Eduardo Alberto Duhalde (Spanish pronunciation: [eˈðwaɾðo alˈβeɾto ˈðwalde] ⓘ; born 5 October 1941)[1] is an Argentine former peronist politician who served as the interim President of Argentina from January 2002 to May 2003.

De la Rúa resigned during the December 2001 riots, and Congress appointed the governor of San Luis Province Adolfo Rodríguez Saá as president.

During Duhalde's term in office, a huge currency devaluation and an increase of the exchange rate led to a gradual recovery.

[4] Many members of the Peronist Youth were killed in Lomas de Zamora during the Pasco massacre, which Duhalde blamed on the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance.

The elections ended in a technical tie with the candidate of the Radical Civic Union (UCR), Horacio Devoy; Duhalde won by just 700 votes.

Unable to defeat Menem in the primary elections, Duhalde promoted an amendment of the provincial constitution, to allow reelection as well.

The PJ could not secure the majority of the constituent chamber, and the three opposing parties (the UCR, the Broad Front and the MODIN) joined forces in a "triple alliance" to prevent the sanction of the re-election.

Duhalde increased his criticism of Menem, stating that he should leave the neoliberal policies and head a government closer to the Peronist doctrines.

[14] As the new constitution allowed re-election a single time, the PJ started an internal discussion over the leadership of the party after the presidency of Menem.

Other scandals involved Duhalde more directly, such as the corruption cases in the Buenos Aires provincial police and the murder of the news photographer José Luis Cabezas.

He resigned a few days later,[21] and accused Duhalde of plotting against him, along with the governor of Córdoba, José Manuel de la Sota.

The likely candidates were Duhalde, De la Sota, and Carlos Ruckauf, the governor of the Buenos Aires province at the time.

[20] Menem, who still had legislators loyal to him, wanted to prevent Duhalde from becoming president, and proposed to appoint the governor of Misiones Ramón Puerta instead.

Duhalde, Alfonsín, their parties, the unions and the Church all agreed to promote policies to increase the industrial growth of the country.

Although Menem proposed a full dollarization of the Argentine economy, Duhalde preferred to instead stick to the peso and order a devaluation.

There were disputes over the exchange rate of such substitution, as the current price of the dollar in the open market would force most firms and individual debtor to bankruptcy.

The minister of economy Jorge Remes Lenicov pointed out that that would be impossible, as the amount of dollars required was higher than even the foreign-exchange reserves of the Central Bank.

Peronist governors, legislators, and union leaders met at the Quinta de Olivos, amid rumors that Duhalde would appoint the populist Daniel Carbonetto as minister of economy.

[35] He stabilised prices and the exchange rate with tight fiscal and monetary policies, and prevented the crisis from growing into a hyperinflation.

Some of these potential candidates were Carlos Reutemann, José Manuel de la Sota, Mauricio Macri, Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, Felipe Solá and Roberto Lavagna, but none of those negotiations bore fruit.

The scandal over the death of the piqueteros Maximiliano Kosteki and Darío Santillán in the Avellaneda massacre forced Duhalde to rush the elections by six months.

It was also announced that Lavagna would stay as minister of Economy during a presidency of Kirchner, to capitalize the support for the ongoing economic policies.

[40] Duhalde was appointed president in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, when the foreign policy of the United States was strictly focused on the War on Terror.

[41] Argentina voted in the United Nations condemning the human rights violations in Cuba, but refused to send military forces to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Still, Duhalde proposed to send peacekeeping troops, and strongly criticized the regime of Saddam Hussein and international terrorism.

Duhalde increased his criticism of the United States during the final years of his government, and changed the vote in relation to Cuba to an abstention.

Menem, who was running for a third term as president, supported the vote condemning Cuba and the military aid to the United States.

[42] The devaluation caused a diplomatic conflict with Spain, as Duhalde did not allow the Spanish service providers to raise taxes.

They live in a country house in San Vicente, Buenos Aires, named "Don Tomás" after Duhalde's father.

He sought to make amends with Menem for their past political rivalry, and met him during the 2013 papal inauguration of Pope Francis.