New Argentine chief vows to 'turn page in history'

boston.com, By Reed Lindsay, Globe Correspondent, 5/17/2003

BUENOS AIRES -- No political leader in Latin America more openly embraced the 1990s market-oriented policies promoted by the International Monetary Fund and the US government than former Argentine president Carlos Sal Menem.

Menem ended his latest quest for the presidency Wednesday when he bowed out of a runoff election rather than face a potentially humiliating defeat at the hands of fellow Peronist Nstor Kirchner.

The former president's early exit seems to mark the end of an era of economic liberalization in Argentina, and is the latest indication of rising anti-US sentiment and shifting political winds in the region, which include the electoral triumphs of left-leaning presidents in Brazil, Ecuador, and Venezuela.

Kirchner, who will assume office May 25, has vowed to pull Argentina out of one of the worst crises in its history by replacing a ''model of economic concentration and financial sectors'' with a large-scale public works program, subsidies for small- and medium-size companies, and increased social welfare.

''This new model means taking a stronger position towards the IMF, going against the thinking that the market will solve everything,'' said Torcuato Di Tella, a political analyst who endorsed Kirchner's candidacy.

Before a meeting earlier this month with President Luiz Incio ''Lula'' da Silva of Brazil, Kirchner told reporters that his foreign policy would make ties with Brazil and the rest of Latin America a priority, at the expense of relations that Menem had cultivated with Washington.

Kirchner also has expressed his opposition to the US-led war against Iraq, which was hugely unpopular in Argentina, while praising outgoing President Eduardo Duhalde's decision to abstain from voting on a US-backed resolution in the United Nations to condemn Cuba for human rights violations.

''I haven't come this far to make pacts with the past, or for this to all end in an agreement among the elite,'' said Kirchner, 53, at a news conference Wednesday. ''I'm not going to fall prey to the corporations.

''Argentines can be certain that the person speaking to them is determined to turn a page in history.''

Governor for 11 years of the vast, sparsely populated Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Kirchner has won praise for running an efficient administration that has stayed debt-free.

But opposition forces accuse him of keeping a tight grip on power through an ingrained political patronage system.

As president, Kirchner will face a $130 billion debt, an entrenched political elite riven by factional disputes, unprecedented levels of unemployment and poverty, growing social movements that have become increasingly combative, and a crisis-weary public skeptical of its leaders and institutions.

To make matters worse, Kirchner will assume office after obtaining only 22 percent of the vote in the first-round April 27 election, two points fewer than Menem received and a record low for an elected president in Argentina.

Pollsters say Kirchner would have walloped Menem by more than 40 points, not so much because of overwhelming enthusiasm for his candidacy, but because of a generalized hatred of the former president, who is widely blamed for driving the nation into financial ruin.

''Hopefully, for everybody's sake, things will change,'' said Amrico Escobar as he leaned on an oversize shopping cart stacked with cardboard and parked on a Buenos Aires curbside. ''I'm 53, and look at the job I have. There is no work anywhere.''

Escobar and his 20-year-old son, Mario, are among thousands of jobless Argentines who have become self-employed trash scavengers in recent years. Escobar voted for Kirchner, whom he ''preferred a thousand times more than Menem,'' but he said his expectations of change are low: ''I'll believe it when I see it. They promise and promise and promise, but they never do anything, except steal like crazy.''

Kirchner's plans to spur growth through increased government spending and subsidies will be conditioned by the tight fiscal straits he will inherit as president. While the economy has showed signs of rebounding in recent months, the outgoing Duhalde administration has left unresolved several potentially explosive financial issues, especially Argentina's ever-rising external debt, which will involve striking a new deal with the IMF after a temporary eight-month agreement ends in August.

Like Brazil's leader, Kirchner has tempered nationalist and leftist rhetoric with assurances to international investors and creditors, including the announcement that current Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna, who negotiated the last agreement with the IMF, will continue in his post.

''Kirchner's not a leftist,'' said Anala Del Franco, an analyst based in Buenos Aires. ''He isn't bringing a revolution. This is going to be a government of transition, which will be more nationalist than anything.''