Néstor Carlos Kirchner Ostoić (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈnestoɾ ˈkaɾlos ˈkiɾʃneɾ] ⓘ; 25 February 1950 – 27 October 2010) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the president of Argentina from 2003 to 2007.

He and his wife were involved (either directly or through their close aides) in the 2013 political scandal known as the Route of the K-Money, even though no judicial investigation ever found any proof of wrongdoing by Néstor or Cristina Kirchner.

Kirchner joined the University Federation for the National Revolution (FURN), a political student group whose relationship with the Montoneros guerrillas is a matter of debate.

Puricelli sought to unify the local Peronist movement by adding members of the other factions into his government, and appointed Kirchner president of the provincial social-welfare fund.

The ceremony was attended by the provincial governors, Supreme Court president Julio Nazareno, the heads of the armed forces, and Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Kirchner walked to the Casa Rosada along Avenida de Mayo, breaking with protocol to get close to the people, and was accidentally hit in the head with a camera.

The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights compiled all the support and criticism, and the president then decided which candidate would be proposed to the Congress, which made the final decision, as under the previous system.

[56] The judges held liberal views on criminal justice, countering social demands for harsher, pro-victim policies after the murder of Axel Blumberg.

[64] Although the economy grew at an eight-percent annual rate during Kirchner's term, much of its growth was due to favorable international conditions rather than Argentine policies.

Kirchner rejected this, promoting wage increases to reduce economic inequality[68] and extending unemployment insurance and other types of social welfare.

[72] Kirchner sought to win over the Argentine Workers' Central Union and leaders of more moderate piquetero factions to reduce the chances of strikes and protests.

[73] Lavagna refused to run for senator in the 2005 midterm elections and criticized the overpricing of public works managed by Minister of Federal Planning Julio de Vido.

[78] The 4th Summit of the Americas, hosted in Mar del Plata, ended with violent protests against U.S. President George W. Bush; negotiations stalled, and the FTAA was not implemented.

He revived and tried to strengthen the Mercosur trade bloc and improved relations with Brazil,[82] but without automatically aligning with that country, the regional power of South America.

[83] The president tried to keep a middle ground between Brazil and Venezuela, since he considered the Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva too conservative, and the Venezuelan Hugo Chávez too anti-American.

Kirchner worked with left-wing presidents Lula, Chilean Ricardo Lagos, Chávez, Fidel Castro from Cuba and Evo Morales from Bolivia.

[85] Their dispute was fanned by the political weight of Buenos Aires province (the most populous in Argentina, with almost 40 percent of the national vote),[86] and continued through the 2005 midterm elections.

[105] He participated in Operation Emmanuel in Colombia in December 2007, which sought to release a group of FARC hostages, including Colombian politician Íngrid Betancourt.

At that time, he became president of the Justicialist Party and publicly supported his wife in the conflict;[112] Kirchner accused the agricultural sector of attempting a coup d'état.

[115] In the June 2009 legislative elections, Kirchner was defeated by Francisco de Narváez of the Union PRO coalition for National Deputy of Buenos Aires Province.

The dispute was resolved in 2010; new Uruguayan president José Mujica supported Kirchner, who was unanimously elected UNASUR's first secretary-general at a member-state summit in Buenos Aires on 4 May.

[123] Kirchner's nationalist approach to the Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute was closer to the right,[124] and he did not consider left-wing policies such as the socialization of production or the nationalization of public services which were privatized during the Menem presidency.

[124] Kirchner's economic views were influenced by his tenure in the government of Santa Cruz: a province rich in oil, gas, fish and tourism, with an economy focused on the primary sector.

[36] Most Peronists simply defected to the new party, and the end of the economic crisis and the discretionary control of state finances allowed Kirchner to discipline his allies and co-opt his rivals.

[129] As such he cut down gas export to Chile in 2004 despite Chilean protests, clashed with Uruguay over the environmental impact of a planned pulp mill and had trade disputes with Brazil.

[137] The TV program Periodismo para todos aired an investigation in 2013, detailing a case of embezzlement and an associated money trail involving the Kirchners and businessman Lázaro Báez.

Báez received 95 percent of the requests for tender in Santa Cruz province since 2003, more than four billion pesos,[138] and the scandal was known as the Route of the K-Money (Spanish: La ruta del dinero K).

[139] In April 2016, Kirchner's secretary and confidant Daniel Muñoz (who died early that year) was identified in the Panama Papers as owner of real-estate investment firm Gold Black Limited.

Presidents Manuel Quintana, Roque Sáenz Peña and Roberto María Ortiz died in office, but none of them had a political clout comparable to that of Kirchner.

She broke with allies of her husband, such as the union leader Hugo Moyano, and increased the political clout of the youth wing La Cámpora instead.