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In Argentine Election, a Peronist Is Trying to Deliver a Knockout Punch
Wall Street Journal
June 26, 2009

By MATT MOFFETT

Boxer Marcela Acu a Throws Hat in the Ring; If She Wins, She'll Hang Up the Gloves

TRES DE FEBRERO, Argentina -- Like many women in Argentine politics, Marcela Acu a draws inspiration from Eva Peron. "She faced obstacles and she wasn't accepted by everybody," says Ms. Acu a. "But she never stopped caring about the common people and never stopped fighting."

Of course, Evita never had a right cross like that of Ms. Acu a. The reigning women's junior featherweight boxing champion, she is better known as la Tigresa, the Tigress. After racking up a record of 32 wins -- 16 by knockout -- against just five losses, Ms. Acu a is now crossing over into the political arena, running on the ticket for the governing Peronist party in Sunday's midterm election.

President Cristina Kirchner, a leftist who recently nationalized pension funds and an airline, is seeking a mandate to extend the state's economic reach. But with a weak economy and tumbling presidential approval ratings, the candidacy of the Peronist pugilist appears to be part of a controversial strategy by Mrs. Kirchner to give her party some extra punch at the ballot box.

Indeed, some of the party's candidates may or may not actually intend to occupy the offices they are seeking. In midterm elections, Argentines vote for party lists rather than individual candidates. A party's overall proportion of the vote determines how many of the candidates on its list are seated. Ms. Acu a is the fourth name on the Peronist list for city council in Tres de Febrero, a gritty Buenos Aires suburb with a population of about 350,000.

The Peronist list of federal congressional candidates includes Mrs. Kirchner's husband and predecessor, N stor; Nacha Guevara, an Argentine actress who has played Evita in the theater; Daniel Scioli, the governor of Buenos Aires Province; and a number of well-known mayors.

Argentines refer to these as "testimonial candidates," whose presence on the ballot is designed to lure voters but who would likely cede the office to candidates lower on the list rather than assume it themselves. Many Argentines say that amounts to a bait and switch, though courts have upheld its legality.

Extra Punch at the Ballot Box

Ms. Acu a, whose grandfather was a provincial Peronist leader, says she is serious about politics and means to retire from the ring and take a seat on the council if elected. "Argentines have a defect of criticizing before the facts play out," says Ms. Acu a, a 32-year old mother of two who is married to her trainer. She says that women must always contend with naysayers, like those who once fought to keep Evita from being the running mate of her husband, Juan Peron.

Some opposition parties are also running novelty candidates, including a comedian and a roller-skating champion, albeit fewer than the Kirchners. Ads for one Tres de Febrero council candidate in a dissident Peronist faction show him dressed in tights and a cape like Superman.

"It's tragicomic," says Elina Rossi, a Tres de Febrero councilwoman for the Civic Coalition, a minority center-left party with a good-government platform. Ms. Rossi says that as a practical matter, it doesn't matter whom the Peronists have on the council, because the man calling the shots is Mayor Hugo Curto, who has governed the city since 1991. "If el jefe (the chief) says to vote yes, it's done," she says, jerking up her right arm up as if it were attached to a spring.

Mr. Curto, a longtime union activist, is Ms. Acu a's political mentor. He is also a boxing fanatic who once showed up at ringside to see her fight, just days after he underwent heart surgery, with a medical-care entourage in tow.

Though she wears trunks emblazoned with Mr. Curto's name while working out at the municipal boxing gym, Ms. Acu a says she isn't subservient to any man. "I created a new path in Argentina," says Ms. Acu a, who is 5 feet 4 and weighs 125 pounds. A mural of La Tigresa occupies the gym wall, along with those of Argentine fighting legends. Among them is as Carlos Monz n, the former middleweight champion convicted of murdering a model by throwing her off a balcony. And there is Oscar "Ringo" Bonavena, who was knocked out by Muhammad Ali in the 15th round in 1970. He was shot dead in 1976 at the Mustang Ranch brothel near Reno, Nev.

Ms. Acu a's mother always wanted her to be a dancer, but she was drawn to martial arts, earning a black belt at age 12. She took up boxing after seeing the pioneering U.S. female fighter Christy Martin on TV.

"There was so much machismo," she says. "In the gym, they'd say, 'Why don't you come and wash the dishes?' " Her male sparring partners, she says, tended to be divided between the gentlemanly, overly reluctant to mix it up with a woman, and the sadistic, eager to beat her into submission.

Ms. Acu a lost her first fight, which took place in Florida in 1997 against her idol, Ms. Martin. But she went the full 10 rounds.

It took Ms. Acu a several years to get a license to fight in Argentina, but her intensity soon won her a following. In 2002, Patricia Quirico, Argentina's self-styled "Lioness," mocked Ms. Acu a's toughness before a fight. Incensed, Ms. Acu a vowed she would "eat her raw," according to the Women Boxing Archive Network Web site. The Tigress knocked out the Lioness with a thundering right 14 seconds into the first round.

In December, about 10,000 fans filled Luna Park Stadium in Buenos Aires to see Ms. Acu a win a unanimous 10-round decision over a previously undefeated Argentine challenger, Alejandra "the Locomotive" Oliveras.

As her fame grew in recent years, Ms. Acu a took part in sporting and antidrug seminars under the auspices of the Kirchners. In May, Mayor Curto asked Ms. Acu a to run on the Tres de Febrero council list, headed by his wife.

Ms. Acu a credits Mr. Kirchner, who is heading the congressional ticket, with rescuing Argentina from an economic collapse in 2001-2002 that prompted street riots so violent that even La Tigresa wouldn't go outdoors. "He led us out of hell," Ms. Acu a says.

Last week, Ms. Acu a, looking stylish in a long dark coat, went politicking at an asado, or barbecue, with about 150 Peronists in a working-class barrio. Mayor Curto and other party notables turned out, but la Tigresa got by far the biggest ovation.

Sitting alongside Ms. Acu a and in front of posters of Juan and Evita Peron, Mr. Curto said la Tigresa's success stemmed from training in the municipal gym, proof that the state has an important role to play in daily life. The opposition, he said, "wants to privatize everything." The mayor scoffed at critics of testimonial candidates as people putting "a stick in the wheel...trying to confuse people."

After Mr. Curto's 30-minute populist stemwinder, and a rousing singing of the Peronist anthem, the duo departed. La Tigresa didn't speak.

Write to Matt Moffett at matthew.moffett@wsj.com

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