En la Argentina, un gobernador de EE.UU. engaña a su esposa
El mandatario de Carolina del Sur, Mark Sanford, que se había ausentado misteriosamente durante cinco días, volvió a su casa y confesó públicamente su affaire
WASHINGTON.- El extraño misterio de la desaparición durante cinco días del gobernador del estado norteamericano de Carolina del Sur, Mark Sanford, dio un giro más bizarro aún hoy cuando reapareció sorpresivamente admitiendo no sólo un “exótico” viaje secreto a Buenos Aires, sino que además mantuvo una relación extramatrimonial con una mujer argentina.
Un affaire que, más allá del escándalo mediático, podría tener graves consecuencias para la carrera política del republicano.
“Le he sido infiel a mi mujer. Inicié una relación con una muy, muy querida amiga de la Argentina”, reconoció Sanford en una rueda de prensa pocas horas después de reaparecer, tras pasar casi una semana sin dar señales de vida.
Sanford, cuyo nombre se barajaba como posible candidato presidencial por el Partido Republicano para 2012, había desaparecido el jueves de la semana pasada sin revelarle ni a su familia -mujer y cuatro hijos- que estaba de vacaciones, ni a sus colaboradores cercanos, a dónde se iba.
En la víspera, su esposa Jenna había asegurado a la prensa que no sabía “nada” de su marido desde entonces, mientras que el personal del gobernador, ante las crecientes críticas de políticos de su estado por la desinformación acerca del paradero del jefe regional, emitió un comunicado afirmando que Sanford estaba haciendo excursionismo en los Montes Apalaches.
Pero nada de eso era cierto. Un periodista local fue testigo de su llegada en la mañana de hoy al aeropuerto estadounidense de Atlanta en un vuelo procedente de la Argentina.
“Quería hacer algo exótico”, explicó Sanford al reportero del diario “The State”. Buenos Aires “es una ciudad fantástica”, agregó indicando que conocía la capital argentina de dos viajes anteriores.
Aventura lejana. Lo que no reveló al periodista es lo que diría públicamente unas horas más tarde ante unos medios que confesaron quedar atónitos: Que la “amistad” que comenzó de “manera inocente” ocho años antes con una mujer argentina pasó a “algo más” hace un año y que desde entonces ha mantenido una aventura extramatrimonial de la que su familia tenía conocimiento desde hace cinco meses.
“El perdón no es un proceso inmediato”, dijo Sanford. Sus palabras iban dirigidas a su mujer y sus cuatro hijos, ausentes de la rueda de prensa y para los que pidió “privacidad”. Pero el mensaje podría estar destinado también a las esferas políticas de su partido, que con Sanford ven sumarse un escándalo más en momentos de por sí más que bajos para la oposición estadounidense.
Otra infidelidad. Y es que la admisión de una aventura del gobernador por Carolina del Sur se produce apenas dos semanas después de que otro alto político republicano, el senador por Nevada John Ensign, admitiera también un affaire amoroso.
Como consecuencia, Ensign dimitió de su puesto como presidente del Comité de Políticas de su partido, el cuarto puesto más importante de la formación republicana en el Senado. Al igual que Sanford, Ensign era considerado un candidato potencial para las elecciones presidenciales de 2012.
El gobernador por Carolina del Sur anunció hoy su renuncia como presidente de la asociación de gobernadores del Partido Republicano. Sin embargo, no reveló si también dejará su puesto al frente de su estado ni si este “traspié” sentimental cortará su carrera política.
Pese a todo, no es ésta una situación de la que los demócratas de Barack Obama puedan sacar mucho jugo.
Y es que también ellos saben bastante de problemas sexuales en sus propias filas: el año pasado, un escándalo de prostitución acabó con una de sus figuras más promisorias, el gobernador por Nueva York Eliot Spitzer. Unos meses más tarde, poco después de renunciar a la carrera presidencial por los demócratas, el ex senador John Edwards también tuvo que admitir una relación extramatrimonial.
New York Times:
Gov. Sanford Admits Affair and Explains Disappearance
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Mark Sanford, the governor of South Carolina, said he had conducted an extra-marital affair with a woman in Argentina, ending a mystery over his week-long disappearance that had infuriated lawmakers and seemed to put his rising political career in jeopardy. He apologized for the affair and the deception surrounding his trip in a rambling, nationally televised news conference Wednesday afternoon.
Governor Sanford, 49, admitted that he had been in Buenos Aires since Thursday, not hiking on the Appalachian Trail as his staff had told reporters.
In revealing an affair that had gone on for about a year — and which he said he had disclosed to his wife, Jenny, five months ago — he said: “This was selfishness on my part.”
Mr. Sanford announced on Wednesday that as a result, he was resigning his position as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. The association soon after announced that Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour would become chairman.
Gov. Sanford’s second — and final — term leading the state of South Carolina ends in 2011.
Surrounded by more than 50 reporters, photographers, aides and spectators in the rotunda of the South Carolina statehouse, the governor spoke with a quiver in his voice and was visibly shaken, tearing up at times and rocking on his feet at the podium. It took him more than a few stumbling minutes to get to the crux of the matter.
“The bottom line is this,” he said. “I have been unfaithful to my wife.
“I developed a relationship with what started as a dear dear friend from Argentina,” Gov. Sanford said. “It began very innocently, as I suspect these things do, in just a casual e-mail back and forth. But here, recently, over this last year, developed into something much more than that. And as a consequence, I hurt her. I hurt you all, I hurt my wife. I hurt my boys. I hurt friends like Tom Davis. I hurt a lot of different folks.”
He pleaded with reporters not to pester his family: “I would ask for y’all’s indulgence, not for me, but for Jenny and the boys.”
Jenny Sanford, 46, was not in attendance at the news conference. She issued a statement later in the day saying that while she loves her husband, she asked him to leave the family two weeks ago in a trial separation.
“When I found out about my husband’s infidelity I worked immediately to first seek reconciliation through forgiveness, and then to work diligently to repair our marriage,” she said. “We reached a point where I felt it was important to look my sons in the eyes and maintain my dignity, self-respect, and my basic sense of right and wrong.” Because of the separation, she said, she did not know where he was in the last week.
In an interview with The State newspaper of Columbia, on Wednesday morning, Mr. Sanford said he had taken an unplanned trip to the South American country to recharge after a difficult legislative session in which he battled with lawmakers over accepting a portion of the federal stimulus funding.
He had considered hiking the trail, he said. “But I said, no, I wanted to do something exotic,” Mr. Sanford told The State. “It’s a great city.”
Only at the news conference did he reveal why he traveled there.
He said that he had seen this woman three times over the past year, but that the friendship developed eight years ago. Mr. Sanford previously visited Argentina in June 2008, when he met with the governor of Buenos Aires, Daniel Scioli, and discussed expanding agricultural and commercial links, according to the United States embassy in Buenos Aires.
But Mr. Sanford’s most recent, private trip to Argentina was more urgent. He said that he had spent the last “five days of my life crying in Argentina,” and that he said he decided to end the affair.
The whispers about the missing governor started as early as Friday, when one lawmaker and outspoken rival of Mr. Sanford was quietly outraged that the governor had left the state without a plan for a transfer of power in the event of an emergency.
“I don’t care how big a problem you had with the person,” Senator Knotts said. “I had concerns for his safety and the fact that there was nobody leading South Carolina. There was nobody in a position to make a decision on homeland security or if there were a prison riot or something of that nature.”
ABC NEWS:
Mark Sanford Admits Affair, South Carolina Governor Resigns as Chairman of Republican Governors Association
[b][i]Governor Explains the Reasons Behind His Unannounced Disappearance[/i][/b]
Apologizing profusely to his staff, family and friends for disappearing unexpectedly, a teary-eyed Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina said today that he had been “unfaithful” and admitted an affair with a woman in Argentina.
Gov. Mark Sanford explains mystery trip: "I have been unfaithful to my wife."
“I’ve been unfaithful to my wife,” Sanford said at a press conference this afternoon, adding that his affair was with a “dear, dear friend from Argentina.”
The affair, Sanford said, began “casually,” but over the “last year developed into something much more.”
“We developed a remarkable friendship over those eight years and then … about a year ago it sparked into something more than that,” Sanford said. “I have seen her three times since then, during that whole sparking thing. … And it was discovered … five months ago. And at that point, we went into serious overdrive in trying to say, ‘Where do you go from here.’”
Sanford also resigned from his position as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, saying he would need time to seek forgiveness from friends and family and to focus on what he called a “very long process.”
In a written statement, his wife, Jenny Sanford, said " I deeply regret the recent actions of my husband Mark, and their potential damage to our children."
She said she asked her husband to leave two weeks ago and to not contact her or their four sons, which explains why the family was unaware of the governor’s whereabouts during his unexpected disappearance.
But South Carolina’s first lady hinted that she was willing to forgive her husband and that “this trial separation was agreed to with the goal of ultimately strengthening our marriage.”
Invoking the Bible, she said: “I remain willing to forgive Mark completely for his indiscretions and to welcome him back, in time, if he continues to work toward reconciliation with a true spirit of humility and repentance.”
An emotional Sanford, who spoke about “God’s law” several times in his press conference, said he needed a break from his job after what he called an “exhausting” battle against President Obama’s stimulus bill.
“What I’ve found in this job is that one desperately needs a break from the bubble,” he said. “When you live in the zone of politics, you can’t ever let your guard down.”
He said his wife of 20 years was aware of his affair before he left for Argentina, and that the family had been trying to work through the situation for “about the last five months.”
“What I did was wrong, period, end of story,” Sanford said.
“I’m committed to trying to get my heart right. … This was selfishness on my part.”
On whether he was separated from his wife, the governor responded: “I don’t know how you want to define that. I’m here, she’s there. I guess in a formal sense we’re not.”
He did not identify the woman with whom he’d been having an affair, but when asked whether he was alone during his trip to Argentina, Sanford said, “obviously not.”
Sanford did not answer a question from a reporter asking him whether he would resign as governor, but he did say in a written statement afterward that “I’m going to devote my energy to building back the trust the people of this state have placed in me.”
This is the second such scandal to rock the GOP this month. Earlier this month, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., admitted to an affair with a campaign staffer and resigned as leader of the Republican Policy Committee.
Almost immediately after Sanford’s resignation as chairman of RGA, the organization announced that Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour will take over as chair.
“My job allows me to share the joys of getting to know great leaders around the country and experiencing great pride when they succeed, but the other side of that is experiencing deep disappointment when they fall short,” said RGA executive director Nick Ayers. “Today is undeniably a disappointing day.”
South Carolina residents expressed mixed views.
“Here you are cheating. That doesn’t stand right with me at all as a woman,” Zippora Gregory told ABC News.
“It’s happened in politics before and I’m sure it’s never going to end,” said Camillo Miller.
Another GOP star tarnished: South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admits affair with Argentina pen pal
South Carolina’s wandering Gov. Mark Sanford arrived home from a secret six-day trip to Buenos Aires to tearfully admit he has been having an affair with an Argentine pen pal.
“I spent the last five days of my life crying in Argentina,” Sanford said at an extraordinary, rambling press conference in Columbia, S.C.
Sanford, who was until this week one of the GOP’s most promising rising stars, resigned as chairman of the Republican Governors’ Association but did not step down from his job running South Carolina.
He choked up three times and he apologized to his wife, Jenny; his four sons; his in-laws; his friends; his staff; people of faith and his state.
“I’ve let down a lot of people, that’s the bottom line,” he said. “I hurt her (his mistress), I hurt my wife, I hurt my boys. . . . I hurt a lot of different folks.”
Sanford’s admission came after he vanished Thursday, telling no one where he was going and leaving no contact information. His staff told reporters, when pressed, that he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail.
Sanford apparently didn’t think anyone would notice his absence.
The governor said he first met the unnamed Argentinian woman eight years ago when they had an “incredibly earnest conversation” in which he urged her to get back together with her husband for the sake of her two children.
They kept in touch by e-mail and “it developed over the last year into something much more,” he said.
“I’ve seen her three times since that whole ‘sparking’ thing.”
He said “from a heart level there was something real” but that because of his job and his family it was “a place I couldn’t go and she couldn’t go.”
Five months ago, his wife discovered the affair, Sanford said.
He said they’ve been working to reconcile, but did not explain how his jaunt to Argentina this week fit into that scenario.
The governor, who had been much talked of as a 2012 presidential candidate, is the latest rising GOP star to take a long fall - and the second in a week.
Nevada Sen. John Ensign confessed last week to having an affair and employing - then firing - his mistress and her husband.
Sanford ditched his security detail and took off Thursday without telling his staff or family where he was.
He was out of contact throughout the Father’s Day weekend.
His wife, Jenny, vacationed with their four sons and fueled the story by telling the press she didn’t know where he was.
While Sanford was gone, his staff issued a stream of conflicting statements: Sanford was working on projects; he was clearing his head; they knew where he was; they didn’t know where he was; they had talked to him; they hadn’t talked to him.
On Monday night, his staff finally gave a location, saying he was hiking somewhere on the Appalachian Trail. They fudged whether he had been in touch.
On Tuesday, they said he had called in and, surprised his absence was an issue, had decided to rush back from his hike.
Sanford apologized to his staff for “creating a fiction with regard to where I was going.”
Sanford and stunned
Do you think Gov. Mark Sanford should resign in the wake of his admission of having an affair with a woman from Argentina?
Yes
No
View results:
