Néstor Kirchner
Encyclopedia
Néstor Carlos Kirchner (ˈnestor ˈkarlos ˈkirʃner; 25 February 1950 27 October 2010) was an Argentine politician who served as the 54th President
of Argentina
from 25 May 2003 until 10 December 2007. Previously, he was Governor of Santa Cruz
Province
since 10 December 1991. He briefly served as Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and as a National Deputy of Argentina
for Buenos Aires Province
. Kirchner's four-year presidency was notable for presiding over a dramatic fall in poverty and unemployment, following the economic crisis of 2001, together with an extension of social security coverage, a major expansion in housing and infrastructure, higher spending on scientific research and education, and substantial increases in real wage levels.
A Justicialist
, Kirchner was little-known internationally and even domestically before his election to the Presidency, which he won by default with only 22.2 percent of the vote in the first round, when former President Carlos Menem
(24.4%) withdrew from the ballotage. Soon after taking office in May 2003, Kirchner surprised some Argentinians by standing down powerful military and police officials. Stressing the need to increase accountability and transparency in government, Kirchner overturned amnesty law
s for military officers accused of torture and assassinations during the 1976–1983 "Dirty War
" under military rule.
On 28 October 2007, his wife Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
was elected to succeed him as President of Argentina. Thus, Kirchner then became the First Gentleman of Argentina. In 2009, he was elected a National Deputy
for Buenos Aires Province
. He was also designated Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations on 4 May 2010.
Kirchner, who had been operated on twice in 2010 for cardiovascular problems, died at his home in El Calafate
, Santa Cruz Province
, on 27 October 2010, after reportedly suffering a heart attack. For more than 24 hours, hundreds of thousands of people filed past Kirchner's body lying in state, in a state funeral at the Casa Rosada
attended by several Argentine personalities and eight South American leaders. Starting on the afternoon of October 29, a massive procession accompanied Kirchner's remains from Casa Rosada to the metropolitan airport
, and then from the airport of Río Gallegos to the cemetery.
n province of Santa Cruz
. His mother, María Juana Ostoić Dragnic, is of Croatian
descent and his father, also named Néstor, a post office
official, was of Swiss German descent. He received his primary and secondary education at local public schools, and his high-school diploma from the Argentine school Colegio Nacional República de Guatemala.
He was part of the third generation of the family living in Río Gallegos. He moved to La Plata
to study law in 1969 at the National University of La Plata, joining the political student unions of peronist
ideology located there. He was present at the Ezeiza massacre and promoted the return of Juan Domingo Perón to the country. He graduated as juris doctor
in 1976 and met Cristina Fernández
, marrying her six months later.
The armed conflicts between the Peronist factions such as Montoneros
and the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance led them to leave the city and return to Río Gallegos. With his wife, also a lawyer and member of the Justicialist Party
(PJ), he established a successful private practice.
After the downfall of the military dictatorship
and restoration of democracy
in 1983, Kirchner became a public officer in the provincial government. The following year, he was briefly president of the Río Gallegos social welfare fund, but was forced out by the governor because of a dispute over financial policy. The affair made him a local celebrity and laid the foundation for his career.
By 1986, Kirchner had developed sufficient political capital to be put forward as the PJ's candidate for mayor
of Río Gallegos. He won the 1987 elections for this post by the very slim margin of about 100 votes. Fellow PJ member Ricardo del Val became governor, keeping Santa Cruz firmly within the hands of the PJ.
Kirchner's performance as mayor from 1987 to 1991 was satisfactory enough to the electorate and to the party to enable him to run for governor in 1991, where he won with 61% of the vote; by this time his wife was also a member of the provincial congress.
(pop. 197,000) contributed one percent to Argentina's gross national product
, primarily through the production of raw materials (mostly oil
), and was being battered by the then ongoing economic crisis, with high unemployment
and a budget deficit equal to US$ 1.2 billion. He arranged for substantial investment
s to stimulate productivity, the labor market, and consumption. By eliminating unproductive expenditures and cutting back on tax exemptions for the key petroleum industry, Kirchner restored the financial balance of the province. Through his expansionist and social policies, Kirchner was credited with bringing a substantial measure of prosperity to Santa Cruz. The improved economic situation was achieved by a neo-Keynesian expansion of consumption and investment expenditure, in contrast to the neo-liberalism of the Menem Government. Subsequent studies showed that the province had a better distribution of wealth
and lower levels of poverty
, unemployment, and social unrest than most other provinces, second only to Buenos Aires
.
In 1994 and 1998, Kirchner introduced amendments to the provincial constitution, to enable him to run for re-election indefinitely. As a member of the 1994 Constitutional Assembly
organized by Menem and former president Raúl Alfonsín
, Kirchner participated in the drafting of a new national constitution which allowed the president to be re-elected for a second four-year term.
In 1995, with his constitutional changes in place, Kirchner was easily re-elected to a second term as governor, with 66.5% of the votes. But by now, Kirchner was distancing himself from the charismatic and controversial Menem, who was also the nominal head of the PJ; this was made particularly apparent with the launch of Corriente Peronista, an initiative supported by Kirchner to create an alternative space within the Justicialist Party, outside of Menem's influence.
In 1998, Menem's attempt to stand for re-election a second time, by means of an ad hoc interpretation of a constitutional clause, met with strong resistance among Peronist rank-and-file, who were finding themselves under increasing pressure due to the highly controversial policies of the Menem administration and its involvement in corruption scandals. Kirchner joined the camp of Menem's chief opponent within the PJ, the governor of Buenos Aires Province, Eduardo Duhalde
.
Menem did not run, and the PJ nominated Duhalde, who was in turn defeated during the October 1999 elections by Buenos Aires
Mayor Fernando de la Rúa
, the Alliance
candidate, and the party lost its majority in Congress
. Although the Alianza also made headway in Santa Cruz, Kirchner managed to be re-elected to a third term as governor in May 1999 with 45.7% of the vote. De la Rúa's victory was in part a rejection of Menem's perceived flamboyance and corruption during his last term. De la Rúa instituted austerity measures and reforms to improve the economy; taxes were increased to reduce the deficit, the government bureaucracy was trimmed, and legal restrictions on union negotiations were eased.
These moves did not prevent a deepening of the Argentine economic crisis, however, and a crisis of confidence ensued by November 2001, as domestic depositors began a run on the banks
, resulting in the highly unpopular corralito
, a limit, and subsequently a full ban, on withdrawals. These developments led to the December 2001 riots
, and to President de la Rúa's resignation on December 21.
A series of interim
presidents and renewed demonstrations ended with the appointment of Eduardo Duhalde as interim president in January 2002. Duhalde abolished the fixed exchange rate
regime that had been in place since 1991, and the Argentine peso
quickly devalued
by more than two thirds of its value, diminishing middle-class savings and sinking the heavily import-dependent Argentine economy even deeper, but giving a significant profit boost to Argentinian exports. Amid strong public rejection of the entire political class, characterized by the pithy slogan que se vayan todos ("away with them all"), Duhalde brought elections forward by six months.
, he sought to promote a candidate that may defeat him, but Carlos Reutemann
(governor of Santa Fe) did not accept and José Manuel de la Sota
(governor of Córdoba) did not grow in the polls. He also tried with Mauricio Macri
, Adolfo Rodríguez Saá
, Felipe Solá
and Roberto Lavagna
, to no avail. He initially resisted helping Kirchner, fearing that he may ignore Duhalde once in the presidency.
Kirchner's electoral promises included "returning to a republic of equals". After the first round of the election, Kirchner visited the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
, who received him enthusiastically. He also declared he was proud of his radical left-wing political past.
Although Menem, who was president from 1989 to 1999, won the first round of the election on April 27, 2003, he only got 24% of the valid votes — just 2% ahead of Kirchner. This was an empty victory, as Menem was viewed very negatively by much of the Argentine population and had virtually no chance of winning the runoff election. After days of speculation, during which polls forecast a massive victory for Kirchner with about a 30%–40% difference, Menem finally decided to stand down. This automatically made Kirchner president of Argentina, despite having secured only 22% of the votes in the election, the lowest percentage gained by the eventual winner of an Argentine presidential election. He was sworn in on May 25, 2003 to a four-year term of office.
Kirchner came into office on the tail of a deep economic crisis. A country which had once equalled Europe in levels of prosperity and considered itself a bulwark of European culture in Latin America found itself deeply impoverished, with a depleted middle class
and malnutrition
appearing in the lower strata of society. The country was burdened with $178 billion in debt, the government strapped for cash. While associated to the clientelist and nearly feudal style of government of many provincial governors and the corruption of the PJ, Kirchner was comparatively unknown to the national public, and he showed himself as a newcomer who had arrived at the Casa Rosada
without the usual whiff of scandal about him, trying not to make a point of the fact that he himself had seven times been on the same electoral ballot with Menem.
Shortly after coming into office, Kirchner made changes to the Argentine Supreme Court. He accused certain justices of extortion and pressured them to resign, while also fostering the impeachment
of two others. In place of a majority of politically right-wing and religiously conservative justices, he appointed new ones who were ideologically closer to him, including two women (one of them an avowed atheist). Kirchner also retired dozens of generals, admirals, and brigadiers from the armed forces, a few of them with reputations tainted by the atrocities of the Dirty War
.
Kirchner kept the Duhalde administration's Minister of the Economy, Roberto Lavagna
. Lavagna also declared that his first priority now was social problems. Argentina's default
was the largest in financial history, and ironically it gave Kirchner and Lavagna significant bargaining power with the IMF, which loathes having bad debts on its books. During his first year of office, Kirchner achieved a difficult agreement to reschedule $84 billion in debts with international organizations, for three years. In the first half of 2005, the government launched a bond exchange
to restructure approximately $81 billion of national public debt (an additional $20 billion in past defaulted interest was not recognized). Over 76% of the debt was tendered and restructured for a recovery value of approximately one third of its nominal value.
Under Kirchner, Argentine foreign policy
shifted from the "automatic alignment" with the United States during the 1990s, to one stressing stronger ties (economic and political) within Mercosur
and with other Latin American countries, and rejecting the Free Trade Area of the Americas
.
Kirchner saw the 2005 parliamentary elections as a means to confirm his political power, since Carlos Menem's defection in the second round of the 2003 presidential elections had not allowed Kirchner to receive the large number of votes that surveys predicted. Kirchner explicitly stated that the 2005 elections would be like a mid-term plebiscite
for his administration, and he actively participated in the campaign in most provinces. Due to internal disagreements, the Justicialist Party was not presented as such on the polls but split into several factions. Kirchner's Frente para la Victoria (FPV, Front for Victory) was overwhelmingly the winner (the candidates of the FPV got more than 40% of the national vote), following which many supporters of other factions (mostly those led by former presidents Eduardo Duhalde and Carlos Menem) migrated to the FPV.
On 15 December 2005, following Brazil's initiative, Kirchner announced the cancellation of Argentina's debt to the IMF in full and offered a single payment, in a historic decision that generated controversy at the time (see Argentine debt restructuring). Some commentators, such as Mark Weisbrot
of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, suggest that the Argentine experiment has thus far proven successful. Others, such as Michael Mussa, formerly on the staff of the International Monetary Fund
and now with the Peterson Institute, question the longer-term sustainability of Pres. Kirchner's approach.
In a meeting with executives of multinational corporations on Wall Street
—after which he was the first Argentine president to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange
—Kirchner defended his "heterodox economic policy, within the canon of classic economics" and criticized the IMF for its lack of collaboration with the Argentine recovery.
On July 2, 2007, President Kirchner announced he would not seek re-election in the October elections, despite having the support of 60% of those surveyed in polls. Instead, Kirchner intended to focus on the creation of a new political party.
Kirchner secured the Presidency of the Justicialist Party
(to which his FPV
belongs), in April 2008. Following the FPV's loss of 4 Senators and over 20 Congressmen in the June 28, 2009 mid-term elections
, however, he was replaced by Buenos Aires Province
Governor Daniel Scioli
.
. The press developed the term "presidential marriage" to make reference to both of them at once. Some political analysts compared this type of government with a diarchy
. He took part in the Operation Emmanuel
in Colombia to release a group of FARC
hostages, in December 2007. The Colombian politician Íngrid Betancourt
was among the group of hostages. Kirchner returned to Argentina after the failure of the negotiations; the hostages were later released a year later by a covert operation by Colombian military forces known as "Operacion Jaque" as a result of the reluctance of the guerilla to release the hostages, including Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans.
Néstor Kirchner took active part in the government conflict with the agricultural sector
in 2008. During this conflict he became president of the Justicialist Party
, and declared full support for Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in the conflict. He accused the agricultural sector of attempting a coup d'état
. He was one of the speakers in a demonstration made next to the Argentine National Congress supporting a law project on the matter, that would be voted the following day. Kirchner requested by then to accept the result in the Congress. Many senators who had formerly supported the government's proposal rejected it. The voting ended in a tie with 36 supporting votes and 36 rejecting votes. As a result, vicepresident Julio Cobos
, president of the chamber of senators, was required to cast a decisive vote. Cobos voted for the rejection, and the law proposal was rejected.
On June 2009 legislative elections
he ran for National Deputy
for the Buenos Aires Province
district. He was elected along with other 11 Front for Victory
candidates, as their ticket arrived close second to the Union PRO
peronist-conservative coalition in that district.
Néstor Kirchner was proposed by Ecuador as a candidate Secretary General of Unasur, but was rejected by Uruguay, at a time when Uruguay and Argentina were debating the Pulp mill dispute. The dispute was resolved in 2010 and the new Uruguayan president, José Mujica
, supported Kirchner's candidacy. Kirchner was unanimously elected the first Secretary General of Unasur, during a Unasur Member States
Heads of State summit held in Buenos Aires
on 4 May 2010. In that role, he successfully mediated in the 2010 Colombia–Venezuela diplomatic crisis
.
.
A wake
was held from 28 October at the Casa Rosada
presidential palace in Buenos Aires
with the attendance of Latin American leaders. For more than 24 hours, hundreds of thousands of people filed past Kirchner's body lying in state, at the Casa Rosada
. Starting on the afternoon of October 29 a large procession accompanied the remains of Néstor Kirchner from Casa Rosada to the metropolitan airport
, and another from the airport of Río Gallegos to the cemetery. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
presided over the funeral, making her first public appearance since Néstor's death.
Argentina declared three days of national mourning. Condolences came from the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
, the European Union, the OAS
, The Union of South American Nations declared three days of national mourning in all South American countries. Eight South American heads of state traveled to Buenos Aires for the funeral and many others offered condolences.
Néstor Kirchner is considered at times as a left-wing
president, but that consideration is relative. Although Kirchner was to the left of previous Argentine presidents, from Raúl Alfonsín
to Eduardo Duhalde
, and contemporary Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
, he was to the right of other latin american presidents as Hugo Chávez
or Fidel Castro
. His strong nationalist
approach to the Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute is closer to Right-wing politics
, and he has not considered classic left-wing policies such as socialization
of production or the nationalization
of the public services privatized
during the presidency of Carlos Menem
. He has not attempted either to modify the institutional system, the church–state relations or disestablish the armed forces.
Néstor Kirchner is a Peronist
, and manages the political power as the historical Peronist leaders have traditionally done. One of the characteristics of his political style is the constant generation of controversies
with other political or social forces, and the polarization
of public opinion. This strategy was used against financial sectors, military, police, foreign countries, international bodies, newspapers, and even Duhalde himself, with varying levels of success. The rise of Kirchnerism
reenacted the then outdated rivalry between Peronists and Antiperonists, and the use of the "Gorila" pejorative term.
Kirchner sought to generate an image contrasting that of former presidents Carlos Menem
and Fernando de la Rúa
. Menem was seen as frivolous, and De la Rúa as doubtful, so Kirchner worked to be seen as serious and determined.
Kirchner was a critic of IMF structural adjustment programs. His criticisms were supported in part by former World Bank
economist Joseph Stiglitz, who opposes the IMF's measures as recessionary and urged Argentina to take an independent path. According to some commentators, Kirchner was seen as part of a spectrum of new Latin American leaders, including Hugo Chávez
in Venezuela
, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
in Brazil and Tabaré Vázquez
in Uruguay
, who see the Washington consensus
as an unsuccessful model for economic development in the region.
Kirchner's increasing alignment with Hugo Chávez became evident when during a visit to Venezuela on July 2006 he attended a military parade alongside Bolivian president Evo Morales
. On that occasion Mr. Chávez called for a defensive military pact between the armies of the region with a common doctrine and organization. Kirchner stated in a speech to the Venezuela national assembly that Venezuela represented a true democracy fighting for the dignity of its people.
Kirchner emphasised holding businesses accountable to Argentine institutions, laws prompting environmental standards, and contractual obligations. He pledged to not open his administration to the influence of interests that "benefited from inadmissible privileges in the last decade" during Carlos Menem
's presidency. These groups, according to Kirchner, were privileged by an economic model that favored "financial speculation and political subordination" of politicians to well-connected elites. For instance, in 2006, citing the alleged failure of Aguas Argentinas, a company partly owned by the French utility group Suez, to meet its contractual obligation to improve the quality of water, Kirchner terminated the company's contract with Argentina to provide drinking water to Buenos Aires.
His preference for a more active role of the state in the economy was underscored with the founding, in 2004, of ENARSA
a new state owned energy company. At the June 2007 Mercosur
summit, he scolded energy companies for their lack of investment in the sector and for not supporting his strategic vision for the region. He said he was losing patience with energy companies as South America's second-largest economy faced power rationing and shortages during the Southern Hemisphere winter. Price controls on energy rates instituted in 2002 are attributed to have limited investment in Argentina's energy infrastructure, risking more than four years of economic growth greater than 8 percent.
Kirchner's collaborators and others who supported him and were politically close to him were known informally as pingüinos ("penguins"), alluding to his birthplace in the cold southern region of Argentina.
Some media and sectors of society also resorted to using the letter K as a shorthand for Kirchner and his policies (as seen, for example, in the controversial group of supporters self-styled Los Jóvenes K, that is "The K Youth", and in the faction of the Radical Civic Union
that supports Kirchner, referred to by the media as Radicales K).
by overly concentrating power in the executive branch and excessive use of decree
s. The magazine The Economist
in 2006 accused Kirchner of "populism
", which it describes as a Latin American tendency that the Argentine president shares with a diverse range of figures, such as indigenous Peruvian nationalist Ollanta Humala
, Mexican social democrat Andrés Manuel López Obrador
, and socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez
.
The Wall Street Journal ran an article criticizing the NYSE for choosing Kirchner as a bell ringer, accusing him of being "anti-market."
Joaquín Morales Solá
, a political columnist for the Argentine newspaper La Nación
, accused Kirchner of having a "personalistic style of governing, with a dose of authoritarianism and hegemony, an aggressive style of induced rupture and confrontation", and recently diverse allegations of cronyism
and corrupt practices by his government's officials began to mount.
Controversy also arose when the Minister of Economy, Felisa Miceli
, removed an officer of the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina
in charge of calculating the inflation indexes, allowing Commerce Secretary Guillermo Moreno
to hand-pick an official from outside the institution for the post, in what was seen as a move to manipulate official data.
In the last months of his presidency, Kirchner had to weather several scandals. His Minister of Economy Felisa Miceli was forced to resign over more than $60,000 found stashed in a bag in her office bathroom, and a businessman carrying a suitcase with US$800,000 in cash, on a government-hired jet traveling from Venezuela, was discovered at an Argentine airport.
In May 2009, it was reported that the Argentine Intelligence Services
(SIDE) were allegedly obeying Kirchner's orders in spying and harassing both his opponents as well as fellow Front for Victory
and Justicialist Party figures to aid him in winning the 2009 mid-term elections
, in which his party list struggled. The current SIDE Secretary, Héctor Icazuriaga, attended official acts with Kirchner and "offered political assistance" to him in the weekends at the official residence of the ex President.
In March 2007, it was confirmed that the SIDE had intervened and disrupted calls shortly before Cristina succeeded Néstor in the Casa Rosada; the Federal Police
were linked to a clandestine operation involving the SIDE and 15,000 to 20,000 telephone numbers.
The couple and several of their closest aides have been accused of purchasing from the Santa Cruz province government (their political turf) land at rock bottom farm prices which rapidly were converted into urban and suburban districts in exclusive resort areas valued in millions of dollars.
Several illicit enrichment claims filed in Buenos Aires did not prosper or were shelved with the same prosecutor involved in all cases.
President of Argentina
The President of the Argentine Nation , usually known as the President of Argentina, is the head of state of Argentina. Under the national Constitution, the President is also the chief executive of the federal government and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.Through Argentine history, the...
of Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
from 25 May 2003 until 10 December 2007. Previously, he was Governor of Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Province (Argentina)
Santa Cruz is a province of Argentina, located in the southern part of the country, in Patagonia. It borders Chubut province to the north, and Chile to the west and south. To the east is the Atlantic Ocean...
Province
Provinces of Argentina
Argentina is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city...
since 10 December 1991. He briefly served as Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and as a National Deputy of Argentina
Argentine Chamber of Deputies
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress. This Chamber holds exclusive rights to create taxes, to draft troops, and to accuse the President, the ministers and the members of the Supreme Court before the Senate....
for Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
. Kirchner's four-year presidency was notable for presiding over a dramatic fall in poverty and unemployment, following the economic crisis of 2001, together with an extension of social security coverage, a major expansion in housing and infrastructure, higher spending on scientific research and education, and substantial increases in real wage levels.
A Justicialist
Justicialist Party
The Justicialist Party , or PJ, is a Peronist political party in Argentina, and the largest component of the Peronist movement.The party was led by Néstor Kirchner, President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, until his death on October 27, 2010. The current Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de...
, Kirchner was little-known internationally and even domestically before his election to the Presidency, which he won by default with only 22.2 percent of the vote in the first round, when former President Carlos Menem
Carlos Menem
Carlos Saúl Menem is an Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. He is currently an Argentine National Senator for La Rioja Province.-Early life:...
(24.4%) withdrew from the ballotage. Soon after taking office in May 2003, Kirchner surprised some Argentinians by standing down powerful military and police officials. Stressing the need to increase accountability and transparency in government, Kirchner overturned amnesty law
Amnesty law
An amnesty law is any law that retroactively exempts a select group of people, usually military leaders and government leaders, from criminal liability for crimes committed.Most allegations involve human rights abuses and crimes against humanity.-History:...
s for military officers accused of torture and assassinations during the 1976–1983 "Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
" under military rule.
On 28 October 2007, his wife Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner , commonly known as Cristina Fernández or Cristina Kirchner is the 55th and current President of Argentina and the widow of former President Néstor Kirchner. She is Argentina's first elected female president, and the second female president ever to serve...
was elected to succeed him as President of Argentina. Thus, Kirchner then became the First Gentleman of Argentina. In 2009, he was elected a National Deputy
Argentine Chamber of Deputies
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress. This Chamber holds exclusive rights to create taxes, to draft troops, and to accuse the President, the ministers and the members of the Supreme Court before the Senate....
for Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
. He was also designated Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations on 4 May 2010.
Kirchner, who had been operated on twice in 2010 for cardiovascular problems, died at his home in El Calafate
El Calafate
- Population :In the last census 6,143 permanent residents were counted . This represents a 20.1% increase compared with the 1991 census. However, due to the expansion of tourism, the population was estimated at 8,000 people in 2005.- Wildlife :...
, Santa Cruz Province
Santa Cruz Province (Argentina)
Santa Cruz is a province of Argentina, located in the southern part of the country, in Patagonia. It borders Chubut province to the north, and Chile to the west and south. To the east is the Atlantic Ocean...
, on 27 October 2010, after reportedly suffering a heart attack. For more than 24 hours, hundreds of thousands of people filed past Kirchner's body lying in state, in a state funeral at the Casa Rosada
Death and state funeral of Néstor Kirchner
Argentina's former President and Secretary General of UNASUR, Néstor Kirchner, died of heart failure on the morning of 27 October 2010 at the Jose Formenti hospital in El Calafate, Santa Cruz Province at the age of 60. At 9:15, first aid procedures that were used to keep him alive proved...
attended by several Argentine personalities and eight South American leaders. Starting on the afternoon of October 29, a massive procession accompanied Kirchner's remains from Casa Rosada to the metropolitan airport
Aeroparque Jorge Newbery
-Accidents and incidents:*On 17 December 1969, an Austral Líneas Aéreas C-46 Commando, lost engine 1 due to fuel exhaustion shortly after take-off. The plane failed to gain height and made a crash landing in a small sport field...
, and then from the airport of Río Gallegos to the cemetery.
Early life
Kirchner was born in Río Gallegos, in the PatagoniaPatagonia
Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...
n province of Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Province (Argentina)
Santa Cruz is a province of Argentina, located in the southern part of the country, in Patagonia. It borders Chubut province to the north, and Chile to the west and south. To the east is the Atlantic Ocean...
. His mother, María Juana Ostoić Dragnic, is of Croatian
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
descent and his father, also named Néstor, a post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
official, was of Swiss German descent. He received his primary and secondary education at local public schools, and his high-school diploma from the Argentine school Colegio Nacional República de Guatemala.
He was part of the third generation of the family living in Río Gallegos. He moved to La Plata
La Plata
La Plata is the capital city of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and of La Plata partido. According to the , the city proper has a population of 574,369 and its metropolitan area has 694,253 inhabitants....
to study law in 1969 at the National University of La Plata, joining the political student unions of peronist
Peronism
Peronism , or Justicialism , is an Argentine political movement based on the programmes associated with former President Juan Perón and his second wife, Eva Perón...
ideology located there. He was present at the Ezeiza massacre and promoted the return of Juan Domingo Perón to the country. He graduated as juris doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
in 1976 and met Cristina Fernández
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner , commonly known as Cristina Fernández or Cristina Kirchner is the 55th and current President of Argentina and the widow of former President Néstor Kirchner. She is Argentina's first elected female president, and the second female president ever to serve...
, marrying her six months later.
The armed conflicts between the Peronist factions such as Montoneros
Montoneros
Montoneros was an Argentine Peronist urban guerrilla group, active during the 1960s and 1970s. The name is an allusion to 19th century Argentinian history. After Juan Perón's return from 18 years of exile and the 1973 Ezeiza massacre, which marked the definitive split between left and right-wing...
and the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance led them to leave the city and return to Río Gallegos. With his wife, also a lawyer and member of the Justicialist Party
Justicialist Party
The Justicialist Party , or PJ, is a Peronist political party in Argentina, and the largest component of the Peronist movement.The party was led by Néstor Kirchner, President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, until his death on October 27, 2010. The current Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de...
(PJ), he established a successful private practice.
After the downfall of the military dictatorship
National Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...
and restoration of democracy
Argentine general election, 1983
The Argentine general election of 1983 was held on 30 October and marked the return of Democracy after the 1976's dictatorship self-known as National Reorganization Process...
in 1983, Kirchner became a public officer in the provincial government. The following year, he was briefly president of the Río Gallegos social welfare fund, but was forced out by the governor because of a dispute over financial policy. The affair made him a local celebrity and laid the foundation for his career.
By 1986, Kirchner had developed sufficient political capital to be put forward as the PJ's candidate for mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Río Gallegos. He won the 1987 elections for this post by the very slim margin of about 100 votes. Fellow PJ member Ricardo del Val became governor, keeping Santa Cruz firmly within the hands of the PJ.
Kirchner's performance as mayor from 1987 to 1991 was satisfactory enough to the electorate and to the party to enable him to run for governor in 1991, where he won with 61% of the vote; by this time his wife was also a member of the provincial congress.
Governor of Santa Cruz
When Kirchner assumed the governorship, the province of Santa CruzSanta Cruz Province (Argentina)
Santa Cruz is a province of Argentina, located in the southern part of the country, in Patagonia. It borders Chubut province to the north, and Chile to the west and south. To the east is the Atlantic Ocean...
(pop. 197,000) contributed one percent to Argentina's gross national product
Measures of national income and output
A variety of measures of national income and output are used in economics to estimate total economic activity in a country or region, including gross domestic product , gross national product , and net national income . All are specially concerned with counting the total amount of goods and...
, primarily through the production of raw materials (mostly oil
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
), and was being battered by the then ongoing economic crisis, with high unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
and a budget deficit equal to US$ 1.2 billion. He arranged for substantial investment
Investment
Investment has different meanings in finance and economics. Finance investment is putting money into something with the expectation of gain, that upon thorough analysis, has a high degree of security for the principal amount, as well as security of return, within an expected period of time...
s to stimulate productivity, the labor market, and consumption. By eliminating unproductive expenditures and cutting back on tax exemptions for the key petroleum industry, Kirchner restored the financial balance of the province. Through his expansionist and social policies, Kirchner was credited with bringing a substantial measure of prosperity to Santa Cruz. The improved economic situation was achieved by a neo-Keynesian expansion of consumption and investment expenditure, in contrast to the neo-liberalism of the Menem Government. Subsequent studies showed that the province had a better distribution of wealth
Economic inequality
Economic inequality comprises all disparities in the distribution of economic assets and income. The term typically refers to inequality among individuals and groups within a society, but can also refer to inequality among countries. The issue of economic inequality is related to the ideas of...
and lower levels of poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, unemployment, and social unrest than most other provinces, second only to Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
.
In 1994 and 1998, Kirchner introduced amendments to the provincial constitution, to enable him to run for re-election indefinitely. As a member of the 1994 Constitutional Assembly
1994 reform of the Argentine Constitution
The 1994 amendment to the Constitution of Argentina was approved on 22 August by a Constitutional Assembly that met in the twin cities of Santa Fe and Paraná...
organized by Menem and former president Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín was an Argentine lawyer, politician and statesman, who served as the President of Argentina from December 10, 1983, to July 8, 1989. Alfonsín was the first democratically-elected president of Argentina following the military government known as the National Reorganization...
, Kirchner participated in the drafting of a new national constitution which allowed the president to be re-elected for a second four-year term.
In 1995, with his constitutional changes in place, Kirchner was easily re-elected to a second term as governor, with 66.5% of the votes. But by now, Kirchner was distancing himself from the charismatic and controversial Menem, who was also the nominal head of the PJ; this was made particularly apparent with the launch of Corriente Peronista, an initiative supported by Kirchner to create an alternative space within the Justicialist Party, outside of Menem's influence.
In 1998, Menem's attempt to stand for re-election a second time, by means of an ad hoc interpretation of a constitutional clause, met with strong resistance among Peronist rank-and-file, who were finding themselves under increasing pressure due to the highly controversial policies of the Menem administration and its involvement in corruption scandals. Kirchner joined the camp of Menem's chief opponent within the PJ, the governor of Buenos Aires Province, Eduardo Duhalde
Eduardo Duhalde
-External links:...
.
Menem did not run, and the PJ nominated Duhalde, who was in turn defeated during the October 1999 elections by Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
Mayor Fernando de la Rúa
Fernando de la Rúa
Fernando de la Rúa is an Argentine politician. He was president of the country from December 10, 1999 to December 21, 2001 for the Alliance for Work, Justice and Education ....
, the Alliance
Alliance for Work, Justice and Education
The Alliance for Work, Justice and Education was a party coalition in Argentina around the turn of the third millennium...
candidate, and the party lost its majority in Congress
Argentine National Congress
The Congress of the Argentine Nation is the legislative branch of the government of Argentina. Its composition is bicameral, constituted by a 72-seat Senate and a 257-seat Chamber of Deputies....
. Although the Alianza also made headway in Santa Cruz, Kirchner managed to be re-elected to a third term as governor in May 1999 with 45.7% of the vote. De la Rúa's victory was in part a rejection of Menem's perceived flamboyance and corruption during his last term. De la Rúa instituted austerity measures and reforms to improve the economy; taxes were increased to reduce the deficit, the government bureaucracy was trimmed, and legal restrictions on union negotiations were eased.
These moves did not prevent a deepening of the Argentine economic crisis, however, and a crisis of confidence ensued by November 2001, as domestic depositors began a run on the banks
Bank run
A bank run occurs when a large number of bank customers withdraw their deposits because they believe the bank is, or might become, insolvent...
, resulting in the highly unpopular corralito
Corralito
Corralito was the informal name for the economic measures taken in Argentina at the end of 2001 by Minister of Economy Domingo Cavallo in order to stop a bank run, and which were fully in force for one year. The corralito almost completely froze bank accounts and forbade withdrawals from U.S...
, a limit, and subsequently a full ban, on withdrawals. These developments led to the December 2001 riots
December 2001 riots (Argentina)
The December 2001 uprising was a period of civil unrest and rioting in Argentina, which took place during December 2001, with the most violent incidents taking place on December 19 and December 20 in the capital, Buenos Aires, Rosario and other large cities around the country.- Background :The...
, and to President de la Rúa's resignation on December 21.
A series of interim
Ad interim
The Latin phrase ad interim literally means "in the time between" denotes the meaning of "in the meantime", "for an intervening time" or "temporarily" in the English language...
presidents and renewed demonstrations ended with the appointment of Eduardo Duhalde as interim president in January 2002. Duhalde abolished the fixed exchange rate
Fixed exchange rate
A fixed exchange rate, sometimes called a pegged exchange rate, is a type of exchange rate regime wherein a currency's value is matched to the value of another single currency or to a basket of other currencies, or to another measure of value, such as gold.A fixed exchange rate is usually used to...
regime that had been in place since 1991, and the Argentine peso
Argentine peso
The peso is the currency of Argentina, identified by the symbol $ preceding the amount in the same way as many countries using dollar currencies. It is subdivided into 100 centavos. Its ISO 4217 code is ARS...
quickly devalued
Devaluation
Devaluation is a reduction in the value of a currency with respect to those goods, services or other monetary units with which that currency can be exchanged....
by more than two thirds of its value, diminishing middle-class savings and sinking the heavily import-dependent Argentine economy even deeper, but giving a significant profit boost to Argentinian exports. Amid strong public rejection of the entire political class, characterized by the pithy slogan que se vayan todos ("away with them all"), Duhalde brought elections forward by six months.
2003 presidential election
Even though Kirchner run for presidency with the support of Eduardo Duhalde, he was not the initial candidate chosen by the president. Trying to prevent a third term of Carlos MenemCarlos Menem
Carlos Saúl Menem is an Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. He is currently an Argentine National Senator for La Rioja Province.-Early life:...
, he sought to promote a candidate that may defeat him, but Carlos Reutemann
Carlos Reutemann
Carlos Alberto Reutemann , nicknamed "Lole", is an Argentine former racing driver , and later a politician in his native province of Santa Fe, for the Justicialist Party....
(governor of Santa Fe) did not accept and José Manuel de la Sota
José Manuel de la Sota
José Manuel de la Sota is an Argentine Justicialist Party politician. He was the governor of Córdoba Province from 1999 until 2007.-Biography:...
(governor of Córdoba) did not grow in the polls. He also tried with Mauricio Macri
Mauricio Macri
Mauricio Macri is an Argentine businessman turned politician, and Head of Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Son of Francisco Macri, a businessman of Italian origin prominent in the industrial and construction sectors, he represented the City of Buenos Aires in the Lower House of...
, Adolfo Rodríguez Saá
Adolfo Rodríguez Saá
Adolfo Rodríguez Saá Páez Montero is an Argentine Peronist politician. He was the governor of the province of San Luis during several terms, and briefly served as President of Argentina.-Biography:...
, Felipe Solá
Felipe Solá
Felipe Solá is an Argentine politician of the Justicialist Party and was the governor of the province of Buenos Aires until he left office in 2007....
and Roberto Lavagna
Roberto Lavagna
Roberto Lavagna is an Argentine economist and politician, and was the former Minister of Economy and Production of Argentina from April 27, 2002, to November 28, 2005.-Career:...
, to no avail. He initially resisted helping Kirchner, fearing that he may ignore Duhalde once in the presidency.
Kirchner's electoral promises included "returning to a republic of equals". After the first round of the election, Kirchner visited the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...
, who received him enthusiastically. He also declared he was proud of his radical left-wing political past.
Although Menem, who was president from 1989 to 1999, won the first round of the election on April 27, 2003, he only got 24% of the valid votes — just 2% ahead of Kirchner. This was an empty victory, as Menem was viewed very negatively by much of the Argentine population and had virtually no chance of winning the runoff election. After days of speculation, during which polls forecast a massive victory for Kirchner with about a 30%–40% difference, Menem finally decided to stand down. This automatically made Kirchner president of Argentina, despite having secured only 22% of the votes in the election, the lowest percentage gained by the eventual winner of an Argentine presidential election. He was sworn in on May 25, 2003 to a four-year term of office.
President of Argentina
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
and malnutrition
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
appearing in the lower strata of society. The country was burdened with $178 billion in debt, the government strapped for cash. While associated to the clientelist and nearly feudal style of government of many provincial governors and the corruption of the PJ, Kirchner was comparatively unknown to the national public, and he showed himself as a newcomer who had arrived at the Casa Rosada
Casa Rosada
La Casa Rosada is the official seat of the executive branch of the government of Argentina, and of the offices of the President. The President normally lives at the Quinta de Olivos, a compound in Olivos, Buenos Aires Province. Its characteristic color is pink, and is considered one of the most...
without the usual whiff of scandal about him, trying not to make a point of the fact that he himself had seven times been on the same electoral ballot with Menem.
Shortly after coming into office, Kirchner made changes to the Argentine Supreme Court. He accused certain justices of extortion and pressured them to resign, while also fostering the impeachment
Impeachment
Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as other punishment....
of two others. In place of a majority of politically right-wing and religiously conservative justices, he appointed new ones who were ideologically closer to him, including two women (one of them an avowed atheist). Kirchner also retired dozens of generals, admirals, and brigadiers from the armed forces, a few of them with reputations tainted by the atrocities of the Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
.
Roberto Lavagna
Roberto Lavagna is an Argentine economist and politician, and was the former Minister of Economy and Production of Argentina from April 27, 2002, to November 28, 2005.-Career:...
. Lavagna also declared that his first priority now was social problems. Argentina's default
Default (finance)
In finance, default occurs when a debtor has not met his or her legal obligations according to the debt contract, e.g. has not made a scheduled payment, or has violated a loan covenant of the debt contract. A default is the failure to pay back a loan. Default may occur if the debtor is either...
was the largest in financial history, and ironically it gave Kirchner and Lavagna significant bargaining power with the IMF, which loathes having bad debts on its books. During his first year of office, Kirchner achieved a difficult agreement to reschedule $84 billion in debts with international organizations, for three years. In the first half of 2005, the government launched a bond exchange
Argentine debt restructuring
Argentina went through an economic crisis beginning in the mid-1990s, with full recession between 1999 and 2002; though it is debatable whether this crisis has ended, the situation has been more stable, and improving, since 2003....
to restructure approximately $81 billion of national public debt (an additional $20 billion in past defaulted interest was not recognized). Over 76% of the debt was tendered and restructured for a recovery value of approximately one third of its nominal value.
Under Kirchner, Argentine foreign policy
Foreign relations of Argentina
This article deals with the diplomatic affairs, foreign policy and international relations of Argentina.At the political level, these matters are officially handled by the Ministry of Foreign Relations, also known as the Cancillería, which answers to the President...
shifted from the "automatic alignment" with the United States during the 1990s, to one stressing stronger ties (economic and political) within Mercosur
Mercosur
Mercosur or Mercosul is an economic and political agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Founded in 1991 by the Treaty of Asunción, which was later amended and updated by the 1994 Treaty of Ouro Preto. Its purpose is to promote free trade and the fluid movement of goods, people,...
and with other Latin American countries, and rejecting the Free Trade Area of the Americas
Free Trade Area of the Americas
The Free Trade Area of the Americas , , ) was a proposed agreement to eliminate or reduce the trade barriers among all countries in the Americas but Cuba. In the last round of negotiations, trade ministers from 34 countries met in Miami, United States, in November 2003 to discuss the proposal...
.
Kirchner saw the 2005 parliamentary elections as a means to confirm his political power, since Carlos Menem's defection in the second round of the 2003 presidential elections had not allowed Kirchner to receive the large number of votes that surveys predicted. Kirchner explicitly stated that the 2005 elections would be like a mid-term plebiscite
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
for his administration, and he actively participated in the campaign in most provinces. Due to internal disagreements, the Justicialist Party was not presented as such on the polls but split into several factions. Kirchner's Frente para la Victoria (FPV, Front for Victory) was overwhelmingly the winner (the candidates of the FPV got more than 40% of the national vote), following which many supporters of other factions (mostly those led by former presidents Eduardo Duhalde and Carlos Menem) migrated to the FPV.
Mark Weisbrot
Mark Weisbrot is an American economist, columnist and co-director, with Dean Baker, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. As a commentator, he contributes to publications such as New York Times, the UK's The Guardian, and Brazil's largest newspaper, Folha de S...
of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, suggest that the Argentine experiment has thus far proven successful. Others, such as Michael Mussa, formerly on the staff of the International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
and now with the Peterson Institute, question the longer-term sustainability of Pres. Kirchner's approach.
In a meeting with executives of multinational corporations on Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
—after which he was the first Argentine president to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
—Kirchner defended his "heterodox economic policy, within the canon of classic economics" and criticized the IMF for its lack of collaboration with the Argentine recovery.
On July 2, 2007, President Kirchner announced he would not seek re-election in the October elections, despite having the support of 60% of those surveyed in polls. Instead, Kirchner intended to focus on the creation of a new political party.
Kirchner secured the Presidency of the Justicialist Party
Justicialist Party
The Justicialist Party , or PJ, is a Peronist political party in Argentina, and the largest component of the Peronist movement.The party was led by Néstor Kirchner, President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, until his death on October 27, 2010. The current Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de...
(to which his FPV
Front for Victory
The Front for Victory is a Peronist political party and electoral alliance in Argentina, although it is formally a faction of the Justicialist Party. Both the former President Néstor Kirchner and the current President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner belong to this party, located on the left-wing...
belongs), in April 2008. Following the FPV's loss of 4 Senators and over 20 Congressmen in the June 28, 2009 mid-term elections
Argentine legislative election, 2009
Legislative elections were held in Argentina for half the seats in the Chamber of Deputies and a third of the seats in the Senate on 28 June 2009, as well as for the legislature of the City of Buenos Aires and other municipalities.-Background:...
, however, he was replaced by Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
Governor Daniel Scioli
Daniel Scioli
Daniel Osvaldo Scioli was Vice President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007 and is the current Governor of Buenos Aires Province and the president of the Justicialist Party. He is a sportsman, an entrepreneur and a politician.- Family :...
.
Post-presidency
Kirchner remained a highly influential politician during the term of his successor and wife Cristina Fernández de KirchnerCristina Fernández de Kirchner
Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner , commonly known as Cristina Fernández or Cristina Kirchner is the 55th and current President of Argentina and the widow of former President Néstor Kirchner. She is Argentina's first elected female president, and the second female president ever to serve...
. The press developed the term "presidential marriage" to make reference to both of them at once. Some political analysts compared this type of government with a diarchy
Diarchy
Diarchy , from the Greek δι- "twice" and αρχια, "rule", is a form of government in which two individuals, the diarchs, are the heads of state. In most diarchies, the diarchs hold their position for life and pass the responsibilities and power of the position to their children or family when they...
. He took part in the Operation Emmanuel
Operation Emmanuel
Operation Emmanuel was a humanitarian operation that rescued politician Clara Rojas, her son Emmanuel , and former senator Consuelo González from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in Colombia. The operation was proposed and set up by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, with the permission...
in Colombia to release a group of FARC
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army is a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization based in Colombia which is involved in the ongoing Colombian armed conflict, currently involved in drug dealing and crimes against the civilians..FARC-EP is a peasant army which...
hostages, in December 2007. The Colombian politician Íngrid Betancourt
Íngrid Betancourt
Ingrid Betancourt Pulecio is a Colombian politician, former senator and anti-corruption activist.Betancourt was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia on 23 February 2002 and was rescued by Colombian security forces six and a half years later on 2 July 2008...
was among the group of hostages. Kirchner returned to Argentina after the failure of the negotiations; the hostages were later released a year later by a covert operation by Colombian military forces known as "Operacion Jaque" as a result of the reluctance of the guerilla to release the hostages, including Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans.
Néstor Kirchner took active part in the government conflict with the agricultural sector
2008 Argentine government conflict with the agricultural sector
The 2008 Argentine government conflict with the agricultural sector started in March 2008, which then extended into a prolonged period of turbulent politics...
in 2008. During this conflict he became president of the Justicialist Party
Justicialist Party
The Justicialist Party , or PJ, is a Peronist political party in Argentina, and the largest component of the Peronist movement.The party was led by Néstor Kirchner, President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, until his death on October 27, 2010. The current Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de...
, and declared full support for Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in the conflict. He accused the agricultural sector of attempting a coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
. He was one of the speakers in a demonstration made next to the Argentine National Congress supporting a law project on the matter, that would be voted the following day. Kirchner requested by then to accept the result in the Congress. Many senators who had formerly supported the government's proposal rejected it. The voting ended in a tie with 36 supporting votes and 36 rejecting votes. As a result, vicepresident Julio Cobos
Julio Cobos
Julio César Cleto Cobos is an Argentine politician, currently serving as the Vice President of Argentina alongside President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. He started his political career as member of the Radical Civic Union , becoming Governor of Mendoza in 2003...
, president of the chamber of senators, was required to cast a decisive vote. Cobos voted for the rejection, and the law proposal was rejected.
On June 2009 legislative elections
Argentine legislative election, 2009
Legislative elections were held in Argentina for half the seats in the Chamber of Deputies and a third of the seats in the Senate on 28 June 2009, as well as for the legislature of the City of Buenos Aires and other municipalities.-Background:...
he ran for National Deputy
Argentine Chamber of Deputies
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress. This Chamber holds exclusive rights to create taxes, to draft troops, and to accuse the President, the ministers and the members of the Supreme Court before the Senate....
for the Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
district. He was elected along with other 11 Front for Victory
Front for Victory
The Front for Victory is a Peronist political party and electoral alliance in Argentina, although it is formally a faction of the Justicialist Party. Both the former President Néstor Kirchner and the current President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner belong to this party, located on the left-wing...
candidates, as their ticket arrived close second to the Union PRO
Republican Proposal
Republican Proposal is a right-wing political party in Argentina. It is usually referred to as PRO. PRO was formed as an electoral alliance in 2005, but was transformed into a unitary party on 3 June 2010....
peronist-conservative coalition in that district.
Néstor Kirchner was proposed by Ecuador as a candidate Secretary General of Unasur, but was rejected by Uruguay, at a time when Uruguay and Argentina were debating the Pulp mill dispute. The dispute was resolved in 2010 and the new Uruguayan president, José Mujica
José Mujica
José Alberto "Pepe" Mujica Cordano is a Uruguayan politician and former guerrilla fighter, a member of the Broad Front and current President of Uruguay....
, supported Kirchner's candidacy. Kirchner was unanimously elected the first Secretary General of Unasur, during a Unasur Member States
Member State of the Union of South American Nations
There are currently 12 member states of the Union of South American Nations.Of these, four belong to the Andean Community of Nations , and four to Mercosur.-UNASUL member states:-observer states:...
Heads of State summit held in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
on 4 May 2010. In that role, he successfully mediated in the 2010 Colombia–Venezuela diplomatic crisis
2010 Colombia–Venezuela diplomatic crisis
The 2010 Colombia–Venezuela diplomatic crisis was a diplomatic stand-off between Colombia and Venezuela over allegations in July by Colombian President Álvaro Uribe that the Venezuelan government was actively permitting the FARC and ELN guerrillas to seek safe haven in its territory...
.
Death
Néstor Kirchner died of heart failure on 27 October 2010. He had been expected to run for president in 2011Argentine general election, 2011
Argentina held national presidential and legislative elections on 23 October 2011. Incumbent president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner secured a second term in office after the Front for Victory won just over half of the seats in the National Congress....
.
A wake
Wake (ceremony)
A wake is a ceremony associated with death. Traditionally, a wake takes place in the house of the deceased, with the body present; however, modern wakes are often performed at a funeral home. In the United States and Canada it is synonymous with a viewing...
was held from 28 October at the Casa Rosada
Casa Rosada
La Casa Rosada is the official seat of the executive branch of the government of Argentina, and of the offices of the President. The President normally lives at the Quinta de Olivos, a compound in Olivos, Buenos Aires Province. Its characteristic color is pink, and is considered one of the most...
presidential palace in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
with the attendance of Latin American leaders. For more than 24 hours, hundreds of thousands of people filed past Kirchner's body lying in state, at the Casa Rosada
Casa Rosada
La Casa Rosada is the official seat of the executive branch of the government of Argentina, and of the offices of the President. The President normally lives at the Quinta de Olivos, a compound in Olivos, Buenos Aires Province. Its characteristic color is pink, and is considered one of the most...
. Starting on the afternoon of October 29 a large procession accompanied the remains of Néstor Kirchner from Casa Rosada to the metropolitan airport
Aeroparque Jorge Newbery
-Accidents and incidents:*On 17 December 1969, an Austral Líneas Aéreas C-46 Commando, lost engine 1 due to fuel exhaustion shortly after take-off. The plane failed to gain height and made a crash landing in a small sport field...
, and another from the airport of Río Gallegos to the cemetery. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner , commonly known as Cristina Fernández or Cristina Kirchner is the 55th and current President of Argentina and the widow of former President Néstor Kirchner. She is Argentina's first elected female president, and the second female president ever to serve...
presided over the funeral, making her first public appearance since Néstor's death.
Argentina declared three days of national mourning. Condolences came from the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...
, the European Union, the OAS
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...
, The Union of South American Nations declared three days of national mourning in all South American countries. Eight South American heads of state traveled to Buenos Aires for the funeral and many others offered condolences.
Personal style and ideology
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
president, but that consideration is relative. Although Kirchner was to the left of previous Argentine presidents, from Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín was an Argentine lawyer, politician and statesman, who served as the President of Argentina from December 10, 1983, to July 8, 1989. Alfonsín was the first democratically-elected president of Argentina following the military government known as the National Reorganization...
to Eduardo Duhalde
Eduardo Duhalde
-External links:...
, and contemporary Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...
, he was to the right of other latin american presidents as Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
or Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
. His strong nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
approach to the Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute is closer to Right-wing politics
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
, and he has not considered classic left-wing policies such as socialization
Socialization (economics)
In economic discourse, socialization has several different but related connotations. In socialist economics, the term usually refers to the process whereby production is reorganized away from producing for private profit to producing goods and services directly for use, along with the end of the...
of production or the nationalization
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
of the public services privatized
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
during the presidency of Carlos Menem
Carlos Menem
Carlos Saúl Menem is an Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. He is currently an Argentine National Senator for La Rioja Province.-Early life:...
. He has not attempted either to modify the institutional system, the church–state relations or disestablish the armed forces.
Néstor Kirchner is a Peronist
Peronism
Peronism , or Justicialism , is an Argentine political movement based on the programmes associated with former President Juan Perón and his second wife, Eva Perón...
, and manages the political power as the historical Peronist leaders have traditionally done. One of the characteristics of his political style is the constant generation of controversies
Controversy
Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of opinion. The word was coined from the Latin controversia, as a composite of controversus – "turned in an opposite direction," from contra – "against" – and vertere – to turn, or versus , hence, "to turn...
with other political or social forces, and the polarization
Polarization (politics)
In politics, polarization is the process by which the public opinion divides and goes to the extremes. It can also refer to when the extreme factions of a political party gain dominance in a party. In either case moderate voices often lose power and influence as a consequence.-Definitions of...
of public opinion. This strategy was used against financial sectors, military, police, foreign countries, international bodies, newspapers, and even Duhalde himself, with varying levels of success. The rise of Kirchnerism
Kirchnerism
Kirchnerism is a term used to refer to the political philosophy and supporters of Néstor Kirchner, president of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, and of his wife Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, President from 2007...
reenacted the then outdated rivalry between Peronists and Antiperonists, and the use of the "Gorila" pejorative term.
Kirchner sought to generate an image contrasting that of former presidents Carlos Menem
Carlos Menem
Carlos Saúl Menem is an Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. He is currently an Argentine National Senator for La Rioja Province.-Early life:...
and Fernando de la Rúa
Fernando de la Rúa
Fernando de la Rúa is an Argentine politician. He was president of the country from December 10, 1999 to December 21, 2001 for the Alliance for Work, Justice and Education ....
. Menem was seen as frivolous, and De la Rúa as doubtful, so Kirchner worked to be seen as serious and determined.
Kirchner was a critic of IMF structural adjustment programs. His criticisms were supported in part by former World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
economist Joseph Stiglitz, who opposes the IMF's measures as recessionary and urged Argentina to take an independent path. According to some commentators, Kirchner was seen as part of a spectrum of new Latin American leaders, including Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
in Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...
in Brazil and Tabaré Vázquez
Tabaré Vázquez
Tabaré Ramón Vázquez Rosas is a former President of Uruguay. A physician by training, he is a member of the leftist Frente Amplo coalition . Vázquez was elected president on October 31, 2004, took office on March 1, 2005, and relinquished the office on March 1, 2010...
in Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, who see the Washington consensus
Washington Consensus
The term Washington Consensus was coined in 1989 by the economist John Williamson to describe a set of ten relatively specific economic policy prescriptions that he considered constituted the "standard" reform package promoted for crisis-wracked developing countries...
as an unsuccessful model for economic development in the region.
Kirchner's increasing alignment with Hugo Chávez became evident when during a visit to Venezuela on July 2006 he attended a military parade alongside Bolivian president Evo Morales
Evo Morales
Juan Evo Morales Ayma , popularly known as Evo , is a Bolivian politician and activist, currently serving as the 80th President of Bolivia, a position that he has held since 2006. He is also the leader of both the Movement for Socialism party and the cocalero trade union...
. On that occasion Mr. Chávez called for a defensive military pact between the armies of the region with a common doctrine and organization. Kirchner stated in a speech to the Venezuela national assembly that Venezuela represented a true democracy fighting for the dignity of its people.
Kirchner emphasised holding businesses accountable to Argentine institutions, laws prompting environmental standards, and contractual obligations. He pledged to not open his administration to the influence of interests that "benefited from inadmissible privileges in the last decade" during Carlos Menem
Carlos Menem
Carlos Saúl Menem is an Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. He is currently an Argentine National Senator for La Rioja Province.-Early life:...
's presidency. These groups, according to Kirchner, were privileged by an economic model that favored "financial speculation and political subordination" of politicians to well-connected elites. For instance, in 2006, citing the alleged failure of Aguas Argentinas, a company partly owned by the French utility group Suez, to meet its contractual obligation to improve the quality of water, Kirchner terminated the company's contract with Argentina to provide drinking water to Buenos Aires.
His preference for a more active role of the state in the economy was underscored with the founding, in 2004, of ENARSA
Enarsa
Enarsa , in full Energía Argentina Sociedad Anónima, is a company managed by the national state of Argentina for the integral exploitation of petroleum and natural gas, and the production, industrialization, transport and trade of these and of electricity.Enarsa was founded on December 29, 2004 by...
a new state owned energy company. At the June 2007 Mercosur
Mercosur
Mercosur or Mercosul is an economic and political agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Founded in 1991 by the Treaty of Asunción, which was later amended and updated by the 1994 Treaty of Ouro Preto. Its purpose is to promote free trade and the fluid movement of goods, people,...
summit, he scolded energy companies for their lack of investment in the sector and for not supporting his strategic vision for the region. He said he was losing patience with energy companies as South America's second-largest economy faced power rationing and shortages during the Southern Hemisphere winter. Price controls on energy rates instituted in 2002 are attributed to have limited investment in Argentina's energy infrastructure, risking more than four years of economic growth greater than 8 percent.
Kirchner's collaborators and others who supported him and were politically close to him were known informally as pingüinos ("penguins"), alluding to his birthplace in the cold southern region of Argentina.
Some media and sectors of society also resorted to using the letter K as a shorthand for Kirchner and his policies (as seen, for example, in the controversial group of supporters self-styled Los Jóvenes K, that is "The K Youth", and in the faction of the Radical Civic Union
Radical Civic Union
The Radical Civic Union is a political party in Argentina. The party's positions on issues range from liberal to social democratic. The UCR is a member of the Socialist International. Founded in 1891 by radical liberals, it is the oldest political party active in Argentina...
that supports Kirchner, referred to by the media as Radicales K).
Criticism and controversy
Kirchner was strongly criticized by commentators accusing him of authoritarianismAuthoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
by overly concentrating power in the executive branch and excessive use of decree
Decree
A decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
s. The magazine The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
in 2006 accused Kirchner of "populism
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
", which it describes as a Latin American tendency that the Argentine president shares with a diverse range of figures, such as indigenous Peruvian nationalist Ollanta Humala
Ollanta Humala
Ollanta Moisés Humala Tasso is a Peruvian politician and the President of Peru. Humala, who previously served as an army officer, lost the presidential election in 2006 but won the 2011 presidential election in a run-off vote...
, Mexican social democrat Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good...
, and socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
.
The Wall Street Journal ran an article criticizing the NYSE for choosing Kirchner as a bell ringer, accusing him of being "anti-market."
Joaquín Morales Solá
Joaquín Morales Solá
Joaquín Morales Solá is an Argentine political journalist.Morales Solá was born in Tucumán. He began his career in journalism at age 18, working for a prominent local newspaper, La Gaceta de Tucumán, and at 20 he became a correspondent at the Buenos Aires-based daily Clarín.He studied at the...
, a political columnist for the Argentine newspaper La Nación
La Nación
La Nación is an Argentine daily newspaper. The country's leading conservative paper, the centrist Clarín is its main competitor. It is the only newspaper in Argentina still published in broadsheet format.-Overview:...
, accused Kirchner of having a "personalistic style of governing, with a dose of authoritarianism and hegemony, an aggressive style of induced rupture and confrontation", and recently diverse allegations of cronyism
Cronyism
Cronyism is partiality to long-standing friends, especially by appointing them to positions of authority, regardless of their qualifications. Hence, cronyism is contrary in practice and principle to meritocracy....
and corrupt practices by his government's officials began to mount.
Controversy also arose when the Minister of Economy, Felisa Miceli
Felisa Miceli
Felisa Miceli is an Argentine economist, and a former Minister of Economy and Production of Argentina...
, removed an officer of the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina
National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina
National Statistics and Censuses Institute is the Argentine government agency responsible for the collection and processing of statistical data...
in charge of calculating the inflation indexes, allowing Commerce Secretary Guillermo Moreno
Guillermo Moreno
Guillermo Moreno Garcia is a Dominican lawyer and politician.Moreno served as the Attorney General of the Distrito Nacional from 1996 to 1997, during Leonel Fernandez's first term as president. In the 2008 elections, Moreno was the presidential candidate for the leftist Movement for Independence,...
to hand-pick an official from outside the institution for the post, in what was seen as a move to manipulate official data.
In the last months of his presidency, Kirchner had to weather several scandals. His Minister of Economy Felisa Miceli was forced to resign over more than $60,000 found stashed in a bag in her office bathroom, and a businessman carrying a suitcase with US$800,000 in cash, on a government-hired jet traveling from Venezuela, was discovered at an Argentine airport.
In May 2009, it was reported that the Argentine Intelligence Services
Side
Side was an ancient Greek city in Anatolia, in the region of Pamphylia, in what is now Antalya province, on the southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey...
(SIDE) were allegedly obeying Kirchner's orders in spying and harassing both his opponents as well as fellow Front for Victory
Front for Victory
The Front for Victory is a Peronist political party and electoral alliance in Argentina, although it is formally a faction of the Justicialist Party. Both the former President Néstor Kirchner and the current President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner belong to this party, located on the left-wing...
and Justicialist Party figures to aid him in winning the 2009 mid-term elections
Argentine legislative election, 2009
Legislative elections were held in Argentina for half the seats in the Chamber of Deputies and a third of the seats in the Senate on 28 June 2009, as well as for the legislature of the City of Buenos Aires and other municipalities.-Background:...
, in which his party list struggled. The current SIDE Secretary, Héctor Icazuriaga, attended official acts with Kirchner and "offered political assistance" to him in the weekends at the official residence of the ex President.
In March 2007, it was confirmed that the SIDE had intervened and disrupted calls shortly before Cristina succeeded Néstor in the Casa Rosada; the Federal Police
Policía Federal Argentina
The Policía Federal Argentina is a police force of the Argentine federal government. The PFA has detachments throughout the country, but its main responsibility is policing the Federal District of Buenos Aires...
were linked to a clandestine operation involving the SIDE and 15,000 to 20,000 telephone numbers.
Allegations of embezzlement
Official reports from Argentina's anti-corruption office show that the fortune of the Argentine presidential couple, President Cristina Kirchner and her immediate predecessor and husband, Néstor Kirchner jumped 20.6% in 2009 totaling the equivalent of 14.5 million US dollars, and soared 700% since they first took office in 2003.The couple and several of their closest aides have been accused of purchasing from the Santa Cruz province government (their political turf) land at rock bottom farm prices which rapidly were converted into urban and suburban districts in exclusive resort areas valued in millions of dollars.
Several illicit enrichment claims filed in Buenos Aires did not prosper or were shelved with the same prosecutor involved in all cases.