Argentina's default, known in the South American country as "corralito", turns 18. It was in fact November 14, 2002 when the government of Buenos Aires, given the impossibility of repaying the 805 million dollar loan to the World Bank, officially declared bankruptcy. The crisis actually began in 1999, and began to seriously scare citizens in 2001, about a year before its peak: that year there was a dramatic bank run in Argentina to withdraw large sums of money, all while foreign investors rapidly withdrew their funds by Argentine companies. The moment was terrible: many companies closed due to lack of liquidity, and the government established precisely the playpen, namely the freezing of all current accounts for 12 months, only allowing withdrawals of small amounts of money. Unemployment reached peaks of 25%.
The crisis, which had its origins in the early 90s under the presidency of Carlos Menem, which unfortunately chose to impose a fixed exchange rate between the Argentine currency and the dollar which exploded the public debt and wiped out the industrial fabric, exploded definitively under the government of Fernando De La Rua. Besieged by violent protests in the streets of Buenos Aires, the president was forced to declare a state of emergency in December 2001: the images of his helicopter flight from the Casa Rosada on December 21 of the same year are unforgettable. In January 2002, the 1 to 1 dollar-peso parity, which had been in force for ten years, was finally abandoned. However, this was not enough to avoid the inexorable default, officially proclaimed 18 years ago.
