Néstor Kirchner

Kirchner was born on 25 February 1950, in Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz, a federal territory at the time. His father, Néstor Carlos Kirchner, of German-Swiss descent, met the Chilean María Juana Ostoić, of Croatian descent, by telegraphy. They had three children: Néstor, Alicia, and María Cristina. Néstor was part of the third generation of Kirchners living in the city. As a result of pertussis, he developed strabismus at an early age; however, he refused medical treatment because he considered his eye part of his self-image.[4] When Kirchner was in high school he briefly considered becoming a teacher, but poor diction hampered him;[5] he was also unsuccessful at basketball.[4]

Kirchner (second-from-right) during a political rally, after the National Reorganization Process allowed political activity.

Kirchner moved to La Plata in 1969 to study law at the National University. During this period, the decline of the Argentine Revolution, the return of former president Juan Perón from exile, the election of Héctor Cámpora as president, his resignation and the election of Perón, and the beginning of the Dirty War had led to severe political turmoil. Kirchner joined the University Federation for the National Revolution (FURN), a political student group whose relationship with the Montoneros guerrillas is a matter of debate.[6] Kirchner was not a leader of the group.[6] He was present at the Ezeiza massacre, in which right-wing Peronist snipers opened fire on a celebration of Juan Perón's return at the Ezeiza International Airport.[7] He was also present at the expulsion of Montoneros from Plaza de Mayo.[7] Although Kirchner met many members of the Montoneros, he was not a member of the group.[8][9] By the time the Montoneros were outlawed by Perón, he had left FURN.[10][11]

In 1974, Kirchner met Cristina Fernández, three years his junior, and they quickly fell in love.[12] They were married after a courtship limited to six months by the political turmoil in the country. At the civil ceremony, Kirchner's friends sang the Peronist song "Los Muchachos Peronistas". He graduated a year later, returned to Patagonia with Cristina,[6] and established a law firm with fellow attorney Domingo Ortiz de Zarate. Cristina joined the firm in 1979.[13] By the time of Kirchner's graduation and move to the Patagonia, Juan Perón had died, his vice president and wife, Isabel Perón, had become president. Isabel Perón was unseated by a coup d'état which installed a military government. The Kirchners worked for banks and financial groups which filed foreclosures, since the Central Bank's 1050 ruling had raised mortgage loan interest rates,[13] and also acquired 21 real-estate lots for a low price when they were about to be auctioned.[14] Their law firm defended military personnel accused of committing crimes during said war.[15] Forced disappearances were common during the Dirty War, but unlike other lawyers of the time the Kirchners never signed a habeas corpus.[16] Julio César Strassera, prosecutor in the 1985 Trial of the Juntas case against the military, criticized the Kirchners' lack of legal actions against the military, and considered their later interest in the issue a form of hypocrisy.[16]

The Dirty War eventually ended, and the National Reorganization Process allowed political activity in preparation for a return to democracy. Kirchner led one of the three internal factions of the local Justicialist Party (PJ), but Peronist Arturo Puricelli prevailed in the primary elections.[17] Kirchner founded the Ateneo Juan Domingo Perón organization, which supported deposed president Isabel Perón and promoted political dialogue with the military.[14] Cristina Fernández became an attorney of the PJ in Santa Cruz, with the help of Rafael Flores, a former friend from the FURN. Raúl Alfonsín, who was running for president for the Radical Civic Union (UCR), denounced an agreement between the military and the Peronist unions which sought an amnesty for the military. Kirchner organized a rally on behalf of Rodolfo Ponce, a union leader mentioned by Alfonsín in his denouncement.[14] Alfonsín won the 1983 presidential election, and Puricelli was elected governor of Santa Cruz. Puricelli sought to unify the local Peronist movement by adding members of the other factions into his government, and appointed Kirchner president of the provincial social-welfare fund.[14][18]

Kirchner quickly expanded the activities and scope of his office, building a parallel state. This soon started a conflict with Puricelli. Instead of being fired, Kirchner resigned and accused the governor of reducing the funds for social-welfare.[18] He ran for mayor of Río Gallegos in 1987, and won by the slim margin of 110 votes. Kirchner's friend, Rudy Ulloa Igor, helped him to victory by registering some groups of Chilean immigrants to vote (immigrants were allowed to vote in mayoral elections), and persuading them to vote for Kirchner.[19][20] Julio de Vido and Carlos Zannini began working with Kirchner at this time. Kirchner used the state-owned media to promote his activities. The Peronist Ricardo del Val was elected governor that year, and the province was impacted by inflation in 1989. Kirchner became the main opponent of del Val, who was impeached and removed from office in 1990 due to the inflation crisis.[19][21]

Néstor Kirchner in 1992

Kirchner ran for governor of Santa Cruz in 1991. Although he received only 30 percent of the vote, below the 36 percent of the UCR, he was elected due to the Ley de Lemas that added the votes for the Peronist faction of Puricelli to his own.[19][22] When Kirchner took office, Santa Cruz was experiencing an economic crisis, with high unemployment and a budget deficit equal to 1.2 billion pesos,[23] which amounted to an equal number of U.S. dollars because of the Convertibility plan. He expanded the number of provincial Supreme Court justices from three members to five and appointed three judges loyal to him; this gave him control of the provincial judiciary.[24][25] Kirchner was criticized for preventing the investigation of corruption cases.[25] Santa Cruz received 535 million pesos in oil royalties in 1993, which Kirchner deposited in a foreign bank.[26] He was elected to the Constituent Assembly which drafted the 1994 amendment of the Argentine Constitution proposed by the Peronist president Carlos Menem. Kirchner voted against the amendment that would allow the reelection of the president, which was approved. Locally, he proposed an amendment to the provincial constitution authorizing indefinite reelection of the governor.[27] Menem and Kirchner were reelected to their respective offices in 1995. Kirchner established a faction in the PJ opposing Menem's neoliberal economic policies, but Eduardo Duhalde, governor of the populous Buenos Aires province, ignored him and rallied a stronger opposition to Menem within the PJ.[27]

The number of state workers grew from 12,000 to 70,000 during Kirchner's administration. The creation of private-sector jobs in the province was minimal, and private companies were driven away. A local journalist interviewed by journalist Jorge Lanata said that this placed de facto restrictions on economic freedom and allowed Kirchner to control the population. Most available jobs were in public works.[28][29]

With Menem constitutionally restricted from running for a third presidential term, Duhalde ran for president in 1999. Kirchner sided with Duhalde in his dispute with Menem, and sought reelection as governor of Santa Cruz. The PJ was defeated on the national level by the radical Fernando de la Rúa, who became president. Kirchner was reelected, despite the growth of the UCR in the province.[30] Following an economic crisis, De la Rúa resigned two years later during the December 2001 riots. The Congress appointed Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, governor of San Luis, as interim president. When Rodríguez Saá also resigned, Duhalde was appointed president. He was the politician with the highest legitimacy to be appointed president, as he had placed second in the 1999 elections and won the 2001 legislative elections in the Buenos Aires province, the district of Argentina with the largest population.[31] He slowly restored the economy, and hastened the presidential election when two piqueteros were killed during a demonstration.[32] However, the provincial elections were held on their original dates.[33]

Presidential ballot of the Néstor Kirchner – Daniel Scioli ticket.

Carlos Menem ran for a new term as president in 2003, and Eduardo Duhalde tried to prevent it. Instead of holding primary elections within the PJ, the 2003 elections used a variant of the Ley de Lemas.[34] All the Peronist candidates were allowed to run in the general election, using their own tickets. Although Kirchner ran for president with Duhalde's support, he was not the president's first choice. Trying to prevent a third term for Menem, Duhalde approached Santa Fe governor Carlos Reutemann and Córdoba governor José Manuel de la Sota; Reutemann declined, and De la Sota did not run because he was insufficiently popular. Duhalde also unsuccessfully approached Mauricio Macri, Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, Felipe Solá, and Roberto Lavagna, all of whom refused to run. Duhalde initially resisted supporting Kirchner, fearing that Kirchner would ignore him if elected.[35] Kirchner run on the Front for Victory ticket, one of the several fronts put up by the PJ. Since Kirchner was identified with the centre-left, Duhalde appointed the centre-right Daniel Scioli as his vice-presidential candidate.[36] Only a handful of Peronist governors supported either candidate; most remained neutral, awaiting the election to forge a relationship with the victor.[37]

The general election was held on 27 April. Menem won the first round with 24.5 percent of the vote, followed by Kirchner with 22.2 percent. The conservative Ricardo López Murphy finished third, substantially behind the two main candidates.[38] Since Menem was well short of the threshold required to win, a runoff election was scheduled for 18 May. By this time, however, Menem's public image had deteriorated, and polls showed Kirchner receiving 60 to 70 percent of the vote. To avoid a humiliating defeat, Menem pulled out of the runoff in a move criticized by the other candidates.[25][39] The judiciary declined requests for a new election and refused to sanction a runoff election between Kirchner and López Murphy, although López Murphy said he would not have participated in any event. The election was validated by the Congress, and Kirchner became president on 25 May 2003. Kirchner's 22.2 percent is the lowest vote percentage ever recorded for an Argentine president in a free election.[40]

Local elections were held in October. The mayor of Buenos Aires, Aníbal Ibarra, was reelected in a runoff against Mauricio Macri. Neither were Peronists, but Ibarra supported Kirchner and Macri was supported by Duhalde. Duhalde remained an influential figure in the Buenos Aires province; his ally Felipe Solá was elected governor by a landslide, and the PJ received its highest number of deputies since 1983 and won mayoral elections in several cities lost to the UCR in 1999. The three leading candidates in the Buenos Aires province were all Peronists. Victories in the other provinces gave the PJ control of the Congress, and three-quarters of Argentina's governors were Peronists. According to journalist Mariano Grondona, Argentine politics had become a dominant-party system.[41]

Kirchner returns to Argentina after the unsuccessful Operation Emmanuel.

Kirchner did not run for a reelection in the 2007 presidential elections. His wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, ran instead. Media observers suspected that Kirchner stepped down as president to circumvent the term limit, swapping roles with his wife.[109][110][111] Cristina Kirchner was elected, and Néstor Kirchner became First Gentleman.[109] He remained highly influential during his wife's term,[112] supervising the economy and leading the PJ.[110] Their marriage has been compared with those of Juan and Eva Perón and Bill and Hillary Clinton.[109]

He participated in Operation Emmanuel in Colombia in December 2007, which sought to release a group of FARC hostages, including Colombian politician Íngrid Betancourt.[113] Kirchner returned to Argentina after negotiations failed.[114] The hostages were freed a year later during Operation Jaque, a covert operation by the Colombian military.[115]

Néstor Kirchner played an active role in the 2008 government conflict with the agricultural sector, when Cristina Kirchner introduced a new sliding-scale taxation system for agricultural exports that raised custom taxes to soybean exports to 44%. At that time, he became president of the Justicialist Party and publicly supported his wife in the conflict;[116] Kirchner accused the agricultural sector of attempting a coup d'état.[117] He spoke in support of a bill to set the taxes by law at a demonstration at the Palace of the Argentine National Congress.[118] Many senators who had supported the government rejected the proposal, and the voting was tied 36–36. Vice-president Julio Cobos, president of the Chamber of Senators, cast the decisive vote in opposition to the measure.[119]

In the June 2009 legislative elections, Kirchner was defeated by Francisco de Narváez of the Union PRO coalition for National Deputy of Buenos Aires Province. The Front for Victory was defeated in the Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and Córdoba, and the Kirchners lost the Congressional majority. Voter disenchantment with the Kirchners was caused by inflation, crime and the previous year's agricultural conflict, which cost them rural support.[120] The Kirchners pushed a media law through during the Congress' lame-duck session.[121] The Kirchners described it as an antitrust law to limit media ownership, but critics considered instead that it was used to reduce the freedom of the press.[122]

Kirchner was nominated by Ecuador for Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), but was rejected by Uruguay when Uruguay and Argentina were involved in a pulp-mill dispute. The dispute was resolved in 2010; new Uruguayan president José Mujica supported Kirchner, who was unanimously elected UNASUR's first secretary-general at a member-state summit in Buenos Aires on 4 May.[123] Kirchner successfully mediated the 2010 Colombia–Venezuela diplomatic crisis.[124]

Kirchner delivering a speech

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Kirchner was often labelled a left-wing and progressive president,[2][3] with the cultural critic Alejandro Kaufman stating that Kirchner was "an Argentine social democrat: a centre-left Peronist",[125] who had been elected on a "moderate-progressive" platform.[126] However, that assessment is relative.[127] Although he was left of previous Argentine presidents from Raúl Alfonsín to Eduardo Duhalde and contemporary Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, he was right of other Latin American presidents such as Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro.[127] Kirchner's nationalist approach to the Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute was closer to the right,[128] and he did not consider left-wing policies such as the socialization of production or the nationalization of public services which were privatized during the Menem presidency.[128] He did not attempt to modify church–state relations or reduce the armed forces.[128] Kirchner's economic views were influenced by his tenure in the government of Santa Cruz: a province rich in oil, gas, fish and tourism, with an economy focused on the primary sector.[84] Usually avoiding long-term policies, he moved left or right according to circumstances.[129] Many leftist activists in Argentina were cynical about the sincerity of his commitment to progressive ideals and to aiding the country's underclass.[130]

A Peronist, Kirchner handled political power as Peronist leaders have traditionally done.[94] He nevertheless sought to portray himself as being different from previous Peronist leaders.[131] He made frequent use of controversies with other political or social forces and the polarization of public opinion, which became characteristic of his political style.[132] This strategy was used against the financial sector, the military and police, foreign countries, international bodies, newspapers, and Duhalde himself with varying degrees of success.[133] Kirchner sought to generate an image contrasting with those of former presidents Carlos Menem and Fernando de la Rúa. Menem was seen as frivolous and De la Rúa as doubtful, so Kirchner tried to be seen as serious and determined.[134]

He sought to concentrate political power, and the emergency superpowers law giving discretionary powers to the president to change the national budget was periodically renewed. The Front for Victory (conceived as a lema of the PJ) became a political alliance of the PJ, pro-Kirchner factions in other parties, and minor left-wing parties. The progressivist population, lacking leadership since the crisis which discredited the UCR, also supported the new coalition.[34] Most Peronists simply defected to the new party, and the end of the economic crisis and the discretionary control of state finances allowed Kirchner to discipline his allies and co-opt his rivals. As a consequence, the Congress became compliant and the opposition was unable to present a credible alternative to the government. In addition to concentrating power, Kirchner micromanaged most government tasks or assigned them to trusted aides regardless of cabinet hierarchy. He managed relations with the United States and Brazil, leaving relations with Bolivia and Venezuela in the hands of Minister of Federal Planning Julio de Vido.[129] There were no cabinet meetings during Kirchner's presidency, rare in a national government; this may have been influenced by his governance of Santa Cruz, a sparsely-populated province in which the cabinet was of little use and decisions were primarily made by the governor.[135]

Kirchner had a disregard for bilateral relations whenever these interfered with his domestic policies.[136] As such he cut down gas export to Chile in 2004 despite Chilean protests, clashed with Uruguay over the environmental impact of a planned pulp mill and had trade disputes with Brazil.[136][137] During his tenure Kirchner left in the lurch numerous World leaders,[136] including President of Vietnam Trần Đức Lương.[138]

Kirchner was a staunch opponent of capital punishment and manifested his posture in the aftermath of the Execution of Saddam Hussein, when, while acknowledging the crimes committed by Hussein, he called for the abolishment of capital punishment, condemning the execution.[139]

The Kirchners' net worth

The Skanska case occurred during Kirchner's presidency, during which several members of de Vido's ministry were accused of bribery in requests for tender for pipeline construction, based on a tape recording of Skanska employees discussing the bribes. The case was closed in 2011, when it was ruled that the tape was not acceptable evidence and there was no overpricing. It was reopened in 2016 (with Cristina Fernández de Kirchner no longer president), and the tape was accepted as evidence.[140]

The Kirchners' net worth, as reported to the AFIP revenue service, increased by 4,500 percent between 1995 and 2010.[141] A substantial increase occurred in 2008, from 26.5 million to 63.5 million Argentine pesos, due to the sale of long-owned land, hotel rentals, and time deposits in Argentine pesos and U.S. dollars. They founded a business-consulting company, El Chapel and established the Hotesur SA and Los Sauces firms to manage their luxury hotels in El Calafate. The Kirchners expanded Comasa, a firm of which they had a 90-percent ownership. Their salaries as politicians were 3.62 percent of their total earnings.[142]

Kirchner was tried for unjust enrichment in 2004, with the case focusing on the increase in his wealth from 1995 to 2003. The case was first heard by judge Juan José Galeano and moved to judge Julián Ercolini, who acquitted him in 2005.[143] A new case involving both Kirchners was heard by judge Norberto Oyarbide, who acquitted them in 2010.[144]

The TV program Periodismo para todos aired an investigation in 2013, detailing a case of embezzlement and an associated money trail involving the Kirchners and businessman Lázaro Báez. Báez received 95 percent of the requests for tender in Santa Cruz province since 2003, more than four billion pesos,[145] and the scandal was known as the Route of the K-Money (Spanish: La ruta del dinero K). In the 2014 Hotesur scandal, a company owned by Báez rented more than 1,100 rooms per month at Kirchner family hotels even when they were unoccupied. A money-laundering scheme was suspected, funnelling public-works money to the Kirchner family.[146]

In April 2016, Kirchner's secretary and confidant Daniel Muñoz (who died early that year) was identified in the Panama Papers as owner of real-estate investment firm Gold Black Limited. Company director Sergio Todisco was investigated by prosecutors who suspected that the company was used for money laundering.[147] At the end of the year, judge Julián Ercolini indicted Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and several members of their cabinet, charging them with a criminal conspiracy that would have started when Néstor Kirchner first became president.[148]

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Hugo Moyano at Kirchner's funeral

Kirchner died on 27 October 2010, at the age of 60. The day was a national holiday for the INDEC to run a national census, so he was at home in El Calafate. Kirchner was rushed to a local hospital and was pronounced dead at 9:15 a.m. from cardiac arrest.[110] He had undergone two medical procedures that year: surgery on his right carotid artery in February[149] and an angioplasty in September.[150] His death was a surprise for the Argentine population, to whom he had always represented his heart problems as not very serious.[151]

His body was flown to the Casa Rosada for a state funeral, and three national days of mourning were declared. Kirchner's funeral was attended by thousands, despite heavy rain. According to media reports, 1,000 people per hour entered the Casa Rosada in groups of 100 to 150. Cristina Kirchner, dressed in mourning, stood next to the coffin. People brought candles, flags and flowers, some of which Cristina accepted personally.[111]

Kirchner's death evoked international reactions moments after it was announced, with Brazil and Venezuela also declaring three national days of mourning. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the Organization of American States declared a moment of silence, and U.S. president Barack Obama sent condolences.[150] Attendees at Kirchner's funeral included Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.[111]

The Mausoleum of Néstor Kirchner in Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz was built by Lázaro Báez.[152]

Although Kirchner was known to have health problems, his death was unexpected, and had a great impact on the politics of Argentina. Kirchner died at an early age, while still being a highly influential figure in politics, despite not being president at the time. Presidents Manuel Quintana, Roque Sáenz Peña and Roberto María Ortiz died in office, but none of them had a political clout comparable to that of Kirchner. President Juan Perón had a similar power and died in office, but his death was not unexpected, as he had already reached the life expectancy of the time. Other figures of the history of Argentina who achieved great political clout, such as José de San Martín, Juan Manuel de Rosas, Julio Argentino Roca, Carlos Pellegrini and Hipólito Yrigoyen, all died when they were already retired from politics, or even abroad.[153]

Initially, the death of Kirchner caused a power vacuum, as Cristina Fernández de Kirchner had ruled so far as a figurehead, while Néstor Kirchner still managed the government. She changed the style of the government making it more authoritarian, and more critical of the United States. She broke with allies of her husband, such as the union leader Hugo Moyano, and increased the political clout of the youth wing La Cámpora instead. She also relied on her public image more than her husband had. The popularity of the Kirchners had been in a decline at the time of Néstor's death, but after being widowed, Fernández de Kirchner's popularity increased greatly. As a result, she won the reelection in the 2011 general elections by a landslide.[154]

The Relato K built a cult of personality around the figure of Kirchner. While in office, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner avoided referring to him by name, and talked instead about "He" or "Him", with emphasis on the pronoun and with a universally capitalized form. As in the English language, in the Spanish language this figure of speech is usually reserved to make reference to God.[155][156] Kirchner was also compared with San Martín, in an attempt to raise him to a similar status as a national hero. This comparison was included, for instance, in an official video by the ministry of social welfare.[157] A month after his death many districts renamed streets, schools, neighbourhoods, institutions and other places after "Néstor Kirchner". Some noteworthy examples are the Néstor Kirchner Cultural Centre (formerly "Bicentennial Cultural Centre") and the second leg of the 2010–11 Argentine Primera División season. The change proved controversial in some cities, such as Caleta Olivia, where the renamed street was formerly named after the Falklands War veterans.[158] A bill to rename a street after Kirchner was rejected in Apóstoles, Misiones.[158] No renaming bill was even considered in Buenos Aires, as a previous law only allowed streets to be named after people who had died at least a decade before.[158] The presidency of Mauricio Macri proposed a bill in 2016 to forbid any public places or institutions from being named after people unless they had died at least two decades before; if approved, all the state properties named after Kirchner would have to be renamed.[159]

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Néstor Kirchner

• Néstor Kirchner at the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Néstor Kirchner at the Casa Rosada website (in Spanish)