Argentine Papers Identify Sanford's Mistress

The Argentine woman with whom South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's has been engaged in an extramarital affair has been identified by South American media outlets as Maria Belen Chapur, a 43-year-old divorcee with two sons. (She has also been identified by the name María Belén Shapur, a slightly different spelling.)

According to various media reports, Chapur is well educated and attractive and speaks multiple languages. Though Argentine media reported that Chapur works for an agriculture company, that appears to have been inaccurate, as The Post and Courier reports.

Media outlets are now staking out the building where Chapur lives, in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, hoping for a glimpse of her. Thus far, however, they've had to make due with photos of the outside of her apartment building, which is near the U.S. Embassy and the city's zoo.

A special correspondent for McClatchy was able to make brief contact with the woman identified as Chapur Wednesday, but the conversation was brief. Reports The State: "The woman at the address answered to the name in the e-mails and, at first, agreed to speak to a visitor, but she declined after the visitor identified herself as a reporter."

The emails referred to, of course, are the now-infamous exchanges between Sanford and the woman identified in them as "Maria" that were obtained by The State, a South Carolina newspaper.

Wrote Sanford: "You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty. I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night’s light."

The State removed the woman's full name from the emails, as well as her address and children's names, but posted a photo of the outside of the building on its Web site.