SOCIETY 354 /2010

Argentina Not Affected By Crisis
Model Of Integration
LATEINAMERIKA
ARGENTINIEN
SOCIETY interviewed the Ambassador of Argentina in Austria, H.E. Eugenio María Curia,
about the integration of Latin America, Argentina’s development after the collapse in 2001
and the 200 year celebrations.
Dear Excellency, Argentina is celebrating
200 years of independence, what does it
mean to the people of your country?
When you celebrate anniversaries you
commemorate a milestone in your history
and at the same time it is an opportunity to
make a broad assessment of the life of a
country. We don’t have to forget that Argentina
started its first patriotic government in
1810 and that it consolidated after several
years of internal strife in 1816 with the formal
Declaration of Independence. Then, in
1853 we approved our Constitution that –
with amendments in 1994 – is still in force.
Between 1880 and 1910 huge immigration
waves from European countries came to Argentina.
In 1916, we had the first elections
with secret and universal ballot and the new
middle classes made their voice heard. With
the election of Perón in 1946, a politicalsocial
movement was created that incorporated
the big masses into the political and
economical life. So, Argentina takes a pride
in that it was one of the first Latin American
countries in which every citizen was included
in the political life of the country.
And the future?
Nowadays, after ups and downs, the
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coup d’état and the tragedy of the military
regime, the dictatorship from 1976 to
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1983, we live within democratic institutional
rules and we believe that Argentina is
a country of the future. We are members
of the MERCOSUR and we are showing the
ability to assert ourselves in a globalized
and complicated world, working hard to
reach the goal of developing an inclusive
and just society and community.
Do you think there is still a link between
what happened 200 year ago and today? Or
is it just a matter of history?
It is both. From the point view of history,
we celebrate the decision – thanks
to the French invasion of Spain – that
the king should not rule any more, but
from the point of view of the ideas of
1810 we still discuss things like how State
and society should be combined and
what are the best possibilities for growth
and development. Some questions and
answers of May 1810 are still worth of discussion
today.
One of these ideas is the integration of
Latin America into a community similar to
that of the European Union or the United
States. How would you assess this future?
In the very beginning, there was the
idea of joining all Latin American republics
together. It proved that it was very
complicated, but now we are coming back
to that idea. We have decided to create UN-
ASUR, the Union of the South American
Countries, taking into account that if you
want to assert a role in international politics,
you need a certain amount of power.
It is important for South America to have
this voice vis-à-vis the US, China and the
„The huge middle class is
still a distinct feature of
Argentina.“
H.E. EUGENIO MARÍA CURIA
EU. The building of UNASUR is an important
strategic decision.
But there is still a long way to go…
It will take some time. Latin America
has a long history of different models of integration
beginning in the 1960s, with
ALALC, then ALADI as well as several regional
associations like the Andean Community,
the MERCOSUR etc. which are efforts
of bringing together our countries. UNA-
SUR is a decision to place the best strategic
approach in the international arena.
When you talk about the ups and downs
of your country, one of the downs was the
collapse in 2001/02. How can Argentina cope
with the consequences of this collapse in
today’s current financial crisis?
The collapse of 2001/02 really shuttered
the system. It was even almost going to the
bottom. People got hectic and nervous,
but we recovered. In the last eight years the
economy grew at a rate of eight per cent at
an average. Former President Néstor Kirchner
showed excellent leadership in order to
move Argentina out of the crisis, and President
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is
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