Beverley Anderson-Manley
"WHO WOULD have thought, just five years ago that Chile would have a woman president?"
So declared Michelle Batchelet after she won the presidency in Chile. Who would have thought indeed!
Batchelet made a six-hour visit to Jamaica 10 days ago, on her way to Haiti. Her decision to come to Jamaica to meet Portia Simpson Miller would have, no doubt, been made largely on the fact that she wanted to show solidarity for her sister Prime Minister in Jamaica.
Importantly too, as a young activist under the Allende regime, Bathelet would be aware of the support for Allende by the Michael Manley administration during the early 1970s at the height of the Cold War - at a time when it took courage to give that support.
When these two leaders met they would have had much to share - as women unlikely to be leaders of their respective countries.
TORTURE AND IMPRISONMENT
Chile, portrayed as an ultra-conservative, male-dominated, overwhelmingly Roman Catholic society only legalised divorce four years ago, yet there is a woman president.
But it doesn't stop there. The fourth president of Chile, 54-year old, Michelle Batchelet is breaking down several other barriers.
She is a single parent of three daughters. A medical doctor, she was a victim of torture and imprisonment under the United States-backed 1973 coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power.
Her mother was tortured. Her father - an air force general - was also tortured and died in prison. In addition, this new President of Chile is a socialist.
Her early socialisation was within a household that was led by parents who were staunch supporters of Salvador Allende, who as President of Chile, wanted to build a society based on justice and equality.
Her experiences before, during and after the U.S.-backed coup that overthrew the Allende regime and ended in his assassination, enhanced her understanding of what happens when a small country like Chile asserts its rights.
Copper is to Chile what bauxite is to Jamaica. Allende used to say that he wanted fair prices for Chilean copper that could allow every child in Chile to have at least one glass of milk per day.
He was so committed to this struggle that he declared that his enemies would have to take him 'feet first' from the Presidential Palace. They did.
A NEW PARADIGM?
Today in a Chile that is described as the economic miracle of Latin America and where the economy is believed to have expanded by more than five per cent in 2005, Batchelet carries on that struggle - "We have to make sure that everybody in this country will have the benefits of this growth."
Simpson Miller is anxious to not only have a balanced budget but to simultaneously "balance peoples' lives."
Societies all over the world are reaching out to women to lead them. In a uni-polar world of neo-Liberalism - where accounting figures are more significant than human beings - part of this reaching out is perhaps a yearning for persons who are perceived, because of their traditional roles and responsibilities in society to be caring and warm.
It is felt that these persons begin with what is in their hearts, then that determines how they use their intellectual capacity to act.
THE NEW LEFT
In Latin America, there is another interesting situation arising that the literature is finding challenging to characterise.
This is the emergence of leaders like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia. There are similar leaders in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.
They are sometimes called populist and at other times leftist. But whatever the characterisation, there is no doubt that they are 'shaking up the system' and that they are not willing to accept the neo-liberal consensus without a struggle.
For Batchelet, a victim of hate, she has consecrated her life to "turning hate into understanding tolerance' and - why not say it - love.
We wait to see how successful these leaders will be.
Beverley Anderson-Manley is a political scientist, transformation coach and gender specialist. email: BManley@kasnet.com.
