Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

Born in La Plata in 1953, she studied law and moved to Patagonia with her husband Néstor Kirchner, climbing from provincial legislator to national senator by 1995 while he became governor. After serving as first lady during his presidency from 2003 to 2007, she won the presidency herself, inheriting the Peronist "Kirchnerism" mantle. Her first term opened with a bruising fight over agricultural taxes, followed by pension nationalization and the 2012 seizure of energy firm YPF; her second began with a landslide 54% re-election in 2011 — the widest margin since democracy returned — but ended in…