MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina’s most powerful political leader dies in Patagonia

Hyper active former president Nestor Kirchner

Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner (2003/2007), the current president's husband and one of the country's most powerful politicians, died early Wednesday, confirmed state television.

Mr. Kirchner considered President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s closest advisor and a major power broker in her government had been expected to run again for president in next year's election.

“It was a sudden death. There will be an official medical report,” said Kirchner's Doctor Luis Buonomo. The former president died in the Patagonian city of El Calafate where apparently he suffered heart attacks.

Kirchner had a fragile health condition and this year had undergone two serious vascular episodes that demanded surgery.

Last February he had surgery because of an obstruction of his right carotid artery and doctors described the intervention as “successful”. However he was told to slow down his rhythm of activity but a few days later he was back on the political trail.

The last heart episode happened September 11 when he had to be rushed to hospital because of an obstructed coronary artery. He underwent an angioplasty of the coronary arteries, and again the medical report was “successful”. Basically he had a stent encapsulated in his obstructed artery.

In 2004 as president and while resting in his political turf in Patagonia, Kirchner suffered a serious gastric complication because of an irritable colon and had to be hospitalized for almost a week. In 2006, again in El Calafate he fainted.

Together with his wife he was spending time in El Calafate probably until Wednesday/Thursday following medical recommendations.

Kirchner not only was considered a likely candidate in next year's presidential elections but was also head of a union of South American nations Unasur, a congressman and leader of Argentina’s most powerful political movement the Peronist party.

His disappearance questions the continuation of the so-called “K” couple project which started in 2003 with his presidency, followed by his wife Cristina and programmed to repeat in 2011.