamentos/economia/mariano_tommasi/papers/srinivasan.PDF, More broadly, Tommasi clearly highlights the differential regional effects of economic reform in areas including unemployment, employer payroll taxes, and the distribution of regional adjustment funds, all of which heavily favoured peripheral provinces, not least Santa Cruz. See, Tommasi, pp. 16–9.

20 Kent Eaton, ‘Menem and the governors; Intergovernmental relations in the 1990s’, in Steven Levitsky and María Victoria Murillo (eds.), Argentine Democracy: The politics of institutional weakness, (Pennsylvania, 2005).

21 La Opinión Austral, 26 July 1991, p. 9; Author's interview, Deputy Rafael Flores, May 2001.

22 Clarín, 1 August 1991, p. 14. General Bussi was de facto governor of Tucuman province during the 1976–83 military authoritarian regime, and is accused of multiple human rights violations.

23 Carapintadas: colloquialism describing the military mutineers who threatened Argentine redemocratisation during both the Alfonsín and Menem governments. Clarín 31 July 1991, p. 10, 1 August 1991, p. 14.

24 La Opinión Austral, 30 July 1991, p. 11; Clarín, 2 August 1991, p. 4.

25 Clarín, 2 August 1991, p. 4; 6 August 1991, p. 9; 7 August 1991, p. 1; 8 August 1991, p. 12. Levingston was president 1970–71, Bignone, 1982–83.

26 Clarín, 31 July 1991, pp. 12–3.

27 Author's interview, Carlos Escudé, ex-Foreign Ministry advisor, Buenos Aires, July 2001.

28 Pablo Lacoste, La Imagen del Otro en las relaciones de la Argentina y Chile 1534–2000 (Buenos Aires/Santiago, 2003).

29 Guillermo Fogg, Soberánia Argentina en el área austral (Buenos Aires, 1983), p. 133.

30 See for example, Fogg, Soberanía Argentina; Ernesto Fitte, Los límites con Chile (Buenos Aires, 1978); Eduardo Bautista Pondé, La Argentina Perdedora (Buenos Aires, 1995); Domingo Sábate Lichschein, Problems Argentinas de soberanía territorial (Buenos Aires, 1984).

31 Author's interview, Carlos Escudé, July 2001; La Razon, 17 October 1984, p. 6; Clarín, 31 July 1991, pp. 12–3; Escudé, Carlos, ‘Argentine Territorial Nationalism’, Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 20, no. 1, 1988CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Author's interview, Carlos Escudé, July 2001.

33 Author's interviews, Senator Carlos Leonardo de la Rosa, Deputy Rafael Flores, May 2001.

34 For cross-border relations in the far south, see Elsa Barberia, Los duenos de la tierra en la Patagonia Austral (Comodoro Rivadavia, 1995); Susana Bandieri, ‘Ampliando las fronteras: la ocupación de la Patagonia’ in Mirta Zaida Lobato (ed.), Nueva Historia Argentina, vol.V: El progreso, la modernización, y sus límites 1880–1916 (Buenos Aires, 2000); Juan B. Baillinou, Centenario de Río Gallegos (Río Gallegos, 1985); Roberto Hosne, Barridos por el veinte: historias de la Patagonia desconocida (Buenos Aires, 1997); Laurie Nock, ‘The British and their descendants in Chilean Patagonia’ in Oliver Marshall (ed.), English Speaking Communities in Latin America (London, 2000); Adolfo Oroz, Puerto Santa Cruz – un pueblo histórico (Río Gallegos, 2000); Mateo Martinic Beros, Presencia de Chile en la Patagonia Austral 1843–79 (Santiago, 1963).

35 Assessing the exact dimensions of the Chilean community in Santa Cruz is complicated by the absence of comprehensive annually collected data. In 1999, Perez Vichich calculated that Chileans comprised 19.2% of the economically active population of Santa Cruz, whilst in 2001 provincial sources estimated 23,000 Chileans in the province, roughly 15% of the total provincial population. Nora Pérez Vichich, Migraciones laborales y convenios sociales en el Cono Sur: El caso de los convenios sociales argentino-chileno, CARI Documentos de Trabajo, 38, Diciembre 1999, p. 16; Author's interviews, Provincial Directorate of Statistics and Census of Santa Cruz, August 2001; INDEC, Censo Nacional de Hogares y Viviendas, 1991, 2001. The Comité de Frontera Integración Austral was established in 1991; its functions were formally regulated in 1997, Acuerdo entre la República Argentina y la República de Chile para establecer reglamento para los Comités de Frontera, Santiago, 8 August 1997.

36 Clarín, 1 August 1991, p. 14.

37 Frepaso was a centre-left alliance which emerged onto the Argentine political scene in the mid 1990s. It promised to become a highly significant element in Argentine politics, briefly entering government in the Alianza coalition with the UCR in 1999. Frepaso leader Chacho Alvarez served as Argentina's vice-president until his withdrawal in late 2000 due to irreconcilable differences between the coalition partners.

38 Oscar Maldonado, head of the Santa Cruz PJ. La Opinión Austral, 30 July 1991, p. 11; La Opinión Austral, 29 July 1991, p. 1.

39 Clarín, 3 August 1991, pp. 1, 3.

40 Monica Herz and João Pontes Noguiera, Ecuador vs Peru: Peacemaking amid rivalry (Boulder/London, 2002), pp. 24–5.

41 Herz and Noguiera, Ecuador vs Peru, pp. 24–5.

42 Jan Aart Scholte, ‘The globalisation of world politics’, in John Baylis and Steve Smith (eds.), The Globalization of World Politics, (Oxford, 2001), p. 19.

43 Oroz, Puerto Santa Cruz, p. 112.

44 La Nación, 4 September 1992, p. 12.

45 Clarín, 22 July 1992, p. 2.

46 La Nación, 16 August 1992, p. 5.

47 Ibid.

48 La Nación, 21 August 1992, p. 5.

49 Non-PJ committee members were from the UCR (nine), the left-wing Intransigent Party (one) and the Union of the Democratic Centre (one). The UCR, which had supported Menem over the Laguna del Desierto arbitration not least because that process had been originally set in train during Raúl Alfonsín's government 1983–89, took a strongly anti-government position over the Hielos Continentales. In view of the UCR's weakness through the 1990s, its opposition can be understood as principally opportunistic, utilising the issue to discomfit Menem's government.

50 La Nación, 6 August 1992, p. 7.

51 Clarín, 26 July 1992, p.2; La Nación, 22 August 1992, p. 9.

52 La Nación, 28 August 1992, p. 12.

53 Author's interview, Senator de la Rosa, Buenos Aires, May 2001.

54 Author's interview, Deputy Rafael Flores, Buenos Aires, May 2001.

55 Author's interview, Leo Gonzalez, former Santa Cruz student activist, Buenos Aires, May 2001.

56 Abalos et al., ‘Análisis de una relación’, p. 100.

57 Abalos et al., ‘Análisis de una relación’ p. 100; Juan D. Ruiz and Agustín Salvia,‘La reestructuración económica y su impacto en la provincia de Santa Cruz’, in Salvia (ed.), La Patagonia de los ‘90: Sectores que ganan, sociedades que pierden, (Buenos Aires, 1999), p. 171. Gobierno de la Provincia de Santa Cruz, Producto Bruto Geográfico, Provincia de Santa Cruz 1991–96. (Río Gallegos, 1997); Gibson and Calvo, ‘Federalism and Low-Maintenance Constituencies’, Table 4: Federal Expenditures and Public Employment by Province. Excepting the town of Puerto Deseado, public employment accounted for over 50% of total provincial employment in 1991, and 40% in Río Gallegos from 1991–95. http://www.scruz.gov.ar/estadis/cuadro12.htm

58 Daniel Albert Schinelli and Carlos Alberto Vaca, ‘Reestructuración económica y su impacto en la provincia de Santa Cruz’, in Salvia (ed.), La Patagonia de los ’90, pp. 32–3; Ruiz and Salvia, ‘La reestructuración económica’, p. 171.

59 Steven Levitsky, Transforming Labor-based parties in Latin America: Argentine Peronism in Comparative Perspective. (Cambridge, 2003), pp. 81,130.

60 Author's interview, Leo Gonzalez, Santa Cruz student activist, Buenos Aires, May 2001.

61 Levitsky, Transforming Labour-Based Parties, pp. 168, 170.

62 Ibid., pp. 173–5.

63 La Opinión Austral, 22 April 1996, p. 11.

64 Ibid.

65 La Opinión Austral, 3 June 1996, p. 10.

66 Especially the nationalist citizens group Volunteers for the Fatherland and the Defence Committee for the Patagonian Ice Fields. Author's interview, Leo Gonzalez, former Santa Cruz student activist, Buenos Aires, May 2001.

67 Augusto Alasino, Leader of the Senate PJ, Clarín, 20 July 1997, p. 18.

68 Clarínv, 11 December 1996, available at http://www.ser2000.org.ar

69 Clarín, 17 December 1996, p. 9.

70 Manuel Mora y Araujo, Graciela Di Rado, Paula Montoya in Roberto Russell (ed.), La política argentina en el nuevo orden mundial (Buenos Aires 1992), p. 235.

71 Ibid., pp. 243–4.

72 Manuel Mora y Araujo in Andrés Cisneros (ed.), Política exterior Argentina 1989–1999: História de un éxito (Buenos Aires 1998), p. 360.

73 La Nación, 6 January 1997, pp. 1, 4.

74 Clarín, 28 February 1997, http://www.ser2000.org.ar

75 Levitsky, Transforming Labour-based Parties, p. 175.

76 Protocolo Adicional sobre los Hielos Continentales, Santiago, 10 December 1996.

77 Clarín, 15 December 1997, available at http://www.ser2000.org,ar

78 Clarín, 22 June 1998, http://www.ser2000.org.ar

79 La Prensa, 17 July 1998, p. 6.

80 At the time of writing physical demarcation of the border in the zone is still pending.

81 William Wallace, Foreign Policy and the Political Process (London, 1971), p. 42.

82 See: http://www.cuestionmalvinas.com.ar/