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Guillermo I. Mart nez: Kirchners wear out welcome in Argentina
Florida Sun-Sentinel
June 25, 2009

Guillermo I. Martinez | Columnist

Mr. and Mrs. Nestor and Cristina Kirchner's iron grip on Argentina's presidency is losing power rapidly.

For some reason, unexplained by political analysts, President Cristina Fern ndez de Kirchner moved up the mid-term legislative elections to June 28. They were initially scheduled for October. Polls suggest that is was not a wise decision and the Kirchner's are now expected to lose the majority in Argentina's lower house of Congress.

Six years in office for the husband and wife team appear to be enough for Argentine voters. They were governed by Nestor from 2003 to 2007, and since then by his wife, Cristina, although, truthfully, it could be said that they govern together.

Nestor Kirchner had a successful term as president. High world prices for Argentine exports helped the country come back from an economic collapse. Kirchner's popularity rubbed off on wife Cristina, and she was easily elected in 2007 to succeed him.

Argentines expected Cristina Kirchner to govern less autocratically than her husband, but she soon disappointed those who elected her. She tried to raise taxes on agricultural products to exorbitant levels and failed. Farmers blocked highways to the city and forced the government to back down. Furthermore, Mrs. Kirchner shares her husbands' distaste for private enterprise.

As world commodity prices collapsed, so did the popularity of the Kirchners. A united private sector is against her, as is the right wing of the Peronist Party.

Ironically, the man running against former President Kirchner in Congress is Francisco de Narv ez, a businessman, who, because he was born in Colombia, will never be able to run for president in Argentina. Even though prices for Argentina's agricultural products have begun to rise recently, unemployment is up to 17 percent and Argentina, once a showpiece for a strong middle class among Latin American countries, now lives with 40 percent of its population under the poverty line.

These elections are but a prelude to what might happen two years from now when the country again elects a president. If President Kirchner does not learn from the results of the upcoming elections, the possibilities for the husband and wife team remaining in office after 2011 are slim.

Guillermo I. Mart nez resides in South Florida. His e-mail is Guimar123@gmail.com.

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