Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner dies

[arcos]

Source: AP

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner died Wednesday after suffering heart attacks, state television reported.

The husband of Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez succumbed heart trouble as the couple waited in their home in the Patagonian city of Calafate to be counted in the nation's census. Fernandez was at his side when he died, state television reported.

Kirchner, 60, had undergone an antioplasty after a heart attack in September.

Kirchner a likely candidate in next year's presidential elections, was secretary general of the South American alliance known as Unasur and also served as a congressman and leader of the Peronist party.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101027/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_argentina_obit_kirchner

[EFerrari]

1. Oh, no!

Very sad news.

[bemildred]

2. RIP. nt

[harmonicon]

3. how sad

He seemed to have really brought some sense and order to the country when it really needed it. Mostly, how awful for his poor wife; it's not as if her job wasn't hard enough already.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Former Argentina President Kirchner dies

Former Argentina President Kirchner dies
By the CNN Wire Staff
October 27, 2010 12:43 p.m. EDT

Buenos Aires, Argentina (CNN) -- Former Argentinian President Nestor Kirchner died Wednesday of a heart attack, state media reported.

Kirchner, 60, was president from 2003-2007 and was the husband of current President Cristina Fernandez. He died shortly before 10 a.m. at a hospital near his summer residence in El Calafate, a small town in southern Argentina, according to the official Telam news agency.

"A patriot has died," congressman Juan Carlos Dante Gullo said on the state-run Vision 7 TV network. "Argentina has lost one of its best men."

His wife was with Kirchner when he died at a hospital, state media reported.

More:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/27/argentina.kirchner.dies/index.html

[Judi Lynn]

5. This man was imprisoned and tortured during the Dirty War, which destroyed at least 30,000 citizens.

The George H. W. Bush's family friend, impeached former Argentinian President Carlos Saul Menem, tried to make sure those responsible were never brought to trial by awarding blanket immunity for all those involved in hellish atrocities.

Nestor Kirchner brought in the cleansing, searing light of truth back to Argentina, and opened investigation of the absolute evil which controlled Argentina all those years, all done with U.S. friendship, and complete acknowledgement from the U.S. White House, receiving encouragement in their violent oppression from Henry Kissinger personally.

DU'er HuckleB provided some very useful, helpful links which can bring some depth to this subject:

"Four angry generals, five miffed governors and a pair of missing oil paintings were not enough to prevent President Nestor Kirchner from commemorating the dead of Argentina's "dirty war" with two powerfully symbolic acts Wednesday that hit hard at the legacy of the country's former military dictators.

Kirchner dedicated the Museum of Memory at the Navy Mechanics School, former site of a concentration camp where thousands of prisoners were tortured and murdered from 1976 to 1983 under military rule.

"I come to ask for forgiveness on behalf of the state for the shame of having remained silent about these atrocities during 20 years of democracy," Kirchner said at a rally outside the school. "And to those who committed these macabre and sinister acts, now we can call you what you are by name: You are assassins who have been repudiated by the people."
...

"Never again can we allow constitutional order to be subverted in Argentina," Kirchner said at a separate ceremony at the college. "It is the people of Argentina, with their vote, who will define the destiny of Argentina."

More:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=444113

~~~~~
Concerning the link I added to HuckleB's thread, I just checked it, and it has changed to this:

http://www.desaparecidos.org/nuncamas/web/english/library/nevagain/nevagain_001.htm

This is an extensive report translated to English on the horrendous war against the left in Argentina. From the Prologue:

Nunca Más (Never Again)

~snip~
From the huge amount of documentation we have gathered, it can be seen that these human rights were violated at all levels by the Argentine state during the repression carried out by its armed forces. Nor were they violated in a haphazard fashion, but systematically, according to a similar pattern, with identical kidnappings and tortures taking place throughout the country. How can this be viewed as anything but a planned campaign of terror conceived by the military high command? How could all this have been committed by a few depraved individuals acting on their own initiative, when there was an authoritarian military regime, with all the powers and control of information that this implies? How can one speak of individual excesses? The information we collected confirms that this diabolical technology was employed by people who may well have been sadists, but who were carrying out orders. If our own conclusions, seem insufficient in this respect, further proof is furnished by the farewell speech given to the Inter-American Defence junta on 24 January 1980 by General Santiago Omar Riveros, head of the Argentine delegation: ‘We waged this war with our doctrine in our hands, with the written orders of each high command.’ Those members of the Argentine military juntas who replied to the universal outcry at the horror by deploring ’excesses in the repression which are inevitable in a dirty war’, were hypocritically trying to shift the blame for this calculated terror on to the individual actions of less senior officers.

The abductions were precisely organized operations, sometimes occurring at the victim’s place of work, sometimes in the street in broad daylight. They involved the open deployment of military personnel, who were given a free hand by the local police stations. When a victim was sought out in his or her home at night, armed units would surround the block and force their way in, terrorizing parents and children, who were often gagged and forced to watch. They would seize the persons they had come for, beat them mercilessly, hood them, then drag them off to their cars or trucks, while the rest of the unit almost invariably ransacked the house or looted everything that could be carried. The victims were then taken to a chamber over whose doorway might well have been inscribed the words Dante read on the gates of Hell: ’Abandon hope, all ye who enter here’,

Thus, in the name of national security, thousands upon thousands of human beings, usually young adults or even adolescents, fell into the sinister, ghostly category of the desaparecidos, a word (sad privilege for Argentina) frequently left in Spanish by the world’s press’.

~snip~
All sectors fell into the net: trade union leaders fighting for better wages; youngsters in student unions, journalists who did not support the regime; psychologists and sociologists simply for belonging to suspicious professions; young pacifists, nuns and priests who had taken the teachings of Christ to shanty areas; the friends of these people, too, and the friends of friends, plus others whose names were given out of motives of personal vengeance, or by the kidnapped under torture. The vast majority of them were innocent not only of any acts of terrorism, but even of belonging to the fighting units of the guerrilla organizations: these latter chose to fight it out, and either died in shootouts or committed suicide before they could be captured. Few of them were alive by the time they were in the hands of the repressive forces.

More:
http://www.desaparecidos.org/nuncamas/web/english/library/nevagain/nevagain_002.htm

Report of Conadep (National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons) - 1984

http://www.desaparecidos.org/nuncamas/web/english/library/nevagain/nevagain_001.htm

[Capitalocracy]

6. I think you may have him confused

with Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile who was tortured under Pinochet.

If I'm not mistaken, the Kirchners laid low in Patagonia during the military dictatorship.

If I'm wrong, please point me in the right direction. :hi:

[Judi Lynn]

8. Both Nestor Kirchner AND Michelle Bachelet, as well as her mother, and her father,

a high ranking Chilean officer were all tortured in Argentina, and in Chile.

Quick Bachelet reference:

Michelle Bachelet was born in Santiago, Chile, on September 29, 1951. Her father, Alberto Bachelet, was an air force brigadier general who died after being tortured for his opposition to Augusto Pinoche's regime. Her mother, an archaeologist, was imprisoned in a torture center with Michelle in 1975, and went into exile with her.

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/headsofstate20012010/p/bachelet_chile.htm

[Judi Lynn]

9. Here's one quick note about it added to a linked LA Times article,

~snip~
DUMPED IN THE OCEAN FROM MILITARY AIRCRAFT

Many bodies were never recovered, the victims were often tortured, shot and buried in mass graves, or drugged and dumped in the ocean from military aircraft. The brutality of the junta set a dark standard at a time when military regimes governed much of South America. The court ruling illustrates how Argentina, under the leadership of its centre-left President, Nestor Kirchner, has moved more forcefully than any Latin American nation to make the leaders of former military governments answer for the crimes they committed.

Mr Kirchner, who sat out much of the dictatorship in the relative safety of his native Patagonia, has said that "only God" can issue pardons and has pressed for the revocation of various amnesties and pardons approved under previous governments.

{Mr. Kirchner has NOT 'sat out' the dictatorship: he was himself maltreated a couple of times by the Videla mafia. Now he's fighting for his life: the global banks on one hand and Chavez of Venezuela helping him. But the banking mafia has him by some very essential male parts. Let's see who wins or gets castrated. - HR}

More:
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/05-02-07/discussion.cgi.57.html

I'll look for more references when time permits.

~~~~~
On edit, adding another reference.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
FORMER ARGENTINA DICTATOR JAILED: ZORREGUIETA NEXT?

~snip~
KIRCHNERS PUSH HUMAN RIGHTS

But Argentine 'assistant-president' Nestor Kirchner - who was jailed and maltreated by the Videla-junta himself - has pushed a human rights agenda, and persuaded, when he was president, Congress already in 2003 to annul two laws from the 1980s that pardoned human rights abusers. In 2005 the Supreme Court in Argentina declared those same two 'amnesty laws' unconstitutional.

http://fpfcaresse5.blogspot.com/2010/04/former-argentina-dictator-jailed.html

[Judi Lynn]

11. Here's another reference to Kirchner and prison:

Argentina 'Dirty War' moms claim victory
( 2003-08-22 09:39) (Agencies)

~snip~
President Nestor Kirchner, who was briefly held by the military as a student, had pushed for the laws to be repealed ¡ª a decision that led to tensions with Vice President Daniel Scioli, who opposed the move.

http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-08/22/content_257234.htm

[Peace Patriot]

7. This is a great loss to Argentina and to Latin America.

Nestor Kirchner was shaping up to be a great statesman for peace and social justice in the region, much like Brazil's Lula da Silva has become. He was a very important player, for instance, in the recent peace accord between Colombia and Venezuela. As president of Argentina, he pulled Argentina out of one of the worst IMF-World Bank induced economic disasters, as well as supporting the opening of records, investigations and prosecutions of war criminals from the prior decades of U.S.-supported fascist tyranny.

This statement of his resonates in my mind: When the Bushwhacks sent down their dictate to South American leaders, that they must "isolate" Hugo Chavez, Nestor Kirchner replied, "But he's my brother!" To me, this summed up the new spirit of cooperation in Latin America, brought on by the great success of the leftist democracy movement throughout the region. Latin American countries have strengthened their individual national sovereignty by banding together, watching each other's backs and proceeding with economic/political integration. Their goal is an EU-type organization and a common market. The U.S. has ravaged Latin America with "divide and conquer" tactics, militarism (the infamous U.S. "war on drugs") and gross interference of every kind, including USAID funding of rightwing and fascist groups throughout the region, all on behalf of U.S. multinational corporations and war profiteers. Latin America has begun to fight back in the only way that it can do so, peacefully, by pulling together and achieving collective clout both inside and outside of the U.S.-dominated OAS. Nestor Kirchner has been a quiet but mighty force in those efforts.

What a loss! I am shocked by it. I didn't know of Kirchner's prior heart trouble and he was a very tall, skinny man--not an obvious candidate for heart disease. He looked like the type who would live to a hundred--but of course you never know.

Such great courage he had, in so many ways!

:cry: :grouphug: :cry:

[Billy Burnett]

13. A great loss to humanity.

This world needs more brave persons like him.

I am glad to have had the privilege to have been alive during his (and many other brave Bolivarians) tenure on this planet.


VIVA Néstor Carlos Kirchner!

[Odin2005]

10. Oh no!

:(

[Judi Lynn]

12. Néstor Kirchner: Argentina's independence hero

Néstor Kirchner: Argentina's independence hero
The death of Argentina's former president is a sad loss. His bold defiance of the IMF paved the way for South America's progress
Mark Weisbrot guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday 27 October 2010 20.20 BST

The sudden death of Néstor Kirchner is a great loss, not only to Argentina but to the region and the world. Kirchner took office as president in May 2003, when Argentina was in the initial stages of its recovery from a terrible recession. His role in rescuing Argentina's economy is comparable to that of Franklin D Roosevelt in the Great Depression of the United States. Like Roosevelt, Kirchner had to stand up both to powerful moneyed interests and to most of the economics profession, which was insisting that his policies would lead to disaster. They were proved wrong, and Kirchner right.

Argentina's recession from 1998-2002 was, indeed, comparable to the Depression in terms of unemployment, which peaked at more than 21%, and lost output (about 20% of GDP). The majority of Argentines, who had, until then, enjoyed living standards among the highest in Latin America, were pushed below the poverty line. In December of 2002 and January 2003, the country underwent a massive devaluation, a world-historical record sovereign default on $95bn of debt, and a collapse of the financial system.

Although some of the heterodox policies that ultimately ensured Argentina's rapid recovery were begun in the year before Kirchner took office, he had to follow them through some tough challenges to make Argentina the fastest-growing economy in the region.

One major challenge came from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF had been instrumental in bringing about the collapse – by supporting, among other bad policies, an overvalued exchange rate with ever-increasing indebtedness at rising interest rates. But when Argentina's economy inevitably collapsed, the IMF offered no help, just a series of conditions that would impede the economy's recovery.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/oct/27/nestor-kirchner-argentina-imf