Argentina gets a female president

BUENOS AIRES – Cristina Fernandez was sworn on Monday as Argentina’s first elected female president, completing a rare husband-wife transfer of power as she promised to keep the nation’s economic recovery moving forward.

Fernandez, whose husband is credited with leading Argentina out of its 2001-2002 economic meltdown, vowed to deepen the centre-left economic programmes of outgoing President Nestor Kirchner, create jobs and reduce high poverty levels. During her hour-long inaugural speech, Fernandez’s voice rose in anger as she demanded that dozens of slow-moving court investigations of human rights abuses of the 1976-83 dictatorship be speeded up.”I expect that in the four years of my term, trials that have been delayed more than 30 years will be concluded.We must try to punish those who were responsible for the greatest genocide” in modern Argentine history, Fernandez, 54, told a packed Congress after taking up the blue-and-white sash from Kirchner, who gingerly adjusted it on her shoulders.Nearly 13 000 people are officially listed as missing or dead under a ‘dirty war’ crackdown on dissent by past military governments.Activists estimate nearly double that number died.Fernandez, who has been compared to US Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton as a powerful ex-first lady seeking the presidency, embarks on a four-year term whose main challenge will be to prolong an economic recovery that has seen annual growth rates above 8 per cent in recent years.”I believe we have regained our balance,” Fernandez said, recalling how her husband took office in May 2003 amid a debt default and a searing devaluation that was Argentina’s worst economic crisis in history.”In four and a half years this president – together with all Argentines – was able to change the scenario we were facing.”As several South American presidents looked on, she vowed to strengthen Argentina’s oft-criticised justice system, overhaul a poorly funded system of public schools and tackle rampant crime and a looming energy crisis.Fernandez later swore in her cabinet, most holdovers from Kirchner’s rule save a youthful, untested new economy minister, as a festive mood swept the capital.Flanked by Kirchner and their two children, she ascended a stage outside the pink Government House, waving and blowing kisses to cheering supporters as confetti flew.Argentine folk singer Mercedes Sosa and two-time Academy Award-winning composer Gustavo Santoalalla – who wrote the original score for ‘Brokeback Mountain’ – performed for the crowd of some 10 000.Nampa-APDuring her hour-long inaugural speech, Fernandez’s voice rose in anger as she demanded that dozens of slow-moving court investigations of human rights abuses of the 1976-83 dictatorship be speeded up.”I expect that in the four years of my term, trials that have been delayed more than 30 years will be concluded.We must try to punish those who were responsible for the greatest genocide” in modern Argentine history, Fernandez, 54, told a packed Congress after taking up the blue-and-white sash from Kirchner, who gingerly adjusted it on her shoulders.Nearly 13 000 people are officially listed as missing or dead under a ‘dirty war’ crackdown on dissent by past military governments.Activists estimate nearly double that number died.Fernandez, who has been compared to US Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton as a powerful ex-first lady seeking the presidency, embarks on a four-year term whose main challenge will be to prolong an economic recovery that has seen annual growth rates above 8 per cent in recent years.”I believe we have regained our balance,” Fernandez said, recalling how her husband took office in May 2003 amid a debt default and a searing devaluation that was Argentina’s worst economic crisis in history.”In four and a half years this president – together with all Argentines – was able to change the scenario we were facing.”As several South American presidents looked on, she vowed to strengthen Argentina’s oft-criticised justice system, overhaul a poorly funded system of public schools and tackle rampant crime and a looming energy crisis.Fernandez later swore in her cabinet, most holdovers from Kirchner’s rule save a youthful, untested new economy minister, as a festive mood swept the capital.Flanked by Kirchner and their two children, she ascended a stage outside the pink Government House, waving and blowing kisses to cheering supporters as confetti flew.Argentine folk singer Mercedes Sosa and two-time Academy Award-winning composer Gustavo Santoalalla – who wrote the original score for ‘Brokeback Mountain’ – performed for the crowd of some 10 000.Nampa-AP

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