Success during the 1991 mid-term elections had encouraged President Carlos Menem to approve accelerated plans for privatizations, business deregulation, and more flexible labor laws proposed by the man widely credited for his political "summer," Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo.

An exposé on growing corruption published by muckraking journalist Horacio Verbitsky led to the resignation of Menem's chief strategist, Interior Minister José Luis Manzano, and to that of a key ally, Buenos Aires Mayor Carlos Grosso.

[4] Concern over layoffs, the future of the newly privatized companies and over reforms to the relatively generous adjustable pensions system inherited from populist leader Juan Perón's heyday dominated voters' issues ahead of the October 3, 1993, mid-term elections.

Ultimately, fears of a recession during 1993 did not materialize and Menem quickly translated still-rising federal revenues (as well as US$3.5 billion in income from the sale of YPF stock) to increased spending on pensions and public works, helping calm protest.

President Menem's Justicialist Party enjoyed fourth-straight electoral victory, picking up several seats in Congress, though the struggling Radical Civic Union (UCR, which had held power during Raúl Alfonsín's difficult 1983-89 tenure), averted a trouncing and retained its Congressional strength.