Corrientes
Corrientes is the capital city of the province of Corrientes, located on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, about 1,000 km from Buenos Aires and 300 km from Posadas, on National Route 12. It has a population of 346,334 according to the 2010 Census, it lies opposite its twin city, Chaco. It has a mix of colonial and modern architecture, several churches and a number of lapacho, ceibo and orange trees, it is home to one of the biggest carnival celebrations in the country. The annual average temperature is 20 °C, with maximum and minimum averages of 45 and 5 °C respectively; the annual rainfall is around 1,200 millimetres. The General Belgrano Bridge crosses the Paraná River that serves as the natural border with the neighbouring Chaco Province. On the other side of the bridge is Resistencia, capital of Chaco. To the west and up the Paraná, between Paraguay and Argentina, lies the Yaciretá dam, one of the largest hydroelectric power generators in the world; the Doctor Fernando Piragine Niveyro International Airport at coordinates 27°26′20″S 58°46′03″W, 5 km away from the city, serves the city.
The Ferrocarril Económico Correntino narrow gauge railway line to Mburucuyá operated from 1912 until 1927. In 1516 Juan Díaz de Solís commanded the first expedition to reach the area populated by Guaraní aboriginals, but his expedition was attacked and Solís perished in the adventure. Sebastian Cabot established in 1527 the Sancti Spiritu fort upstream of the Paraná River, in 1536 Pedro de Mendoza reached further north into the basin of the river, searching for the Sierras of Silver. Juan Torres de Vera y Aragón founded on April 3, 1588 San Juan de Vera de las Siete Corrientes, shortened to Corrientes; the "seven currents" refer to the seven peninsulas on the shore of the river at this place, that produced wild currents that made difficult the navigation of the river through this part. Its position between Asunción - in present Paraguay - and Buenos Aires made it an important middle point because of its 55-metre-high lands that prevent flooding when the water level rises. In 1615 Jesuits settled near the Uruguay River.
In 1807 the city resisted the British invasions. During the Argentine War of Independence it was in permanent conflict with the centralist government of Buenos Aires, but the Paraguayan War united them after the city was attacked by Paraguayan forces in 1865; the annual average temperature is 21 °C, with maximum and minimum averages of 45 and 5 °C respectively. The annual rainfall is around 1,200 millimetres; the Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "Cfa". Frosts are rare; the highest temperature recorded was 42.4 °C on November 15, 1985 while the lowest temperature recorded was −2.8 °C on June 15, 1979. National University of the Northeast University of Cuenca del Plata The Graham Greene spy novel The Honorary Consul"' takes place in Corrientes. Municipality of Corrientes – official website MCC Municipal information: Municipal Affairs Federal Institute, Municipal Affairs Secretariat, Ministry of Interior, Argentina. Sights Map
Materfer
Materfer is an Argentine manufacturer of railway and road vehicles, located in the city of Ferreyra in Córdoba Province. The company was established by FIAT Ferroviaria in the late 1950s, being its subsidiary until 1998. Materfer has built several types of rolling stock in its history, such as diesel locomotives and trams, most of them for the state-owned company Ferrocarriles Argentinos which operated trains within Argentina from 1948 to 1991; the company has exported its products to Cuba, Bolivia and Chile. Materfer owns a 66,000-square-metre factory with 200 machines electrofusion, sheet metal cutters and overhead crane machines. In the 1980s Materfer employed 2,500 people in the manufacture of diesel locomotives and railcars for the Argentine and international markets; the factory produced about one coach per day. Materfer has produced combine harvesters under the brand "Maraní Agrinar". Nowadays the company has 400 employees working at its factory in Ferreyra. Materfer was established by Fiat Ferroviaria, through Fiat Concord, a consortium formed by many FIAT subsidiaries operating in Argentina.
The company built a factory to manufacture rolling stock in the country to provide goods for Ferrocarriles Argentinos, the state-owned company that operated all the railway network then. The factory started operations in 1958, producing Materfer's first diesel multiple unit, the 7131, in 1962. Between 1956 and 1968, a consortium of Italian and Argentine companies, "Gruppo Aziende Italo Argentine", is founded to manufacture spares and parts for the GAIA locomotives. In 1958 the Ministry of Transport of Argentina signed an agreement with Fiat Ferroviaria to acquire 210 brand-new railcars; those machines were formed by 2 units powered by a FIAT diesel engine at 660 HP. The railcars could reach speeds of 115 km/h, their low weight made them suitable to run on any railway line. The vehicles had two driver cabins, one on each end of the car, which reduced the time of manoeuvres at termini stations in urban services. Railcars were built in the FIAT factories of Decauville and Córdoba. Although the first railcars were manufactured in Italy and France, most of them were made in Argentina, in a factory specially designed for that assignment located in Ferreyra, Córdoba and named "Materfer".
Some versions stated that the 7131 was inspired on the 1934 Pioneer Zephyr, a diesel-powered railroad train formed of railroad cars permanently articulated together with Jacobs bogies, built by the Budd Company in 1934 for the Chicago and Quincy Railroad known as the Burlington. The train featured extensive use of stainless steel, was named the Zephyr, was meant as a promotional tool to advertise passenger rail service in the United States. In 1962, the 7131, a railcar manufactured by FIAT Concord, made its debut in the Villa Ballester–Zárate and Victoria–Capilla del Señor sections of General Mitre Railway managed by Ferrocarriles Argentinos; those light cars replaced Ganz Works railcars, run on those lines since 1938. In 1964, 27 coaches built by Aerfer, a subsidiary of FIAT Ferroviaria, were added to the Belgrano Norte line. Four years the fleet was expanded with the addition of 20 coaches which replaced the old ones made in Tafí Viejo. In 1975 Materfer supplied more coaches for the line. During the 1980s Materfer began to export its products, the factory manufactured a line of diesel locomotives, named "Transfer".
In the early to mid 1980s, the company built the Fiat-Materfer underground cars for use on the Buenos Aires Underground. The intention of these trainsets was to create a standardised fleet for the Underground network - which had a diverse range of rolling stock at the time - in order to reduce the maintenance costs associated with having many different models, to replace the ageing rolling stock of the network. Only enough of these were built to service just Line E rather than the entire network, they have served many years on the network and today they are used as temporary stand-ins in lines where newer rolling stock is arriving, is thus being phased-out of the network. The lack of maintenance of the FIAT 7131 coaches put some of them out of service, so in 1987 Ferrocarriles Argentinos looked to Materfer to provide light railcars for the Zárate and Capilla del Señor branches; the company bought 8 units made by Materfer and soon nicknamed. The low passenger capacity and poor damping of those units made many of the 7131 remain active.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s the company built its last vehicles under the FIAT Ferroviaria name, an order of trams for Premetro line E2 in the city of Buenos Aires. In February 1998 the company declared bankruptcy and therefore closed; when Argentine railways were privatised, 8 of the FIAT 7131 cars were sent to serve at Merlo-Lobos branch of Sarmiento Line and the rest continued to serve at the Retiro–Victoria branches of Mitre Line. Their original engines were replaced by Cummins ones; the units on the Mitre Line was equipped with air conditioning, while seats were upholstered in corduroy and floors carpeted. In March 2002, Materfer was acquired by Argentine entrepreneur Sergio Taselli and reopened with only 5 employees. In 2007, the Government of Argentina authorised Materfer to operate as an automotive company; the decree, signed by president Néstor Kirchner, allowed the company to buy and import spares as well as to export finished vehicles. Therefore Materfer started to produce buses for urban services in company's factory at Ferreyra.
After the Government of Argentina took ove
Communism
In political and social sciences, communism is the philosophical, social and economic ideology and movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of the communist society, a socioeconomic order structured upon the common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes and the state. Communism includes a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include Marxism and anarchism, as well as the political ideologies grouped around both. All of these share the analysis that the current order of society stems from its economic system, capitalism; the two classes are the working class—who must work to survive and who make up the majority within society—and the capitalist class—a minority who derives profit from employing the working class through private ownership of the means of production. The revolution will put the working class in power and in turn establish social ownership of the means of production, which according to this analysis is the primary element in the transformation of society towards communism.
Critics of communism can be divided into those concerning themselves with the practical aspects of 20th century communist states and those concerning themselves with communist principles and theory. Marxism-Leninism and democratic socialism were the two dominant forms of socialism in the 20th century; the term "communism" was first coined and defined in its modern definition by the French philosopher and writer Victor d'Hupay. In his 1777 book Projet de communauté philosophe, d'Hupay pushes the philosophy of the Enlightenment to principles which he lived up to during most of his life in his bastide of Fuveau; this book can be seen as the cornerstone of communist philosophy as d'Hupay defines this lifestyle as a "commune" and advises to "share all economic and material products between inhabitants of the commune, so that all may benefit from everybody's work". According to Richard Pipes, the idea of a classless, egalitarian society first emerged in Ancient Greece; the 5th-century Mazdak movement in Persia has been described as "communistic" for challenging the enormous privileges of the noble classes and the clergy, for criticizing the institution of private property and for striving to create an egalitarian society.
At one time or another, various small communist communities existed under the inspiration of Scripture. For example, in the medieval Christian Church some monastic communities and religious orders shared their land and their other property. Communist thought has been traced back to the works of the 16th-century English writer Thomas More. In his treatise Utopia, More portrayed a society based on common ownership of property, whose rulers administered it through the application of reason. In the 17th century, communist thought surfaced again in England, where a Puritan religious group known as the "Diggers" advocated the abolition of private ownership of land. In his 1895 Cromwell and Communism, Eduard Bernstein argued that several groups during the English Civil War espoused clear communistic, agrarian ideals and that Oliver Cromwell's attitude towards these groups was at best ambivalent and hostile. Criticism of the idea of private property continued into the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century through such thinkers as Jean Jacques Rousseau in France.
Following the upheaval of the French Revolution communism emerged as a political doctrine. In the early 19th century, various social reformers founded communities based on common ownership. However, unlike many previous communist communities they replaced the religious emphasis with a rational and philanthropic basis. Notable among them were Robert Owen, who founded New Harmony in Indiana, as well as Charles Fourier, whose followers organized other settlements in the United States such as Brook Farm. In its modern form, communism grew out of the socialist movement in 19th-century Europe; as the Industrial Revolution advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism for the misery of the proletariat—a new class of urban factory workers who labored under often-hazardous conditions. Foremost among these critics were his associate Friedrich Engels. In 1848, Marx and Engels offered a new definition of communism and popularized the term in their famous pamphlet The Communist Manifesto; the 1917 October Revolution in Russia set the conditions for the rise to state power of Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks, the first time any avowedly communist party reached that position.
The revolution transferred power to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, in which the Bolsheviks had a majority. The event generated a great deal of theoretical debate within the Marxist movement. Marx predicted that socialism and communism would be built upon foundations laid by the most advanced capitalist development. However, Russia was one of the poorest countries in Europe with an enormous illiterate peasantry and a minority of industrial workers. Marx had explicitly stated; the moderate Mensheviks opposed Lenin's Bolshevik plan for socialist revolution before capitalism was more developed. The Bolsheviks' successful rise to power was based upon the slogans such as "Peace and land" which tapp
Salta
Salta is a city located in the Lerma Valley, at 1,152 metres above sea level in the northwest part of Argentina. It is the name for the capital city of Salta Province. Along with its metropolitan area, it has a population of 619,000 inhabitants, which makes it the second most populated city in the northwest of the country, it is situated in the Lerma Valley, 1,152 metres above sea level, at the foothills of the Andes mountains. The weather is warm and dry, with annual averages of 756 millimetres of rainfall and an average temperature of 16.4 °C. January and March are the months with the greatest rainfall. During the spring, Salta is plagued by severe, week-long dust storms. Nicknamed Salta la Linda, it has become a major tourist destination due to its old, colonial architecture, tourism friendliness, excellent weather and natural scenery of the valleys westward. Attractions in the city proper include the 18th century Cabildo, the neo-classical style Cathedral, the 9 de julio central square along with San Bernardo hill and its surroundings.
The city's museums exhibit a wide range of artifacts and art work from the native civilizations that flourished in the area, as well as from the 16th century Spanish conquest and the colonial and post-colonial periods. Salta used to be the starting point of the "Train to the Clouds", on the way to red-soiled Cafayate, as well as to other nearby tourist destinations; the Martín Miguel de Güemes Airport, 6 kilometres 6 kilometres southwest of the city, has regular domestic flights to Buenos Aires, Tucumán, Jujuy, Córdoba, Puerto Iguazú. Salta was founded on April 16, 1582 by the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma, who intended the settlement to be an outpost between Lima and Buenos Aires; the origin of the name Salta is a matter of conjecture, with several theories being advanced to explain it. During the war of independence, the city became a commercial and military strategic point between Perú and the Argentine cities. Between 1816 and 1821, the city was led by local military leader General Martín Miguel de Güemes, who under the command of General José de San Martín, defended the city and surrounding area from Spanish forces coming from further north.
Salta emerged from the War of Independence politically in disarray and financially bankrupt, a condition that lingered throughout much of the 19th century. However, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the arrival of Italian and Arab immigrants Syrians and Lebanese, revived trade and agriculture all over the area while further enhancing the city's multicultural flavor. Salta has a subtropical highland climate, it is characterized by pleasant weather year-round. Located in the subtropical north, but at an altitude of 1,200 metres, Salta enjoys 4 distinct seasons: summers are warm with frequent thunderstorms, with daytime highs around 26 to 28 °C and pleasant, refreshing nights around 15 or 16 °C. Fall brings dry weather, pleasant days at around 22 °C and mild nights at around 10 °C. By winter, the dryness is extreme, with few rain episodes. Nights are cool at 3 °C on average, but daytime heating allows for high temperatures of 19 °C. Snow is rare and frost is quite common, with temperatures reaching down to −7 °C during the coldest nights.
Spring brings sunny weather with warm days and mild nights: days range from 25 to 28 °C with nights between 10 to 14 °C. Salta's winters are rather warm for its elevation and far inland position for a location being just outside the tropics. Of the over 700 millimetres of rain that Salta receives yearly, over 80% falls between December and March, when thunderstorms occur daily. During the rest of the year, blue skies dominate the region. Incessant summer thunderstorms rejuvenate the surrounding mountainous landscape, making the various hills and mountainsides within the vicinity of the city green and lush once again. Salta receives 1863 hours of about 5.1 hours per day. The highest recorded temperature was 39.9 °C on November 28, 1972 while the lowest recorded temperature was −9.4 °C on August 5, 1966. The city centre features a number of buildings dating back to the 18th and 19th and early 20th centuries. Clockwise around the Ninth of July Square are the neoclassical Cathedral Shrine, the French style Museum of Contemporary Art, the Cabildo and the neoclassical Museum of High Mountain Archaeology, which houses artifacts from the Inca civilization, including the mummies of three Inca children.
The Plaza is completely surrounded by a gallery. Within walking distance of the 9th July Square are the Saint Francis Church and the city's three pedestrian streets: Alberdi, Florida and "Caseros"; the three blocks in Balcarce street closest to the train station are now the centre of night life in Salta, with restaurants and cafés on both sidewalks and concerts every night. Rising in the east is San Bernardo Hill, its summit, from which visitors can get a view of the city and the entire valley, can be reached by car, cable car or stairway. Salta is the most Spanish city in Argentina by physical appearance: so
Juan Carlos Onganía
Juan Carlos Onganía Carballo was de facto President of Argentina from 29 June 1966 to 8 June 1970. He rose to power as military dictator after toppling the president Arturo Illia in a coup d'état self-named Revolución Argentina. While preceding military coups in Argentina were aimed at establishing temporary, transitional juntas, the Revolución Argentina headed by Onganía aimed at establishing a new political and social order, opposed both to liberal democracy and to communism, which gave to the Armed Forces of Argentina a leading role in the political and economic operation of the country; the political scientist Guillermo O'Donnell named this type of regime "authoritarian-bureaucratic state", in reference both to the Revolución Argentina, the Brazilian military regime, Augusto Pinochet's regime and Juan María Bordaberry's regime in Uruguay. While Chief of the Army in 1963, Onganía helped crush the 1963 Argentine Navy Revolt by mobilizing troops that seized rebelling Navy bases. However, he demonstrated a disregard for civil authority when he refused to call off his troops after a ceasefire agreement had been approved by President José María Guido and his cabinet, was only convinced to follow orders after a tense meeting.
As military dictator, Onganía suspended political parties and supported a policy of Participacionismo, by which representatives of various interest groups such as industry and agriculture, would form committees to advise the government. However these committees were appointed by the dictator himself. Onganía suspended the right to strike and supported a corporatist economic and social policy, enforced in Cordoba by the appointed governor, Carlos Caballero. Onganía's Minister of Economy, Adálbert Krieger Vasena, decreed a wage freeze and a 40% devaluation, which adversely impacted the state of the Argentine economy, favoring foreign capital. Krieger Vasena suspended collective labour conventions, reformed the Fossil Fuels Law which had established a partial monopoly of the Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales state enterprise and signed a law facilitating the expulsion of tenants in cases of non-payment of rent. Onganía's rule signified an end to university autonomy, achieved by the University Reform of 1918.
A month into his administration, he was responsible for the violation of university autonomy in the so-called La Noche de los Bastones Largos in which he ordered police to invade the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. Students and professors were arrested. Many were forced to leave the country, beginning a "brain drain" that adversely affects Argentine academia to this day. Onganía ordered repression on all forms of "immoralism", proscribing miniskirts, long hair for boys, all avant-garde artistic movements; this moral campaign favorized the radicalization of the middle classes, who were over-represented in universities. In 1969, Ongania dedicated the country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; this position was opposed by the other factions in the military, which felt that its influence in government would be diminished. At the end of May 1968, General Julio Alsogaray dissented from Onganía, rumors spread about a possible coup d'état, Alsogaray leading the conservative opposition to Onganía.
At the end of the month, Onganía dismissed the leaders of the Armed Forces: Alejandro Lanusse replaced Julio Alsogaray, Pedro Gnavi replaced Benigno Varela, Jorge Martínez Zuviría replaced Adolfo Alvarez. Ongania's ruthless government was weakened by a popular uprising of workers and students that took place in the whole of the country, in particular in the interior, in cities such as Córdoba in 1969 or Rosario; the dominant military faction, led by General Lanusse, demanded. When he refused, he was toppled by a military junta. Jorge Rafael Videla Argentine military officer who would succeed Ongania. 31 yrs after
Adalbert Krieger Vasena
Adalbert Krieger Vasena was an Argentine economist who served twice as Minister of Economy of the country, first between 1957 and 1958, during the military dictatorship of Pedro Aramburu, between 1966 and 1969 during the military dictatorship of Juan Carlos Ongania. Adalbert Krieger Vasena was the grandson of Pedro Vasena, an Italian blacksmith and entrepreneur immigrated in Argentina in the second halfof the XIXth century. In the first decade of the XXth century the Vasena family was the head of the largest steel company in Argentina
