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The Buenos Aires Customs House (''Aduana'') is a government building and architectural landmark in the
Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with roughly of coastline. It is n ...
section of
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
.


Overview

The French neoclassical building housing the Argentine General Customs Directorate (DGA) was commissioned during the administration of President
José Figueroa Alcorta José María Cornelio Figueroa Alcorta (November 20, 1860 – December 27, 1931) was an Argentine lawyer and politician, who managed to be the only person to head the three powers of the State: Vice President of the Nation (President of the ...
, and resulted from the marked expansion in Argentine foreign trade and the
economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...
in the generation up to 1910, when the nation's GDP was estimated to have grown by over 8% a year. Local architects Eduardo Lanús and Pablo Hary were commissioned in 1909 to design the new administrative offices for the ''Aduana'', which was noteworthy not only for its façade and its two turrets, but also for its use of
carrara marble Carrara marble, Luna marble to the Romans, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara in the province of Massa ...
cladding throughout, as well as its numerous allegorical details such as the ornamental bull's heads and the marble
caryatid A caryatid ( or or ; grc, Καρυᾶτις, pl. ) is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term ''karyatides'' literally means "ma ...
s along the cornice, some bearing intricate wrought-iron acanthus and
laurel wreath A laurel wreath is a round wreath made of connected branches and leaves of the bay laurel (), an aromatic broadleaf evergreen, or later from spineless butcher's broom ('' Ruscus hypoglossum'') or cherry laurel ('' Prunus laurocerasus''). It is ...
s.''La Nación'': Declararon monumento histórico nacional al edificio de la Aduana
/ref> The building was inaugurated by President Figueroa Alcorta in October 1910, days before his retirement. Following refurbishment works, on September 28, 2009, the Customs Building was declared a National Historic Monument by President
Cristina Kirchner Cristina is a female given name, and it is also a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Cristina (daughter of Edward the Exile), 11th-century English princess *Cristina (singer), Cristina Monet-Palaci (1956–2020), American s ...
. The government bureau housed therein, the DGA, traces its origins to the
San Nicolás Agreement The San Nicolás Agreement () was a pact signed on May 31, 1852 and subscribed by all but one of the 14 provinces of the United Provinces of the River Plate (the exception was Buenos Aires). The treaty consisted of 19 articles, and its goal was to ...
of 1852, whereby all
customs duties A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and p ...
were nationalized. The provision, rejected by the Province of Buenos Aires, was first enforced following Buenos Aires leader
Bartolomé Mitre Bartolomé Mitre Martínez (26 June 1821 – 19 January 1906) was an Argentine statesman, soldier and author. He was President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868 and the first president of unified Argentina. Mitre is known as the most versatile s ...
's 1860 defeat at the Battle of Cepeda. The National Customs Administration was established in 1862, when following Mitre's election as president, Economy Minister Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield established the bureau (he had developed the Argentine Commercial Code in 1858).Rock, David. ''Argentina 1516-1982''. University of California Press, 1987. The building reflected the importance of customs duties to the national treasury itself, which from the colonial era of the
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata ( es, Virreinato del Río de la Plata or es, Virreinato de las Provincias del Río de la Plata) meaning "River of the Silver", also called " Viceroyalty of the River Plate" in some scholarly writings, i ...
until 1930, accounted for around 80 percent of government revenues. The bureau's importance declined after 1945, since which date these revenues have contributed 10-20 percent of the national budget. The bureau's autonomy later led to significant improprieties, notably the development in 1988 of a "parallel customs" by President Raúl Alfonsín's administrator of the office, Carlos Delconte, and that of a
racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and ...
network in 1991 overseen by President
Carlos Menem Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. Ideologically, he identified as a Peronist and supported economically liberal policies. He ...
's customs administrator and brother-in-law, Ibrahim al-Ibrahim (a
Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
n national who spoke almost no Spanish).''The New York Times''. August 6, 1991. Ultimately, the customs bureau was transferred to the Federal Public Revenue Administration (AFIP) by a 1997 decree signed by President Menem.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buenos Aires Customs Government buildings in Argentina Buildings and structures in Buenos Aires Government buildings completed in 1910 National Historic Monuments of Argentina Custom houses 1910 establishments in Argentina