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 Editorials | At Issue | January 2006 
Women Making History as Prez
 Prensa Latina
| | US President George W. Bush congratulated Chile's new president, Michelle Bachelet, seen here on 17 January, and said he hoped to build on the "strong friendship" uniting both countries, the White House said.(AFP/Luis Sergio) | 
| | Newly installed Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf looks on during a visit by traditional leaders at the Executive Mansion in Monrovia January 17, 2006. Johnson-Sirleaf has urged nearly 200,000 compatriots scattered across West Africa to return home and rebuild their lives and shattered country. (Reuters/Thierry Gouegnon) |
Michelle Bachelet on Sunday and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf on Monday made history in two different continents: The former was elected as Chile´s and Latin America´s first woman president-elect and the latter was inaugurated as Liberia´s and Africa´s first female Head of State.
Their victories sparked enthusiastic joy among their supporters that gleefully celebrated their victories and won praises from public figures in their respective countries and abroad.
The two have a tough road ahead in dealing with their nations issues and problems:
Bachelet, 54, a doctor and former health and defense minister, called for the whole of Chile´s population to work together to tackle the growing gap between rich and poor, rising crime and unemployment and improve the health and pension systems in need of reform.
She beat billionaire Sebastian Pinera, the candidate from the rightwing and conservative sector, by a clear margin of 53.51 percent to 46 percent of the vote in the Sunday polling in which the turnout exceeded 97 percent.
The victorious candidate also has to deal with a very sensitive issue to all Chileans, the wounds many still suffer from 17 years of cruel dictatorship, in which General Augusto Pinochet´s military rule killed thousands and detained and forced to exile many thousands more.
She herself is the daughter of an Air Force commander who was tortured and later died in prison in the wake of the bloody coup of 1973. She and her mother were also detained and forced to exile (Australia and then lived in Germany) until they were allowed to return.
"As I am a victim of hatred, I have devoted my life to changing that feeling into understanding... and why not, into love," she noted in her first speech as president-elect.
"With the strength of my family´s love and your support, I am taking the responsibility Chileans have entrusted to me, and I will work tirelessly for all Chileans, for our country," she promised to an euphoric crowd of thousands of supporters who carried banners of all colors in front of her headquarters at the San Francisco Square.
Other women in Latin America has played the leading role of head of state before, like Lidia Gueiler Tejada, who served as interim president of Bolivia following a coup, in 1979-80.
Also Isabel Martinez de Peron was sworn in as interim president of Argentina in 1974 when husband Juan Peron fell ill and died; she kept power until 1976; and Rosalia Arteaga briefly acted as president of Ecuador in 1997.
But none were elected in a national polling.
Johnson-Sirleaf, for her part, takes office as the first female elected official in Africa, and is Liberia´s first constitutional leader since the end of 14 years of bloody civil war in 2003.
The 67-year-old grandmother won 59 percent of the vote in the November´s run-off election, beating Liberian football star George Weah. The challenges which lie ahead as she begins her six-year term are great.
After a quarter of a century of war and misrule, Liberia´s road network is in ruins, there is no national telephone network, no national electricity grid and no piped water.
Johnson-Sirleaf has also pledged to fight widespread corruption and what many see as her biggest challenge: to reintegrate the 100,000 ex-combatants, including many former child soldiers, into civilian life.
She has vowed to restore hope to her country´s people and give its children back their youth and future.
"I am excited by the potential of what I represent... the aspirations and expectations of women in Liberia, African women and women all over the world," stressed the Unity Party leader. |
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