Argentine welfare programs create bedrock of support for president

Catalina Benitez walks down the stairs during an interview with Reuters at her home in La Matanza, in the greater Buenos Aires area, in this picture taken on July 29, 2015. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci

LA MATANZA, Argentina (Reuters) - Catalina Benitez, a single mother of four, used to cry whenever heavy rain flooded her squalid, one-room shanty house on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, rotting her furniture and overflowing the latrine.

Now, thanks to a government housing scheme in slums, she is the proud owner of a two-floor brick house with running water, electricity and a proper sewage system.