Argentina: Presidential election timeline
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Timeline
- July 2007. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina’s first lady, announces her presidential candidacy, after President Néstor Kirchner confirms that he will not be seeking a second term in office.
- March 2007. During his annual presidential address, President Néstor Kirchner praises Argentina's economic recovery, saying that it has helped to improve social standards and the distribution of wealth.
- February 2007. The government is accused of attempting to manipulate the figure for the rate of inflation to make it look artificially low after a senior official of Indec, Argentina's official statistics agency, is replaced by a known political ally of Economy Minister Felisa Miceli.
- October 2006. The body of former President Gen. Juan Perón (1946-55, 1973-74) is reburied, for the third time since his death in 1974, in the grounds of his former retreat in the San Vicente suburb of Buenos Aires (the capital).
- March 2006. President Nestor Kirchner says that Argentina’s recovery from the economic collapse of 2001 has been accompanied by significant social benefits, including a reduction in the rate of unemployment.
- January 2006. Public prosecutors in Spain formally charge a former Argentinian naval officer with genocide, terrorism, and crimes against humanity in connection with his alleged role in the detention, torture, and assassination of political prisoners during Argentina's “dirty war” era of the late 1970s.
- November 2005. Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna is unexpectedly dismissed from his post in a cabinet reshuffle.
- October 2005. It is announced that the IMF is ready to negotiate with Argentina over a new loan programme, after the country suspended its previous programme with the Fund in August 2004.
- June 2005. The government announces that it has completed nearly US$100 billion of debt restructuring.
- December 2004. Former President Carlos Saúl Menem returnes to Argentina to face charges of tax evasion and embezzlement, assuring his supporters that he intends to contest the 2007 presidential elections.
- July 2004. A report released by the IMF's Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) says that the Fund's dealings with Argentina in the 1990s almost certainly exacerbated the crisis that led to the country's economic collapse in 2001.
- April 2004. In the largest demonstration in Argentina since the country’s economic collapse in 2001, over 135,000 people gather outside Congress (the bicameral federal legislature) in Buenos Aires to demand the reform of the criminal justice system.
- May 2003. Néstor Kirchner is inaugurated as president, after his rival in a second round run-off vote, former President Menem, announces his withdrawal from the presidential race.
- April 2003. Former President Menem, 73, narrowly defeats Néstor Kirchner, 53, the governor of Santa Cruz province, in the first round of the presidential election.
- September 2002. The IMF, in an attempt to prevent Argentina from defaulting on its loan repayments, formalises an agreement to postpone for one year a US$2.7 billion payment due to be paid to the IMF by Argentina.
- August 2002. The supreme court rules that a 13 per cent cut in pay and pensions for public sector workers, announced in July 2001, is unconstitutional.
- February 2002. The Supreme Court rules that draconian corralito ("fence") restrictions imposed on cash withdrawals from current and deposit bank accounts is unconstitutional.
- January 2002. Eduardo Duhalde is elected to complete the remainder of Fernando de la Rúa's mandate by a joint assembly of federal congressmen and provincial governors.
- December 2001. President Fernando de la Rúa and his entire cabinet resign after announcing emergency measures to try to resolve Argentina’s ongoing economic crisis.
- November 2001. President de la Rúa announces measures designed to stimulate the economy following consecutive declines in GDP in 1999 and 2000.
- March 2001. The stability of President de la Rúa’s government faces a serious crisis following the resignation of Economy Minister José Luis Machinea.
- November 2000. It is reported that the government has secured an emergency assistance package from the IMF in order to avoid a possible default on the servicing of Argentina’s foreign debt of US$123.5 billion.
- October 1999. De la Rúa, the candidate of the opposition Alianza coalition, wins Argentina’s presidential election, thereby ending a decade of Peronist rule.
- May 1995. President Menem, the candidate of the (Peronist) Justicialist Party (PJ), is re-elected, winning 49.8 per cent of the vote.
- October 1989. President Menem signs the “first stage” of pardons granting immunity from prosecution to 217 military officers accused of gross human rights violations during the “dirty war” era (1976–1983).
- May 1989. Menem, the candidate of the PJ, wins Argentina’s presidential election.
- October 1983. Raul Alfonsín Foulkes wins the first presidential election to be held in Argentina since the end of the country’s “dirty war” era.
- June 1982. President Gen. (retd) Leopoldo Galtieri’s ill-fated military invasion of the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands leads to his resignation.
- April 1982. Argentina’s military forces invade the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands.
- January 1979. Brig.-Gen. Orlando Ramón Agosti retires as the commander-in-chief of the air force and is replaced in this post and in the ruling military junta by Gen. Omar Domingo Rubens Graffigna.
- March 1976. Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla, the commander of the army, leads a military coup to overthrow the government of President María Estela Martínez de Perón (also known as Isabel Martínez de Perón).
- July 1974. President Gen. Juan Domingo Perón dies and is succeeded by his wife, Isabel Martinez de Perón.
- September 1973. Gen. Perón is elected as President.
