| Buenos Aires |
In 1946 Juan Perón, a charismatic army colonel, was elected president. His programme of nationalisation and industrialisation ultimately failed to revive Argentina's economy, forcing Perón to resort to brute force to stay in power. His ouster in 1955 was followed by decades of economic instability and labour unrest. Military regimes and semi-representative civilian administrations traded power during the period.The alternating governments failed to solve Argentina's problems and social agitation escalated in the late 1960s and early 1970s as the economy continued to careen wildly. Perón briefly returned as president in 1973 but died the following year, leaving his vice-president and third wife, Isabel, in charge. In 1976 she too was overthrown by yet another military junta, this time led by General Jorge Videla. In what became known as the 'dirty war', its agents tortured and killed thousands of political opponents over the ensuing years.The economy collapsed completely in the early 1980s, when a catastrophic devaluation prompted capital flight. The military regime sought to distract a discontented public by invading the Falkland Islands in 1982, but was further discredited when Britain defeated the invasion. In 1983 the country returned to civilian rule.
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