[Marxism] Kirchner

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

?Hurricane K? Takes on the U.S. and the IMF

Is Néstor Kirchner the man to bring back prosperity and independence to 
what was once Latin America?s richest country? Jedediah Briggs of the 
US-based  Council on Hemispheric Affairs looks at the record of the man who 
has given Argentines reason to hope.

After Argentina?s economy collapsed in December 2001, the country?s crime, 
poverty and unemployment rates skyrocketed, with the country famously going 
through five different presidents in two weeks.  Few would have imagined 
that Néstor Kirchner, an obscure provincial governor who took office in May 
of last year, would not only effectively rule the deeply unsettled and 
troubled country, but also would emerge as Latin America?s most 
extraordinary and gifted leader of 2003.  Kirchner is a leader who best 
connects with his own people, a designation which was once given to 
Brazil?s President Lula.  A man of great probity and political rectitude, 
his primary virtue is his unchallenged honesty, a phrase that never could 
be applied to his recent predecessor, President Carlos Saúl Menem.

Considered by many seasoned analysts as being too inexperienced and 
politically unlettered to do the job, Kirchner has proved his critics 
resoundingly wrong by presiding over a growing economy and by making some 
daring adjustments to the government?s budget.  He now appears more than 
ready to address the rebuilding of the nation?s economy with a potential 
domestic economic miracle in the offing, while at the same time taking on 
the world with fiery rhetoric aimed at the U.S. and the IMF.  His one 
weakness up to now has been his tendency to fail to properly 
institutionalize changes that he has electrifyingly announced?like the 
thorough reform of the corrupt federal police.  Nevertheless, as a 
consequence of his dynamic impact on the country, his outspoken views 
internationally and his daring audacity to challenge the policy of his 
weak-willed predecessors, who insisted on providing amnesty to the military 
killers of tens-of-thousands of innocent civilians during the period of the 
Dirty War (1976-83), Kirchner has been affectionately dubbed, ?Hurricane 
K,? by his fellow citizens.

full: http://www.spectrezine.org/global/Argentina3.htm


Louis Proyect
Marxism list: www.marxmail.org 


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