Kirchner, Nestor

▪ 2004

      When, on May 25, 2003, Néstor Carlos Kirchner was sworn in as Argentina's sixth president in 18 months, it was an outcome that just six months earlier had seemed the least predictable of the presidential election of 2003. On April 27, in the first round of the election, Kirchner, one of three Partido Justicialista (PJ)/Peronist candidates and a little-known governor of remote Santa Cruz province in Patagonia, finished second with only 22.2% of the vote, trailing former president Carlos Menem, who won 24.4%. Shortly before the runoff scheduled for May 18, Menem withdrew his candidacy, and Kirchner became president-elect by default.

      Kirchner was born on Feb. 25, 1950, in Río Gallegos, capital of Santa Cruz. In 1975 he married a fellow law student, Cristina Fernández, who went on to become his law partner and an equally powerful political actor in Santa Cruz (she was elected to the national Senate in 2001). In 1976 Kirchner graduated with a law degree from the National University of La Plata, where he was a member of the Peronist Youth organization.

      Following graduation and the overthrow of the Peronist government, Kirchner and his wife returned to Santa Cruz. In 1987 Kirchner was elected mayor of Río Gallegos. In 1991 he became governor of Santa Cruz, and, after amending the provincial constitution to eliminate the article prohibiting his immediate reelection, he was reelected in 1995 and, following a second constitutional reform, in 1999.

      The considerable oil reserves in Santa Cruz, combined with the province's small population (197,191 as of 2001), allowed Kirchner a measure of independence from the national government, and he was frequently critical of the administration of President Menem (1989–99).

      Initially, Kirchner's presidential candidacy was not taken very seriously by most observers. A skillful media campaign and the strong support provided by outgoing Pres. Eduardo Duhalde, however, helped Kirchner steadily rise in the opinion polls.

      In Kirchner's first three months in office, he forced top military officials to retire, annulled legislation prohibiting the extradition of military officers accused of human rights abuses (dating to the 1976–83 military dictatorship), and engineered the resignation of the chief justice of the country's Supreme Court. These actions helped him achieve a 75% approval rating. It remained to be seen, however, if Kirchner would be able to successfully navigate between the demands of the International Monetary Fund on issues including Argentina's public-sector debt (much of which was in default) and banking system reform, and utility rate hikes and those of a citizenry still suffering from the worst economic crisis in Argentine history.

Mark P. Jones

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▪ president of Argentina

in full  Néstor Carlos Kirchner 

born Feb. 25, 1950, Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz, Arg.

 

 Argentine lawyer and politician, who was president of Argentina from 2003 to 2007.

      Kirchner studied law at the National University of La Plata, where he was a member of the Peronist Youth organization. In 1975 he married Cristina Fernández, a fellow law student. Following their graduation in 1976, the couple returned to Santa Cruz, where they established a successful law practice in the late 1970s. During the country's military dictatorship (1976–83), Kirchner was briefly imprisoned for his political beliefs. In 1987 he was elected mayor of Río Gallegos, and in 1991 he was elected to the first of three consecutive four-year terms as governor of Santa Cruz. The considerable oil reserves in Santa Cruz, combined with the province's small population, allowed Kirchner a measure of independence from the national government. He was also frequently critical of the administration of Pres. Carlos Menem (Menem, Carlos). Like her husband, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Fernández de Kirchner, Cristina) became a powerful political figure in Santa Cruz, and in 2001 she was elected to the national Senate.

      Largely unknown outside his home province, Kirchner decided to seek the presidency in 2003. Although at first his candidacy was not taken seriously by most observers, he ran a skillful campaign and received the strong endorsement of outgoing Pres. Eduardo Duhalde, who was a key figure in the Peronist party (formally the Justicialist Party [Partido Justicialista; PJ]). In the first round of voting in April 2003, he finished a close second to former president Menem. Shortly before the scheduled runoff, however, Menem—trailing Kirchner by a wide margin in opinion polls—withdrew his candidacy, and Kirchner became president-elect by default. A week later Kirchner was sworn in as president.

      Once in office, Kirchner consolidated his power by taking actions that were popular with the general public. He forced top military officials to retire, annulled legislation prohibiting the extradition of military officers accused of human rights abuses (dating to the 1976–83 military dictatorship), and attacked unpopular institutions such as the Supreme Court and the privately run utility companies. In September 2003 he helped negotiate a debt-restructuring deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after the country defaulted on a $2.9 billion loan.

      Kirchner's economic policies—including his decision to devalue the Argentine peso—brought economic growth, and in legislative elections in October 2005 his faction of the Peronist party gained strength in both houses of the legislature. In one closely watched Senate race in Buenos Aires province, Kirchner's wife easily defeated the wife of former president Duhalde (with whom Kirchner was having a leadership struggle), confirming Kirchner's emergence as the undisputed leader of the Peronists. In December 2005 Kirchner ordered the treasury to repay Argentina's nearly $10 billion debt to the IMF, a small but significant symbolic gesture showing that Kirchner was moving Argentina away from reliance on the IMF and attempting to forge alliances with other populist leaders in Latin America. Despite Kirchner's popularity and his success in reviving Argentina's economy, during his last year in office his administration was tainted by corruption scandals, an energy crisis, and high inflation. Kirchner chose not to seek a second presidential term and announced his support for Sen. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Fernández de Kirchner, Cristina) as the Peronist party presidential candidate in the 2007 elections. She won the election by a significant margin to become Argentina's first elected female president. In April 2008 Néstor Kirchner became the new leader of the Peronist party.

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