Fernandez Loses Congress Power in Argentina Election
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner lost power in Congress after voters angry at her handling of a farm strike, crime and a slowing economy favored opposition candidates in mid-term elections yesterday.
Nestor Kirchner, Fernandez’s husband and predecessor, acknowledged this morning that a slate of candidates he led for the lower house of congress in the bellwether province of Buenos Aires was defeated. Partial results indicate the government will lose its majority in both houses of congress, with no party having outright control.
She had had the election moved up four months, probably in the hope that economic conditions now would be better than later, but it didn’t work.
Noticias 24 has a graph with the results (click for article):
Fernandez and Kirchner, as you may recall, are big friends of Hugo Chavez, who sent her a suitcase filled with $800,000 to finance her prior campaign.
All in all, Hugo’s had a hell of a weekend.
UPDATE
Following the defeat, Néstor Kirchner resigned as leader of his Partido Justicialista (PJ) political party.
“All in all, Hugo’s had a hell of a weekend.”
RFLMAOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Fausta keep up the great work, your blog is amazing especially your coverage and analysis of what is really going on in Honduras!
Hugo was probably on the phone this morning ordering more coca paste from Evo.
Argentina often leaves me shaking my head: in terms of resources, population, and talent, they should be a significant player in the world. Instead, they continually find ways to shoot themselves in the foot.
What happened to that wave of socialist leaning countries in South America anyway? Unless Chavez and the Castro brothers can figure out a way to transport their military assets by magic they have the minor problem of trying to cross Colombian, Panamanian and Costa Rican territory or avoid the 3rd Fleet in the Pacific or the 2nd in the Atlantic if the attempt is made by sea. Nicaragua is so poorly run that I doubt if even El Salvador has much to fear from it. About the only thing left is to create subversion via agents and pesos.