Jagan, Janet Rosenberg

▪ 1999

      When she was sworn in on Dec. 19, 1997, American-born Janet Jagan made history on two fronts—becoming the first elected female president in South America and the first white president of Guyana. Jagan had been elected December 15 in a bitterly fought campaign to succeed her husband, Cheddi Jagan, as Guyana's president after his death in March 1997. Following the election, hundreds demonstrated in the capital city of Georgetown, charging Jagan with fraud and an inability to lead the country on the grounds that she was not a natural-born citizen and was too old. Less than a week after her inauguration, police defused two bombs found near Jagan's official residence.

      Jagan was born Oct. 20, 1920, in Chicago into a middle-class Jewish family. In 1942, while working as a student nurse, she met Cheddi Jagan in Chicago, where he was studying dentistry. The following year they were married and returned to Georgetown in what was then the colony of British Guiana, where he set up a dental practice. By 1950 they had both become active in politics, and during that year they joined with Linden Forbes Burnham to found the People's Progressive Party (PPP), with a goal of gaining independence for the colony (which it achieved in 1966). In 1953 the colony was granted home rule, and Cheddi Jagan became its first prime minister. He subsequently headed governments from 1957 to 1964, and during that time Janet Jagan held several Cabinet posts and served in the parliament.

      Having been stripped of her U.S. citizenship more than 20 years earlier because of her Marxist political views, Jagan in 1966 officially became a citizen of Guyana. In addition to her government positions, she served as the PPP's secretary general for nearly 20 years. Hesitant at first to run for the presidency, Jagan accepted her party's nomination on Aug. 31, 1997, in order to carry forward her late husband's agenda. Her main opposition came from People's National Congress leader Desmond Hoyte, who had been defeated in 1992 by Cheddi Jagan. Throughout the 1997 campaign Janet Jagan's ethnicity and age were constantly an issue. After the election Hoyte's supporters demanded a recount and protested so vehemently that, in an effort to quell the unrest, Jagan and Hoyte reached an agreement on Jan. 17, 1998, to hold new elections in 2000, two years earlier than required. Furthermore, reforms would be made to the constitution that would achieve more balanced power between the nation's two main ethnic groups: blacks and those of Asian Indian descent. Continuing political protests and violent demonstrations pushed Jagan and Hoyte to sign another agreement in July. In her inaugural address Jagan stated, "I intend to be a president of all the people." It remained to be seen whether all of the people would allow her to do so.

ANTHONY L. GREEN

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