During a recent trip to the province of Tierra del Fuego located in Southern Argentina, the wife of Argentinean President Nestor Kirchner, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, received a couple of paintings with the images of Juan and Evita Peron.

In many other Latin American countries, this would be a matter of protocol — a First Lady engaging in public relations. But in this case, the scene was charged with political meaning. Mrs. Kirchner is the presidential candidate for the Front for Victory party. Her campaign officially kicked off on July 19, 2007. Now, she is topping the polls. Mrs. Kirchner’s party is Peronist, which means that she shares a penchant for the populist state-oriented policies espoused by Juan Domingo Peron in the past. Many pundits have compared Mrs. Kirchner’s glamorous style and her appeal to the downtrodden with Evita Peron’s outstanding charisma among Argentina’s underdogs. What’s more, Mrs. Kirchner knows how to manipulate the mythological symbols of the populist left — her Web site’s soundtrack, “La cancion es urgente,” is a poignant revolutionary song by a leftist icon singer, Mercedes Sosa.

Indeed, Mrs. Kirchner can be seen as a modern version of Mrs. Peron. She is a shrewd and accomplished politician in her own right. Over the course of an impressive political career, Mrs. Kirchner has been a provincial representative, congresswomen, and senator. That is why she also is seen as the embodiment of Hillary Clinton — and possibly, trouble for Argentina.

Cristina Kirchner is following the footsteps of other powerful women, who have recently run presidential campaigns, such as Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Segolene Royal in France, and Angela Merkel in Germany. But none of these women could count on the collaboration of a powerful husband.

Mrs. Kirchner and her husband, Nestor Kirchner, are perhaps the most Machiavellian couple since the Clintons. The influence of Mrs. Kirchner on presidential affairs conjures the story of Lady Macbeth, the Shakespearean character who manipulated her husband into killing the king and thus rising to the throne himself. What is happening in “La Casa Rosada,” the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, is clearly unprecedented.

In a move that ancient dynasties would have envied, the Argentinean president has stepped aside to support his wife even though he is allowed to run for the presidency. According to the constitution, a president can only serve two terms in office. Unlike America, however, the two terms do not need to be consecutive. The Kirchners are skillfully playing a game that might sustain their power for 16 years. In theory each of the Kirchners can hold presidential office for eight years.

Mrs. Kirchner was born on February 19, 1953 in La Plata, a province of Buenos Aires. Like Mrs. Clinton, Mrs. Kirchner studied law and met her husband while in college. Together they went on to set up a law office. She then joined the radical left wing of the Justicialist Party, the largest component of the Peronist Movement in the 1970s.

Her speech was abrasive and intended to polarize rather than to unite. Upon learning about her rhetorical skills, Carlos Menem decided to recruit her in the 1980s to be a spokeswoman of Peronismo, a mass movement begun by Juan Peron.

Should she become president, it is unclear what political engagements and diplomatic attitudes she will take. Her incendiary populist style is akin to that of Hugo Chavez’s. Unlike her husband, who is an inward-looking politician, Cristina Kirchner enjoys traveling abroad and has an internationalist outlook.

Mrs. Kirchner will not likely face powerful opponents. The presidential candidates who might pose a threat to her are Roberto Lavagna and Elisa Carrio. Mr. Lavagna has been credited as the architect of the economic recovery that put an end to one of the most terrible financial crises in the modern history of the country. He worked for the Kirchner presidency but was ousted amidst a wave of a political scandal. Having formed his party Una Nacion Avanzada, or UNA, he still has a lot of work ahead of him if he wants to challenge Mrs. Kirchner.

A veteran of the fights against the last military dictatorship, Elisa Carrio from Republic of Equals, who has worked for former Presidents Alfonsin and de la Rua, is running on an anti-corruption campaign. She is trailing the other two candidates and her chances of winning are slim.

The presidential elections will take place on October 28, 2007 in a country that is facing political and economic challenges. Although Argentina’s economy has grown at an annual average rate of 9%, the country is nevertheless undergoing huge financial problems. Inflation is rising and economic growth is decreasing. Moreover, President Kirchner’s populist energy policy, whose main trait is the freezing of prices, has discouraged investments in the sector, thus spurring a wave of shortages and blackouts that have swept over the Argentinean economy over the last months.

The Argentinean couple have been playing Mr. Chavez’s game by signing economic accords with him, including the founding of the Bank of South, which is supposed to be an alternative to the financial institutions in the Western Hemisphere. Mr. Chavez has also bought about $3 million worth of bonds from Argentina between 2005 and 2006, thus helping the Argentinean government to restructure its debt. All of which has increased to a certain extent Argentina’s economic dependency on Venezuela. The next president will have to decide whether to side with Mr. Chavez or to move to a more responsible footing.

During President Bush’s last trip to the region Nestor Kirchner and his wife served as hosts of Mr. Chavez when the Venezuelan president was headlining a rally to counteract Bush’s trip. The gesture was an act of hostility toward America. The Bush administration would be wise to keep one eye open and pay attention to the Kirchners and Argentina.

Mr. Jaramillo is a Mexican journalist based in Washington, D.C.