La Presidente vs. La gente

 Last Tuesday I wrote about the huge demonstrations leading up to a congressional vote on Wednesday. All day on Wednesday los Senadores sat in session.  When I checked, somewhere around 7:30 pm, they'd been sitting around for 9 hours, many abstaining, leaving a 36-35 vote in favor of the Peronists, with one fellow left over deliberating, being lobbied on all sides. When he cast his vote, it lent its weight to the farmers, leaving the senate tied, locked 36-36 and the vice president having to break it. People were sitting around televisions everywhere we could find one, it was like the Superbowl was on. Every shop we passed, every cafe, even the TV in our lounge attracted everyone wandering the hotel. I didn't know how it turned out until Thursday morning when we attacked Pablo for the answer. It's really fun how even though our class is about music, we spend half our time talking about Argentine politics and history, catching up on the news every morning before settling into our routine of lecture, discussing our readings while waiting for Youtube videos to load, listening to tons of music and then discussing it.

The economist finally picked up on the vote and the chaos down here. I'd been waiting for a while, but I finally found the article.

Here's one from the Chronicle as well

It's really nice to see democracy functioning so clearly in a country that hasn't actually had a democratic government in years and is faced with a dynasty of presidential power. The judiciary, while packed with Peronists by the previous president, struck down the taxes and tariffs in spite of political affiliation. The legislature now has power, instead of being controlled by funding from the executive branch. Democracy is coming back, the authoritarian executive branch is being neutered and everyone is participating, watching it happen, and doing so with more passion than I've ever seen in my own country.