Across the region the Argentine primary election on August 11, 2013 (in which voter turnout topped 75%) was seen as a defeat for the forces loyal to President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.  Though she went all out to support her hand-picked candidates, and even finagled photo opts with the Pope in Brazil, her Front for

Pope Francis, formally cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, was born in Buenos Aires to Italian immigrant parents.  As the first Latin American pontiff, and indeed the first non European Pope, he has become the focus of intense interest in the region, home to 42% of the world’s Catholics.  He traveled to Brazil for his