Argentina has a new President. And wonder of wonders, the President is a woman. The men are apprehensive whether she might be one of those weaklings who toe the line of her husband, the ex-President Nestor Kirchner. May be the men are also worried whether being a woman she has enough brains to run a nation. Kirchner unconsciously revealed his patriarchy when he told a television channel that being married to President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner for 32 years, he knows better than to interfere. The new President’s virago nature comes out of this.
Argentina is recovering from an economic recession. The annual growth rate is now 8% and Al Jazeera English points out the need for the new President to maintain this growth rate during her tenure. Her allies include Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, Evo Morales, the Bolivian president and Rafael Correa of Ecuador. All are Left leaning ideologues. They are naturally antipathetic to President Bush’s regime in the US. Cristina Fernandez on the other hand, unlike her friends and husband is softer on her stand regarding the US. So she comes as a relief to both the US and her allied. The US would be backing her for it needs at least one person to count on for its presence in Latin America. The allies there need her to pass on their demands to the US. Crisitina Fernandez is thus a stabilising factor in chaotic South America.
She, along with other Latin American leaders has called for the release of Ingrid Betancourt, the Colombian presidential candidate who was kidnapped in 2002 by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). Betancourt is thought to be very ill and dying. Fidel Castro is seen as reluctant to free her. The machismo of the aged Castro is threatened by Ingrid Betancourt.
Image Credit: Alsumaria
Via: Al Jazeera
