The Latin Hillary Clinton

By Tim Padgett

Viewed from washington, Latin American politics can sometimes seem like a throwback to an earlier age, as if the U.S. were watching a meeting of a Che Guevara fan club. Leftist, anti-Yanqui sentiments, thought to have faded with the 20th century, have made a comeback, embodied by leaders like Venezuela's radical Hugo Ch`avez, Brazil's former union boss Luiz In`acio Lula da Silva and Bolivia's socialist Evo Morales. Never mind coming to terms with these leaders--the U.S. finds it hard even to talk with them. An interpreter would be useful.

Cristina Fern`andez de Kirchner has the qualifications for the job. She is Argentina's glamorous and vivacious First Lady and is all but certain to be its next President. Feel free to make the inevitable comparison to the country's 20th century heroine, because Fern`andez, 54, enjoys being called the "new Evita." She certainly shares some of Eva Peron's passion and combativeness. But in truth, she more resembles a contemporary headliner: Hillary Clinton. Fern`andez, too, married her law-school sweetheart and helped him become the Governor of a small southern province and then President. And like her U.S. counterpart, Fern`andez is a senator who's making a run for the top job on her own record. One big difference: Fern`andez consistently records a 20-percentage-point lead in opinion polls. "And don't forget," she says with a lighthearted note of competitiveness, "that I was a senator before my husband became President."

What makes Fern`andez a potential intermediary between the U.S. and Latin America's neolefties is that she's fluent in both political tongues. She came on the scene in the 1980s, when democracy returned in the wake of Argentina's bloody, far-right military junta, and her speeches are peppered with terms dear to Ch`avez & Co., like "social justice" and "popular sovereignty." But she also uses expressions from Washington's vocabulary, like "fiscal responsibility" and "capitalistic rationality." And unlike Latin American leaders who accuse the U.S. of evil imperialist designs, she welcomes Washington's leadership in global affairs. "America has more than enough maturity and intelligence to start exercising its world leadership responsibly," she tells Time. But Fern`andez adds that Washington needs to recognize that leaders like Ch`avez, Lula and Morales are products of genuine democracy; unlike the dictators and elitists of Latin America's past, they come from the same ethnic, social and economic backgrounds as the majority of their countrymen. Morales, for example, is Bolivia's first President to hail from its indigenous people. "Perhaps for the first time in the region's history, those who govern actually look like those being governed," Fern`andez says.

That description could also fit Fern`andez and her husband Nestor Kirchner. Both cut their political teeth not amid the upper crust of Buenos Aires but in his home province of Santa Cruz, in the country's Patagonian south. When they moved to the capital, she was already a seasoned politician, known for anticorruption and human-rights crusades. Although she had greater name recognition with voters, the couple decided that Kirchner would run for President in 2003 because his greater familiarity with economic policy made him better suited to a country on the verge of bankruptcy. Smart call. Under Kirchner, Argentina has made a remarkable recovery, paying off its debt to the International Monetary Fund and posting four straight years of growth. The economy still needs care: inflation is rising, and the country still owes tens of billions of dollars to U.S. and European lenders. But now, the couple believe, the scene is set for Fern`andez to work her skills--not least her flair for international relations. While Kirchner seems to have little interest in foreign affairs, Fern`andez is keen to "reassert Argentina on the world stage."

Argentines had long speculated that Kirchner, 57, might not seek re-election and would let his wife run instead. Fern`andez says it was part of an effort "to set an example" of relinquishing power in a country that has seen too many leaders overstay their welcome at the presidential palace, the Casa Rosada (Pink House). Their critics see another motive. They believe husband and wife will rotate the presidency, thereby getting around the constitutional ban on holding more than two consecutive terms. By this logic, Kirchner will run again in 2011, then Fern`andez in 2015 and so on, like a couple alternating driving duty on a long road trip across the pampas. "Some fear they've simply concocted a new form of Latin caciquismo," or protracted chieftain rule, says Argentine political writer Sylvina Walger. Fern`andez denies any dynastic scheme. "I suggest you look at the U.S.," she says. "If Hillary Clinton wins the presidency next year, the country will be ruled by two families for a quarter-century."

That said, Fern`andez thinks a Hillary presidency, alongside that of Michelle Bachelet, who was elected President of Chile last year, and her own likely win, would change the nature of hemispheric affairs. "Women bring a different face to politics," says Fern`andez, who has a teenage daughter and a grown son. "We see the big geopolitical picture but also the smaller, daily details of citizens' lives. We're wrapped up as much in what our daughter's school principal says as we are in what the newspapers are saying." No interpretation needed there.

With reporting by With Reporting by Uki Goni / Buenos Aires