Argentina

2 Chapter Basic knowledge

    • Basic knowledge

      Official Name:  The official name is Argentine Republic  “República Argentina” in Spanish. Argentina´s name refers to the  "land of silver" since name comes from the Latin word for silver, argentum.

       

       

       

      ■National Flag.

       

      ■ National Land/ Area.

       


      Argentina is the second largest country in South America after brazil, it has a total area of  2,780,400 sq km, 2,736,690 sq km of land and water: 43,710 sq km, The country has 3,100 miles (4,989 km) of coastline, the highest point in the country is Aconcagua 22,834 ft (6,960) and the lowest is in Laguna del Carbon -344 ft (-105 m), bordering countries are Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay. You can find rich plains in the Pampas in the northern half, flat plateau in the Patagonia at the south, rugged Andes along the western border.

       

       
      ■Capital

      There are 23 provinces and one capital,  Buenos Aires, that has a population of approximately 3 million people and with a metropolitan population close to 13 million.

       
       
      ■Climate

      Argentina has four main regions, the northern subtropical woodlands and swamps;  the heavily wooded slopes of the Andes Mountains in the west; the semiarid and cold Patagonian Plateau in the south; and the temperate region surrounding Buenos Aires which is the most populated.

       
      ■Time Difference

      The time zone abbreviation is ART and name is Argentina Time, there is no daylight saving. Europe is 5 hours ahead of Argentina, Beijing China is 11 hours ahead and Japan 12 hours ahead.

       

      ■Population

      According to the latest census in 2017 the total Population in Argentina was estimated at 44.1 million people. Ethnicities in Argentina are European mostly Spanish and Italian descent and mestizo, mixed European and Amerindian ancestry, Amerindian and African. According to the World Bank the birth rate, crude (per 1,000 people) in Argentina was reported at 17.17 in 2016.

      Population Age group.

      ■Language.

      Spanish is the official language, but minorities speak Italian, English, German, French, indigenous like Mapudungun and Quechua.

       

      ■Currency.

      The currency is the Argentine Peso, one peso equals 100 centavos.

       

      ■Religion

      Nominally Roman Catholic 92% (less than 20% practicing), Protestant 2%, Jewish 2%, other 4%.

       
       
      ■Political System
      The government in Argentina is a presidential republic It is a representative, republican and federal government, the federal government authorities are based in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, which is currently the Capital of the Republic.

      Executive Branch: Performed by the President of the Nation, elected by direct vote in a double round together with the candidate vice-president, they last four years in their terms of office and can be re-elected immediately for one more term. The President is head of state and head of government, the current one is Mauricio Macri since 2015, the vice president is Gabriela Michetti.


      Legislative power: Exercised by the Congress of the Argentine Nation, composed of two chambers, the first is the Chamber of Deputies and gathers the direct representatives of the population. they last four years in their mandate and are renewed by halves every two years and can be re-elected indefinitely. They are chosen by the system of proportional representation. Currently there are 257 members. The other camera is that of Senators. It gathers the representatives of the 23 provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, each one corresponding to two senators by the majority and one by the minority, adding a total of 72 members. They are elected by direct vote, last for six years and renewed by thirds every two years.


      Judiciary Branch: This is headed by a Supreme Court of Justice composed of five judges appointed by the President of the Nation with the consent of the Senate, which requires a two-thirds majority. The lower courts are in charge of resolving the regular conflicts by common legislation in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, denominated. national courts, The appointment and direct control of judges corresponds to the Council of the Judiciary, an organ with a multisectoral composition. The independent body established by the Constitution is the Public Ministry that has the function of promoting the performance of justice in defense of the interests of society. It is directed by the Attorney General of the Nation and the General Ombudsman of the Nation.

       

      ■Main History

       

      Pre-Columbian Era.

       

      Before the arrival of the Spanish crown many small civilizations were formed, the aboriginal peoples were divided into two, the hunters and gatherers in the area of Patagonia, Pampa and Chaco and the third group was farmers located in the northwest. In 1480 the northwestern region was conquered by the Incan Empire, however, the country on the whole was inhabited by many different cultural groups such as nomadic people.

       

       

       

      Conquest of Argentina.

       

      Argentina was known before as "Río de la Plata" Silver River, and some historians indicate that it was first reached by Amerigo Vespucci between 1501 and 1502 and other state it was reached first by Juan Díaz de Solís in 1516, after this explorations the region was only visited until Magellan arrived in 1520, followed by other expeditions. In 1535 the Spanish crown sent Pedro Mendoza to settle the country since Peru had already been conquered and Portugal´s power was growing in Brazil. Mendoza found the area late to be known as Buenos Aires in 1536. The migration to Argentina from Spain was low since they preferred Mexico, Peru or other colonies with rich mines and a large supply of Indian labor, and easier access. The small communities that were established developed thanks to Indian labor, horses, cattle and sheep imported by Spain, some Europeans married Indian women since there were few women from Europe. There was Indian resistance mainly in the Calchaquí valleys, between 1630 and 1665. The Catholic Church had a very important role in the process of colonization, in 1585 when the Spanish crown asked the Jesuits for help to solve problems with the Guarani Indians. The Jesuits made an agreement with the king to pay a proportional tribute on behalf of the Indians who were under their control. There was a great development of missions. The miscegenation between Indians and Europeans arose as it was commented before due to the lack of European women and thus the gauchos arose.

       

       

       

      Viceroyalty

       

      In spite of the difficulties that Spain could find in the colonization of Argentina in 1776 the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata was created, this period lasted for three centuries. It consisted of modern Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and southern Bolivia, it's capital was Buenos Aires. This viceroyalty emerged to protect the riches of the south from England and Portugal, the territory was divided into municipalities and governorates, according to the new laws of the Bourbon Reform. The indigenous people were subjected to forced labor, divided among different landowners. The economy of this time had an extractive-exporting model as in all the viceroyalties established by Spain. The cattle ranch settled mainly in Buenos Aires and was an important activity that is still important today. About mining, this activity only involved the exportation of minerals from the present Bolivia and Peru, in the port of Buenos Aires everything collected as gold and silver was sent to Spain.

       

       

       

      Independence.

       

      The Independence movement began between 1806 and 1807, when the British attacked Buenos Aires in two battles known as the "Reconquista" and "Defensa". All Viceroyalties had problems with the Napoleonic Intervention that led to civil wars, this led to two rival governments one in favor of Joseph Bonaparte and the other in favor of the exiled Ferdinand VII.  Upon learning of the Napoleonic occupation, the bourgeoisie of the port and the countryside dismissed the viceroy and in its place was proclaimed on May 25, 1810 the "Primera Junta" during the May Revolution. Spain was permanently expelled from the region, also the United Provinces of South America were proclaimed in independence in 1816 after the Congress of Tucumán was created. Unitary Constitutions were issued between 1819 and 1826, ending with the creation of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata. First a centralism originated on the part of the bourgeoisie in Buenos Aires, but due to the discontent of the inhabitants of the territory of the Río de la Plata it caused crises during the first thirty years of the new united provinces, this led to the creation of a liberal constitution and federal in 1853 by the Congress of Santa Fe, it was the basis of republican, representative, federal and liberal principles.

       

       

       

      The National Organization (1853-1880)

       

      There were three presidencies, Miter, Sarmiento, Avellaneda, that occurred after the culmination of the original constituent process of the state and that lasted for a period of eighteen years that spanned from 1862 to 1880, often referred to as historical presidencies.

       

      The president who took the post later was Roca who initiated a construction plan for public works throughout the country. It is said that with it began a period of more than three decades of conservative and liberal governments, sustained by fraudulent electoral practices.

       

       

       

      End of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century.

       

      There were revolutions between 1893 and 1905 as a radical struggle due to social discontent, this led to an electoral reform to calm the population. In 1912 the secret and compulsory vote was established with the Sáenz Peña Law that led to a government radicalism that lasted from 1916 and 1930. Society was democratized, oil nationalization and university education. In this period there were also protests but they were repressed with many arrests and deaths.

       

       

       

      The Infamous Decade.

       

      Period that began in 1930 when Generals José Felix Uriburu and Agustín P. Justo led a coup supporting conservative politicians against President Hipolito Yrigoyen. This caused that the political exclusion and the electoral frauds returned. The most powerful groups and families in the country were favored. The end of this period led to the rise of Juan Perón to power.

       

       

       

      The Peron Era.

       

      Between 1943 and 1955 this period was a transitional one also started by a coup d'etat to overthrow President Castillo. Perón worked from the secretary of work and foresight with a policy to improve labor and social legislation, had the support of the population and in 1946 won the elections. During his term he exercised a power limiting the opposition and censoring the press, a change in industry, employment, communications and transport was promoted. He redistributed revenues to help workers, nationalized public services, and gave preferential treatment to urban and industrial areas over their rural counterparts. The problem is that inflation increased and trade became less profitable, it became more difficult to finance imports of vital raw materials, this problems led to attempts to restore constitutionalism. There was a new military coup d'etat against Perón in 1955, the military government was established.

       

       

       

      The Return of Peronism

       

      Peronism tried to be re-established again between 1973 and 1976, with four presidents who tried to take up some of the social measures of the first Peronism, such as the promotion of industry and social action. But there were many internal movements and conflicts between the Peronist movement and the guerrillas in addition to the global economic crisis. This period ended with a new military coup.

       

       

       

      The Return of Military government.

       

      Five days after the coup a three-man military junta filled the presidency with Lieutenant General Jorge Rafaél Videla. The junta closed Congress, imposed censorship, banned trade unions, and brought state and municipal government under military control.  The military dictatorship governed the country between 1976 and 1983, large national economic groups, international banks and international organizations such as the World Bank and the IMF supported this dictatorship. In this period many people died between 10,000 and 30,000 citizens and several more disappeared, others were exiled.

       

      Attention to this matter increased in the late 1970s, with growing evidence of civil rights violations. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who lost children to the Dirty War, began calling international attention to the plight of disappeared persons through weekly Thursday afternoon vigils in the Plaza de Mayo, fronting the presidential palace.  Argentina was defeated in the war of the Maldives, the external debt multiplied by 1980 the overvalued peso devastated Argentine industry.

       

       

       

      Restoration of Democracy.

       

      Alfonsín won the election on October 30, 1983, Alfonsín launched a plan of austerity that implemented a new currency, the austral, wage and price controls, and currency devaluations. The measures initially brought down inflation and restored the confidence of international bankers. Argentina then restructured its foreign debts, which had reached crisis proportions. The inflation rate began to rise again, however, reaching almost 388% annually at the end of 1988, and the austral began a precipitous decline in value against the U.S. dollar.

       

      Argentina in the 21st Century.

       

      Since 1983, attempts have been made to restore democracy by amending public liberties and human rights. For the most part, the Argentine economy rebounded robustly over much of the first decade of the 21st century, but it continued to be plagued by among the highest inflation rates in the Western Hemisphere. On 22 November 2015, Mauricio Macri won the presidency, at the beginning of his mandate he dissolved the bodies established by law to regulate audiovisual media and telecommunications, other measures were the elimination of taxes on exports, the external debt of 5000 million dollars was also taken in order to increase the reserves, there was also an increase in the percentage of federal tax co-participation of almost 100% in favor of the City of Buenos Aires, and an increase in electricity rates of 500%. For 2017 it was believed that the economy in Argentina was going to improve as there was a boom in 2017 and the president had a friendly coalition with the market, no one expected the speed with which the peso would sink against the dollar in 2018, the depreciation made Argentina’s dollar debts more expensive for the government, so they have to request to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $50 billion loan. The country is now considered part of the list of hyperinflationary economies.

       

       

       

      Education

       

      Education is managed by the national government, the provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. The law indicates that education is compulsory from four to 18 years old and free in public schools at all levels up to university degrees. (Postgraduate programs have costs) and according to Article 17 of Law 26.206, the structure of the National Education System includes four levels and 8 modalities.

       

       

       

      Education is divided into four levels:

       

       

       

      1) Initial Education. It includes children from 45 days of age to five years of age, being compulsory from four years of age.

       

       

       

      2) Primary Education. It begins at six years of age and lasts six or seven years.

       

       

       

      3) Secondary Education. It lasts five or six years. It is divided into two cycles: a basic cycle of two or three courses of character common to all orientations and an oriented cycle of three courses in which you can choose different modalities according to the path the student wants to follow.

       

       

       

      The modalities are the following:

       

      ·         Professional technical education.

       

      ·         Artistic education.

       

      ·         Special education.

       

      ·         Permanent education for youth and adults.

       

      ·         Rural education.

       

      ·         Intercultural bilingual education.

       

      ·         Education in contexts of deprivation of liberty.

       

      ·         Home and hospital education.

       

       

       

      4) Higher Education. Also known as tertiary education, it is no longer mandatory and includes universities and institutes of higher education of state or private management. The duration varies depending on the titles that you decide to study since there are three levels:

       

      - Diploma: With a duration of between two and three years. They are usually related to training in technical careers or teaching.

       

       

       

      - Grade. It includes normal degrees and degrees of professional practice, which are the programs that qualify for the exercise of a collegiate profession, as a doctor, architect or lawyer. The bachelor's degrees last from four to six years and include some research, which is why they are equated with European master's degrees.

       

       

       

      - Postgraduate. It is a research-oriented specialization that can be in the form of a master's or doctorate.