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Empresas y finanzas

Argentine ex-Pres Kirchner to have emergency surgery


    BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, husband of President Cristina Fernandez and one of her top advisors, was hospitalized for emergency surgery on his carotid artery on Sunday, a government medical official said.

    Kirchner was sworn in as a member of Congress in the lower house in December and is widely expected to run for president again in 2011 even though his wife's approval ratings have dropped to around 20 percent.

    "He will have surgery today," Dr. Marcelo Ballesteros of the presidential medical unit said in a news release. The release said Kirchner had damage to the carotid artery, one of the two main arteries in the neck that carries blood from the heart to the head.

    Kirchner led Argentina from 2003-2007, overseeing a booming economic rebound after the country's wrenching political crisis and massive debt default in 2001-2002.

    The centre-left leader kept the peso currency weak to stimulate industry, increased state participation in various economic sectors, instituted heavy subsidies of energy and transportation and used price controls to tame inflation while the economy expanded at about 8 percent a year.

    Fernandez has struggled to maintain Kirchner's level of popularity due to high inflation and the economic crisis, and because many Argentines became disenchanted with her and her husband's confrontational leadership style after a prolonged conflict with the farm sector in 2008.

    (Reporting by Fiona Ortiz)