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Argentine President Resigns Amid Growing Crisis
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| Alfredo Rodriguez Saa steps down |
BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 31 (IslamOnline & News
Agencies) - Argentina found itself without a leader early Monday, December 31,
2001, following the surprise resignation of interim President, Adolfo Rodriguez
Saa, and the announcement that the next in line of succession refused the job,
news agencies reported.
By law, Chamber of Deputies leader, Eduardo
Camano, from the Peronist party is in charge of executive duties until Congress
appoints a new president.
Camano said he would call a joint session of
the legislature Wednesday or Thursday to name a president, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
Rodriguez Saa made his decision public in a
dramatic televized address late Sunday to the nation, after spending just one
week in office, BBC’s online news service reported.
He spent Sunday trying to hold emergency talks with Peronist provincial
governors in the resort town of Chapadmalal, but most of them failed to turn up.
He then flew back to his home province of San
Luis to make his shock announcement. He said his resignation was effective
immediately.
"I did not have any other choice,"
Rodriguez Saa said. He added that the leaders of his Peronist party had turned
their backs on him.
Nine of the party's 14 power-brokering
governors snubbed the now former president by refusing to attend an emergency
meeting with him Sunday to discuss ways to reshape his cabinet and economic
policy, following a massive anti-government protest Friday.
Rodriguez Saa said he had telephoned Senate
leader, Ramon Puerta, before his address to inform him of the decision, AFP
reported.
However, about one hour later, a spokesperson
for Puerta announced the senator had resigned his post. Puerta served as
president for 48 hours after the resignation of Fernando de la Rua, and before
the swearing in of Rodriguez Saa.
Rodriguez Saa, a former provincial governor,
was appointed president December 23, when De la Rua resigned two years into his
four-year presidential term. Congress gave him a three-month mandate until
presidential elections could be held in March.
Rodriguez Saa now returns to private life,
having resigned his governorship to assume Argentina's presidency.
According to news reports, at issue in the
internal dispute between the fractured Peronist party was whether Saa would step
aside after the March 3 elections, or would serve out the remainder of De la
Rua's term through December 2003.
Although Rodriguez Saa said the elections were
still on for March 3, several Peronist politicians said Sunday the vote should
now be held as soon as possible.
Governor Jose Manuel de la Sota, singled out by
Rodriguez Saa as one of the Peronists who had withdrawn his support, said
Argentina should pass from "protests to votes to define who governs and
with which policies," AFP reported.
The surprise resignations capped a day of
intense political maneuvering in which Rodriguez Saa sought to quell growing
popular unrest and keep the country's economy afloat.
He received assurances from local banks on
Sunday that they will remain open for 12 hours Monday so pensioners and
government employees can withdraw their funds.
Nonetheless, the government's 1,000-peso
(1,000-dollar) monthly limit on withdrawals remains in place despite a series of
demonstrations to end it.
In his address to the nation, Rodriguez Saa
said he had planned to announce his economic plan for the country, including a
budget of 38 billion dollars.
He also listed the measures he took in his
seven days in office, including a suspension of payments on the nation's
132-billion-dollar debt, creating 230,000 temporary jobs, slashing spending on
administrative government costs, and reducing the maximum government salary to
3,000 dollars a month.
He did not mention his controversial plan to
issue a third currency, which had been due to begin circulating January 15
alongside the dollar and the peso. Analysts had warned the new currency was akin
to devaluation, and could have led to a cycle of hyperinflation.
Rodriguez Saa defended his decision on the debt
moratorium in Sunday's speech, saying it had provided "enormous social and
economic benefits for the country".
"I tried to be the president who turned
the tide," he said. "I'm not going to be the president of the old
Argentina."
The Argentine capital remained calm following
the resignations, after disturbances one day earlier left a dozen police
officers wounded, six of them seriously. Thirty-three people were detained in
the rioting.
The demonstrators have railed against the curb on cash withdrawals as well as
alleged corruption within Rodriguez Saa's cabinet, BBC reported.
Demonstrators attacked the presidential palace
and Congress overnight Friday, demanding an end to bank restrictions in place
since December 3 and the resignation of cabinet members widely seen as corrupt.
Presidential adviser, Carlos Grosso, whom street
protesters accused of corruption during his stint as Buenos Aires mayor,
resigned immediately and Rodriguez Saa's cabinet followed suit Saturday.
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