El Apagón en Buenos Aires 1999 Manejo de crisis en los sectores privados y públicos en la Argentina

In the City of Buenos Aires on the night to February 15, 1999, a cable fails in one of the Edesur substation tunnels, provoking a fire, which is followed by a power outage. Over 150.000 Edesur clients (approximately 600.000 individuals) in ten Buenos Aires quarters are affected in their homes, in offices, at banks, in the underground and in the street on the first day of the power outage. This would last for eleven days in Argentinean mid summer with temperatures over +30oC. What appeared to be a quickly solved technical problem soon developed into a social conflict and a political and economic crisis that would last for more than two months. This study analyses the social and political crisis that was produced in the wake of the power outage in Buenos Aires from a cognitive institutional perspective, in which decision making and communication are vital processes. Aspects such as problem framing, information processing, politicisation of crises and symbolic action are analysed within the Buenos Aires and Argentinean cultural, political and economic context. One central dimension of the analysis is the issue of privatisation of the public services; a particular feature of Argentinean political economy during the last decade. This is a case study on the Buenos Aires blackout but also a contribution to theoretical discussions on crisis management in the spheres of 'private' and 'public' of State and Market.