Historias Innecesarias: Crisis 2001

On the night of December 19, 2001 in Argentina, a massive and spontaneous protest erupted as soon as the president decreed a state of siege. Therefore, and according to the powers that the National Constitution confers on me as president of the nation, I have declared a state of siege throughout the national territory to ensure law and order in the

country and end the incidents. The measure, taken in a desperate attempt to stop a wave of looting that was already spreading throughout the country, ended up causing exactly the opposite. It united the middle class, whose money was no longer enough, the savers whom the government prevented from withdrawing their own deposits, those who had not

had enough to eat for a long time, and the unemployed who had been unable to find work for years. They should pay us, they robbed us. I am 72 years old, and I am in poverty. During that night and throughout the following day, the country entered a sequence broadcast live: jail breaks, a packed Plaza de Mayo,

a reflection of unprecedented violence, dozens of deaths, and the resignation of the nation's president. President Fernando de la Rúa, after resigning, leaves by helicopter. He could not be seen by journalists, the people who were there. To understand the 2001 crisis, we must go back to March 24, 1976. On that day, not only was

democracy interrupted, but a profound change in the country's economic model also began . The dictatorship, which wanted to bring order to inflation and social conflicts, promoted a drastic shift under the leadership of José Alfredo Martínez de Os: opening up the economy, shrinking the State, and lowering the cost of labor. The plan aims to achieve