Argentines honour Nestor Kirchner

Thousands are expected to converge on Argentina’s government palace to pay their respects to ex-President Nestor Kirchner, who died on Wednesday at 60.

His body will lie in state from 1000 (1300 GMT), allowing people to file past in honour of the man who was president from 2003 to 2007.

Overnight, crowds took to the streets of Buenos Aires to voice their grief.

Mr Kirchner, succeeded by his wife Cristina Fernandez as president, was expected to run in the 2011 election.

President Fernandez has so far not spoken publicly about her husband’s death.

Mr Kirchner’s body was flown back to the capital, Buenos Aires, early on Thursday from the southern town of Calafete, where he died in hospital with his wife by his side.

Mr Kirchner had suffered health problems and had a heart operation last month, but nevertheless his death shocked many in Argentina, where three days of national mourning were declared.

Tens of thousands of his supporters gathered in front of the government palace, the Casa Rosada or Pink House, waving Argentina’s blue and white flag, lighting candles and leaving flowers.

“We’re Argentines, soldiers of the penguin,” they chanted, an allusion to the creature identified with Mr Kirchner on account of his origins in Patagonia, in southern Argentina.

“We must show solidarity in the coming days so that the opposition doesn’t take advantage of this moment,” one of the demonstrators, Roberto Picozze, told Reuters.

Mr Kirchner came to power as Argentina was emerging from a profound political and economic crisis, and he oversaw the country’s return to relative stability and prosperity.

He also supported the prosecution of those responsible for human rights abuses under military rule in the 1970s and 1980s.

Mr Kirchner was a polarising figure, says the BBC’s Daniel Schweimler in Buenos Aires. He was very popular among the trade unions and in the industrial belt around Buenos Aires, deeply unpopular among the wealthy, especially so among the influential agricultural lobby which did not like him nor his wife.

His death leaves a huge void in Argentine politics, which both his supporters and opponents will now have to face, our correspondent adds.

The couple had faced some criticism for appearing to get around the constitutional limit on two consecutive terms.

Just as Mr Kirchner stood aside for his wife in 2007, it was widely thought President Fernandez would step back and allow him to run in the October 2011 election.

Several regional leaders, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Chile’s leader, Sebastian Pinera, are expected to attend the funeral ceremonies.

Exact details have yet to be announced but local media reported that Mr Kirchner was expected to be buried in the southern city of Rio Gallegos, where he spent much of his political career.

Argentine authorities have been preparing the area around the Casa Rosada in expectation that large crowds will attend the wake.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.