Néstor Kirchner

Néstor Carlos Kirchner (born 25 February 1950) is the current President of Argentina. He was sworn in on May 25, 2003. A Peronist with leftist leanings, Kirchner was governor of the province of Santa Cruz prior to being elected president.

Governor of Santa Cruz

When Kirchner entered the governor's office, the province of Santa Cruz — which then contributed only one percent to Argentina's gross national product, primarily through the production of raw materials (mostly oil) — was being battered by the ongoing economic crisis, with high unemployment and a budget deficit equal to USD $1.2 billion. He arranged for substantial investments to stimulate productivity, the labor market, and consumption, and concentrated on eliminating hyperinflation through monetary policy and deregulation, which Carlos Menem, who was elected president in 1989, had been doing on a national level. By eliminating unproductive expenditures and cutting back on tax exemptions for the key petroleum industry, Kirchner restored the financial equilibrium of the province. Through his expansionist and social policies, Kirchner was credited with bringing a substantial measure of prosperity to Santa Cruz. Subsequent studies showed that the province had the best distribution of wealth and lowest levels of poverty in the country, second only to the province of Buenos Aires.

Related Topics:
Gross national product - Oil - USD - Carlos Menem - 1989

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Kirchner emerged as a center-left Peronist, critical of both Menem's far-reaching neoliberal model but also the syndicalist bureaucracy of the PJ. He attached great importance to not only careful management of the budgetary deficits but also economic growth based on domestic production, not speculation. He was also considered a progressive in human rights issues, voicing his opposition to Menem's decision in 1990 to grant a presidential pardon to the leaders of the Videla junta.

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Kirchner's tasks as governor were made easier by the modest scale of the province's economic base and its limited labor market. Critics claimed he was was no different from most of the other Peronist governors, and when push came to shove, he also relied on personalism and authoritarianism, above all in his handling of the provincial media and appointing his judges. Public control of job positions and a heavily-subsidized economy also lent itself to clientism typical in the semi-feudal environment of the remote provinces.

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In 1994 and 1998, Kirchner introduced amendments to the provincial constitution, so as to enable him to run for re-election indefinitely, something that Menem later tried to imitate at the national level. As a member of the 1995 Constituent Assembly organized by Menem and former president Raúl Alfonsín, Kirchner participated in the elaboration of a new Argentine constitution, which made possible for the president to be re-elected to a second four-year term.

Related Topics:
1995 - Raúl Alfonsín

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In 1995, with his constitutional reforms in place, Kirchner was easily re-elected to second term in office, with 66.5% of the votes. But by now, Kirchner was distancing himself from the charismatic and controversial Memen, who was also the nominal head of the PJ; this was made particularly apparent with the launch of the "Corriente Peronista", an initiative supported by Kirchner to create space within the Movimiento Justicialista to confront the problems facing the country.

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The decision of Menem in 1998 to stand for re-election a second time, by means of an ad hoc interpretation of a constitutional clause, met with strong resistance among Peronist rank-and-file, who were finding themselves under increasing pressure due to the highly controversial social and economic policies of the Menem administration. Kirchner joined the camp of Menem's chief opponent within the PJ, the governor of the Buenos Aires province (and later president) Eduardo Duhalde.

Related Topics:
1998 - Eduardo Duhalde

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The elections of 24 October 1999 were a major upset for the PJ; Duhalde was beaten by Fernando de la Rúa, the Alianza candidate, and the party lost its majority in Congress. Alianza also made headway in Santa Cruz, but Kirchner nonetheless managed to be re-elected to a third term in May of that year with 45.7% of the vote. De la Rúa's victory was in part a rejection of Menem's perceived flamboyance and corruption during his last term. De la Rúa instituted austerity measures and reforms to improve the economy; taxes were increased to reduce the deficit, the government bureaucracy was trimmed, and legal restrictions on union negotiations were eased.

Related Topics:
24 October - 1999 - Fernando de la Rúa - Congress

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By late 2000, the Argentine economy was deep in recession and the country was forced in to seek help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and private banks to reduce its debt. In December 2000, an aid package of nearly USD $40 billion was arranged, and the government announced a $20 billion public works program that was designed to help revive the economy. Despite measures designed to revive it, the economy remained in recession, however, aggravating the problems posed by the debt and by the restrictions that the IMF imposed in return for aid. Unemployment rose to around 20% at the end of 2001. In November, the government began restructuring the debt, putting it essentially in default. Ongoing economic problems led to a crisis of confidence as depositors began a run on the banks, resulting in the highly unpopular "corralito", a limit, and subsequently a full ban, on withdrawals. The IMF took a hard line, insisting on a 10% cut in the budget before making further payments.

Related Topics:
2000 - International Monetary Fund - December

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Nationwide food riots, strikes, and demonstrations erupted in late December, leading De La Rúa to resign. A series of interim presidents and renewed demonstrations ended with the appointment of Duhalde as interim president in January 2002, to serve until new presidential elections in 2003. Duhalde devalued the peso, which lost more than two thirds of its value, decimating middle-class savings. There was a strong public rejection of the entire political class, characterized by the pithy slogan que se vayan todos ("away with them all").

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