For decades, Argentineans have suffered. Earlier it was due to military dictatorship. Huge debts were acquired for various projects which were left unfinished. Some did not even take off. Power was in the hands of a few who mercilessly milked the country. Argentineans elected Raul Alfonsin who introduced a new currency, the Austral. This move was a total failure and inflation crossed the 200% mark.

With the failure of the Austral and reeling under huge debts, Argentina decided to restore their earlier currency, the Peso and linked it to the US dollar. Inflation did begin to show a downward trend and people started spending freely, so much so that they spent more than they could afford. The government started borrowing large amounts of money which they could never really repay. This led to investors being disillusioned and soon people started backing off when it came to lending money to Argentina.

By 1999, Argentina was reeling under a severe recession, the GDP had fallen by over 4% and panic prevailed. By 2001, people lost confidence in the government and started withdrawing huge amounts of money. This led the government to freeze all accounts for a year. There was chaos and mayhem as a result and looting and destroying property became rampant.

The government declared a state of emergency but this only worsened the situation.
The quality of life that Argentineans knew earlier had deteriorated. The peso was devalued to such an extent that the government was alarmed and had to intervene on many occasions to prevent the peso from revaluing.

These days, the government has laid several restrictions about the transfer of large amounts of money outside Argentina, with a view to retain the currency within the country. Hopefully, such a move will help the country stand on its feet once again.

References:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/17/business/argentine-peso-sinks-to-new-lows-as-crisis-continues.html