Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff unveiled yesterday an ambitious, long-term investment scheme for the country. The plan contemplates infrastructure investments for R$133bn (US$66.5bn), to be made within the next 25 years, to expand the road and railway networks.

The aim of the plan is threefold: to boost a stagnant economy, to adjust the country’s lagging infrastructure to its productive capacity, and to generate employment. Rousseff, a critic of the privatisations carried out by president Fernando Henrique Cardoso in the 1990′s, avoided the use of the term ‘privatisation’. However, the construction and operation of roads and railways will be granted to private investors.

Yesterday’s announcement is the first of three. On this first stage, investment will go towards building 75,000 km of roads, at a cost of US$21bn, and 10,000 km of railways, for US$45bn. Most of the money (US$39.7bn) will be invested within the first five years.

It is expected that the next two announcements will come within the next few weeks, and will tackle private investment on ports, airports, and electricity.

Analysts forecast that Brazil’s GDP will grow only 1.81% this year, down from 2.7% in 2011 and 7.5% in 2010. During the announcement, Rousseff said “We want Brazil to grow between 4.5 and 5% yearly. And for that, we hope to build an adequate environment for investment, not only now, but also in the medium term.”

The works will also create an estimated 150,000 direct jobs.

The government expects the tenders to be closed and the contracts awarded by June 2013.

On Sunday afternoon a car carrying seven passengers collided head-on with a bus, causing three deaths at the scene. Police later found a deadly concoction of alcohol and stimulant drinks in the Volkswagen Gol.

The accident occurred in Merlo, in the Buenos Aires province, towards 7pm. Witnesses revealed that the car was on the wrong side of the road, and travelling at a dangerously high speed.

On impact with the 236 bus, the male driver and two women were thrown from the vehicle, dying instantly. The fourth victim died on the way to hospital. The other three passengers remain hospitalised, but their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

The bus, which had just begun its route, had only one passenger. Along with the driver, he suffered no injuries.

Another driver from the same company, Línea 216, revealed that just moments earlier he had to avoid a “zigzagging” car, which matched the description of the Gol.

Buenos Aires was subject to heavy rain over the weekend which left the roads very wet. Local firemen told how the roads on Route 1003, Merlo were in poor condition.

Argentina continues to have an alarmingly high rate of road deaths. In 2007, there were 28.5 fatalities per 100,000 citizens, and the number for 2008 is thought to be a new record. To illustrate the danger on Argentine roads, the UK has a rate of just 5.4 car accident deaths per 100,000.

It is often said that every picture tells a story and the same can be said of Buenos Aires’ street names. Amongst the ubiquitous streets named after generals and presidents are such exotic names as Maipú and Chacabuco.

But what is their significance?

The answer is a series of battles that shaped Argentina’s early history. They can be broadly grouped into three periods; the British invasions of 1806-07, the War of Independence and the Civil War between federalist and unitarists in the early independence period.

The British Invasions

The downtown thoroughfares of Defensa and Reconquista take their names from the porteño resistance to the attempted British invasions of 1806-07.

At the time the British navy, fresh from victory over the Spanish and French fleets at Trafalgar, literally did ‘rule the waves’ and in this spirit of invincibility cast avaricious eyes on Spain’s American possessions.

In 1806 an unauthorised British force led by General William Carr Beresford landed in Buenos Aires in a bid to open up trade. Whilst there was some support for liberalising commerce outside of Spain’s influence, the vast majority of the local population felt that they were an unwelcome colonising force who were no better than the Spanish. An alliance of regular soldiers from the Montevideo garrison led by Santiago de Liniers, local patriots and gauchos under the command of Juan Martín de Pueyrredon proceeded to drive back the interlopers. Within six weeks the British surrendered and Liniers was rewarded with promotion to viceroy.

He reprised his feat 12 months later when British reinforcements under General Whitelocke attempted a second invasion. This also ended in ignominy for the usurpers as porteños engaged in guerrilla warfare to harass their opponents, carving them up with crossfire in the narrow streets of the city. The Santo Domingo church at the intersection of Defensa and Avenida Belgrano where the British were holed up still exhibits bullet holes from these encounters.

The Wars of Independence

Some of the more exotic sounding street names such as Suipacha, Chacabuco and Maipú in Microcentro actually derive from outside Argentina, but Argentine figures are central to their stories.

The Battle of Suipacha was the first major success in the war to liberate what is now Bolivia from Spanish rule after a previous insurrection was brutally put down. An expeditionary force led by Antonio González Balcarce headed north from Argentina and was joined en route by a unit of gauchos commanded by Martín Miguel de Güemes. Battle was joined on the banks of the Río Suipacha on 7th November 1810, and the Creole force of 600 men and ten artillery pieces defeated its numerically superior enemy, enabling it push on north to the Río Desaguadero.

After General José de San Martín helped secure the independence of Argentina in 1816, he turned his sights westward towards the liberation of Chile, joining forces with Bernardo O’Higgins. In one of the greatest campaigns in military history, he led his men across the high Andes, losing two-fifths of his 5,000 man strength to altitude sickness and hypothermia in the process. Taking his Spanish opposite number, Rafael Maroto, by surprise, he engaged the enemy at Chacabuco near Santiago on 12th February 1817. After O’Higgins’ men were initially driven back, San Martín countered with a grenadier charge and routed the royalist army.

In grateful thanks the denizens of Santiago proffered on San Martín the title, ‘Liberator of Chile’, but he humbly deferred the honour to his Chilean comrade in arms, O’Higgins.

The liberation of Chile was duly completed on 5th April 1818 at the Battle of Maipú. The Creole forces again commanded by San Martín soundly and decisively defeated the Spanish. The Spaniards lost 2,000 men dead and 3,000 captured in a battle lasting six hours which resulted in Chilean independence.

The forging of modern Argentina

The Battle of Caseros in the province of Buenos Aires on 3rd February 1852 marked the definitive end to the long running-dispute of how Argentina should be governed. On the one side were the unitarists who wanted the nation governed as a single entity. They were led into battle by the governor of Entre Ríos province, Justo José de Urquiza, supported by Uruguayan and Brazilian units.

On the other side of the battle lines were the federalists, those who wanted Argentina to be a loose federation of strongly independent provinces. They were commanded by Juan Manuel de Rosas, the governor of Buenos Aires province and de facto dictator of Argentina.

By 1852 Rosas was hugely unpopular due to his expensive war with Brazil and his dictatorial grip on power and had faced a series of rebellions. The battle was a chaotic affair with desertions on both sides and Urquiza delegating his officers to conduct the fighting as they thought appropriate. In an encounter lasting three hours Rosas lost 1,200 casualties, three times more than his opponents. Urquiza emerged triumphant and Rosas sailed off to spend the rest of his days in exile in England.

A new unitary constitution for Argentina was proclaimed in 1853 and Urquiza became the country’s first constitutional president in 1854.

The battle gave rise to the naming of Avenida Caseros which runs through the barrio of Barracas, and the Parque de Tres Febrero which can be found in Palermo.

So as you walk the streets of this fair city, it can be hard not to imagine the flashing of steel and pounding of cannon that fashioned Argentina into the nation we know and love today.