BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner — one of the country’s most powerful politicians, along with his wife, current President Cristina Fernandez — died Wednesday of a heart attack. Kirchner, 60, died after being rushed in grave condition to Formenti de Calafate hospital while having a severe heart attack.
He had undergone an angioplasty after a heart attack in September but was still a likely candidate in next year’s presidential election. He also served as secretary general of the Union of South American Republics, or Unasur; was a congressman; and a leader of the Peronist Party.
His body was being flown to Buenos Aires to lie in state in the palace, where a vigil was to begin at noon today.
Kirchner worked hand in hand with his wife to maintain the ruling party’s hold on power. Even more than Fernandez, he was seen as the heir to Argentine strongman Juan Domingo Peron and one of the few people capable of managing Argentina’s unruly and chaotic political scene.
Kirchner was president from 2003 to 2007, bringing Argentina out of a severe economic crisis and encouraging judicial changes that set in motion dozens of human-rights trials involving hundreds of dictatorship-era figures who had previously benefited from an amnesty.
As secretary general of Unasur, Kirchner mediated one of the many border disputes between Venezuela and Colombia.
U.S. President Barack Obama praised Kirchner’s significant roles in Argentina and Unasur. “Michelle’s and my thoughts and prayers are with President Fernandez de Kirchner and their children,” he said.
Born in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Kirchner and his wife were active in the Young Peronists Party as students in La Plata, where he graduated in 1976. With the military firmly ruling the country, the young couple married and worked as private attorneys in the provincial capital, raising two children — Maximo and Florencia. After democracy returned in 1983, Kirchner entered public service, first as the provincial pensions chief and then as mayor of Rio Gallegos.
In 1991, he became Santa Cruz’s governor, and Fernandez was elected to the provincial legislature, pushing through indefinite re-election and filling the provincial courts with sympathetic judges. In 1995, he was re-elected governor by an overwhelming margin, laying the groundwork for a jump to politics at the national level.
When the country suffered an economic crisis and a world-record default in 2001, political unrest and street protests kept a series of presidents from serving out their terms and forced a new election in 2003.
Kirchner, then still a little-known provincial governor, was the choice of outgoing president Eduardo Duhalde, but earned just 22 percent of the vote, trailing former president Carlos Menem with 24 percent in the first round. After polls then showed Kirchner winning overwhelmingly in a runoff election, Menem dropped out, and Kirchner became president-elect.
Outside the palace Wednesday, people hung handwritten signs on a fence. “Thank you, Nestor. You put Argentina on its feet. We’ll miss you,” one read. Another, on note paper, said “Be strong, Cristina.”
