Néstor Kirchner, former President of Argentina, died of heart failure on the morning of 27 October 2010 at the Jose Formenti hospital in El Calafate, Santa Cruz Province at the age of 60.

Presidents Evo Morales, José Mujica, Sebastián Piñera, Fernando Lugo, Rafael Correa, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Juan Manuel Santos and Hugo Chávez joined her at the wake.

Thousands of them spent the night in the open waiting for the state funeral to take place[12] There were posters bearing the slogan "Néstor forever, hang in there Cristina."

Mourners and supporters waved hundreds of banners and chanted slogans as they waited to file past Kirchner’s body lying in state.

[7][13] Starting on the afternoon of 29 October, a massive popular procession accompanied the remains of Néstor Kirchner from Casa Rosada to the metropolitan airport.,[8] and then from the airport of Río Gallegos to the cemetery.

[29] The OAS underlined his "tireless efforts and dedication towards Human Rights promotion through the hemisphere,"[30] while UNASUR declared three days of national mourning in all South American countries.

He fought all his life for profound changes in his country and Latin America, and worked from different agencies for social justice, equity, democracy and integration".

[citation needed] Eight South American Heads of State (Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Sebastián Piñera of Chile, José Mujica of Uruguay, Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Rafael Correa of Ecuador) traveled to Buenos Aires[32] and many other offered condolences including Barack Obama of the United States,[33] Queen Elizabeth II,[34][35] Felipe Calderón of Mexico, Alan García of Peru, Álvaro Colom of Guatemala, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, Giorgio Napolitano of Italy, Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, Aníbal Cavaco Silva of Portugal,[29] Bronisław Komorowski of Poland,[36] Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of Spain and German Chancellor Angela Merkel[37] Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez,[28] Mexican president Felipe Calderón, President of Chile Sebastián Piñera and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega all lauded his contributions to Latin America.

Argentina lost a statesman who collaborated in the development of his country, its economic recovery and the growth of its international standing [...] He was one of the architects of Latin American regional integration.

"[29] The government of China issued a statement saying "Kirchner was a good friend of the Chinese people and greatly contributed to the development of the China-Argentina strategic partnership.

The Federal Peronism party considered Mauricio Macri, Eduardo Duhalde, Alberto Rodríguez Saá, Mario Das Neves, Felipe Solá and Carlos Reutemann.

[45] The death of Kirchner generated as well a rise in the number of hawks within the government, mainly Amado Boudou, Juan Manuel Abal Medina and the Cámpora.