Often compared to Argentina’s Eva Peron, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner created a legacy of her own this year when she won a landslide reelection, securing 53 percent of the vote – the biggest win since a democracy replaced a seven-year military dictatorship in 1983.
Ms. Fernandez became the first female president elected in this South American country in 2007, and her reelection challenged critics who said she rode the coattails of her husband, former president Nestor Kirchner, into politics.
A veteran lawyer and legislator, Ms. Fernandez entered politics in the 1980s and became a senator in 1995. She and Mr. Kirchner, who passed away in 2010, were close political confidants, practicing unconventional economic policies based on state spending and, until recently, virtually ignoring bondholders trying to collect some of the billions of dollars in Argentina’s unpaid debt. Some say her economic policies put the country at risk due to high – and some say underreported – inflation rates.
Under Fernandez’s leadership, Argentina has made strides to address human rights abuses from the years of dictatorship and became the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage. The president has moved toward negotiations with the IMF over paying Argentina’s debts after years of hostility.
