Viva Women Leaders!

Twin triumphs for women in politics.... two women coming to power today in two different countries after getting elected to lead their countries..

Historic win for Michelle Bachelet, elected as Chile's first woman President.

and

in Liberia, the first ever Woman president of Africa, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, gets sworn in today, (with Condi & Laura Bush at the inauguration showing support for 'Girl Power' :))

Bachelet's win is historic given the context that "Chilean society is often portrayed as ultra-conservative, dominated by men and the Roman Catholic Church. Only 4% of senators are women and divorce was only introduced last year.'

...writes Red, ... 'In a deeply Catholic conservative nation where politics is dominated by machismo (rememeber Pinochet), Bachelet is a divorced single mother , who publicly declares herself to be an atheist and was previously tortured by the Pinochet regime. Bachelet returned after the fall of Pinochet and was made Ministers for Defence and Health, irnoically placing her in charge of the same army that once tortured her.'

After giving an update on the Bolivian elections, (where 'For the first time in Bolivia a candidate has won the absolute majority of the votes. Evo Morales, a Quechaha Indian and high-school dropout who herded llamas as a boy,leads the Movement to Socialism, counts Chavez and Castro as his buddies and calls himself Washington's worst nightmare. He is the first indigenous President in Bolivia.'), Red concludes, 'Latin Americans now live in interesting times'.

Indeed...12 of the region's countries prepare for presidential elections between November 2005 and the end of 2006. And with socialists and supporters of Chavez & Castro winning many of these elections, the next few years are going to be interesting, to say the least... dealing with Iran, Iraq, and Korea (the self-labelled 'axis of evil') is going to keep the US really entrenched.. but the Bush administration is definitely going to sigh that 'Democracy can be so inconvenient'. The question in my mind is whether history will repeat itself? Will we see a number of military coups that put in place puppet regimes? Hope not...