Néstor Kirchner, Ex-President of Argentina Dies at 60

Néstor Kirchner, Argentina’s president from 2003 to 2007, died this morning at the Patagonian town of El Calafate.
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Néstor Kirchner, Ex-President of Argentina Dies at 60
UNASUR general secretary N&#233stor Kirchner (L) talks to his wife, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as they pose for a family picture before the beginning of an extraordinary UNASUR summit in support of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa in (Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images)
10/27/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/Kirchner104582990.jpg" alt="UNASUR general secretary N&#233stor Kirchner (L) talks to his wife, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as they pose for a family picture before the beginning of an extraordinary UNASUR summit in support of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa in (Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images)" title="UNASUR general secretary N&#233stor Kirchner (L) talks to his wife, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as they pose for a family picture before the beginning of an extraordinary UNASUR summit in support of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa in (Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1813007"/></a>
UNASUR general secretary Néstor Kirchner (L) talks to his wife, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as they pose for a family picture before the beginning of an extraordinary UNASUR summit in support of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa in (Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images)
Former Argentine President Néstor Kirchner died from a heart attack on Oct. 27 in his hometown of El Calafate, a small town in Argentina’s icy south.

The 60-year-old was taken to José Formenti hospital and died at 8:30 a.m local time. His wife, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the current President of Argentina, was at his side.

Kirchner was previously hospitalized twice this year for emergency surgery of blocked arteries: in February for surgery to the carotid artery, which is in the head, and again in September for a coronary artery.

Néstor Carlos Kirchner Ostoic served as mayor of Rio Gallegos and governor of Santa Cruz before being elected as the 54th president of Argentina. The descendant of Swiss immigrants, he was born in Rio Gallegos, south of Patagonia region. 

In 2007, Kirchner was succeeded by his wife, making him the first First Gentleman in the country’s history.
 
In May 2010 he was elected Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations, a supranational body designed to give South America a unified presence in world diplomacy.