Today, October 31, 2010, Brazil celebrates the election of its first female president, socialist Dilma Rousseff, while Argentina continues to mourn with its female president, socialist Christina Fernandez, the sudden death of her husband of 35 years, former Argentine president, the socialist Nestor Kirchner. Latin America is a great place for women these days, machismo and capitalism no longer rule!
Here in Venezuela, where I live, the socialist Chavez government has many women in its highest positions: the speaker of the National Assembly and vice-president of the ruling PSUV party, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the chief of the National Electoral Council, and in many, many other power jobs at all levels of government and politics.
Women are a major force in this Bolivarian socialist movement, if not its backbone, and their voices have had a real impact on the lives of millions of Venezuelan women. Besides labor laws which benefit women and children, such as guaranteed paid maternity leave, women here have a Constitutional right to a life free of discrimination.