for Human Rights, in Geneva, blamed the regime for 2300 political murders, some 10,000 political arrests, and 20,000 to 30,000 disappearances. The economy remained chaotic. Videla was succeeded as president in March 1981 by Field Marshal Roberto Viola, himself deposed in December 1981 by the commander in chief of the army, General Leopoldo Galtieri. Galtieri's government rallied the country behind it in April 1982 by forcibly occupying the British-held Falkland Islands (called Islas Malvinas by the Argentines). After a brief war Great Britain recaptured the islands in June, and the discredited Galtieri was replaced by Major General Reynaldo Bignone. The Latin American Integration Association (LAIA), founded in 1980, replaced LAFTA as a more loosely defined entity for reducing tariffs on intracontinental trade. Between 1986 and 1990, Argentina signed a number of integration treaties designed to further reduce trade barriers between Latin American countries. 9With an unprecedented international debt, and inflation at more than 900 percent, Argentina held its first presidential election in a decade in October 1983. The winner was the candidate of the Radical party, Ral Alfonsn. Under Alfonsn, the armed forces were reorganized; former military and political leaders were charged with human rights abuses; the foreign debt was restructured; fiscal reforms (including a new currency) were introduced; and a treaty to resolve a dispute with Chile over three Beagle Channel islands was approved. Inflation remained unchecked, however, and in May 1989 the Peronist candidate, Carlos Saul Menem, was elected president. With Argentina's economy deteriorating rapidly, Menem imposed an austerity program. During the early 1990s, his government curbed inflation, balanced the budget, sold off state enterprises to private investors, and rescheduled the nation's debts to commercial banks. In 1992 full diplomatic relations with Britain were restored, helping to ...
