Gaucho (currency)
The gaucho was a proposed currency intended to be used by Argentina and Brazil in the context of the Argentina-Brazil Integration and Economics Cooperation Program or PICE (Spanish: Programa de Integración y Cooperación Económica Argentina-Brasil) to make interregional payments. It was named after the gauchos typical of both Argentina and Southern Brazil. After the signing of the Protocol Number 20, in 1987, no further action was ever taken by any of the countries to effectively put the currency into use. Mercosur, an economic bloc including Brazil and Argentina, establishing broader economic integration, was created in 1991 , without any initial plans to establish a common currency. Later, in 1994, Brazil established the Brazilian real, still in use, putting an end to the frequent currency changes that took place in the country throughout the 1980s and the 1990s. On such panorama, the Gaucho plan has been virtually shelved. Declaration. On 17 July 1987, in the city of Viedma (Río Negro, Argentina), President Raúl Alfonsín of Argentina and President José Sarney of Brazil signed Protocol Number 20 which stated the following: Considering: Viedma, 17 July 1987