Recent reports from Argentina and Chile indicate a distinct shift toward a more democratic atmosphere, in both spirit and practice. The resignation of Argentina's president and public opposition to Chile's former ruler are clear signs of a new freedom. Pacific News Service associate editor Andrew Reding is senior fellow for hemispheric affairs at the World Policy Institute.

Argentine president Carlos Menem's announcement last week that he will not seek a third term is a testament to the emergence of an invigorated civil society in South America's southern cone.

This is not the first time the Argentines have forced a president out of office. They did so in 1983, when the military government stepped down, and again in 1989, with the resignation of President Raul Alfonsin. But both previous cases involved catastrophic failures of leadership. The military government was forced out by the national humiliation Argentina suffered in its brief war with Great Britain over the Falkland Islands. Alfonsin had to resign because of economic mismanagement that caused 5000% inflation.

This time, in contrast, the Argentines acted against a successful leader. Menem's economic reforms have reduced inflation to just over 1%. Five years ago, arguing that his success made him indispensable, Menem persuaded Congress to amend the constitution to allow him to run for a second term. This year he tried to extend that to a third term, but ran into a revolt in his own Justicialist Party, and saw his support in opinion polls drop below 20%. He had already received a warning last year, when voters favored opposition candidates in elections for the lower house of Congress and in the first-ever election for mayor of Buenos Aires.

Ironically, the democratic wind blowing across Argentina is in large measure the product of Mene's reforms. These substituted free enterprise for the paternalistic state that was the legacy of Justicialist Party founder Gen. Juan Peron. An improved economic outlook and less dependence on the state have made Argentines less willing to tolerate authoritarian excesses.

While the Argentines acknowledge Menem's economic achievements, they are no more prepared to submit to a plebiscitary dictatorship than the Chilean people were when they rejected Gen. Pinochet's bid to be elected president.

Gen. Jorge Videla, the former Argentine military dictator sentenced to life in prison for his role in the murders of 30,000 suspected leftists but pardoned by Menem, is again behind bars. This time it is for stealing the children of the "disappeared," and turning them over for adoption by military families.

Earlier this year, former Navy captain Alfredo Astiz, the "blond angel of death" who defended his role in the murder of nuns and teenaged girls, was confined to a military barracks, then expelled from the navy and stripped of his pension. Though still protected by Menem's amnesty, he is frequently assaulted by outraged citizens.

It is not only the agents of murder who are under assault by civil society, but the quasi-fascist ideology of hatred that fomented murder. Anti-Semitic crimes, which flourished under the military regime, are now vigorously investigated and prosecuted. Homosexuals, likewise a target of the military government, are not only winning toleration but spousal retirement benefits. Argentine television dramas now portray them in a positive way, showing male and female same-sex kisses.

A similar transformation is underway in neighboring Chile. There, the retirement of armed forces chief Augusto Pinochet has opened the floodgates. No longer fearing retribution, the civilian government and the public are rushing to recover political space lost after the 1973 military takeover. President Eduardo Frei has replaced the pro-Pinochet defense minister. He has also cracked down on a German enclave in southern Chile run by Paul Schaefer, a former captain in Hitler's army who assisted Pinochet in the slaughter of dissidents, and is now wanted for sodomizing boys.

Forensic anthropologists are unearthing and identifying the remains of some of the victims of Pinochet's repression. Between 1973 and 1978, security forces murdered more than 3,000 suspected supporters of Salvador Allende, the freely-elected socialist president he overthrew.

In an effort to secure immunity from prosecution, Pinochet made himself senator-for-life. Yet he is being subjected to constant taunts from elected members of Congress, some of whom are the children of his victims. President Frei has called for a plebiscite on the un-elected Senate seats.

The consolidation of democracy underway in the southern cone means the political outlook for the region is now as good as the economic outlook. It would be a mistake, however, to try to generalize what is happening here to the rest of Latin America.

Along with tiny Uruguay, Chile and Argentina are ethnically homogeneous countries. They are, in essence, southern European countries transplanted to temperate South America. The populations of all three are heavily derived from Spanish and Italian immigrants. None have the significant native and black populations that elsewhere result in racism, discrimination, and severe inequality.

All three countries have high levels of literacy, education, and life expectancy. Like their southern European counterparts, they have been held back by authoritarianism, but now that they are experiencing economic and political freedoms, are unlikely to return to a discredited past.