Dante Caputo, Raúl Alfonsín’s foreign minister during most of his 1983-9 presidential term, died last Wednesday in his 75th year after a long battle against cancer. Caputo’s biggest success was the 1984 Beagle Channel treaty with Chile, ending six years of on-and-off tension over Patagonian demarcation lines – the Radical not only negotiated the treaty but defended it forcefully in debates preceding a public referendum, contributing strongly to the 81 percent positive vote. He was also a co-founder of the Merccosur trade bloc in 1985.
Caputo made an early exit from
the ministry in order to preside
over the United Nations General
Assembly in 1988, remaining active
in international peacce-keeping
for years afterwards. Without
being one of the main architects,
he played an important role in
forming the Alliance between the
Radicals and Frente Grande ex
-Peronists which took Fernando
de la Rúa to the presidency in
1999 (despite leaving the Radical
party in the previous year). A distinguished
scholar with studies in
Boston and Paris as well as Buenos
Aires (El Salvador), he first
came to Alfonsín’s attention in
1982 when he was one of the few
voices opposing the South Atlantic
war with Britain.
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