Federalization of Buenos Aires

Federalization is a term, which, in Argentine law, defines the process of assigning federal status to a territory with the purpose of making that territory the national capital.

Federalization of Buenos Aires politically separated the city from the Buenos Aires Province to put it under direct control of the national government. It was a constant aspiration of the other provinces of Argentina since the formation of the national state. However, harsh political debates around the issue prevented federalization until 1880, more than sixty years later.

The first successful Constitutional Convention, which took place in 1853, defined in its 3rd article the status of Buenos Aires:

The Authorities that exercise the Federal Government reside in the City of Buenos Aires, which is declared capital of the Confederacy by a special law.

The terms Argentine Confederacy were used in those days to designate Argentina (usage would evolve until today, where the terms Argentine Republic are used instead). This article could not be enforced, as Buenos Aires withdrew from the convention, forming a separate state. When the province rejoined the country in 1860, an amendment was made to the constitution, which changed article III in a subtle way:

The Authorities that exercise the Federal Government, reside in the city that is declared Capital of the Republic by a special law of Congress, previous cession made by one or more provincial legislatures from the territory to be federalized.

This change did not declare Buenos Aires national capital right away, and left an open door for another city to be declared so. Although the city was made capital in the end, the change was satisfactory for the porteños as well as the rest of the country, and so it remained.

The weight of a larger population, and the economic and commercial importance of the city as the only deep water port of the country, were decisive factors in the relationship between the federated provinces. This inequality was seen since the first years of the state, when after the May Revolution the Buenos Aires porteños were reluctant to accept the deputies of the interior in the First Junta, and became more severe during the long period of political instability of the First and Second triumvirates and the Directory. The attempts of 1819 and 1826 to dictate a Unitarian constitution to centralize in Buenos Aires the direct administrative power over the entire national territory pushed the situation, and the political measures taken by the provinces in the successive years — such as the Federal Pact — were oriented on avoid such situations from taking place.

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