Sandra Torres de Colóm, first lady of Guatemala, with students last year at a “Women in Politics” conference at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.
again—and nothing ever changes in terms of development and improvement of their living conditions. Now, the first lady—the person most intimately connected to the coun- try’s most powerful figure—has come not to ask for the woman’s vote or to make empty promises, but simply to listen to her talk about her needs. In sum, being a first lady in Latin America is a bit like being on a permanent cam- paign. Is it any wonder that a first lady who plays a major role in social causes, such as Margarita Cedeño de Fernan- dez in the Dominican Republic, polls well when people are asked who should be the country’s next leader? Or that Sandra Torres de Colóm in Guatemala, who announced last month that she would run to succeed her husband as president in this September’s election, is beloved by people who live in small rural towns outside the capital city? (Be- fore they get to vote for her, however, Torres will have to grapple with a constitutional ban on close relatives of a president running to succeed him.) In general, first ladies develop an emotional link with the common citizen that is similar to the one that candidates develop with voters. The difference is that while voters fol- low candidates based on three types of feelings—hope, anger, and fear—in the case of a first lady, the bond is all about charisma. There are, of course, charismatic male leaders, but first ladies inspire affection more easily than their husbands do. This influence and popularity constitutes what I would call “pink power,” and frequently when a first lady attains a significant level of public approval, her husband tries to take advantage of her positive image to increase his own popular-
ity. Take for example Enrique Peña Nieto, the front-runner in Mexico’s 2012 presidential election, who has capitalized on the popularity of his wife, Angelica Rivera, a well-known and widely admired soap opera actress nicknamed “la gavi- ota” (the seagull). In fact, the couple’s relationship started in 2008 after Peña Nieto, the governor of Estado de Mexico, hired Rivera to star in commercials advertising his claim to have delivered on hundreds of campaign promises. After the
Being a first lady in Latin America is a bit like being on a permanent campaign.
two were established as a couple, they began to be covered by show business news and magazines, helping to increase Peña Nieto’s national popularity and name recognition, par- ticularly among female soap opera fans who don’t usually follow politics. “His popularity is being reinforced thanks to the affection that people feel for her,” says Juan Carlos Limon, Peña Nieto’s publicist. “Looking forward to the elec- tion of 2012, it seems that they will be the most charismatic couple in the presidential race.” Well-known Latin American first ladies have to walk a
very fine line, though. If they become politically active to the point of making their political aspirations public, they
June 2011 | Campaigns & Elections 37
Jessica McConnell Burt
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