Senator Cristina Fernandez of Argentina, the wife of outgoing President Nestor Kirchner, on Thursday launched a campaign for her husband's job, with ambitious promises to reform Argentina.
Fernandez, 54, already the clear favorite to succeed her husband, kicked off in her hometown of La Plata the campaign to become Argentina's first woman elected to the presidency.
She spoke in a packed theater to the applause of 1,700 party leaders and flanked by pictures of Eva and Juan Domingo Peron, the power couple that ran Argentine politics, unions and the economy during the 1940s and 1950s.
Her platform, sketched out in a 45-minute speech, was ambitious: a change in "Argentines' cultural paradigms" and "recovery of our self-esteem, work and jobs, as the axis of the Argentina that is to come."
She was interrupted repeatedly by applause, the most tumultuous coming after recognizing the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who for decades protested the loss of their children at the hands of Argentina's 1976 to 1982 military dictatorship.
Images of Fernandez speaking were shown on giant screens for supporters outside the theater, as the sound of fireworks echoed through the city.
On the streets, 100 days before Election Day on October 28, campaign posters bearing her photo and the slogan: "Change is coming soon," began popping up.
Her husband presided over about 8 percent annual growth, as Argentina climbed out of its 2001 to 2002 economic crisis, the worst since the Great Depression, and which led to a quick succession of presidents toppled by violent street demonstrations.
He also stared down harsh terms the IMF sought to impose, and lifted the lid on military men who had tortured and murdered suspected opponents to the military regime.
Like US senator and former first lady Hillary Clinton, to whom Cristina is unavoidably compared, she "is a woman who has political goals and enough substance to govern this country," Kirchner's chief of staff said.
Within Argentina, where image is at least as important as platform, Fernandez will more frequently be compared with Evita Peron, the second wife of president Juan Domingo Peron, and a symbol as magical as Peron himself, whose name remains the unofficial moniker of the Justicialista Party.
Indeed, Fernandez is likely to prevail, because she is often seen as the dominant partner in her marriage, according to longtime friend and lawmaker Dante Dovena.
"Nestor was known as `Cristina's husband'" for years, Dovena said, detailing the pair's differences.
"Cristina has a more open mind than he does. He is more closed, more dogmatic," Dovena said.
Fernandez leads the polls over other candidates. Polls also say Kirchner would have been re-elected, but he decided not to run.
Kirchner, 57, denies that health may have played into his decision, saying simply that his wife "will make a better president."
If she wins, Fernandez would become the first woman to be elected to lead Argentina.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not