The government of Argentina supports Cristina Kirchner for the cause of Roads 1:35
(CNN Spanish) --
Since her victory in the 2007 presidential elections, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has established herself as one of the most important figures in politics in Argentina, with followers and critics alike and an enormous influence on life from the country.
Fernández de Kirchner, who already had experience as a deputy and senator, was first lady between 2003 and 2007, and then twice president of Argentina between 2007 and 2015.
Following a return to the Argentine Senate during the Mauricio Macri presidency (2015-2019), Fernández de Kirchner was elected vice president and took office alongside President Alberto Fernández in December 2019.
In the position of vice president, Fernández de Kirchner has continued to exercise enormous influence in the government of Alberto Fernández and in the political life of the country.
And on September 1, in the context of a judicial investigation against him for corruption and in the midst of a series of demonstrations in his favor, Fernández de Kirchner was the victim of an assassination attempt: a man pointed a gun at the vice president and pulled the trigger, but the shot did not go off.
He was arrested by the police immediately afterwards.
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Who is Cristina Fernández de Kirchner?
The beginning
Cristina Fernández was born on February 19, 1953 in the city of La Plata, capital of the province of Buenos Aires, according to the slogan on her personal website.
He studied law at the National University of La Plata, where he also began his political activism in Peronism, the movement and political party (justicialismo) that emerged around former President Juan Domingo Perón and based, according to his own slogans, on social justice, political sovereignty and economic independence.
She married Néstor Kirchner in 1975, and in 1976, after the coup d'état that overthrew the Government of María Estela Martínez de Perón, Perón's widow, and established a violent dictatorship, they settled in the province of Santa Cruz, in the south deep in Patagonia.
There the couple had two children, Máximo, who is currently a national deputy for the province of Buenos Aires and is part of the current coalition, and Florencia.
After the return of democracy in 1983, Fernández de Kirchner and her husband returned to being active in the Justicialista Party.
Kirchner was elected mayor of Río Gallegos, capital of Santa Cruz, in 1987, and governor of the province in 1991. Fernández de Kirchner was elected provincial deputy in 1989, reelected in 1993 and 1995.
An image of the protests in Buenos Aires against President De la Rua, on December 20, 2001. (Credit: ALI BURAFI/AFP via Getty Images)
In 1994 she was a representative of Santa Cruz in the Constitutional Convention that reformed the Constitution of Argentina, and in 1995 she was elected for the first time as a senator for the province of Santa Cruz in the National Congress.
In December 2001, the worst economic crisis in Argentine history erupted: amid high unemployment rates and an economic downturn, the imposition of strong restrictions on money withdrawals from banks —known as the "corralito"— led to a wave of protests violently repressed by the Government.
The crisis led to the resignation of President Fernando De la Rúa and almost two years of economic collapse and political instability.
In this context, Néstor Kirchner competed in the 2003 presidential elections for the Front for Victory —a coalition led by a part of the Justicialismo—, obtaining second place behind former President Carlos Saúl Menem.
The meager votes achieved by both, however, meant that a runoff had to take place, but Menem withdrew from the race in anticipation of defeat, and Kirchner took office as president.
Argentina's President Néstor Kirchner, his wife Cristina Fernández and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva and his wife Marisa visit the Perito Moreno glacier, October 17, 2003. (Credit: GUILLERMO GALLARDO/AFP via Getty Images)
During her years as first lady, Fernández de Kirchner continued her work as a senator for the province of Santa Cruz and, as of 2005, a senator for the province of Buenos Aires.
The two presidencies of Fernández de Kirchner
Nestor Kirchner's presidency was marked by Argentina's economic recovery after the 2001 crisis, based on a sustained increase in the prices of raw materials, especially food, and by income redistribution policies.
But in 2007 Kirchner surprised the electorate by announcing that he would not run for re-election.
Instead, Fernández de Kirchner ran for the Front for Victory and won with 45.29% of the vote.
During his first presidency, Fernández de Kirchner continued with the policies of the previous government, promoting economic growth and social measures, combined with progressive growth of the state.
In those years, his government promoted the Universal Child Allowance, a controversial law on Audiovisual Communication Services, and equal marriage, among other measures.
Also, he returned to nationalize Aerolíneas Argentinas, a historic state-owned air transport company that had been privatized in the previous decade, and nationalized private retirement funds, incorporating them into the National Social Security Administration (ANSES).
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It also faced two major crises: the first in 2008 against the agricultural sectors, which carried out a series of protests and strikes due to an increase in export tariffs, and the second triggered by the international financial crisis that began that same year.
The death of Néstor Kirchner in 2010 due to cardiorespiratory arrest shook the government and the then president.
"It is the greatest pain I have had in my life. It is the loss of who has been my partner for 35 years. A partner in life, in struggle, in ideals. A part of me went with him, he is in Río Gallegos," The president said at that moment on the national chain, dressed in black.
A year later, Fernández de Kirchner was re-elected with 54.11% of the vote, her best electoral performance to date, and the largest majority obtained by any candidate since the return of democracy in 1983.
In his second government, he had to face the stagnation of the economy, which failed to exceed its 2011 peak, which, together with the effects of the Great Global Recession that began in 2008, impacted the government's ability to redistribute income.
One of the main consequences was the high deficit in public accounts based on spending with a strong component of social aid and boosted by nationalizations and energy subsidies -- a problem that still persists and has motivated the current government to try to partially lift it. through a segmentation of rates--, supported in part by the monetary issue.
During these years, inflation and poverty began to grow, and they continue to be two of the main problems, together with the macroeconomic tensions that began during the second government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, today.
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The presidency is remembered for a series of massive protests against him, the largest occurred on November 12, 2012, for restrictions on imports and the purchase of dollars, for the nationalization of the company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) and for a conflict with venture capital funds, also known as vulture funds, which led to a selective cessation of payments and greater obstacles to access to credit in international markets.
Also, by prosecutor Alberto Nisman, whose body was found dead in January 2015 from a shot to the head in the bathroom of his house, four days after denouncing Fernández de Kirchner for alleged cover-up in the framework of the AMIA attack from 1994.
The prosecutor's complaint was later dismissed in three judicial instances, but Justice continues to investigate the causes of his death.
Impeded by the Constitution to run again in the 2015 elections, the Front for Victory took Daniel Scioli, governor of the province of Buenos Aires and former vice president of Néstor Kirchner, as its candidate.
But Mauricio Macri of the Cambiemos coalition won, marking the end of the first 12-year term of what is known in Argentina as "Kirchnerism."
Opposition leader and return to government
Fernández de Kirchner did not hold any position during the first year of the Macri government, but in 2017 she was again elected senator for the province of Buenos Aires.
New trial begins against Cristina F. de Kirchner 5:58
In those years, he also faced a series of judicial investigations against him for corruption —among which the "road" case and the notebooks of alleged corruption stand out—, accusations that Fernández de Kirchner denies.
In May 2019, precisely, the first oral trial against Fernández de Kirchner began for the "road" case, for which the former Minister of Planning Julio De Vido, the construction businessman Lázaro Baez and ten other defendants, all accused of being part of an illegal association to defraud the public administration through public works.
In 2019, amid speculation about a possible candidacy, Fernández de Kirchner announced the formation of a new coalition, the Frente de Todos, to compete in the presidential elections.
But this time, she would be part of the ticket as vice president, together with Alberto Fernández, former chief of staff of Néstor Kirchner who later broke with Kirchnerism, who would be the candidate for president.
"After having been president of that country twice and the first woman elected as such... I remain more convinced than ever that expectations or personal ambition have to be subordinated to the general interest," she said in a promotional video.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Alberto Fernandez.
Also in this year the then senator published her memoir "Sincerely", and the promotion of it became part of the campaign.
After winning the elections against Macri, who was seeking re-election, Fernández and Fernández de Kirchner had to deal with the covid-19 pandemic and its strong impact on the Argentine economy, which had already been dragging a recession since the previous presidency, and the Frente de Todos began to show signs of tension and disintegration at the end of 2021, with major resignations and cabinet changes after a heavy defeat in that year's legislative elections.
In this context, in August of this year the Prosecutor's Office accused Fernández de Kirchner of corruption in the framework of the "road" case.
Specifically, she is accused by the Prosecutor's Office of having led an association to defraud the State when she was president, through the alleged directing of million-dollar contracts for road works in the province of Santa Cruz.
The Prosecutor's Office requested 12 years in prison for the vice president and perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
Fernández de Kirchner, on the other hand, assures that this accusation of corruption is unfounded and that it is a persecution against him and the political project that the Frente de Todos represents.
He said he was not "before a court of the Constitution, but rather before a media-judicial firing squad" and that the sentence against him had already been written.
With information from Emilia Delfino and Iván Pérez Sarmenti.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner