Statistics

National name: Rep�blica Argentina.

President: Fernando de la R�a (1999)

Area: 1,068,296 sq mi (2,766,890 sq km)

Population (2001 est.): 37,384,816 (average annual rate of natural increase: 1.1%); birth rate: 18.4/1000; infant mortality rate: 17.8/1000; density per sq mi: 35

Capital and largest city (2000 est.): Buenos Aires, 13,250,000 (metro. area)

Other large cities (1999 est.): C�rdoba, 1,200,000; Rosario, 950,000; Mar del Plata, 900,000; Mendoza, 400,000

Monetary unit: Peso

Languages: Spanish (official), English, Italian, German, French

Ethnicity/race: European 97% (mostly of Spanish and Italian descent), 3% other (mostly Indian or mestizo)

Religions: Roman Catholic 92%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 2%, other 4%

Literacy rate: 96% (1991)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (1999 est.): $367 billion; per capita $10,000. Real growth rate: �3%. Inflation:�2%. Unemployment: 14%. Arable land: 9%. Agriculture: sunflower seeds, lemons, soybeans, grapes, corn, tobacco, peanuts, tea, wheat; livestock. Labor force: 15 million (1999); agriculture, n.a; industry, n.a.; services, n.a. Industries: food processing, motor vehicles, consumer durables, textiles, chemicals and petrochemicals, printing, metallurgy, steel. Natural resources: fertile plains of the pampas, lead, zinc, tin, copper, iron ore, manganese, petroleum, uranium. Exports: $23 billion (f.o.b., 1999 est.): edible oils, fuels and energy, cereals, feed, motor vehicles. Imports: $25 billion (c.i.f., 1999 est.): machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, metal manufactures, plastics. Major trading partners: Brazil, EU, U.S.

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 7.5 million (1997); mobile cellular: 1.8 million (1997). Radio broadcast stations: AM 260 (including 10 inactive stations), FM n.a. (probably more than 1,000, mostly unlicensed), shortwave 6 (1998). Radios: 24.3 million (1997). Television broadcast stations: 42 (plus 444 repeaters) (1997). Televisions: 7.95 million (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 47 (1999).

Transportation: Railways: total: 38,326 km (160 km electrified (1999). Highways: total: 215,434 km; paved: 63,553 km (including 734 km of expressways); unpaved: 151,881 km (1998 est.). Waterways: 10,950 km navigable. Ports and harbors: Bahia Blanca, Buenos Aires, Comodoro Rivadavia, Concepcion del Uruguay, La Plata, Mar del Plata, Necochea, Rio Gallegos, Rosario, Santa Fe, Ushuaia Airports: 1,359 (1999 est.). Airports: 1,359 (1999 est.) .

International disputes: claims UK-administered Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas); claims UK-administered South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; territorial claim in Antarctica.

Geography

Second in South America only to Brazil in size and population, Argentina is a plain, rising from the Atlantic to the Chilean border and the towering Andes peaks. Aconcagua (23,034 ft; 7,021 m) is the highest peak in the world outside Asia. Argentina is also bordered by Bolivia and Paraguay on the north, and by Uruguay and Brazil on the east. The northern area is the swampy and partly wooded Gran Chaco, bordering on Bolivia and Paraguay. South of that are the rolling, fertile Pampas, which are rich in agriculture and sheep- and cattle-grazing and support most of the population. Next southward is Patagonia, a region of cool, arid steppes with some wooded and fertile sections.

Republic.

First explored in 1516 by Juan D�az de Solis, Argentina developed slowly under Spanish colonial rule. Buenos Aires was settled in 1580; the cattle industry was thriving as early as 1600. Invading British forces were expelled in 1806�07, and after Napol�on conquered Spain (1808), the Argentinians set up their own government in 1810. On July 9, 1816, independence was formally declared.

As it had in World War I, Argentina proclaimed neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, but in the closing phase declared war on the Axis powers on March 27, 1945. Juan D. Per�n, an army colonel, emerged as the strongman of the postwar era, winning the presidential elections of 1946 and 1951. Per�n's political strength was reinforced by his second wife�Eva Duarte de Per�n (Evita)�and her popularity with the working classes. Although she never held a government post, Evita acted as de facto minister of health and labor, establishing a national charitable organization, and awarding generous wage increases to the unions, who responded with political support for Per�n. Opposition to Per�n's increasing authoritarianism led to a coup by the armed forces, which sent Per�n into exile in 1955, three years after Evita's death. Argentina entered a long period of military dictatorships with brief intervals of constitutional government.

The former dictator returned to power in 1973 and his third wife, Isabel Mart�nez de Per�n, was elected vice president. After Per�n's death in 1974, she became the hemisphere's first woman chief of state, assuming control of a nation teetering on economic and political collapse. In 1975, terrorist acts by left- and right-wing groups killed some 700 people. The cost of living rose 355%, while strikes and demonstrations were constant. On March 24, 1976, a military junta led by army commander Lt. Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla seized power and imposed martial law.

The military began the �Dirty War� to restore order and eradicate its opponents. The Argentine Commission for Human Rights, in Geneva, has charged the junta with 2,300 political murders, over 10,000 political arrests, and the disappearances of 20,000 to 30,000 people. While violence declined, the economy remained in chaos. In March 1981 Field Marshal Roberto Viola deposed Videla, who in turn was succeeded by Lt. Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri.

On April 2, 1982, Galtieri invaded the British-held Falkland Islands, known as Las Islas Malvinas (Malvinas Islands) in Spanish, in what was seen as an attempt to increase his popularity. However, Great Britain decisively won, and Galtieri resigned in disgrace three days after Argentina�s surrender. Maj. Gen. Reynaldo Bignone took over June 14, amid increasing pro-democratic public sentiment. As the 1983 elections approached, inflation hit 900% and Argentina�s crippling foreign debt reached unprecedented levels.

In the presidential election of Oct. 1983, Ra�l Alfons�n, leader of the Radical Civic Union, handed the Peronist Party its first defeat since its founding. However, growing unemployment and quadruple-digit inflation led to a Peronist victory in the elections of May 1989. Alfons�n resigned a month later in the wake of riots over high food prices, in favor of the new Peronist president, Carlos Menem.

In 1991, Menem promoted economic reforms designed to reverse decades of state intervention and protectionism. Menem had the constitution changed in 1994 to allow him to serve for a second term.

Throughout the 1990s, Argentina won international praise for continued reforms and for its conclusion of a new arrangement with the International Monetary Fund at the end of 1997. Beginning in Sept. 1998, however, Argentina faced its worst recession in a decade, and unemployment hit 15% in Aug. 1999. Exports to Brazil, which traditionally bought almost one-third of Argentina's exports, dropped 30% in 1999.

In Dec. 1999 Fernando de la Rua became president. Despite the introduction of several tough economic austerity plans, by 2001 the recession slid into its third year. In March 2001, Rua brought back former Peronist economy minister Domingo Cavallo, who had rescued the country from hyperinflation in 1991, but thus far he has not been able to perform miracles. The IMF gave Argentina $13.7 billion in emergency aid in Jan. 2001 and again in Aug. 2001 ($8 billion).

(Source: www.infoplease.com )

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