Cristina Fernández de Kirchnerpresident of Argentina née Cristina Fernández

born Feb. 19, 1953, La Plata, Arg.

Argentinian lawyer and politician who in 2007 became the first female elected president of Argentina. She succeeded her husband, Néstor Kirchner, who had served as president from 2003 to 2007.

Fernández attended the National University of La Plata, where she met Kirchner, a fellow law student. In 1975 she and Kirchner married. One year later, after the military junta seized control of Argentina, the couple fled La Plata for Néstor’s hometown of Río Gallegos in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz. There they opened a law practice and, with the return of democracy in 1983, became active in electoral politics. Fernández de Kirchner was a provincial delegate to the Justicialist (Peronist) Party (PJ) convention in 1985 and was later elected to the provincial legislature. Her husband won election as mayor of Río Gallegos in 1987, and in 1991 she became the first lady of Santa Cruz when her husband was elected to the first of three consecutive four-year terms as provincial governor.

Fernández de Kirchner twice represented Santa Cruz in the Argentine Senate (1995–97, 2001–05). She also served (1997–2001) in the Chamber of Deputies. During her tenure in Congress, she was one of the PJ’s most vocal critics of the Peronist administration of Pres. Carlos Menem, voting frequently against his legislative initiatives. Her husband assumed the presidency on May 25, 2003, after Menem—facing a certain loss to Kirchner in a second-round runoff—withdrew from that year’s presidential race.

In 2005 Kirchner was in a struggle with former president Eduardo Duhalde for control of the PJ in the crucial province of Buenos Aires, where 38 percent of the Argentine population resided. The struggle peaked in October when Fernández de Kirchner squared off against Duhalde’s spouse, Hilda González de Duhalde, in the Buenos Aires province senatorial election. In that contest Fernández de Kirchner won 46 percent of the vote, easily defeating González de Duhalde, who claimed just 20 percent. While the high-profile victory helped her husband win acknowledgment as the undisputed leader of Peronism, it also reaffirmed Fernández de Kirchner’s growing political influence and helped insulate her against charges of inexperience during her own run for the presidency in 2007.

In 2007 Kirchner decided not to run for reelection, and Fernández de Kirchner began campaigning for the presidency. She held a commanding lead in the polls, and in the election on October 28 she captured 45 percent of the final presidential vote tally, nearly double that of her closest competitor, Elisa Carrió, who garnered 23 percent. Fernández de Kirchner formally assumed office on Dec. 10, 2007, to begin a four-year term. Almost immediately she encountered criticism from the United States, which claimed it had intercepted campaign funds sent from the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chávez.

The following spring Fernández de Kirchner imposed a new tax system to significantly increase export taxes on grains in an attempt to control Argentine food prices. Her actions were met with large-scale strikes and protests by farmers’ unions throughout the country, who complained that the increase would reduce their profits. Roadways were blocked so grain trucks could not pass, resulting in food shortages. The strikes continued for four months and split the country into sides: those who supported the government and those who advocated for the farmers. In June Fernández de Kirchner agreed to submit the measure to Congress. The increase in taxes was approved by the Chamber of Deputies but was rejected by the Argentine Senate by one vote.