Did you know that Argentina had 5 presidents in just one week?
It happened in December 2001. The country had already been in a long crisis due to the Convertibility Plan, which pegged the Argentine peso to the U.S. dollar with the view of elimination of high inflation rates. The decision led to several improvements, but in the long run the country was forced to take more loans from the International Monetary Fund.
Given the doubts about the country's payment capacity and about the continuity of convertibility, a growing leak of bank deposits began to be reflected.
On December 2nd, 2001 “El Corralito” was imposed, which meant that people couldn’t withdraw money from their dollar bank accounts nor could they buy dollars. Curious fact: because of what happened in Argentina, the term “corralito” is now applied to policies from other countries. Why? Because the country has an external debt of billions of dollars. This was a way to avoid currency leak.
That caused a number of protests, as Argentina was severely limited in its economic movements.
After a series of demonstrations, the President Fernando de la Rúa, who was the one who had come with the idea of restriction, had to leave his post and the Casa Rosada (the presidential seat) by helicopter. Several government representatives resigned with him, such as the Minister of the Interior, Minister of Economy, Minister of Justice, among others.
But the country cannot remain without a president. On the night of December 20, when Fernando de la Rúa escaped, the one who had to play the role of provisional president was Ramón Puerta, the President of the Chamber of Senators. But because it was an emergency measure, Ramón Puerta could not remain in charge.
For this reason, on December 23, Adolfo Rodríguez Saá was elected. However, he resigned within a week, on December 30.
At this moment, since there were no vice presidents, the Executive Branch had to rely on Ramón Puerta again. But this time, he resigned.
That is why power had to be taken by the President of the House of Representatives, Eduardo Camaño. But since his position was temporary and emergent, on January 1st the Legislative Assembly elected Eduardo Duhalde, who had been a presidential candidate in 1999, losing to De la Rúa. He repealed the essential points of the Convertibility Law and the country went back to differentiating currencies.
Actually, in the period of 11 days there were not 5 presidents, there were only three presidents and two officials in charge of the Executive. But that does not change the harsh reality of one of the most unstable moments in the history of Argentina.
Sources: 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V5NB2urpXg
3. Diana Uribe, “Historias del mundo. Argentina 27. Desde el retorno a la democracia hasta el Corralito”.
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