Importance of the Argentine Corralito from 2001-2002

It was the cash withdrawal restriction that the Argentine government, headed by President Fernando De la Rúa, imposed on all the inhabitants of the country who had it saved, both in fixed terms, savings accounts, and current accounts in entities financial.

Warehouses fenced off to avoid financial collapse

Only 250 pesos a week could be withdrawn and transfers abroad were prohibited, except for operations of foreign trade.​

The measure was decided and implemented by the then economy minister Domingo Felipe Cavallo who sought through it, to stop the unstoppable outflow of foreign currency from the financial market, which if it continued would collapse.

But it collapsed anyway and also triggered an acute crisis policy, social and economic throughout the country.

A political, social, economic and institutional crisis announced

The financial corralito was the straw that broke the camel's back in a state of affairs that was becoming more and more complicated politically and economically every day: the resignation of Vice President Carlos "Chacho" Alvarez some time before and who resented the union of the ruling coalition (Alliance), the disorientation and lack of management of the De la Rúa government to tame a criticism financial situation inherited (from the Menem government) due to the external debt and the convertibility of the peso, exponential increase in unemployment, recession, precipitous drop in reserves, among others.

Immediately after the measures were imposed, absolute chaos broke out with protests by savers at the doors of the banks and in various parts of the country demanding the return of their money.

The institutionalization of the cacerolazo as a form of protest of the middle class

The main novelty of these popular demonstrations, and which was undoubtedly a symbol From that moment, they were the cacerolazos, as they called the singular form of protest of said savers who took to the streets hitting saucepans to make their claims heard.

A few days after it was installed, there was an escalation of protests even more virulent against the government than the noise of the pans: looting and pickets, which reached their point of maximum tension on December 19 and 20 with a demonstration in Plaza de Mayo that was repressed by the police authorities and left the tragic balance of several dead.

Resignation of De la Rúa: 5 presidents in 12 days

Politically, the most serious consequence was the resignation of President De la Rúa and a series of names that temporarily sat in the chair of the Casa Rosada throughout 12 tense days and that he finally found something of tranquillity and stability with the election of Eduardo Duhalde, from the Justicialista Party (PJ), as provisional president until the elections are held.

post playpen

The ban lasted for a year, from December 2001 to December 2002, when the new economic team led by Roberto Lavagna, and under the presidency of Duhalde, determined the release of the money.

On the other hand, the corralito and the exit from it implied other economic measures of enormous influence: repeal of the convertibility law, that is to say, a peso was no longer a dollar but began to cost $1.40 and then amounted to $4, pesification of the debts and of the deposits.

Although in his speech Before the Legislative Assembly, Duhalde said that the person who deposited dollars would receive dollars when the situation normalizes, This never happened and many savers had to initiate judicial claims, known as amparos, in order to recover their money.

A large part of the depositors recovered some of the money saved, because the returns were in pesos, not in dollars, and even with the compensation, no one was able to recover what they had before the playpen.

Origin and diffusion of the term

The significance of this measure was such that, over time, it was adopted by other countries (Greece) that had to implement the same restriction so that their banking system did not collapse.

The name of corralito is attributed to the economic journalist Antonio Laje who at that time participated as an economic columnist for a program conducted by the journalist Daniel Hadad (current owner of Infobae and former of C5N and Radio Diez), a daily journalistic shipment, titled After Hours and broadcast at night on the Channel America.