Death and state funeral of Néstor Kirchner
State funeral of Néstor Kirchner at Casa Rosada
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| Date | 27–29 October 2010 |
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| Location | Casa Rosada, Buenos Aires |
| Participants | President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, various dignitaries nation and worldwide |
Argentina’s former President and 1st Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations, Néstor Kirchner, died of heart failure on the morning of 27 October 2010 at the Jose Formenti hospital in El Calafate, Santa Cruz Province at the age of 60. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. His wife, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was present with him when he died. He was also expected to run for president in 2011.
He had two coronary interventions earlier that year. On 7 February 2010, he developed problems with the common carotid artery and needed surgery. On 11 September 2010, he was hospitalized due to coronary artery blockage and needed an angioplasty.
For more than 24 hours, hundreds of thousands of people filed past Kirchner’s body lying in state, in a state funeral at the Casa Rosada attended by several Argentine personalities and eight South American leaders. Starting 29 October afternoon, a massive popular procession accompanied the remains of Néstor Kirchner from Casa Rosada to the metropolitan airport, and then from the airport of Río Gallegos to the cemetery.
His private funeral was attended by his family and close friends. A state funeral was held on 28 October 2010, while a vigil was kept at the Casa Rosada presidential palace in Buenos Aires, starting on the morning of 28 October, with the attendance of Latin American leaders.
President Cristina Kirchner and her two children, Máximo and Florencia, also attended the funeral services. Presidents Evo Morales, José Mujica, Sebastián Piñera, Fernando Lugo, Rafael Correa, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Juan Manuel Santos and Hugo Chávez joined her at the wake. Opposition party leaders and other notable people from the fields of arts, entertainment, and professional sports also paid tribute to Kirchner’s political savvy by attending his funeral, among tens of thousands of Argentine private citizens that waited in line to enter the Latin American patriots hall, where Néstor Kirchner’s body stood in state.
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