Argentina bids farewell to a president

Nestor Kirchner, president of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, and husband to current president Cristina Fernandez, died of a heart attack on Wednesday, October 27th, at the age of 60. Kirchner was widely expected to run for a second term in a presidential election next October. Today, thousands of Argentinians filed past a flag-draped coffin to pay their respects to the former President, then lined the capital's rain-slicked streets for a glimpse of his hearse as it passed by. Kirchner's remains will be flown to the southern region of Patagonia, where he was born, for burial. Collected here are recent images from Argentina as it bids farewell. (22 photos total)

Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (center) sits next to the coffin of her husband, former Argentine President (2003-2007) Nestor Kirchner, during his wake at the Casa Rosada presidential palace in Buenos Aires, Argentina on October 28, 2010. Thousands of Argentinians, joined by Latin American leaders, paid homage Thursday to ex-president Nestor Kirchner, the powerful husband the current president Cristina Fernandez, who died suddenly of a heart attack on October 27. (AFP/Getty Images)

Mourners hold a candle vigil after the death of former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner in front of the Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires October 27, 2010. (REUTERS/Martin Acosta) #

People accompany the hearse carrying the coffin with the remains of late Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner during a funeral procession to the airport through the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 29, 2010. Kirchner's remains will be flown to the southern region of Patagonia, where he was born, for burial. (AP Photo/Eduardo Di Baia) #

Pamphlets in support of the Kirchners cover the ground where a woman walks past a line of police near the government palace during the wake of former President Nestor Kirchner in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday Oct. 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) #

People wait in line to pay their respects to former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, outside presidential palace in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010. (Diego Giudice/Bloomberg) #

People touch the hearse carrying the coffin with the remains of late Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner during a funeral procession to the airport through the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 29, 2010. (AP Photo/Eduardo Di Baia) #

A woman waits in line to pay her last respects to Argentina's former President Nestor Kirchner at the government palace in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday Oct. 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Roberto Candia) #

A man walks past a message on the road that reads in Spanish "Nestor will always be in the heart of the people" as he arrives to pay his last respects to former President Nestor Kirchner at the government palace in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday Oct. 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Roberto Candia) #

Police officers control people as the hearse carrying the coffin with the remains of late Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner during a funeral procession to the airport through the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 29, 2010. (AP Photo/Roberto Candia) #

Maximo, son of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Nestor Kirchner stands beside the coffin of his father as Chilean President Sebastian Piñera (3rd from right) and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa (2nd from right) look on, at the Casa Rosada presidential palace in Buenos Aires on October 28, 2010. (AFP/Getty Images) #

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner stands next to the coffin of her husband, former president Nestor Kirchner during his wake in the Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires October 28, 2010. (REUTERS/Argentine Presidency) #

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's president, comforts Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina's president, during the funeral of her husband in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010. (Bloomberg/Argentine Presidency) #

Members of Argentina's Grenadiers Regiment carry the coffin of former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner to a plane to Santa Cruz, at Aeroparque airport, in Buenos Aires, on October 29, 2010. The funeral procession for Kirchner, who died unexpectedly of a heart attack on October 27, at the age of 60, wound its way through Buenos Aires, where countless residents lined the streets in the rain to pay their final respects. Kirchner will be buried in Rio Gallegos, his home city, in the province of Santa Cruz. (ALEJANDRO PAGNI/AFP/Getty Images) #

People place flowers and pray outside the government palace in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) #

A man shows his necklace pendant of Argentina's late leaders Evita Duarte and Juan Domingo Peron, as he waits to to pay his last respects to former President Nestor Kirchner at the government palace in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday Oct. 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) #

A man holds up a sign that reads in Spanish: "Nestor, you will never die" outside the government palace in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) #

A sympathizer of former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner cries as others gather around the hearse carrying his remains from the Casa Rosada Presidential Palace to the local airport for a flight to his home province of Santa Cruz, in Buenos Aires October 29, 2010. (REUTERS/Andres Stapff) #

Police officers surround the hearse carrying the coffin of former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner as it leaves the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Friday, Oct. 29, 2010. (Diego Giudice/Bloomberg) #

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner greets sympathizers while accompanying the hearse of her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, from the Casa Rosada Presidential Palace to the local airport for a flight to their home province of Santa Cruz, in Buenos Aires October 29, 2010. (REUTERS/Martin Acosta) #

An unidentified man touches the coffin with the remains of of late Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner while it is loaded into a plane in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 29, 2010. Kirchner's remains will be flown to the southern region of Patagonia where he was born, for burial. (AP Photo/Jorge Araujo) #

A woman reads a newspaper showing a picture of the late President Nestor Kirchner which reads "Goodbye" as she waits for the motorcade carrying Kirchner's coffin in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 29, 2010. (AP Photo/Roberto Candia) #

In this file photo from May 17, 2003, Argentina's President-elect Nestor Kirchner, right, and his wife Senator Cristina Fernandez, pose in front of the Perito Moreno glacier at Los Glaciales National Park in the Patagonia region of southern Argentina. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File) #

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