Raúl Alfonsín: Dead At 82

Raúl Alfonsín, the man who restored Argentina to democracy in 1983, is dead at the age of 82.

Alfonsín’s doctor told reporters that he died peacefully after suffering from lung cancer.

I certainly didn’t know Alfonsín well, but I did have a chance to meet him in 2001, when he was running for the Senate (this was after he had already been president).

He struck me as a fundamentally decent man in what at times is a fundamentally indecent political system. Alfonsín was a good person genuinely committed to serving his country and to making the world a better place through public service.

Given the exceptionally angry, cynical and petty level that Argentine politics has descended to in recent years, Alfonsín seems, in retrospect, like a statesman of remarkable maturity and balance. His commitment was not to power but to empowerment.

If his legacy means anything, his passing will serve to awaken the lost sense of service and selflessness that, one would hope, lies within each any every one of the country’s leaders. His passing will serve to remind them that politics is not about power and its preservation but about people and their progress.

Perhaps, just perhaps, Alfonsín’s passing will lead some of today’s leaders to think twice before attacking each other in the destructive fashion that has become so common to them. May his passing, and the upcoming election he would have eagerly followed, help usher in a new era in Argentine politics, one whose central focus is not politicians themselves but the people they represent.

In his youth, Alfonsín was a powerful speaker and an equally powerful force for justice. May his death leave us all with a similarly powerful reminder that the country can do better.

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