Argentina is on its fourth president since Fernando de la Rua fled in early December. Eduardo Duhalde who took second place in the elections two years ago was chosen by the congress on January 2 to complete de la Rua's unfinished term. De la Rua himself is said to be "vacationing" in Mexico. No doubt he is also engaged in that time honored ritual of former Latin American presidents--choosing which country will be his haven in exile.

Major North American media reports that "relative calm" has returned to the streets keep being proved as little more than wishful thinking. Demonstrations continue, though perhaps not on the scale that drove the previous gaggle of presidents from power. And the police appear to have ceased shooting unarmed demonstrators (in public anyway).

Long lines stretch daily outside the Spanish and Italian embassies as thousands of people seek visas for their ancestral homelands. Ordinary folks on the streets proclaim "Argentina is finished," and there is even talk among the Latin American punditry that Argentina very possibly will go the way of the former USSR and Yugoslavia and cease being a nation state. The words "civil war" are repeatedly mentioned. The army, which has seized power in less severe crises in the past has so far remained silent. Perhaps, as demonstrators have been quoted as saying, "the colonels are more worried about whether there will be money to pay their salaries." Perhaps Argentina is simply too much of a mess for even the army to want to assume responsibility. Perhaps by the time you read this, the military coup will be front page headlines.

In an effort to save their bankrupt country, the parade of presidents have limited bank withdrawals to $1,000 a month, frozen many bank accounts completely for one year, devalued the peso by 40% and announced a moratorium on payments on Argentina's $132 billion foreign debt. This last one, as well as the renunciation of "free trade," has made the US and other nations quite unhappy.

But it is exactly "free trade" and other neoliberal schemes, like massive privatization, that have turned Argentina into a basket case. The US media doesn't want to talk about it, especially after spending the last couple of years bashing the "globophobes" in the streets from Seattle to Genoa, but Argentina proves everything the "anti-globalization" crowd has been saying.

Argentina throughout the 1990's was the Third World's most enthusiastic supporter of corporate globalization, gutting the social sector in favor of multinational profiteering. It is likely only the first of a coming pileup of economic disasters in Latin America and elsewhere.

The new president has, for now, renounced the neoliberal model and is preparing to reintroduce protectionist tariffs and other policies to salvage what remains of domestic industry. The IMF and the US, while denouncing this "populism," have declined to provide any sort of rescue package.

Throughout Latin America pundits and politicians are beginning to openly question the wisdom of US sponsored globalization policies, including the proposed "Free Trade Area of the Americas." It is also not lost on them that unless there are things to bomb, the Bush administration isn't very eager to provide aid in times of trouble. Let's hope this slowly dawning awareness isn't a case of too little too late.