Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner

Born 1953 in La Plata, Argentina.
Studied law in the 1970s at the National University of La Plata where she met Néstor Kirchner (president of Argentina from 2003 to 2007)^[1], whom she married in 1975.
There were some controversies surrounding whether she actually received a degree in law. She registered at the Tribunal Superior de Justicia of Santa Cruz in 1980, Comodoro Rivadavia’s Chamber of Appeals in 1985 and worked as an attorney for the Justicialist Party in 1983. Nevertheless, allegations were regularly raised and ended up in court four times. All the rulings were in her favour, the most recent one in 2016.^[2]^[3]
From May 2003 to December 2007, she was Argentina’s First Lady.
From December 2007 to December 2015, she was the 56th President of Argentina.
In 2009, a public battle between Kirchner and her administration and Clarín Group^[4] started due to a controversial anti-monopoly media law having been passed, which would severely affect the company by limiting cable ownership to a 35% market share in not more than 25% of Argentina’s provinces. The Clarín group published Argentina’s largest-selling newspaper, Clarín, which had been a consistently critical voice of the Kirchner government. In turn, the government was accused of 450 legal and administrative acts of harassment against Clarín.^[5] The battle ended in October 2013 with the Supreme Court ruling the media law constitutional.^[6]
Following the death of her husband in 2010, she became leader of the Front for Victory, a major faction within the Justicialist Party.^[7]
In 2016, she was indicted on charges of manipulating the nation’s Central Bank during the final months of her administration by entering into contracts to sell the Central Bank’s dollars at below-market rates in order to shore up the Argentine peso.^[8] She was acquitted, with the Supreme Court upholding this decision in December 2024.^[9]
Also in 2016, the Court of Cassation, Argentina’s highest criminal appeals court, voted unanimously to reopen the criminal complaint which accuses Kirchner and others of having negotiated a deal with Iran in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people.^[10] The allegations were raised by prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who had investigated the bombing since 2005, a week before his death in January 2015 under questionable circumstances.^[11] Kirchner and other defendants in this case were acquitted in 2021^[12], but the Supreme Court overturned this decision in December 2024.^[13]
In 2017, she was indicted along with both her children on corruption related charges in connection with a family real estate company. Allegedly, businesses rented properties from the real estate company, Los Sauces, in exchange for public works contracts and other favours.^[14] The Supreme Court rejected the latest extraordinary appeal in December 2024, paving the way to place the accused on trial.^[15]
From December 2019 to December 2023, she was the 37th Vice President of Argentina during Alberto Fernández’s presidency.
In September 2022, she survived an assassination attempt due to the pistol used in the attack failing to fire.^[16]^[17]
In December 2022, she was sentenced to six years in prison and banned from holding public office for a fraud scheme that directed public roadworks contracts to Lázaro Báez, a family friend, while she was the first lady and president. The prosecution argued that from 2003 to 2015, the scheme defrauded the state of about 920 million USD by awarding contracts at inflated prices, going over budget or granting other special considerations. However, due to Kirchner appealing the ruling she was able to stay in office.^[18]
In 2024, she became president of the Justicialist Party^[19], the largest party in opposition to the President of Argentina, Javier Milei.
In December 2024, the Supreme Court ordered her to stand trial for the signing of a memorandum between Argentina and Iran regarding the 1994 AMIA bombing.^[20]^[21]
In March 2025, the US banned her and one of her ministers from entering the country. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited they had “abused their positions by orchestrating and financially benefiting from multiple bribery schemes involving public works contracts”.^[22]^[23]
In June 2025, she was blocked from her political comeback due to a six-year sentence being upheld by the Supreme Court. Because of her age, she has been allowed to serve her sentence under house arrest.[24][25]
In November 2025, she had assets in the amount of nearly 500 million USD seized by a federal court.[26]
Also in November 2025, she went on trial along with others in connection with participating in an illicit network that allegedly received bribes from businessmen in exchange for lucrative government contracts.^[27]