How a Faded 1980s Party Explains Argentina's 2023 Election
BY ÁLVARO CASO BELLO | OCTOBER 10, 2023
All three leading candidates have ties to the “Ucedé,” which has pushed a free-market agenda for decades.
From left, Argentina presidential candidates Patricia Bullrich, Sergio Massa and Javier Milei at a debate on October 8.
Agustin Marcarian/Getty Images
Reading Time: 4 minutes
The meteoric rise of Javier Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist, paleo-libertarian and social media-first phenomenon, has been the biggest story of Argentina’s 2023 election.
Now considered the front-runner in the October 22 vote, Milei’s ascent reflects a major shift in the politics of Latin America’s third-largest economy. But what often goes unnoticed is the shared political lineage that unites Milei and his two main competitors, Sergio Massa (the governing coalition’s candidate) and Patricia Bullrich (leader of the largest opposition coalition, Juntos por el Cambio).
This shared endowment can be traced back to a small party from the late 1980s: the Unión de Centro Democrático, or Ucedé. Despite being an electorally feeble presence in a political landscape dominated by Peronism and anti-Peronism, the Ucedé has had an outsized influence on politics in recent years.
Born during Argentina’s re-democratization and spearheaded by Álvaro Alsogaray, an ally of several of the military or military-aligned governments that ruled Argentina between 1955 and 1983, the Ucedé unapologetically advocated for a free-market agenda. A recent book chronicles how Alsogaray believed even the junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983 was insufficiently committed to free-market ideology and reforms.
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https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/how-a-faded-1980s-party-explains-argentinas-2023-election/
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The UCeDé - originally limited to right-wing snobs in the upscale Recoleta district of Buenos Aires - had their day in the sun in the '90s, when they joined (some would say, ran) the freewheeling Carlos Menem administration.
The alliance between the elitist UCeDé and the (formerly) populist Menem reached tabloid proportions when, in August 1990, it was reveled that Menem - who had just separated from the First Lady - was carrying on an affair with María Julia Alsogaray - the daughter of the curmudgeonly founder, Álvaro.
He then named her Environment Secretary - an appointment she attributed to the "trust the president deposited in me."
"Have you heard?" a salacious joke went at the time, "they're now calling it 'trust'."
María Julia (who died in 2017) is, to this day, probably the best-remembered UCeDé figure - mainly over her affair with Menem, as well as her very gaudy corruption - including some $200 million in unaccounted-for offshore transfers.
A lot of that is believed to have come from bribes she collected during her stints as federal receiver for the state-owned steel and phone companies during their (scandalous) 1990 privatizations.
As you can imagine, a lot of UCeDé figures - who had to lay low after the 2001/02 calamity - were recycled right back into the Macri administration - probably the closest thing to an "UCeDé administration" Argentina ended up having.
The unhinged Javier Milei, should he win this November, hopes to outdo that.
María Julia Alsogaray, her father Álvaro, and the latter's running mate, Alberto Natale, during their failed 1989 campaign.
Arguably the closet thing in Argentina to "country club Republicans," the UCeDé scored a distant 3rd place in the elections but ended up having a prominent role in the Menem administration - particularly during his disastrous first two years (when large deposits were seized, in exchange for near-worthless bonds).
Their support from big business has allowed them to resurface - under different guises - in the Macri regime, and now in the far-right Milei campaign.
I guess along with their monstrous children, by now.
Didn't they do enough damage to the majority of Argentine people already, decades ago? Things got so bad there they even did documentaries about it on PBS here! Apparently only the super super rich fared well during those days.
It must be excruciating knowing what has been going on behind the surface all this time. Don't know how anyone sane could get used to them.
Didn't know María Julia wasn't Menem's first wife! He certainly publicly humiliated her but good with the "beauty queen" during George W. Bush's stay in the White House.
When I saw the following photo in the news, I assumed this wife was the first:
Like Melaria, she automatically trailed after him like the man with the giant broom following the elephants in the circus parade.
I actually felt sorry for her when he started dragging around this big dummy, Miss Chile!
He must have been so surprised when she betrayed him! Beat him at his own game. Funny!
Cecilia is going to have to learn that game, played out over a lifetime always has diminishing returns for the effort. It doesn't work forever.
It was interesting to learn the UCeDé used to have to hang their hats in these old hovels:
Just barely better than huddling under a bridge, wouldn't you say? That explains why I saw a photo of how Carlos Menem had to get around. Just barely held together with duct tape, no doubt:
(I read he actually kept gifts like Ferrarris people gave him during his Presidency. That probably has driven Trump insane!)
Well, he could hardly turn to the UCeDé for help. One sees they are forced to live in buildings hundreds of years old! Poor things.
Clearly they are getting slick at bleeding the Treasury dry every time they can maneuver one of their deadly puppets into the Presidency after the progressive President struggles valiantly and desperately to drag the economy out of the ditch the last UCeDé scored for them, while the sheep meekly vote them back in after 4 years of hard work by the progressives still can't overcome the devastated economic disaster they were handed.
How long is it going to take the world to realize that IS their method everywhere?
What you've shared will add a lot of depth and understanding to anyone who caught it. The game has been going on far longer, with greater intensity than people would ever have known, peppertree.
Thank you. 