Death of Argentina's 'great patriot'

Former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner, the current president's husband and a contender to succeed her in next year's election, died from a heart attack yesterday.

Mr Kirchner, 60, was considered president Cristina Fernandez's closest adviser and a major power broker in her government.

"It was a sudden death," Mr Kirchner's doctor, Luis Buonomo, said after the former president died in the southern city of El Calafate, where the presidential couple have a weekend home.

Kirchner was a centre-leftist member of the dominant Peronist party and served as president from 2003 to 2007, when he oversaw Argentina's recovery from a devastating economic crisis. Many Argentines credit him with putting South America's second-largest economy back on its feet.

Even more than Ms Fernandez, he was seen as the heir to Argentina's strongman Juan Domingo Peron and one of the few people capable of managing Argentina's unruly and chaotic political scene.

With him gone, Ms Fernandez is likely to face many new threats to her leadership.

Argentina's most powerful union leader, Hugo Moyano, quickly expressed his allegiance, ordering an emergency board meeting of the General Labour Confederation, or CGT.

He said: "We will express our total support for the tenure of Cristina Kirchner so that the political and economic model her husband began in 2003 goes forward."

"He did a lot for the country. The country was broken, destroyed and he straightened things out," said Lito, 67, a Buenos Aires taxi driver. "He was in love with politics, and he was a strong man, but in the end politics was stronger than him."

"A great patriot has died," said Juan Carlos Dante Gullo, a ruling party congressman, to state TV.

"This will leave a huge hole in Argentine politics. We will have to follow his example. Argentina has lost one of its greatest men."

The leader of the human rights group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto, said Mr Kirchner "gave his life for his country".

"Our country needed this man so much. He was indispensable," she told radio Continental.

Mr Kirchner was, however, reviled by critics as authoritarian.

He was widely expected to run in next year's presidential election but concerns over his health increased after he underwent arterial procedures in February and September.

His wife's government said Mr Kirchner was rushed to hospital early yesterday after suffering an apparent heart attack.

Mr Kirchner was a combative politician.Like his wife, he peppered his presidential speeches with outspoken criticism of big business and political rivals, which made him a polarising figure in the turbulent world of Argentine politics.

When farmers rebelled over a tax rise on soy exports in 2008, he accused them of being coup plotters and he told supporters to boycott companies who hiked prices.

Mr Kirchner focused on cementing political alliances at home to shore up his administration and that of his wife, but he also forged close links abroad with Latin American left-wingers such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

"Oh my dear Cristina… how sad! What a huge loss suffered by Argentina and our America! May Kirchner live forever!" Mr Chavez tweeted.

Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos asked for a moment of silence in Bogota in Mr Kirchner's honour.

"It's a great loss for Argentina and great loss for the continent," he said, adding he would contact Ms Fernandez to offer his condolences.