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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Post-junta Argentine leader dies | Post-junta Argentine leader dies |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Argentina's first president to be democratically elected after the "Dirty War" military dictatorship, Raul Alfonsin, has died of illness aged 82. | Argentina's first president to be democratically elected after the "Dirty War" military dictatorship, Raul Alfonsin, has died of illness aged 82. |
| He had suffered from pneumonia and lung cancer and last appeared in public in October, when the current president unveiled a bust in his honour. | He had suffered from pneumonia and lung cancer and last appeared in public in October, when the current president unveiled a bust in his honour. |
| A medical team had been tending to him at his home in Buenos Aires. | A medical team had been tending to him at his home in Buenos Aires. |
| Mr Alfonsin was elected president in 1983, after the fall of the military regime which had held power since 1976. | Mr Alfonsin was elected president in 1983, after the fall of the military regime which had held power since 1976. |
| Critics point out that he failed to stave off a deep economic crisis but his political achievement was summed up by current President Cristina Fernandez, when she unveiled his bust last year. | |
| "Whether you like it or not, you are a symbol of the return of democracy," she said. | |
| Democratic transition | |
| While the junta was in power, he stood as a prominent opponent of their actions. | |
| As president, Mr Alfonsin won international admiration for putting on trial and jailing former military officials who had tortured and killed thousands of suspected leftists. | |
| Six years after taking office, he completed Argentina's first transfer of power from one elected president to another in decades. | |
| However, his centrist Radical Party, discredited for its handling of the economy, was crushed at the polls by Peronist leader Carlos Menem. | |
| Inflation had hit a record 200% per month and the poverty rate had more than doubled under his rule to above 25%, while the currency lost 95% of its value inside four months, Reuters news agency recalls. | |
| "No president has the right to endlessly demand sacrifices from his people," Mr Alfonsin told Argentines by television as he stepped down in 1989. |