In October 1999, the Alliance, headed by the Fernando de la Rúa-Carlos “Chacho” Álvarez formula, prevailed in the elections and reached the presidency. The alliance between Frepaso and the UCR had managed to overcome Justicialism. However, a year later, that deal would suffer a knockout blow.
On October 6, 2000, in the midst of a crisis over alleged bribes in the Senate for the approval of the labor reform promoted by the president, Álvarez resigned from the vice presidency.
“I do it so that I can freely say what I feel and what I think and, at the same time, so as not to harm the President or alter institutional life,” he explained. And he pointed out: “I respect the decisions of the President. However, I cannot accompany them passively, or in silence, because they are contradictory with the decisions that I have been demanding in the Senate of the Nation.”
Hours before, De la Rúa had announced several changes in his Cabinet.
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The departure of the vice president deepened the political crisis that the Government was going through. The Alliance continued united, but several sectors were distancing themselves from the Executive. There was hardly a minimal majority in the Chamber of Deputies; in the Senate, the Justicialismo was majority.
This crisis, which added to the fragile social and economic situation, would deepen with the overwhelming victory of the opposition in the 2001 legislative elections.
The situation was getting worse until December of that year. In the midst of a social outbreak, deaths, protests and looting, the president declared a state of siege. Hours later, on December 21, De la Rúa presented his resignation and left the Casa Rosada by helicopter.
Many years later, in Comodoro Py, he would ask Álvarez why he had resigned. “I resigned because you ratified the positions and promoted the suspects. I left my political force paying the costs of a government that was a failure, he replied,” the former vice president replied.
Finally, the Justice acquitted De la Rúa and the rest of those involved in the cause that led to Álvarez’s resignation.
“It is true that my government had many failures, but not in honor. And here they wanted to stain the honorability of the Executive, of the Senate,” De la Rúa said after being acquitted.
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