When Fernando De la Rua was elected president of Argentina in 1999 he promised blood, sweat and tears in the years ahead. The people applauded. After a decade of flamboyant rule and unfulfilled promises the people wanted a dull but competent administrator who would lead them out of a deepening economic crisis.
Outgoing President Carlos Menem (1989-1999), pledged to raise wages and abandon free-market economics during his first successful election campaign.
Once elected he did exactly the opposite, freezing wages, cutting social spending and selling off the nation's strategic assets at giveaway prices. "If I had told people the truth I would never have been elected," he said in a frank post-election interview.
The revenues from privatisation and boom in foreign investment provided a short-term consumer splurge which masked the reality of an impending economic collapse, as domestic industry crumbled in the face of cheap imports.
Mr Menem raced his red Ferrari through the streets of Buenos Aires and rubbed shoulders with the football hero Maradona, hoping the glare of reflected glory would insure him against growing unrest. The people were dazzled, for a while.
Argentinians are renowned for their obsession with appearances, a characteristic which has given the nation the world's highest rate of anorexia among teenage girls and probably the highest rate of public denial of poverty.
"There may be poverty but don't let it be seen" is one of the most common phrases heard around the dinner table. On a recent visit to Salta, in northern Argentina, I was ushered into a middle-class home by an impeccably-dressed couple. When I went to get a glass of water I noticed the fridge was empty. Millions of people get by on the staple "fideos y tuco", Argentina's equivalent of cabbage and potatoes.
The violent disturbances in recent days were led by impoverished, unemployed people, while the protests outside the presidential palace have been led by disaffected middle-class citizens.
This crucial gap in political activism has allowed one government after another to dampen mass unrest by distributing alms to the hungry, placating those who have nothing to lose by engaging in violent unrest.
However the roots of the current economic and political crisis lie in the legacy of military rule, (1976-1983) which destroyed the moral fabric of society and eliminated social activism, paving the way for a buccaneering capitalist model which rewards corruption and penalises honesty and hard work.
In 1973 as the democratic socialist Salvador Allende held office in neighbouring Chile, a popular movement, the Montoneros, helped elect Hector Campora president of Argentina, promising an end to social inequality. The ruling class rebelled, with US support as the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr Henry Kissinger, gave the green light for a brutal army coup. The subsequent reign of terror eclipsed even Gen Augusto Pinochet's brutal coup in Chile.
An estimated 30,000 people were disappeared, tortured and killed, with suspects tortured, drugged, then dragged aboard army helicopters and tossed into the sea. Neighbours cowered in fear as "task squads" raided homes, stealing children and emptying homes of all items of value.
With union activists eliminated the military adopted a free market economic project that paved the way for today's unpopular neo-liberal programme. The architects of Argentina's current crisis were the collaborators under military rule, notably Domingo Cavallo, who handled accounts for the military.
An angry crowd gathered outside Cavallo's home yesterday, as indignant citizens searched desperately for someone to blame for their woes. The crowd will eventually have to look to themselves, to the suspension of moral outrage which allowed a gang of assassins to run the nation (1976-1983), an act followed by a charismatic clown (Carlos Menem) and finally an honest broker, (De la Rua) who inherited a poisoned chalice and proved incapable of steering the ship of state to safety.