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The Cabinet of Néstor Kirchner, today: what happened to the life of the 10 ministers of the first Kirchner government

2023-05-25T17:19:32.163Z

Highlights: Alberto Fernández was the chief of staff during the four years of Néstor Kirchner's mandate. He was part of the Calafate Group that promoted the candidacy of the governor of Santa Cruz. The dialogue with her has been cut off for months and the last time they met in person was on March 1. Today, as Minister of National Security, he is an Albertist crusader, a furious critic of La Cámpora and a critic of Cristina's decisions.


When he arrived at the Casa Rosada, the Santa Cruz native had only 10 ministers and one cabinet chief, Alberto Fernandez. Almost all of them are still in power.


Chief of Staff - Alberto Fernández

Alberto Fernández with Néstor Kirchner in Río Gallegos, days before taking office.

Alberto Fernández was the chief of staff during the four years of Néstor Kirchner's mandate. Considered one of the shipowners of Kirchnerism at the national level, he was part of the Calafate Group that promoted the candidacy of the governor of Santa Cruz and was later appointed as coordinating minister. He held that position during the first months of Cristina Kirchner's presidency and resigned in the midst of the crisis with the countryside, in July 2008.

Today, after being anointed as a candidate by CFK, with whom he was fighting for several years, he is President of the Nation and returned to fight with Cristina, something that in the campaign he had promised never to do again. The dialogue with her has been cut off for months and the last time they met in person was on March 1 for the opening of regular sessions of Congress.

This Thursday, May 25, he was not invited by Cristina Kirchner to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the swearing in of Néstor Kirchner in 2003 in Plaza de Mayo. "I'm not upset, not at all, not at all. Please, let's not look for a title for us to fight. Today we have to be more together than ever," he said. One detail: in his office at the Casa Rosada, the president only has photos with Néstor Kirchner, none with Cristina.

Alberto Fernández going from Casa Rosada to Tedeum in the Cathedral of Buenos Aires in front of a Plaza de Mayo full of Kirchnerist militancy. Photo: Luciano Thieberger.

Minister of the Interior - Aníbal Fernández

Aníbal Fernández with Néstor Kirchner in July 2003.3-7-2003 Kirchner at Peugeot plantPhoto Maria Eugenia Ceruttinestor Kirchner Anibal Fernandez President Argentina visits Peugeot President Argentina visits Peugeot President Argentina visits Peugeot

All-rounder of Buenos Aires politics, he assumed as Minister of the Interior of Kirchner but his was a continuity in Casa Rosada, since he was one of the officials that the Santa Cruz inherited from the management of Eduardo Duhalde, of 2002, when he was Secretary General of the Presidency and Minister of Production.

With Kirchner he assumed in Interior and was in charge of weaving alliances with all the Peronist governors of the country. When Cristina Kirchner took office, she moved to Justice and since then changed jobs often, always in the orbit of the government: he was chief of staff (twice), secretary general of the Presidency (again) and senator.

Verboseage like few, Alberto Fernández rescued him from a retirement from public office that he had self-imposed after losing the governorship of the Province with María Eugenia Vidal. Today, as Minister of National Security, he is an Albertist crusader, a furious critic of La Cámpora and a critic of Cristina's decisions.

Security Minister Anibal Fernandez inaugurated this afternoon an anti-drug delegation of the Argentine Federal Police. Juan Jose Garcia.

Roberto Lavagna - Minister of Economy

Roberto Lavagna with Néstor Kirchner on the presidential plane during a tour of Europe.

A key piece of the Duhalde administration, it was the guarantee of economic continuity after the Kirchner triumph. During the first years of management, his work with Kirchner was optimal but then they began with sparks that detonated in his departure from the Government, when the Santa Cruz asked him to resign.

"According to him, because he had decided to take over the management of the economy, that's what he told me when he asked me to leave the economy ministry," he said years later. Lavagna, however, attributed his unexpected removal to a complaint for overpricing in the public works he had presented.

Years later, he faced Cristina Kirchner in the 2007 elections in an alliance with the UCR and more than a decade later, in 2019, he was a presidential candidate against Alberto Fernández. Currently, he militates against the rift in Argentine society and remains within the non-K Peronism. His last public appearance was in a gesture of support for Juan Schiaretti, governor of Córdoba and presidential candidate.

The governor of Córdoba and presidential candidate, Juan Schiaretti, met with Roberto Lavagna.

Rafael Bielsa - Chancellor

Rafael Bielsa, the first Chancellor of Néstor Kirchner.

When the candidacy of Néstor Kirchner garnered only 1.8% of voting intentions and nothing suggested that he would be president of Argentina, Rafael Bielsa joined the project of the Front for Victory. His commitment and militancy paid off and on May 25, 2003 he was appointed Chancellor, a position he held only two years because in 2005 he headed the list of K deputies in the City and won a place in Congress. Before taking office, he was embroiled in a scandal when he resigned his seat to be ambassador to France at the request of Kirchner, but 24 hours later he resigned from that embassy after a meeting with Alberto Fernández to resume his seat. "The ups and downs are typical of an individual who questions himself morally," he argued. In 2007 he resigned from Congress after losing as a candidate for governor in Santa Fe.

He is currently Argentine ambassador to Chile, appointed by Alberto Fernández, and his management is punctuated by controversies with Gabriel Boric's officials. In the government of Cristina Kirchner he held for two years the head of the Secretariat of Programming for the Prevention of Drug Addiction and the Fight against Drug Trafficking (SEDRONAR) and also worked in the private sector in Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, of the Eurnekian corporation. There he shared offices with Javier Milei, the libertarian economist who is among the preferences for the next presidential elections.

Rafael Bielsa greets Alberto Fernández in Chile, where he is ambassador.

José Pampuro - Minister of Defense

José Pampuro, Kirchner's former defense minister.

"Pepe", as he was known in the corridors of Buenos Aires Peronism, where his ability to engage in political talks between mate and mate was praised, was one of those responsible for Duhalde choosing Néstor Kirchner as his presidential candidate, a decision that catapulted the Santa Cruz as one of the favorites to reach Balcarce 50. A doctor by profession, on May 25, 2003, 20 years ago, he was appointed as Minister of Defense and in 2005 he arrived in the Senate, accompanying the first lady, Cristina Fernández, on the ballot for Province. In that election, he faced his political godfathers: the Duhaldes. "I spent many years with the Duhalde family and today I am convinced that the overcoming political situation is what President Kirchner embodies," he said.

After leaving the Senate, he became a member of the board of Banco Provincia. He died in January 2021 of cancer.

This is how Alberto Fernández said goodbye: "With great pain I learned of the death of my friend José Pampuro. He was Minister of Defense under Néstor Kirchner and accompanied Cristina as a senator in 2005. Pepe was a committed man, who cultivated dialogue and honored the places he occupied in public office. That is how he will be remembered."

Jose Pampuro with other former defense ministers in a 2014 photo.

Minister of Federal Planning - Julio De Vido

Néstor Kirchner with Julio De Vido at an event in September 2003. Photo DyN

An all-powerful minister, he was one of the few who remained untouchable during the first three Kirchner governments. He took office on May 25, 2003 with Néstor Kirchner and left office on December 9, 2015 at the hands of Cristina Kirchner. For two years he served as a national deputy and had privileges that protected him from possible arrest in the allegations of corruption that weighed against him, until October 25 when he was arrested by the Justice in the framework of the case of the notebooks of corruption, after being stripped of his immunity by Congress.

His relationship with Alberto Fernández was never good, but his place in Federal Planning was untouchable at Kirchner's request. Today he is even critical of the vice president. "The mistake is not Alberto's but the one who elected him, it did not generate confidence in me. I don't like the obsequence and I recognize Cristina's leadership, but Cristina was wrong in the choice. Many of us knew what was going to happen," he said.

Julio De Vido at the Comodoro Py Federal Courts in March 2020, after being released from prison. Photo: Luciano Thieberger.

Minister of Justice - Gustavo Beliz

In 2004, Beliz denounced Stiuso hours after Kirchner asked him to resign.

He was the first minister of Néstor Kirchner to leave office and did so in the midst of a tremendous scandal. Beliz left justice after warning Néstor Kirchner that they were being spied on by the SIDE. Hours after being fired, he showed on Mariano Grondona's television program Hora Clave a photo of Jaime Stiuso, one of the SIDE's most powerful spies, something prohibited by the Internal Security Law.

"Who runs the SIDE? It is managed, among other things, by a man who should be the most public man in Argentina, whom everyone is afraid of. When it's mentioned in a meeting everyone says, 'Be careful, don't mess with that guy. Don't mess around because he's a dangerous guy. He can send you to kill, he can put you in very complicated situations, he can arm you with operations." It's this Mr. Jaime Stiuso," he said then.

At that moment he began a political self-exile that led him to live in the United States and work in international organizations – which cost him a lot to enter – and only ended when Alberto Fernández came to power. Beliz was appointed by Fernández as Secretary of Strategic Affairs of the Nation, through which he traveled without many achievements and even some controversy as when he spoke of regulating social networks. He ended up resigning when Sergio Massa was appointed economy minister.

Gustavo Béliz left his political self-exile to take over as an official of Alberto Fernández. He left in the middle of internal with Kirchnerism and Massa. Photo: Rafael Mario Quinteros.

A fact: when he left the government of Néstor Kirchner, in his place assumed Horacio Rosatti, today head of the Supreme Court and judicial enemy number 1 of Kirchnerism and also of Albertism.

Minister of Labor - Carlos Tomada

Carlos Tomada, Minister of Labor under Néstor Kirchner in 2003.

Carlos Tomada was another of the officials who completed the three terms of Kirchnerism with Néstor and Cristina Kirchner. Lawyer, Peronist but who knew how to work under the orders of Ideler Tonelli, minister of Raúl Alfonsín, when Macri took office at Casa Rosada he migrated to the Buenos Aires legislature where he served his four-year term.

Currently, he is one of the political ambassadors appointed by Alberto Fernández in Mexico, a country allied with his administration with Andrés Manuel López Obrador in power. It also has diplomatic interference in Belize.

Carlos Tomada today, in his role as ambassador of Mexico

Minister of Health - Ginés González García

Néstor Kirchner with Ginés González García in the Racing field. The doctor was one of the ministers who continued in Rosada after the assumption of Santa Cruz in 2003.

Minister of Health of Néstor Kirchner, he was the promoter of the law of generic drugs and was called within Peronism as "the best Minister of Health in history". He was appointed by Eduardo Duhalde, in 2002, but continued in the K administration like many of the ministers and secretaries of the first cabinet. When Kirchner handed the baton to his wife Cristina Kirchner, Ginés moved to Chile as ambassador.

He returned to the government at the hands of Alberto Fernández. "The Minister of Health has to be Ginés (González García). One walks and walks and always ends in Ginés. No one knows what is happening in Argentine health like Ginés González García. Thank you, Ginés, because I know that I am putting you back in a mess and I know that you have an enormous will to cope with it," Alberto said when he announced his Cabinet.

On the day of his inauguration on December 10, amid an ovation, he reinforced the idea: "There were more times that we swore him in as minister than we asked for the document." But everything ended in scandal for the VIP vaccination in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, which detonated its exit.

The swearing in of Ginés as Minister of Health with Alberto Fernández. Photo Federico López Claro.

Minister of Social Development - Alicia Kirchner

Alicia to be sworn in on May 25, 2003 as minister of her brother Nestor.

Néstor Kirchner's sister, Alicia Kirchneroccupied the strategic Minister of Social Development, in charge of the millionaire management of welfare plans, and always cultivated a low profile. With more than a decade of experience in those issues in Santa Cruz, in 2005 it was Kirchner's bet to put his last name on the ballot of senators for his province, succeeding his sister-in-law, first lady Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

But her time in the Upper House lasted just eight months and she returned to the ministry, where she had been replaced by Juan Carlos Nadalich. In 2015 she was elected governor of Santa Cruz and reelected in 2019 thanks to the slogan law.

From the Santa Cruz governorship, he promoted the operational clamor for Cristina Kirchner to be a presidential candidate in 2023: "She is the leader in a position to recover the path of joy and dialogue."

Alicia Kirchner.

Minister of Education, Science and Technology - Daniel Filmus

Daniel Filmus with Néstor Kirchner.

Many times the road ends where it began and Daniel Filmus could be the exponent of that in these 20 years of Kirchnerism, although devalued in his functions. Appointed by Néstor in 2003 as Minister of Education, Science and Technology, he held that position during the four years of the first Kirchnerism and then was a candidate for senator for the City of Buenos Aires, although his maximum aspiration was always to be head of Government.

He competed unsuccessfully in 2007 and 2011, losing to PRO. He was also a parliamentarian of Mercosur, national deputy and twice occupied the Malvinas secretariat, created during the government of Cristina Kirchner.

In 2021, amid an oxygenation of the Cabinet, Alberto Fernández appointed him as Minister of Science and Technology. Today, he sounds like a candidate again in City.

Daniel Filmus at a PJ congress in Ferro. Photo Juano Tesone.

See also

Elections 2023, LIVE: Agustín Rossi assured that the Frente de Todos "is the force that has the most guaranteed pass to the second round"

Cristina Kirchner's act in Plaza de Mayo, LIVE: what time does the vice president speak this May 25

Source: clarin

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