One of the hallmarks of Menem's second term as president was the increasing venality of an administration that had lost much of its earlier reforming impetus. In 1996, he sacked Domingo Cavallo - ostensibly for his unwillingness to counter greater state intervention in the economy, but some say because he saw his powerful minister of the economy as a potential rival. This move backfired to an extent, as Cavallo formed a new political party, the Acción por la República which, though never gaining much of a power base, served to bring the issue of corruption in government into higher public focus. Human-rights issues continued to surface on the front-line agenda, despite Menem's attempts to stifle the issue. One of the most important developments was the start of a campaign to prosecute those guilty of having "kidnapped" babies of desaparecidos born in detention in order to give them up for adoption to childless military couples. This crime, not covered by the Punto Final legislation of Alfonsín's years, has resulted in the successful interrogation and detention of many of the leading members of the old junta, including Videla and Massera. Tension still simmers in minority factions of the military about this issue, although the armed forces in general are now very much subordinate to the civilian authorities. In the mid-1990s, the armed forces did, belatedly, acknowledge their role in the atrocities of the dictatorship, making a public apology - a symbolic act that was followed by similar repentance by the Catholic Church. The economic situation remained on a knife-edge, with austerity measures seeming to apply to anyone not in government, and a foreign debt that continued to balloon. When, at the beginning of 1999, Brazil's currency lost fifty percent of its value, the government had to resist acute pressure to devalue the peso. Convertibility held, but Menem announced that Argentina ought seriously to consider the " dollarization " of the economy - an issue that would have severe ramifications on national pride. In the field of foreign policy , Menem proved himself able to rise above rhetoric. This included a significant rapprochement with Britain over the Falklands; and in 1999, he finally secured ratification of a treaty with Chile conceding sovereignty over a disputed part of the Southern Patagonian Icecap in the southeast of the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares - the last of continental Argentina's border disputes . As the end of his second term approached, the president indulged in an undignified display of political chicanery. This saw him moot the possibility of him running for a third consecutive term of office, by arguing that, although his own constitutional amendment of 1994 allowed a sitting president to stand for re-election only once, he had only enjoyed one full term of government since that amendment had been passed. The real issue here was not really whether he genuinely intended to stand or not - but that, it was widely felt, it was all bluster designed to alienate voters and to scupper the chances of fellow member of the Justicialist Party, Eduardo Duhalde, in the forthcoming election. Duhalde, as Governor of Buenos Aires Province, was the favoured candidate to replace the dead duck Menem and lead the election fight. However, Menem, who increasingly seems to treat the party as his own dynastic fief, apparently preferred the Justicialists to lose the election rather than see himself lose the position of party leader. This would then clear the way for himself to stand in the elections of 2003. The tactic certainly seemed to work: the shenanigans of the so-called re-re-eleccionistas alienated the populace from the Peronists still further, in the run up to the vote in 1999. Fernando de la Rua , mayor of the city of Buenos Aires, won the candidacy of the Alianza (Alliance Party). The Alianza formed out of a coalition between the radicals (UCR), of which he was leader, and FREPASO , itself a coalition party of left-wingers and disaffected Peronists that rose to prominence in the 1995 election. A third coalition party involved in the elections was the National Action Party (PAN), led by ex-Minister of Finance, Domingo Cavallo, and running on a platform of fiscal responsibility, and, crucially, anti-corruption - the theme that dominated the election. With the desire for change palpable across the country, Fernando de la Rua, the candidate for the Alianza, won a clear mandate. Duhalde, embittered, vowed to continue what has become a personal vendetta against Menem.