From: Michael Hoover <hoov-AT-freenet.tlh.fl.us> Subject: M-FEM: 'Chiche' Woos Votes With Evita-Like Appeal to Poor Women (fwd) Date: Thu, 28 Aug 97 6:41:33 18000 Forwarded message: > Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 19:41:52 -0400 (EDT) > From: "Victor O. Story" <story-AT-kutztown.edu> > To: ATWS <thrdwrld-AT-sphinx.Gsu.EDU> > Subject: 'Chiche' Woos Votes With Evita-Like Appeal to Poor Women (fwd) > > Move over Madonna. A real-life Argentine is looking to take over > Evita's populist crown. > Hilda ``Chiche'' Duhalde's drive to become queen of the poor - > funded by her husband, a likely candidate for president in 1999 - has > opponents concerned about a rise of an old-style Peronism. > Eduardo Duhalde, governor of Buenos Aires Province, has given her > $80 million, which she has been using to create community projects, > wooing working-class mothers with milk and eggs and shortcuts to > health care. The money is part of Governor Duhalde's provincial > budget. Mrs. Duhalde's use of it is legal because her charity work is > supposedly independent of her campaign to win a seat in Congress. > The business community and middle class look on nervously. They > have grim memories of President Juan Domingo Peron being handed > unconditional power because the woman by his side showered workers > with motherly affection and gifts. ``Evita crystallized a moment when > the poor were happy,'' says sociologist Juan Carlos Partantiero at the > University of Buenos Aires. ``Duhalde wants to reincarnate that > Peronist period to take over from [President] Carlos Menem.'' > The opposition accuses Mrs. Duhalde of ``Evitismo'' - buying the > poor's votes for her husband using the same mobilizing tricks as Evita > did for Peron. But Mrs. Duhalde seems to welcome the comparison. She > fills sports stadiums with cheering women. Polls show that her > charity-oriented strategy is working. She leads her rival, Sen. > Graciela Fernandez Meijide, for a seat in the Congress by 4 percentage > points in the polls. > A victory in the country's electoral stronghold may not only secure > her husband's presidency in 1999, critics say, but return the country > to the peculiar populist-totalitarian government created by Peron and > Evita 50 years ago. > Like Evita, Duhalde's strategy is to gain popularity by attacking > the political establishment, then become a candidate herself, saying > the public clamors for it. ``Politicians lie,'' she said recently. > ``In Congress, nobody listens to each other and they sleep on the > benches.'' > Many of the women who receive help see Mrs. Duhalde as a savior. > Others know that it is a political ploy, but they say they will go > along with it. Voting is obligatory, they say, and if they have to > vote for someone, it might as well be someone who has helped, if only > with a few liters of milk. > While most of Mrs. Duhalde's critics come from the city, some > provincial residents are skeptical of the Duhaldes' tactics. ``We are > paying more taxes now than ever and look at the mess we live in,'' > says Pancho Perez, pointing to the mud roads, garbage, and wooden > shacks of La Matanza. ``Now elections are coming, they are starting to > pave the roads. People are grateful because they are ignorant and they > don't know that in a democracy, if you have paid high taxes, you > should have paved roads.'' > But the emotional pull of Peronism in the poor provincial zones is > still strong. ``There is just no way we can compete with Duhalde,'' > says an opposition spokesman. ``He has $600 million a year to spend. > They save it for Evita-style, vote-grabbing measures at the last > minute, and sadly it works.'' --
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