New Argentine president quits after a week; March vote nixed

 



  BUENOS AIRES - Argentina ended 2001 leaderless and penniless 
yesterday with its new interim president resigning a week into 
the job and the country fearing more bloodshed and the loss of 
savings frozen in the banks.

  Plunged into chaos by looting and deadly riots that forced 
Fernando de la Rua to resign as president a week ago, Argentina 
fell deeper into anarchy when interim leader Adolfo Rodriguez 
Saa quit on Sunday after losing his party's support.

  But bickering politicians agreed the crisis was too serious to 
subject Argentina to the pressure of quick elections, which had 
been scheduled for March, and decided yesterday to choose an 
interim leader to rule until 2003, when De la Rua's mandate was 
to end.

  Argentina's biggest political force, the Peronists, who ruled 
from 1989-99, withdrew support from Rodriguez Saa, accusing him 
of being power-hungry, and convinced other parties to accept in 
his stead Peronist heavyweight Senator Eduardo Duhalde.

  Governor Carlos Ruckauf of the vast Buenos Aires province said 
all parties had to "help the Peronists in a national salvation 
government ... with consensus that the person in charge until 
2003 should be Duhalde."

  De la Rua's cowed Radical Party agreed, with senior party 
official Federico Storani saying it would be "madness" to hold 
elections now "because the interim government wouldn't have the 
power to apply measures to get us over this crisis."

  Landed with the provisional presidency for 48 hours, the head of 
the lower house of Congress, Eduardo Camano, called on senators 
and deputies to hold a legislative assembly today which should 
rubber-stamp Duhalde's appointment.

  The country of 36 million people is living in fear of more shop 
looting and violence that killed 27 people before De la Rua 
quit, of more riots like those that erupted on Friday and of 
more misery as a four-year-old recession grinds on.

  Already, Latin America's third-largest economy has declared a 
moratorium on foreign debt payments - Rodriguez Saa's first act 
as leader - and commerce has halted since cash withdrawals were 
limited to $1,000 a month to stop a panic run on banks.

  
`Shameful'

  Ordinary Argentines have been pouring into the streets night 
after hot summer night, banging pots and pans demanding, and 
eventually receiving, the resignation of De la Rua, his 
unpopular economy minister and aides to Rodriguez Saa who were 
suspected of corruption.

  "It's shameful. Until all those above us stop stealing, 
Argentina has no way out," said a woman lining up outside a bank 
in the rain from before dawn to try to get her cash.

  With New Year celebrations canceled for fear of violence in the 
worst crisis since the country's last military coup in 1976, 
security chief Juan Jose Alvarez said the capital had been 
"strongly reinforced with patrols by the federal police, the 
coast guard and the border police."

  "Today we are millimeters away from a civil war," said Leopoldo 
Moreau, a Radical Party congressman.

  But despite the heavy guard on the president's Pink Palace and 
the Plaza de Mayo outside, there were no rumblings of 
intervention by the military which has been subordinate to 
civilian rule since 1983.

  While the moratorium on part of Argentina's $132-billion public 
debt, heralding the biggest default in history, had long been 
expected by markets that have dumped Argentine bonds this year, 
Rodriguez Saa's plans for a new currency caused alarm.

  He had planned to alleviate the cash crunch by minting the 
"argentino" to circulate alongside pesos, which have been backed 
up and pegged one-to-one to U.S. dollars for a decade, providing 
monetary stability and zero inflation.

  But the argentino would only be backed by the bricks and mortar 
of government buildings such as the Pink Palace, and analysts 
have warned it could devalue and spark inflation.

  U.S. President George W. Bush said yesterday he was worried 
about Argentina, but was confident the country would "stay 
together" until it chooses a new leader while offering

  
help once things stabilized.

  "Obviously I'm worried. Argentina is a very important part of 
our hemisphere," Bush said. "Once they come up with a plan to 
sustain economic growth, we'll work with them."



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