On Thursday night, the BBC called me from Broadcasting House in
London astonished by scenes of mass demonstrations in Buenos Aires and
other cities throughout Argentina.
The presenter was surprised by the magnitude and extent of the
crowds. She was also intrigued by what seemed to be “a festive
atmosphere” and asked me to explain what was going on.
I had just arrived home after walking down Avenida Callao, returning
from a speaking engagement in the Casa de Mendoza. I had not taken part
in the protest, but during my 12-block walk I blended in. The atmosphere
certainly seemed festive. People were sitting out at sidewalk cafés on
Callao and adjacent streets eating, sipping drinks and enjoying the
antics of the crowds gathered at street crossings.
I told the BBC that what we were watching streaming live on the
Internet was a rebellion of Argentina’s middle class. The protesters
gently rattled pots and pans, held up homemade signs and waved Argentine
flags. There was no aggression. It was a genteel affair.
I later learned that there were two incidents of violence when
reporters for the pro-government C5N, a television channel, and the TV
programme Duro de Domar were roughed up. But the aggressors were roundly
condemned.
But the mood was not really “festive.” The Argentine middle class is
not happy with the government of President Cristina Fernández de
Kirchner. Indeed, there is underlying anger that so much has gone wrong
with a government that did so much that was right after the epic
economic collapse and the breakdown of democracy in 2001.
My interpretation of both the great marches of the middle class, the
first on September 13, which was largely spontaneous, and the second on
what is being called 8N, which was at least twice the size, numbering
around 250,000, according to some estimates, is that both were about One
Big Thing and scores of Littler Things. The Big Thing is Democracy. The
littler things are lack of security, inflation, state intervention,
corruption, limits on individual rights, threats to press freedom and
judicial independence, to name only a few of the grievances that have
aroused more people to take to the streets than I can remember in half a
century covering Argentina.
The point about both these marches, which have really been gatherings
of mostly like-minded people, is that they could prove to be a historic
turning point in the civic development of Argentina. As readers of this
column must have realized, I have been concerned from the moment that I
was able to resume my life in Argentina that our hard-won democracy was
in danger of being whittled away by an increasingly authoritarian
administration.
I was haunted by a metaphor that I have not mentioned in print before.
This is not meant to be taken too seriously, but I am not the only
person who has wondered whether those of us who believe in democracy are
like frogs basking in a tank of warm water, unaware that the
temperature is imperceptibly rising.
As my wife and I are unable to spend more than five months in
Argentina each year we are in an advantageous position. We can hop out
of the tank when we leave in November. When we return in June we can
test the temperature before we hop back in. We will keep you informed on
our reading of the temperature.
For those who do not like this metaphor, let me say that it is far
less disturbing than my first thought, which was that we might be
lobsters. In that case, once in the pot, you’ve had it.
Among our friends, only a few worried about being democratic frogs in
a country where the authoritarian temperature was rising. So I worried
that people would not react in time to save Argentine democracy. The two
urbane and genteel demonstrations that have now taken place have
strengthened my conviction that democracy is here to stay.
That is because the people who gathered throughout Argentina — the
Federal Capital, La Plata, Córdoba, Corrientes, General Roca, Mendoza,
Río Negro, Rosario, Salta, Tucumán, even Bariloche and other small towns
— made an important statement: the people are concerned about
individual liberties, human rights in fact.
The protests went global. The Herald reported that there were
demonstrations by Argentines living abroad outside embassies and
consulates in Australia, Germany (Berlin, Frankfurt, Bonn, Hamburg);
Austria; Bolivia, Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte);
Canada (Toronto, Montreal); Chile (Santiago, Valparaíso); China;
Colombia; Costa Rica; England; France; Israel (Tel Aviv, Hertzlia
Pituah, Migdal Haemek); Italy (Rome, Milan, Padova); Japan, Mexico;
Norway; Panama; Paraguay; Peru; Spain (Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga, Palma
de Mallorca, Valencia); South Africa; Sweden; Switzerland; Netherlands
(Hague, Amsterdam); Uruguay (Montevideo, Punta del Este, Maldonado,
Colonia); United States (Washington DC, Miami, New York, Boston,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston); Venezuela. Página/12 added
Azerbaijan and the Canary Islands to this list.
The government has been given a multitudinous wake up call. Reality is knocking on the door of the Casa Rosada.
Even Página/12, which has become the Official Gazette, has realized
that something is up. Instead of jeering at the marchers, as they did
after S13, their writers did some serious analysis.
Horacio González, the most discerning member of the Carta Abierta
group of intellectuals, noted: “They weren’t few. They were many. And
many of the words that they said were right words.” Horacio Verbitsky,
under the heading “Voices from the Street,” wrote that the demonstration
was “evidence that democracy is solid.” He concluded by suggesting that
Argentina may now be closer to the political system that “(Néstor)
Kirchner imagined ‘a centre-left force opposed by the centre-right.’”
Now is the time for the President to polish her democratic
credentials by stating that she will not seek re-election and will not
support legislation proposing an amendment or reform of the
Constitution.
That would allow people from the centre-left and the centre-right to
bond in support of democracy, against the extremists that have done so
much harm to Argentina over the past eight or nine decades.
The worldwide coverage of the protests on Thursday by the BBC and
other media put Argentina on a global alert list. A gesture from
Cristina would tell the world that democracy is alive and well.
And it would be an enormous relief to my metaphorical frogs who would
no longer have to keep checking the temperature of the water in the
tank.
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