Social Genocide (Memoria del saqueo) (2004)

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Activist filmmaker Fernando E. Solanas, best known for his revolutionary documentary La Hora de los Hornos, directed this incisive look at the crippling economic problems that have befallen Argentina and the politicians who engineered them. Memoria del Saqueo focuses on the regime of Carlos Menem, a… More Activist filmmaker Fernando E. Solanas, best known for his revolutionary documentary La Hora de los Hornos, directed this incisive look at the crippling economic problems that have befallen Argentina and the politicians who engineered them. Memoria del Saqueo focuses on the regime of Carlos Menem, a former ally of Juan Peron who became president of Argentina in 1989. While Menem was elected on a populist platform, he soon launched a program of selling off state-owned utilities and service companies to international investors at bargain prices, with the new owners demanding higher prices for reduced services while disassembling public companies and selling their assets overseas. In collusion with finance minister Domingo Cavallo, Menem caused Argentina's national debt to skyrocket, and as a well-connected handful became wealthy, the nation's economy began to collapse, with poverty running rampant and unemployment rising to new heights among the rank and file. Memoria del Saqueo details just how Menem and his associates brought down the Argentinean economy, as well as how managed news coverage attempted to persuade the people that their practices were actually in the nation's best interest. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi