Of course, we are talking about former President Nestor Kirchner who was followed by his wife, the current President Cristina Fernandez.
According to Andres Oppenheimer, "the cult of personality" is alive and well in Latin America:
"In Venezuela, where the late President Hugo Chávez started the latest cycle of personality cult in the region, President Nicolás Maduro is distributing millions of school textbooks glorifying Chávez and himself.
The Maduro government is supplying schools with an Illustrated Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which carries among others illustrations a smiling, handsome-looking Chávez playing with children under the headline “Supreme Happiness.”
Another illustration shows a God-like Chávez watching from the sky, while an imposing Maduro, wearing a presidential sash with the country's national colors, raises his hand in triumph. The headline of the illustration reads “Democracy.”
In Ecuador, President Rafael Correa, whose party is now seeking to change the constitution to allow for his indefinite reelection, is not only censoring press criticism but demanding that newspapers say nice things about him.
Earlier this month, Ecuador's government Information and Communication Office started legal procedures against the dailies El Universo, El Comercio and Hoy for failing to report about Correa's recent trip to receive an honorary degree in Chile. Correa himself had denounced in a May 17 speech the lack of press coverage of his trip to Chile and asked his supporters to take legal actions against the newspapers, according to Ecuador's Fundamedios press freedom advocacy group.
In Bolivia, President Evo Morales recently presented a children's book entitled Little Evo's Adventures, glorifying his childhood.
The book, written by former top presidential aide Alejandra Claros Borda, includes five short stories — including Little Evo Goes to School, Little Evo Plays Soccer and Little Evo and the Three-Color Donkey— and has been partially distributed to schoolchildren by Bolivia's Ministry of Communications.
In Argentina, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has named so many streets, bridges and buildings after her late husband, former President Néstor Kirchner, that daily Clarin journalist Leonardo Mindez has created a blog named “Put Néstor's name to everything.”
The blog includes nearly 100 public works that carry the late president's name, including the country's Atucha II nuclear plant, which has just been renamed — you guessed it — “President Néstor Kirchner.” In addition, the government has spent more on pro-Kirchner propaganda during soccer games on TV than on health or education, critics say."
This is insane and it's time to stop it. It's one thing to name an airport after a former president, JFK in NY City, or an expressway, like Bush in Dallas. It's quite another to engage in this kind of self promotion. It hurts "the rule of law"!
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