ARGENTINA:
‘It Will Be Harder for
Me Because I’m a Woman,’
Says New President
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, (IPS)
- In an unusual ceremony
that anticipates
continuity but with
nuances, Senator
Cristina Fernández took
office Monday as the
first elected female
president of Argentina,
succeeding her husband,
outgoing President
Néstor Kirchner.
"Perhaps it'll be harder
for me, because I'm a
woman," the new
president said at the
end of her inaugural
address before Congress,
judges, prominent human
rights activists and
presidents and other
representatives of
foreign countries. "It
will always be harder
for us," she added, to
nods from her Chilean
counterpart, President
Michelle Bachelet.
"I am guided by the
example not only of Eva,
who was unable (to be
president) and perhaps
deserved it more than
me, but also of the
mothers and grandmothers
of the Plaza de Mayo,
who with their white
headscarves went where
no one else dared," she
said.
She was referring to
María Eva Duarte (Evita),
the wife of three times
president Juan Domingo
Perón (1895-1973), who
died in 1952 after
renouncing the
vice-presidential
candidacy because she
knew she had cancer, and
to the mothers of
victims of forced
disappearance, who held
weekly gatherings in the
Plaza de Mayo outside of
the seat of government
during the 1976-1983
military dictatorship,
demanding to know the
whereabouts of their
children and
grandchildren.
The transfer of power
went swiftly. Fernández
was sworn in and
received the
presidential sash, along
with a hug, from her
husband. Both belong to
the centre-left faction
in the ruling
Justicialista (Peronist)
Party.
She then spoke for
nearly an hour without
reading from her notes,
highlighting the
achievements made by the
Kirchner administration
and the projects she
took part in, while
giving indications of
the new aspects that can
be expected from her
government.
The president said she
would move ahead on
reforms of the judicial
system and that new
mechanisms, designed by
the government, Congress
and the Supreme Court,
will pave the way for
faster progress in the
trials of the
dictatorship’s human
rights abusers.
She vindicated free
public education,
pointed to the need to
boost social mobility,
and observed that both
she and Kirchner had
received quality public
education, which she
said is a pending task
today. "That is the
country we must rebuild:
the one in which it is
possible for the sons
and daughters of working
people to reach the
presidency," she said.
With respect to
international relations,
Fernández celebrated
Sunday’s launch of the
Bank of the South "for
the economic and social
transformation of the
people of Latin America,
our home," she said. The
new bank was established
by the governments of
Argentina, Brazil,
Bolivia, Ecuador,
Paraguay, Uruguay and
Venezuela.
She also expressed her
interest in Venezuela
continuing the process
towards becoming a full
member of the Mercosur
(Southern Common Market)
trade bloc, made up of
Argentina, Brazil,
Paraguay and Uruguay,
"to complete the energy
equation."
She thanked Uruguayan
President Tabaré Vázquez
for attending the
ceremony. The normally
close ties between
Argentina and Uruguay
are tense because of a
conflict over a paper
pulp mill on the
Uruguayan side of a
border river, which
according to local
residents in Argentina
will cause pollution.
"I want to tell you that
from this president, you
will not receive one
single gesture that
deepens our
differences," she
remarked.
But after the applause,
she said the crisis
between the two
countries "cannot be
blamed on us," and
repeated her husband’s
position, which
emphasised Uruguay’s
alleged violation of the
bilateral treaty that
governs the use of the
border river, for which
Argentina has brought
legal action before the
International Court of
Justice in The Hague.
Lastly, Fernández urged
Colombian President
Álvaro Uribe, also
present in the audience,
to allow progress
towards a humanitarian
exchange of hostages
held by the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC)
for imprisoned
guerrillas.
"International law
merits an all-out
effort, so a solution
does not come too late,"
she said, underscoring
the presence at the
inaugural ceremony of
Yolanda Pulecio, the
mother of former
Colombian presidential
candidate Ingrid
Betancourt, the FARC’s
highest profile hostage,
who has been held
captive in the jungles
of Colombia since 2002.
In an interview with IPS,
sociologist Cecilia
Lipszyc, president of
the Association of
University Specialists
in Women’s Studies,
discussed the degree of
continuity and change
that can be expected
from the new
administration.
"The fact that there is
now a woman in the
presidency already
implies a positive
change," said the
sociologist. "She
provides a role model.
Girls can dream of
becoming president; that
in itself is very
important," said the
expert.
She noted, however, that
the essential aspects of
the Kirchner
administration will
remain unchanged. "A
second stage is coming,
which is aimed at
further consolidating
the same government
programme, with
trademarks specific to
Fernández like a
stronger emphasis on
science and technology,"
she said.
Aware that her triumph
is based on the results
achieved by her
husband’s government,
the new president is not
aiming for a change, but
for a "qualitative leap"
in terms of economic
growth with a
diversified foundation
based on know-how,
research and science,
said Lipszyc.
Since Kirchner became
president in May 2003
after Argentina’s most
severe economic crisis
ever, gross domestic
product has grown more
than 40 percent,
unemployment has fallen
from 24 to eight
percent, and the poverty
rate has shrunk from 51
to 29 percent.
In addition, the
government is running a
budget surplus, and the
bulky foreign debt was
restructured through
negotiations with
private creditors, while
the country’s debt to
the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) was
repaid in full.
With that idea in mind
-- preserving while
innovating -- Fernández
will be keeping on most
of her husband’s cabinet
ministers, although she
created a new ministry,
of Science, Technology
and Productive
Innovation.
"My hope with this
ministry is to be able
to definitively link
know-how, research and
science to Argentina’s
economic and productive
process," said the new
president, who added
that the country will
thus be able to draw in
a greater volume of
investment, which will
allow the high economic
growth rate to be
maintained.
Fernández will also
usher in changes in
terms of foreign
relations. In her words,
her husband "couldn't go
and travel around the
world while the country
was on fire." But in her
own administration,
relations with other
countries will receive a
new focus.
She also mentioned the
need to "rebuild
multilateralism."
"A unilateral world is a
more insecure and unjust
world," she said,
declaring that she does
not believe that human
rights have to be
violated in the fight
against terrorism.
"She will put a special
emphasis on foreign
relations because she is
interested in presenting
the image of an
industrial country in
need of major
investments," said
Lipszyc. "For that
reason, she will
normalise the debt
situation with the Paris
Club, so they will
unblock financing for
the economy."
Argentina owes more than
six billion dollars to
the industrialised
countries that make up
the Paris Club, and
although the Kirchner
administration
repeatedly expressed an
interest in paying off
the debt, both the
outgoing president and
his wife refuse to
submit to IMF scrutiny
towards that end.
The analyst also said
that Kirchner will not
simply vanish from the
scene. Despite his
threats that he will
keep his distance from
the new administration,
Lipszyc said his
influence will continue
to be felt. "They are a
political partnership;
they have always
governed together," she
said. (Kirchner is a
former governor of the
southern province of
Santa Cruz). That active
support will be welcome,
she added.
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