Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations first gentleman
Which position did Néstor Kirchner hold from May 2010 to Oct 2010?
Néstor Kirchner Néstor Carlos Kirchner Jr . ( ; 25 February 195027 October 2010 ) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007 , Governor of Santa Cruz Province from 1991 to 2003 , Secretary General of UNASUR and the first gentleman during the first tenure of his wife , Cristina Fernández de Kirchner . He was President of the Justicialist Party from 2008 to 2010 . Ideologically , he identified himself as a Peronist and a progressive , with his political approach called Kirchnerism . Born in Río Gallegos , Santa Cruz , Kirchner studied law at the National University of La Plata . He met and married Cristina Fernández at this time , returned with her to Río Gallegos at graduation , and opened a law firm . Commentators have criticized him for a lack of legal activism during the Dirty War , an issue he would involve himself in as president . Kirchner ran for mayor of Río Gallegos in 1987 and for governor of Santa Cruz in 1991 . He was reelected governor in 1995 and 1999 due to an amendment of the provincial constitution . Kirchner sided with Buenos Aires provincial governor Eduardo Duhalde against President Carlos Menem . Although Duhalde lost the 1999 presidential election , he was appointed president by the Congress when previous presidents Fernando de la Rúa and Adolfo Rodríguez Saá resigned during the December 2001 riots . Duhalde suggested that Kirchner run for president in 2003 in a bid to prevent Menems return to the presidency . Menem won a plurality in the first round of the presidential election but , fearing that he would lose in the required runoff election , he resigned ; Kirchner became president as a result . Kirchner took office on 25 May 2003 . Roberto Lavagna , credited with the economic recovery during Duhaldes presidency , was retained as minister of economy and continued his economic policies . Argentina negotiated a swap of defaulted debt and repaid the International Monetary Fund . The National Institute of Statistics and Census intervened to underestimate growing inflation . Several Supreme Court judges resigned while fearing impeachment , and new justices were appointed . The amnesty for crimes committed during the Dirty War in enforcing the full-stop and due-obedience laws and the presidential pardons were repealed and declared unconstitutional . This led to new trials for the military who served during the 1970s . Argentina increased its integration with other Latin American countries , discontinuing its automatic alignment with the United States dating to the 1990s . The 2005 midterm elections were a victory for Kirchner , and signaled the end of Duhaldes supremacy in Buenos Aires Province . Instead of seeking reelection , Kirchner stepped aside in 2007 in support of his wife , who was elected president . He participated in Operation Emmanuel to release FARC hostages , and was narrowly defeated in the 2009 midterm election for deputy of Buenos Aires Province . Kirchner was appointed Secretary General of UNASUR in 2010 . He and his wife were involved ( either directly or through their close aides ) in the 2013 political scandal known as the Route of the K-Money , even though no judicial investigation ever found any proof of wrongdoing by Néstor or Cristina Kirchner . Kirchner died of cardiac arrest on 27 October 2010 , and received a state funeral . Early life . Kirchner was born Néstor Carlos Kirchner Jr . on 25 February 1950 , in Río Gallegos , Santa Cruz , a federal territory at the time . His father , Néstor Carlos Kirchner Sr. , 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 . When Kirchner was in high school he briefly considered becoming a teacher , but poor diction hampered him ; he was also unsuccessful at basketball . 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 . Kirchner was not a leader of the group . He was present at the Ezeiza massacre , in which right-wing Peronist snipers opened fire on a celebration of Juan Peróns return at the Ezeiza International Airport . He was also present at the expulsion of Montoneros from Plaza de Mayo . Although Kirchner met many members of the Montoneros , he was not a member of the group . By the time the Montoneros were outlawed by Perón , he had left FURN . In 1974 , Kirchner met Cristina Fernández , three years his junior , and they quickly fell in love . They were married after a courtship limited to six months by the political turmoil in the country . At the civil ceremony , Kirchners friends sang the Peronist song Los Muchachos Peronistas . He graduated a year later , returned to Patagonia with Cristina , and established a law firm with fellow attorney Domingo Ortiz de Zarate . Cristina joined the firm in 1979 . By the time of Kirchners graduation and move to the Patagonia , Juan Perón had died , his vice president and wife Isabel Martínez de Perón had become president . Isabel Perón had been unseated by a coup détat which installed a military government . The Kirchners worked for banks and financial groups which filed foreclosures , since the Central Banks 1050 ruling had raised mortgage loan interest rates , and also acquired 21 real-estate lots for a low price when they were about to be auctioned . Their law firm defended military personnel accused of committing crimes during said war . Forced disappearances were common during the Dirty War , but unlike other lawyers of the time the Kirchners never signed a habeas corpus . 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 . 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 . Kirchner founded the Ateneo Juan Domingo Perón organization , which supported deposed president Isabel Perón and promoted political dialogue with the military . 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 . 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 . 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 . He ran for mayor of Río Gallegos in 1987 , and won by the slim margin of 110 votes . Kirchners 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 . 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 . Governor of Santa Cruz . 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 . When Kirchner took office , Santa Cruz was experiencing an economic crisis , with high unemployment and a budget deficit equal to 1.2 billion pesos , 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 . Kirchner was criticized for preventing the investigation of corruption cases . Santa Cruz received 535 million pesos in oil royalties in 1993 , which Kirchner deposited in a foreign bank . 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 . Menem and Kirchner were reelected to their respective offices in 1995 . Kirchner established a faction in the PJ opposing Menems 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 . The number of state workers grew from 12,000 to 70,000 during Kirchners 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 . 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 . 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 . He slowly restored the economy , and hastened the presidential election when two piqueteros were killed during a demonstration . However , the provincial elections were held on their original dates . 2003 presidential election . 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 . All the Peronist candidates were allowed to run in the general election , using their own tickets . Although Kirchner ran for president with Duhaldes support , he was not the presidents 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 . 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 . Only a handful of Peronist governors supported either candidate ; most remained neutral , awaiting the election to forge a relationship with the victor . 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 . Since Menem was well short of the threshold required to win , a runoff election was scheduled for 18 May . By this time , however , Menems 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 . 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 . Kirchners 22.2 percent is the lowest vote percentage ever recorded for an Argentine president in a free election . 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 Argentinas governors were Peronists . According to journalist Mariano Grondona , Argentine politics had become a dominant-party system . Presidency . First days . Kirchner took office as president of Argentina on 25 May 2003 . Contrary to tradition , the ceremony was held at the Palace of the Argentine National Congress rather than Casa Rosada . He announced that he would spearhead change on many issues , from politics to culture . The ceremony was attended by the provincial governors , Supreme Court president Julio Nazareno , the heads of the armed forces , and Cuban leader Fidel Castro . Raúl Alfonsín was the only former president in attendance . Kirchner walked to the Casa Rosada along Avenida de Mayo , breaking with protocol to get close to the people , and was accidentally hit in the head with a camera . As he was elected with a small percentage of the vote , Kirchner sought to increase his political clout and public image . He sought political allies in all political parties , not just the PJ . The Radicales K supported him from within the UCR . This practice of reaching out to multiple parties became known as Transversalism . Striking an anti-establishment image , Kirchner set about creating a sense of political renewal in Argentina , despite the fact that many of his government associates came from the traditional political class . He retained four members of Duhaldes cabinet . Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna , credited with the economic recovery , was kept to ensure that Kirchner maintained the economic policies laid down during the previous administration . Ginés González García stayed as Minister of Health . Anibal Fernandez was moved to the Ministry of the Interior and José Pampuro to the Defense Ministry . Kirchner brought in four members of his cabinet from his days as governor of Santa Cruz . Alberto Fernández , who organized his political campaign , was appointed chief of the cabinet of ministers . Sergio Acevedo was placed in charge of intelligence . Julio de Vido was appointed Minister of Federal Planning , an office similar to his provincial one . Since the appointment of relatives was not unusual in Argentina , Kirchners appointment of his sister Alicia as Minister of Social Development was uncontroversial . Chancellor Rafael Bielsa was from another political party , FREPASO . Relations with the judiciary . The Argentine judiciary had been unpopular since the presidency of Carlos Menem , most of whose judicial appointments were based on loyalty ; his judiciary was known as the automatic majority . Kirchner sought to remove the most controversial judges and organized the impeachment of Supreme Court president Julio Nazareno , who chose to resign . Judge Adolfo Vázquez also resigned before impeachment , citing personal reasons . Judges Eduardo Moline OConnor and Guillermo López also resigned under similar circumstances . The vacancies were well received by the public , boosting Kirchners popularity . He arranged a new system to appoint judges . Instead of simply proposing a new judge candidate to the Congress , the presidency first released names of a number of potential candidates , who were then evaluated by several non-governmental organizations , who assessed if the candidate was suitable as a judge . The ministry of justice compiled all the support and criticism , and the president then decided which candidate would be proposed to the Congress , which made the final decision , as under the previous system . Raúl Zaffaroni , a former FREPASO politician , was the first judicial appointment under the new system . He was followed by Elena Highton de Nolasco , the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court . The appointment of Carmen Argibay ( another female judge ) was controversial , since Argibay was an atheist and a supporter of legal abortion . The judges held liberal views on criminal justice , countering social demands for harsher , pro-victim policies after the murder of Axel Blumberg . However , the new Supreme Court had little political power , as the national government ignored all rulings that were not favorable . Economic policy . The pillars of the economic plan were trade and fiscal budget surpluses and a high exchange rate for the United States dollar . The surplus was increased by taxes levied during de la Rúas presidency and the devaluation which occurred during the Duhalde administration . Kirchner sought to rebuild the Argentine industrial base , public works and public services , renegotiating the operation of public services privatized by Carlos Menem and owned by foreign companies . His policies were accompanied by a nationalist rhetoric sympathetic to the poor . However , despite the financial prosperity , there was no significant decrease in the number of people living in poverty , which was 8 to 10 million people , or almost 25% of the country . Kirchner and Lavagna negotiated a swap of defaulted national debt in 2005 , a write-down to one-third of the original debt . Kirchner refused a structural adjustment program , and instead made a single payment to the IMF with Central Bank reserves . Although the economy grew at an eight-percent annual rate during Kirchners term , much of its growth was due to favorable international conditions rather than Argentine policies . Argentina was benefited by the increase of the international price of soybean and other foods . However , some argued that this economic growth can also be attributed to Kirchners policies to increase domestic demand . Foreign investment remained low because of the Argentine hostility towards the IMF , the U.S . and the United Kingdom , the re-nationalization of privatized companies ( such as the water supply , managed by the French company Suez ) , diplomatic isolation and state interventionism . The energy sector suffered , and lack of investment reduced energy reserves during the 2000s . Lavagna proposed to slow economic growth and control inflation . Kirchner rejected this , promoting wage increases to reduce economic inequality and extending unemployment insurance and other types of social welfare . Public services such as public transportation , electricity , gas and water supply were subsidized and kept at low prices . Food industries were subsidized as well . The subsidies eventually expanded to several uncommon areas . This increased the economic activity , but also increased inflation and reduced the private investment in those areas . Unable to control inflation , the government influenced the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina , which under-reported it , as well as poverty ( which was calculated with the inflation figures ) . The superpowers law , sanctioned during the crisis , was prorogated and eventually made permanent in 2006 ; this law allowed the president to rearrange the budget with supervision from the Congress . Kirchner sought to win over the Argentine Workers Central Union and leaders of more moderate piquetero factions to reduce the chances of strikes and protests . He nevertheless continued to oppose hard-line elements of the piquetero movement , such as that of Raúl Castells . Kirchners policy helped to fragment the piqueteros , with some declaring their allegiance to him and others continuing to oppose him . Their usual system of protest ( blocking streets ) made them highly unpopular . However , Kirchner refused to suppress the piquetero demonstrations to avoid the risk of further violence . Lavagna refused to run for senator in the 2005 midterm elections , and criticized the overpricing of public works managed by Minister of Federal Planning Julio de Vido . As a result , Kirchner asked Lavagna to resign . Finance secretary Guillermo Nielsen , who managed the debt restructuring , also resigned . Felisa Miceli , head of Banco de la Nación Argentina , replaced Lavagna as Minister of Economy . Miceli resigned in 2007 , months before the presidential elections , because of a scandal over a bag with a large amount of money which was found in her office bathroom . She was replaced by Secretary of Industry Miguel Gustavo Peirano . Foreign policy . Kirchner took a pragmatic approach to Argentine foreign policy , and Argentina–United States relations did not continue the special relations of the 1990s . Chancellor Rafael Bielsa called the relationship between the countries cooperation without cohabitation in contrast to that of the Menem era , which was known as carnal relations . Kirchner opposed the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas , as it was based on majority rule among all the countries of the Americas , whereas he preferred a proportional representation system that would have given the Mercosur bloc more influence . The 4th Summit of the Americas , hosted in Mar del Plata , ended with violent protests against U.S . President George W . Bush ; negotiations stalled , and the FTAA was not implemented . Kirchner told the United Nations that , although he opposed terrorism , he did not support the War on Terror . He refused to receive U.S . Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld , and sent forces to the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti . Kirchner sought increased integration with other Latin American countries . He revived and tried to strengthen the Mercosur trade bloc and improved relations with Brazil , but without automatically aligning with that country , the regional power of South America . The president tried to keep a middle ground between Brazil and Venezuela , since he considered the Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva too conservative , and the Venezuelan Hugo Chávez too anti-American . Kirchner worked with left-wing presidents Lula , Chilean Ricardo Lagos , Chávez , Fidel Castro from Cuba and Evo Morales from Bolivia . He established a political alliance with Chávezs government , and by 2008 , Argentinian exports to Venezuela were quadruple what they were in 2002 . A bilateral military commission was established with Venezuela , through which some technological exchange took place . 2005 midterm elections . Kirchner soon distanced himself from Duhalde , removing those close to the former president from the government to reduce his political influence . He also sought supporters across the social and political spectrum to counter Duhaldes influence in the party . Although Duhalde was not initially against Kirchner , Kirchner tried to prevent the presence of alternative leaderships within the PJ . However , they put their differences behind them during the October 2003 legislative elections . Their dispute was fanned by the political weight of Buenos Aires province ( the most populous in Argentina , with almost 40 percent of the national vote ) , and continued through the 2005 midterm elections . Without consensus in the PJ for a candidate for senator in the Buenos Aires province , both leaders had their wives run for office : Hilda González de Duhalde for the PJ and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for the Front for Victory , which contested the election as a different party . Cristina Kirchner won the election . As in 2003 , the elections were defined by Peronist factions ; the opposition parties could not put up a united national front . The victory gave Kirchner the confidence to remove Lavagna , Rafael Bielsa , Jose Pampuro , and Alicia Kirchner from his cabinet and replace them with ministers who , though less well-known , had perspectives closer to his own . Human rights policy . Although the Dirty War ended in the eighties , Kirchner considered it an unresolved issue . In his inaugural speech , he supported human rights organizations which sought the incarceration of the military connected with the National Reorganization Process . He also ordered the top military leadership to retire . Kirchner sent a bill to the Congress to annul the full stop law and the Law of Due Obedience , which had halted trials of the military for crimes related to the Dirty War . The laws had been repealed in 1998 , but that repeal had little legal significance , as only an annulment would reopen the cases . Although this initiative was opposed by Duhalde and Scioli , most legislators considered it a symbolic gesture since the laws constitutionality would be decided by the Supreme Court . Both laws were annulled by the Congress in August 2003 , and many cases were reopened as a result . The Supreme Court declared the laws , and Menems presidential pardons , unconstitutional in 2005 . Jorge Julio López , witness in a trial of police officer Miguel Etchecolatz , disappeared in 2006 . This caused a national scandal , as it was suspected that he was disappeared to intimidate other witnesses in the upcoming trials , and the government was unable to locate him . Kirchner also changed the extradition policy , allowing extradition for people prosecuted abroad and not facing charges in Argentina . He also supported the requests by human rights organizations to turn the former detention centers into memorials for the disappeared . Argentina became a signatory of the UN Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in 2003 . A creative interpretation of the convention by the courts allowed them to circumvent the statutory limitations to crimes committed decades in the past , and also the ex post facto applicability of laws that were not in force at the time of the crimes . The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo held their final demonstration in 2006 , believing that Kirchner , unlike previous presidents , was not their enemy . They became political allies of Kirchner , who placed them in prominent locations during his speeches , and the group became a powerful NGO . He further underscored civilian control over the military by appointing Nilda Garré — who had been a political prisoner during the Dirty War — the countrys first woman Minister of Defense . As a result of his policies and approach , relations between the civilian authorities and the military remained tense throughout Kirchners presidency . Although Kirchner repudiated the military forces who participated in the Dirty War , he overlooked the guerrilla movements of the time . The government ignored the 30th anniversary of the ERP attack on the tank regiment in Azul and the 15th anniversary of the 1989 attack on La Tablada barracks . According to Rosendo Fraga , Kirchner downplayed the presence of terrorist organizations during the Dirty War . Guerrillas who committed suicide or who were executed by their own organizations were re-categorized in 2006 as victims of state terrorism , and their survivors were compensated by the state . However , victims of the guerrillas were not compensated . Journalist Ceferino Reato said that the Kirchners sought to replace the theory of the two demons , which blamed the Dirty War on both the military and the guerrillas , with a theory of angels and demons , which blamed only the military . After the presidency . 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 . Cristina Kirchner was elected , and Néstor Kirchner became First Gentleman . He remained highly influential during his wifes term , supervising the economy and leading the PJ . Their marriage has been compared with those of Juan and Eva Perón and Bill and Hillary Clinton . He participated in Operation Emmanuel in Colombia in December 2007 , which sought to release a group of FARC hostages , including Colombian politician Íngrid Betancourt . Kirchner returned to Argentina after negotiations failed . The hostages were freed a year later during Operation Jaque , a covert operation by the Colombian military . 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 ; Kirchner accused the agricultural sector of attempting a coup détat . He spoke in support of a bill to set the taxes by law at a demonstration at the Palace of the Argentine National Congress . 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 . 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 years agricultural conflict , which cost them rural support . The Kirchners pushed a media law through during the Congress lame-duck session . 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 . 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 UNASURs first secretary-general at a member-state summit in Buenos Aires on 4 May . Kirchner successfully mediated the 2010 Colombia–Venezuela diplomatic crisis . Style and ideology . Kirchner was often labelled a left-wing and progressive president , with the cultural critic Alejandro Kaufman stating that Kirchner was an Argentine social democrat : a centre-left Peronist , who had been elected on a moderate-progressive platform . However , that assessment is relative . 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 . Kirchners nationalist approach to the Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute was closer to the right , 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 . He did not attempt to modify church–state relations or reduce the armed forces . Kirchners 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 . Usually avoiding long-term policies , he moved left or right according to circumstances . Many leftist activists in Argentina were cynical about the sincerity of his commitment to progressive ideals and to aiding the countrys underclass . A Peronist , Kirchner handled political power as Peronist leaders have traditionally done . He nevertheless sought to portray himself as being different from previous Peronist leaders . 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 . 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 . 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 . 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 . 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 . There were no cabinet meetings during Kirchners 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 . According to analyst Ignacio Arana Araya Kirchner had a disregard for bilateral relations whenever these interfered with his domestic policies . As such he cut down gas export to Chile in 2004 despite Chilean protests , clashed with Uruguay over the envionmental impact of a planned pulp mill and had trade disputes with Brazil . During his tenure Kirchner left in the lurch numerous World leaders , including Trần Đức Lương , the President of Vietnam . Allegations of embezzlement . The Skanska case occurred during Kirchners presidency , during which several members of de Vidos 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 Kirchner out of the government ) , and the tape was accepted as evidence . The Kirchners net worth , as reported to the AFIP revenue service , increased by 4,500 percent between 1995 and 2010 . 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 . 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 . A new case involving both Kirchners was heard by judge Norberto Oyarbide , who acquitted them in 2010 . 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 , and the scandal was known as the Route of the K-Money ( ) . 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 . In April 2016 , Kirchners 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 . At the end of the year , judge Julián Ercolini indicted Cristina Kirchner and several members of their cabinet , charging them with a criminal conspiracy that would have started when Nestor Kirchner first became president . Death . 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 . He had undergone two medical procedures that year : surgery on his right carotid artery in February and an angioplasty in September . His death was a surprise for the Argentinian population , to whom he had always represented his heart problems as not very serious . His body was flown to the Casa Rosada for a state funeral , and three national days of mourning were declared . Kirchners 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 . Kirchners 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 . Attendees at Kirchners funeral included Chávez and Lula da Silva . Legacy . 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 . Initially , the death of Kirchner caused a power vacuum , as Cristina 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 Néstors death , but after being widowed , Cristina Kirchners popularity increased greatly . As a result , she won the reelection in the 2011 general elections by a landslide . The Relato K built a cult of personality around the figure of Kirchner . While in office , Cristina 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 . 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 . 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 . A bill to rename a street after Kirchner was rejected in Apóstoles , Misiones . 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 . 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 . Honours and awards . Foreign honours . - Grand Collar of the Order of the Liberator Honorary degrees . - Fudan University honorary degree , 17 June 2004 . - National University of Entre Ríos posthumous honorary degree , 16 December 2010 . - National University of Lanús posthumous honorary degree , 20 December 2010 . External links . - Néstor Kirchner at the Encyclopædia Britannica - Néstor Kirchner at the Casa Rosada website