Buenos Aires could be replaced as the capital of Argentina by a city 600 miles north. Cristina Kirchner, President of Buenos Aires, is considering moving the capital to Santiago del Estero. The current capital is considered geographically remote from much of the rest of the country. Santiago del Estero, founded 455 years ago, is the oldest city and is located in the center of the country.
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, an Argentinean writer and statesman, came up with the idea of moving the capital in the 1850s. He suggested installing government in Martin Garcia, an island in the Rio de la Plata, the river that forms part of the border with Uruguay.The suggestion of relocating the capital was reintroduced in January this year by Julián Dominguez, the leader of Argentina’s lower house of Congress. Dominguez says that moving the capital to Santiago del Estero would rebalance political power in Argentina and free the potential of a region strategically located between the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans.
Few Argentines expect the idea to advance very far. Others believe that president Kirchner has little intention of seeing the idea materialize. Carlos Germano, a political analyst in Buenos Aires, described it as "a symbolic declaration. Nothing more."
