Under the existing “blood laws,” Argentines can obtain European citizenship, but for this they must wait from a year and a half to three years. A similar exodus from the country was observed in 1976 (after the military dictatorship came to power) and in 1989, when hyperinflation raged.
The government is making desperate efforts to stabilize the situation, but so far there is no real improvement. A state of emergency has been declared due to a shortage of medicines. On the eve of the inevitable price increases due to the devaluation of the national currency, many pharmacies have closed, and some medications (primarily insulin and cancer drugs) have either disappeared from sale or become more expensive: a pack of insulin that lasts nine days has risen in price from 50 to 100 pesos, and only cash is accepted for payment. The League for the Protection of Diabetics, which distributes insulin free of charge to patients (Argentina has 2.5 million diabetics, for 300 thousand of whom this drug is vitally necessary), has announced the depletion of its reserves. Only free aid received from Brazil (1,200 kg or 275 thousand doses of insulin) may postpone the problem for two months. Argentine Foreign Minister Carlos Ruckauf called the insulin shipment “proof of Brazil’s love for Argentina.”
Another proof of such love can be considered the statement by Brazil’s Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Sergio Amaral, about his country’s readiness to import only Argentine oil (Brazil had already provided such a service once to Venezuela). But the main thing is that Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso agreed to act as an intermediary in negotiations with international financial organizations and to secure financial assistance for Argentina. A well-known image maker, Mario Rosa, also arrived from Brazil to help President Duhalde “avoid the fate of his predecessors” - Fernando de la Rúa and Adolfo Rodríguez Saá. Mario Rosa, who headed the crisis committee on the president’s image, admitted that the coming days “will be the most difficult in Duhalde’s tenure.”
Meanwhile, former Argentine President Carlos Menem, in an interview with the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, called current President Duhalde and his government “unfit” to run the country and accused Foreign Minister Ruckauf (until recently the governor of Buenos Aires Province) of having “tried harder than anyone else” to cause the looting in the capital that led to the fall of President de la Rúa, left his province in flames, and then left to head the Foreign Ministry. According to Menem, devaluation will lead to a loss of economic stability, and the change in the exchange rate that has occurred in the country “will favor Buenos Aires to the detriment of the rest of the country.”