Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina and its largest city and port. It is located on the southern shore of the Río de la Plata (also known as the River Plate), on the southeastern coast of the American continent.

Strongly influenced by European culture, Buenos Aires is sometimes referred to as the "Paris of South America".

After the internal conflicts of the 19th century, Buenos Aires was federalised and removed from Buenos Aires Province in 1880; its city limits were enlarged to include the former towns of Belgrano and Flores; both are now neighbourhoods in the city.

Names

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Buenos Aires (Fair Winds, ) was originally called Ciudad de la Santísima Trinidad y Puerto de Santa María del Buen Aire, "City of the Most Holy Trinity and Port of Saint Mary of the Fair Wind".

The city name was chosen by the chaplain of Mendoza's expedition (see History, below), who was a devout follower of the Virgine de Bonaria ("Our Lady of the Fair Winds") of Cagliari, Sardinia.

Argentines sometimes refer to the city as Capital Federal to differentiate the city from the province of the same name. In the 1994 constitution, the city was given autonomy, hence its formal name: Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.

The abbreviations Bs. As. and Baires are sometimes used, the first one mostly in writing and the second one in everyday speech. The city is sometimes called La Reina del Plata, that is, "The Queen of the Plata" (a reference to the Plata river basin).

History

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Spanish seaman Juan Díaz de Solís was the first European to reach the Río de la Plata, in 1516, but his expedition was cut short by an attack in which he was killed by the native Charrúa or Guaraní tribe, on today's Uruguay.

The city was first established as Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre Industrial workers of the Greater Buenos Aires industrial belt have been Peronism's main support base ever since, and Plaza de Mayo became the site for demonstrations and many of the country's political events.

On June 16 1955, a splinter faction of the navy bombed the Plaza de Mayo area, killing 364 civilians (see Bombing of Plaza de Mayo). This was the only time the city was attacked from the air. This event was followed by a military uprising that would depose President Perón three months later (see Revolución Libertadora).

In the 1970s, the city suffered from the fighting between left-wing revolutionary movements (Montoneros, E.R.P. and F.A.R.) and right-wing paramilitary group Triple A, supported by Isabel Perón, who became president of Argentina in 1974, after Juan Perón's death.

The military coup of 1976, led by Jorge Rafael Videla, only escalated this conflict; the "Dirty War" produced between 10,000 and 30,000 desaparecidos, people kidnapped and killed by the military during the years of the junta. The silent marches of their mothers (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) are a well-known image of Argentine suffering during those times.

The city was visited by Pope John Paul II twice: in...