There can't be many countries where the finance
ministry gives visiting journalists an information pack
including a graph entitled "Social protest events during
2002". Such events are helpfully defined as "crowd
concentrations, mobilizations, blocking highways and downtown
streets, partial and total strikes, takeover of
establishments, and so on." Apparently the number of such
events has fallen from over 2,000 a month in the first four
months of the year to fewer than 1,000 a month since
June.
Argentina, then, is the sort of country where having 847 protest
events in December is grounds for self-congratulation on the part
of the government. Being a politician there is not an easy job, yet
five brave souls are putting themselves forward as candidates for
president. None of them is particularly popular, and pretty much
any two could reach the run-off in May. What's certain is that the
eventual winner of the election - who will have just...
