As recently as 2001, it was even more difficult to imagine Elisa Carrio as the next president of Argentina. But as the debt-saddled South American country lurches toward general elections tentatively scheduled for April, Carrio is vying for the top spot in the polls with the leading candidate of the ruling Peronist party. The constitutional-law professor’s one-woman crusade against corruption in government has struck a chord among millions of disenchanted voters, who ascribe many of Argentina’s economic ills to rampant pocket-lining by mainstream politicians. Carrio’s political ascent is all the more remarkable because the populist legislator refuses to accept any private donations to her campaign coffers. She heads a party with the improbable name of Alternative for a Republic of Equals (ARI) that has been around for less than two years. “We’re a proudly poor party,” says Carrio. “We have no money for polls, [yet] we are in first place [without] the benefit of advertisements.”
Some of Carrio’s critics question her presidential credentials, saying she has no administrative experience. Other enemies have latched on to her religious fervor–she attends mass daily and allowed a priest to pray in Congress last August–as evidence that she may not have a presidential temperament. Carrio shrugs off such carpings and insists she will always put her faith ahead of her career. “If the only thing they can say about me is that I speak with God, that’s great. I prefer not to become president if that requires me to deny or conceal my beliefs.” Regardless of how well she fares in the voting next year, Carrio has proved herself as a politician and a good-government watchdog. Corrupt officials, beware.
