Latin America’s First Woman President

A continent renowned for its supposed machismo seems about to get its first female president, Michelle Bachelet. This in itself is interesting, but equally interesting is the divide that can be seen across the continent between a more or less pragmatic group of politicians - Bachelet herself, Kirchner in Argentina, Lula in Brazil, or, to take a name not widely mentioned, Medellin’s new mayor Sergio Fajardo Valderrama, and the more “mediatic” group - Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and Commandante Marcos.

“Although originally from the hard-leftwing of Chile’s Socialist party, Ms Bachelet is expected to pursue broadly the same mixed economy policies as President Ricardo Lagos. She would inherit sound public finances and an economy that grew by more than 6 per cent last year. Mr Piñera is also an economic moderate, unlikely to change significantly the direction of Latin America’s most successful economy.”

Of course, my explanation for this very striking differential can be found here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 12th, 2006 at 10:01 am and is filed under A Few Euros More, Not Europe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

1. David Weman Says:
   January 12th, 2006 at 11:39 am

   She’s not he first.

2. Edward Says:
   January 13th, 2006 at 9:01 pm

   Oh, isn’t she? Who was it then?

3. Edward Says:
   January 14th, 2006 at 4:07 pm

   Ok, ok, as I often say, I am slow sometimes :).

   It should read first elected President. Maria Estela Isabel Martinez de Peron was briefly interim president of Argentina, but was never elected.

4. Oliver Says:
   January 17th, 2006 at 8:36 am

   Violeta Chamorro was first, as far as I can tell. Even Janet Jagan of Guyana was earlier.

5. Luis Says:
   January 18th, 2006 at 11:42 pm

   This first Latin American woman president
   was Nicaragua, in 1991.

   Violeta Chamorrow who beat the incumbent
   tiranny of Daniel Ortega is UN inspected
   elections.

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violeta_Chamorro

6. Luis Says:
   January 18th, 2006 at 11:50 pm

   Actually, Janet Jagan was sworn to the
   presidency of Guyana in Dec, 19, 1997 -
   that would make her the 2nd in “Latin”
   America (Guyana is English speaking).
   She retired due to illness in 1999.
   That makes Michelle Bachellet really the
   2nd female prez in South America, and the
   3rd in All of Latin America.

   Sources:

   http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=aIU6RqChnGrQ&refer=latin_america
   http://www.jagan.org/janet_jagan3.htm#Profile%20of%20Janet%20Jagan,%20O.E.%20%E2%80%93%20First%20Woman%20President%20of%20Guyana