Argentine Politics for Dummies??

[RosaliaLL]

I've only been here a few months and I'm the kind of person who likes to stay informed. I'm very interested in knowing what (the hell) is going on with Argentine politics.

I've been trying to follow the news but find that I don't know a Peronist from a Kirchernite from a populist, and I can't tell who's left, right, up or down.

Can anyone recommend a book, a website, or some other resource that will help me make heads and tails of all this?

My Spanish is pretty solid, but with the depth of the subject matter it might be better for me to tackle it in English.

I'm a pretty big reader so if it's hefty (as I imagine it would be), that won't bother me at all.

Muchas gracias!

 

[PhilipDT]

I think you've got it nailed. They're all dummies.

 

[EdRooney]

It's a great endeavour, and it's encouraging that you're eager to log some time on this. Yet I would recommend thinking about the question in reverse: would there be a single book you might recommend to get a grasp of the politics in your home country? There may be good suggestions, but since politics by nature are polarised, any book you read will naturally be coloured by the author's political persuasion. Same here, maybe more so.

Thus try to read as much variety as possible; but I would recommend trying to ditch the "left/right" dichotomy. I think you'll find it very different here from how people are divided in say Europe or the US. (like in US politics, I still can't figure out how the pro-death penalty party is also the anti-abortion party).

Good luck!

 

[el_expatriado]

I would recommend trying to ditch the "left/right" dichotomy. I think you'll find it very different here from how people are divided in say Europe or the US.

Very well said. This is the first step to understanding Argentine politics. Here politics are about increasing the personal power of the leader of the party and obtaining state benefits for the supporters of said leader. The ideology of the leader is not really important and is only a side issue.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Well, I have some books recommendations that helped me to understand better politics in this country:

Montoneros, la soberbia armada
Operacion traviata
Operacion primicia
Volver a matar
Nadie fue
Fuimos todos
1982
Montoneros, soldados de Massera

It help to understand how politics here has its own dynamics and how infiltrators influenced in politics producing bizarre results that all we know. I suggest to read them in that order.

The assert about that they are all dump is quite accurate. The strategy of the ERP, Montoneros, AAA, Videla was to kill all the prominent leaders (Videla in fact wanted to kill them all). That´s how somebody so pathetic like Videla become a President and that explains the mediocrity of politicians and institutions. Only the useless survived the 70´s with a few exceptions. 1982 (about the war of Malvinas) is a piece or art. It was written by the former director of the Secret Service and it has priceless info. In fact, he is under criminal prosecution because hacking computer, well, he called them "journalist sources".
Regards

 

[Matt84]

I've only been here a few months and I'm the kind of person who likes to stay informed. I'm very interested in knowing what (the hell) is going on with Argentine politics.

I've been trying to follow the news but find that I don't know a Peronist from a Kirchernite from a populist, and I can't tell who's left, right, up or down.

I think, like, all 'Kirschnerites' are Peronists, but you can be a Peronist and not be a Kirschnerite. Also, both Peronists and Kirschwasserists are both Populists, but you can like be a Populist without even being a Peronist (you can be National Socialist by way of Partido Obrero)

Peronists are both right wingers and left wingers, that's just one of the benefits of having a one party system. Only 'factions' of the 'movement' can be either left wingers (what the Kirchis are accused of being) or moderately right wingers (what Duhalde is accused of).

Can anyone recommend a book, a website, or some other resource that will help me make heads and tails of all this?

My Spanish is pretty solid, but with the depth of the subject matter it might be better for me to tackle it in English.

I'm a pretty big reader so if it's hefty (as I imagine it would be), that won't bother me at all.

Muchas gracias!

sure why not further tarnish my online tracks?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Third_Position

http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_Due

 

[Montauk_Project]

Keep in mind that political afiliation is a lot like religion: you are born into it. People will often say that they come from Peronist or Radical families (or communist, which is then devided into trotskiests, maoists, lenenists, etc). If they change political afiliation, they will often mention this as in "vengo de una familia radical, pero apoyo Christina". If they are peronist, they will often subdivide themselves into groups, sometimes using a date to talk about what year of Peronism they most agree with.
I once thought about writing a book about all the Peronists I dated. . .
one dumped me because I called Evita a non-revolutionary figure.
one was an anarchist, and became a peronist right before I met him because, in his words, he was tired of loosing. "Now everyone is my compañero".
That was a joke, that everyone in Argentina is a peronist. Don´t believe me? Macri, who is about as right wing as they come, is now saying that he is Peronist to win votes.
And you don´t even have to agree with Peron to be a peronist! When he returned from exile, he basically told all of the armed youth movements to not go against the military, to which they stopped caring about what he said, but they still called themselves peronists!
(to this day you will find people making counter protests against a leader saying that they oppose his policies, but still support him).
Menem was a peronist and destroyed industry. Christina is a personist and is basically reversing all of Menem´s policy. And who votes with Christina now on nationalizing YPF? You guessed it, Menem (btw, you should not mention his name, call him "el carlos" or "mendez" because his name is bad luck).
Even Clarin, the arch enemy of Christina, a peronist, publishes glowing articles about Evita and peronism.

 

[Matt84]

And you don´t even have to agree with Peron to be a peronist! When he returned from exile, he basically told all of the armed youth movements to not go against the military, to which they stopped caring about what he said, but they still called themselves peronists!

Kinda like the SS vs the SA?

 

[rrptownley]

This is all you should need as a dummies guide:

Adrian Bono´s Weekly News Roundup

 

[rrptownley]

Can anyone recommend a book, a website, or some other resource that will help me make heads and tails of all this?

Lookup the Weekly News Roundup by Adrian Bono.