Center-Periphery Relations
in Argentina

The growing gap between Argentina's rich and poor, and between prosperous Buenos Aires and the impoverished interior created protests. In Salta, 56% live below the official poverty line; the poorest subsist on $1.20 a day. The protesters come from a previously solvent lower-middle class that has lost out from economic reform. At General Mosconi and another hot-spot, Cutral-Co in Neuquen province, many of the demonstrators had worked at oil refineries closed by YPF, the privatised oil company.

But the disturbances are also a response to Mr. de la Rua's squeeze on local spending -- and to years of local misgovernment. Recent protests in Corrientes, Tierra del Fuego, and Tucuman have been led by local-government staff whose wages have not been paid. While various locally-administered welfare schemes often suffer from inefficiency and corruption, the politicians live well: in Salta, the 59 deputies in the provincial assembly each receive over $500,000 a year in salary and expenses. In Formosa, that figure is $2 million; the legislators there devour almost a tenth of the provincial budget. According to Artemio Lopez of Fundacion Equis, a think-tank, the provinces with the most intense unrest are those where the disparity between the income of legislators and the average wage is greatest. Source: The Economist, 20 May 2000.