Néstor Kirchner

Kirchner was born on 25 February 1950, in Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz, a federal territory at the time. His father, Néstor Carlos Kirchner, of German-Swiss descent, met the Chilean María Juana Ostoić, of Croatian descent, by telegraphy. They had three children: Néstor, Alicia, and María Cristina. Néstor was part of the third generation of Kirchners living in the city. As a result of pertussis, he developed strabismus at an early age; however, he refused medical treatment because he considered his eye part of his self-image. When Kirchner was in high school he briefly considered becoming a teacher, but poor diction hampered him; he was also unsuccessful at basketball.

Kirchner moved to La Plata in 1969 to study law at the National University. During this period, the decline of the Argentine Revolution, the return of former president Juan Perón from exile, the election of Héctor Cámpora as president, his resignation and the election of Perón, and the beginning of the Dirty War had led to severe political turmoil. Kirchner joined the University Federation for the National Revolution (FURN), a political student group whose relationship with the Montoneros guerrillas is a matter of debate. Kirchner was not a leader of the group. He was present at the Ezeiza massacre, in which right-wing Peronist snipers opened fire on a celebration of Juan Perón's return at the Ezeiza International Airport. He was also present at the expulsion of Montoneros from Plaza de Mayo. Although Kirchner met many members of the Montoneros, he was not a member of the group. By the time the Montoneros were outlawed by Perón, he had left FURN.

In 1974, Kirchner met Cristina Fernández, three years his junior, and they quickly fell in love. They were married after a courtship limited to six months by the political turmoil in the country. At the civil ceremony, Kirchner's friends sang the Peronist song "Los Muchachos Peronistas". He graduated a year later, returned to Patagonia with Cristina, and established a law firm with fellow attorney Domingo Ortiz de Zarate. Cristina joined the firm in 1979. By the time of Kirchner's graduation and move to Patagonia, Juan Perón had died, his vice president and wife, Isabel Perón, had become president. Isabel Perón was unseated by a coup d'état which installed a military government. The Kirchners worked for banks and financial groups which filed foreclosures, since the Central Bank's 1050 ruling had raised mortgage loan interest rates, and also acquired 21 real-estate lots for a low price when they were about to be auctioned. Their law firm defended military personnel accused of committing crimes during said war. Forced disappearances were common during the Dirty War, but unlike other lawyers of the time the Kirchners never signed a habeas corpus. Julio César Strassera, prosecutor in the 1985 Trial of the Juntas case against the military, criticized the Kirchners' lack of legal actions against the military, and considered their later interest in the issue a form of hypocrisy.

The Dirty War eventually ended, and the National Reorganization Process allowed political activity in preparation for a return to democracy. Kirchner led one of the three internal factions of the local Justicialist Party (PJ), but Peronist Arturo Puricelli prevailed in the primary elections. Kirchner founded the Ateneo Juan Domingo Perón organization, which supported deposed president Isabel Perón and promoted political dialogue with the military. Cristina Fernández became an attorney of the PJ in Santa Cruz, with the help of Rafael Flores, a former friend from the FURN. Raúl Alfonsín, who was running for president for the Radical Civic Union (UCR), denounced an agreement between the military and the Peronist unions which sought an amnesty for the military. Kirchner organized a rally on behalf of Rodolfo Ponce, a union leader mentioned by Alfonsín in his denouncement. Alfonsín won the 1983 presidential election, and Puricelli was elected governor of Santa Cruz. Puricelli sought to unify the local Peronist movement by adding members of the other factions into his government, and appointed Kirchner president of the provincial social-welfare fund.

Kirchner quickly expanded the activities and scope of his office, building a parallel state. This soon started a conflict with Puricelli. Instead of being fired, Kirchner resigned and accused the governor of reducing the funds for social welfare. He ran for mayor of Río Gallegos in 1987 and won by the slim margin of 110 votes. Kirchner's friend, Rudy Ulloa Igor, helped him to victory by registering some groups of Chilean immigrants to vote (immigrants were allowed to vote in mayoral elections), and persuading them to vote for Kirchner. Julio de Vido and Carlos Zannini began working with Kirchner at this time. Kirchner used the state-owned media to promote his activities. The Peronist Ricardo del Val was elected governor that year, and the province was impacted by inflation in 1989. Kirchner became the main opponent of del Val, who was impeached and removed from office in 1990 due to the inflation crisis.

The Skanska case occurred during Kirchner's presidency, during which several members of de Vido's ministry were accused of bribery in requests for tender for pipeline construction, based on a tape recording of Skanska employees discussing the bribes. The case was closed in 2011, when it was ruled that the tape was not acceptable evidence and there was no overpricing. It was reopened in 2016 (with Cristina Fernández de Kirchner no longer president), and the tape was accepted as evidence.

The Kirchners' net worth, as reported to the AFIP revenue service, increased by 4,500 percent between 1995 and 2010. A substantial increase occurred in 2008, from 26.5 million to 63.5 million Argentine pesos, due to the sale of long-owned land, hotel rentals, and time deposits in Argentine pesos and U.S. dollars. They founded a business-consulting company, El Chapel and established the Hotesur SA and Los Sauces firms to manage their luxury hotels in El Calafate. The Kirchners expanded Comasa, a firm of which they had a 90-percent ownership. Their salaries as politicians were 3.62 percent of their total earnings.

Kirchner was tried for unjust enrichment in 2004, with the case focusing on the increase in his wealth from 1995 to 2003. The case was first heard by judge Juan José Galeano and moved to judge Julián Ercolini, who acquitted him in 2005. A new case involving both Kirchners was heard by judge Norberto Oyarbide, who acquitted them in 2010.

The TV program Periodismo para todos aired an investigation in 2013, detailing a case of embezzlement and an associated money trail involving the Kirchners and businessman Lázaro Báez. Báez received 95 percent of the requests for tender in Santa Cruz province since 2003, more than four billion pesos, and the scandal was known as the Route of the K-Money (Spanish: La ruta del dinero K). In the 2014 Hotesur scandal, a company owned by Báez rented more than 1,100 rooms per month at Kirchner family hotels even when they were unoccupied. A money-laundering scheme was suspected, funnelling public-works money to the Kirchner family.

In April 2016, Kirchner's secretary and confidant Daniel Muñoz (who died early that year) was identified in the Panama Papers as owner of real-estate investment firm Gold Black Limited. Company director Sergio Todisco was investigated by prosecutors who suspected that the company was used for money laundering. At the end of the year, judge Julián Ercolini indicted Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and several members of their cabinet, charging them with a criminal conspiracy that would have started when Néstor Kirchner first became president.