Pope Francis has always been known for his deep concern for the poor and needy. Now that he is the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, the former Jorge Mario Bergoglio is the advocate and protector of the hundreds of millions of poor people —not just poor Catholic people—in the world.
His Holiness has come to his new role very well prepared. As a simple parish priest and later as president of the conference of Argentinian bishops and as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio lived among and learned first-hand the problems of Argentina’s poor—former First Lady Eva Peron called them the descamisados —neglected and marginalized. He shunned clerical privileges and lived a life that most closely approximated the life of the average Argentinian.
Things should not have been that way. A country with a large number of immigrants from Western Europe— especially Spaniards, Italians and Germans —Argentina was before World War II the jewel of Latin America. Supported by a strong export trade in grain, beef and dairy products, Latin America’s second largest country was the envy of the developing world. Indeed, Argentina deserved, even then, to be considered as part of the First World. The Argentinian peso was one of the world’s stables currencies.
The advent to power of strongman Domingo Peron changed all that. Populist policies intended to maintain his and his wife Eva’s conjugal hold on power soon took their toll. In no time at all, the fundamentals of Argentina’s economy began to deteriorate. Sustained high living and a steady reversal of the nation’s once-solid external trade—with rising imports and weakening exports—led to a depletion of Argentina’s reserve position. The continent’s stablest currency was now one of its most problematic.
The removal of the Perons from power ushered in a long period of weak government and intense political conflict. The Argentinian military was just waiting for an excuse to intervene, and in 1976 the civilian government was set aside by a military junta led by General Jorge Videla.
Given the international community’s distrust of and non-confidence in the ruling junta, Argentina’s economic decline continued. Foreign direct investment progressively dropped and Argentina’s external debt ratio rose to a level that alarmed the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Under increasingly severe domestic and international pressure, the Argentinian generals grudgingly agreed to the restoration of democratic governance.
The return of democracy should have ushered in a reversal of Argentina’s economic fortunes. But it was not to be.
The government of the new democratic president, Carlos Menem, put in place economic policies that partook of populism. Obviously motivated by a desire to convince the Argentinian populace that life was better under democracy, the Menem government ran a steady succession of budget deficits and embarked on a program of heavy foreign borrowing.
In his quest for a third term, Carlos Menem was opposed by Nestor Kirschner, who ran on a platform of better management of the Argentinian economy. The Kirschner administration soon proved to be unequal to the now-grave financial problems of Argentina, and by the time his wife Cristina succeeded to the presidency, a once-wealthy country was on the verge of default on its external debt.
In the ensuing contest of wills with Argentina’s foreign creditors, Cristina Kirschner brought her country to default. With an economy weakened by decades of mismanagement and abuse, the agreement reached by the Kirschner government with the international financial community must be considered a stop-gap measure at best. It holds no promise of an early return to the economic status once enjoyed by Argentina.
Through all these governance problems —the Perons, dictatorship, populist policies and political instability—Argentina’s impoverished people have suffered privation and misery and waited for an economic redemption that thus far has proven to be elusive.
During his entire priesthood Jorge Mario Bergoglio has lived with and known about poor people. He has gone to Rome fully qualified to minister to the needs of the world’s descamisados.
E-mail: [email protected]