"THE FEMINIZATION OF POLITICS" in Latin America

[rabs]

Dilma, Cristina, Chinchilla. Keiko Fujimori and Meche Araoz possibilities in Peru, Bachelet until this year. Now Sandra Torres de Colom in Guatemala and Beatriz Paredes in Mexico. It is amazing in the once-macho ruled nations of the hemisphere.



Sandra Torres de Colom is the First Lady of Guatemala. In a country with one of the highest poverty indexes in Latin America, Ms. Torres de Colom has worked to create the main social security programs and has become very popular among Guatemalans. It is likely she will make history by becoming the first woman president of the country.


Beatriz Paredes is president of Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). She was the first woman to serve as governor of Tlaxcala and the second woman to serve as a state governor in Mexican history. Ms. Paredes has occupied different positions in the PRI, representing primarily the rural and indigenous wings of the party. She served as PRI’s general secretary and in 2007 won the party’s presidency by a large margin. Ms. Paredes has publicly acknowledged her interest in running for President of Mexico in 2012.

http://www.gspm.org/GSPM_News/

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Latin America - Guatemala’s First Lady
Maria Luisa Rivera, 14 December 2010, GMT 22.00

Sandra Torres de Colom, one of the main left-wing candidates competing in the upcoming September 2011 presidential elections in Guatemala, may suffer a disadvantage because she is a woman with working class origins, according to a cable dispatched to Washington on September 28, 2009 by the U.S. embassy. Also her assertive personality does not sit well with everyone in male-dominated Guatemalan society, according to U.S. ambassador Stephen G. McFarland.

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Despite the opposition to her gender and social status, the U.S. ambassador believes that it is clear that the Sandra de Colom will run for the Guatemalan presidency. McFarland also notes that she might face yet another obstacle: constitutional matters forbidding Presidential family members to become candidates. The U.S. diplomatic memorandum even questions the validity of Colom marriage - a Mayan ceremony celebrated in Cuba - and then insinuates that it is quite easy to obtain a divorce in the country if both parties agree.

The legal dilemma has to be resolved before May 2011 when a change in the Constitutional Court will provide a key moment to test the limits and the influence on political decisions. According to MacFarland, the court will be favorable to a Colom candidacy.
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McFarland’s cable indicates that the embassy is worried that de Colom may soon swing further to the left. The cable warns that "widespread poverty, hunger, marginalization of the large (but fractious) indigenous minority, and a long history of state neglect of the poor" will help de Colom to build a "new, more radical left" base in the Central American nation.

http://213.251.145.96/articles/2010/Guatemala-s-First-Lady.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. "...a Mayan ceremony celebrated in Cuba..."! Oh, no!

"The U.S. diplomatic memorandum even questions the validity of Colom marriage - a Mayan ceremony celebrated in Cuba - and then insinuates that it is quite easy to obtain a divorce in the country if both parties agree."

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In diabolical Cuba! With human sacrifice! It can't be "our" kind of marriage!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:



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Thanks so much for posting this! Glad to learn more about the Coloms. Didn't know a thing about Sandra. But the best thing I ever heard about a politician in my lifetime--other than Evo Morales chewing coca leaves--was that Alvaro Colom had undergone training and had been invested as a Mayan priest. I mean, THAT is a class act.

And you sure gotta figure, when the U.S. diplomatic corps gets its panties in a twist about somebody building a "new, more radical left" base, it can only be good for most Guatemalans. Go, Sandra!