ARGENTINA:Argentinian president Nestor Kirchner is facing the biggest crisis of his four-year presidency just as he decides whether to seek re-election in October or back the prospective candidacy of his wife, a prominent senator.
A scandal centring on a natural gas pipeline project prompted the president to fire two aides in May, while a third resigned and the government assumed direct control of Enargas, a state energy regulatory body.
Meanwhile, a virtual rebellion arising from a teachers' strike in Mr Kirchner's home province has shaken the president's rural base and forced the departure of the governor, a Kirchner ally. Angry protesters in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz tossed eggs and flour at the president's sister, Alicia Kirchner, who is the minister of social development.
In Buenos Aires, a riot in a major commuter station has underscored citizen discontent, and the president's preferred candidate finished a distant second in mayoral balloting last weekend.
Still, analysts say a Kirchner - either the incumbent or his wife, Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner - remains a hot favourite to triumph in presidential elections on October 28th.
A divided opposition appears incapable of overcoming the popularity that Mr Kirchner has won for his role in steering the country out of the economic collapse of 2001-2002, which has been followed by four years of brisk growth.
"They'll win the election despite everything that has been happening," said Jorge Lanata, a prominent journalist and author. "First, because the economy is better. And, secondly, because things don't change in a few months or a year. This is a long process."
Nonetheless, observers say the bad news has battered the president's preferred image as a pugnacious, clean-hands nationalist who restored the nation's financial and political stability.
Since assuming the presidency with just 22 per cent of the vote, Mr Kirchner has consolidated power in his party and launched populist broadsides at foreign corporations and the International Monetary Fund.
He has bullied companies into price controls, battled with cattlemen to keep beef prices low, and pressed human-rights cases against members of former military juntas.
In the Buenos Aires mayoral race Mr Kirchner has backed his own hopeful, minister for education Daniel Filmus.
But Mr Filmus finished far behind Mauricio Macri, a Kirchner rival and centre-right businessman who is president of the Boca Juniors soccer club. Mr Macri is a heavy favourite to win the Buenos Aires mayoral run-off vote on June 24th.