after de la Rúa's death (in Spanish)Fernando de la Rúa (15 September 1937 – 9 July 2019) was an Argentine politician who served as President of Argentina from 1999 to 2001.
Born in Córdoba, after graduating with a degree in law, de la Rúa entered politics through the Radical Civic Union (UCR) party, being elected senator in 1973 and unsuccessfully running for the office of Vice President as Ricardo Balbín's running mate in the elections of September of the same year. He was re-elected senator in 1983 and 1993, and as deputy in 1991.
De la Rúa first arose to national politics after he unsuccessfully opposed the Pact of Olivos between President Carlos Menem and party leader Raúl Alfonsín which enabled the 1994 amendment of the Argentine Constitution which, in exchange for limiting the powers of the presidency, allowed the re-election of Menem in 1995.
De la Rúa was the first chief of government (i.e. Mayor) of Buenos Aires City to be elected by popular vote (previous mayors were designated by the governor of the Buenos Aires Province), which ironically was one of the changes introduced by 1994 constitutional amendment he had opposed. During his tenure as chief of government, he expanded the Buenos Aires Underground, and established the city's first bicycle path.
In 1999, de la Rúa ran for president on the ticket of a political coalition, the Alliance for Work, Justice and Education (simply known as "the Alliance"), which consisted of the UCR and the FrePaSo (Frente País Solidario, "Front for a Country in Solidarity", itself a center-left political coalition formed mainly by progressive members of Menem's Justicialist Party who denounced his neoliberal policies). He ran on what was essentially a "return to normalcy" campaign, which decried how Menem had developed a bon vivant lifestyle while in office; one campaign ad had de la Rúa wondering if he was viewed as "boring" because he didn't drive Ferraris, referencing that Menem was actually gifted a Ferrari while in office.note As soon as he took office, however, he was opposed by Peronist unions, and less than a year after assuming, his Vice President Carlos Álvarez resigned after denouncing bribes in the Senate. The economic crisis that began during Menem's second term worsened, and by the end of 2001 it had devolved into a banking panic, which resulted in the government establishing its infamous Corralito ("Little pen") measure, consisting in limiting bank withdrawals. The measure only worsened the crisis, resulting in riots by December, and de la Rúa called a state of emergency. After losing more and more support, de la Rúa resigned in 20 December, just a little over half his alotted time in office. The visual of him leaving Casa Rosada (the seat of government) in helicopter became a symbol of the crisis.
After leaving office, de la Rúa retired from politics completely, only occasionally being on the news due to facing legal proceedings for much of the remainder of his life related to either the December crisis and riots or the bribing allegations his Vice President made, though he was found not guilty in all of them. He died in 2019.
Works featuring de la Rúa:
Live-Action TV- De la Rúa actually made an appearace As Himself in the Argentine variety/comedy show VideoMatch which may have actually made his government's crisis From Bad to Worse. As he, soon after assuming the presidency, was perceived as a weak and tired man who was unable to react to the crisis, and as someone without leadership skills who could not make use of his presidential authority, de la Rúa blamed this perception mainly on the parody of him made by the comedian Freddy Villarreal, who was a castmember of the show. De la Rúa sought to change his image by appearing on the show, but his appearance on the program backfired: He confused the names of the show and that of host Marcelo Tinelli's wife. After de la Rúa's participation ended, and as Tinelli began to close the show, de la Rúa could be seen seeking the exit from the set in the background.
Music
- He is one of the Argentine presidents mentioned in Bersuit Vergarabat's "La argentinidad al palo", in the line "De la Rúa con su tibia boludez" ("De la Rúa and his lukewarm bullshittery").
