#NEWS : Brazilian, Spanish leaders pay homage to late Argentine president

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and King of Spain Juan Carlos on Saturday paid homage to Nestor Kirchner, the former Argentine president who passed away in October.

The two leaders are here to participate in the 20th Ibero- American Summit.

President Lula said that in the history of Brazil-Argentina ties there had never been a moment more extraordinary than the one during Kirchner's administration from 2003 to 2007.

Lula recalled that he and Kirchner "began a very respectful but intense relation, to change the behavior of our businessmen and diplomats, because there were many difference between both countries."

He added that Kirchner also played a fundamental role in " recovering the Common Market of South (Mercosur)."

Describing Kirchner as the "Maradona of politics," Lula said: " I do not know if any other person had been so audacious, with so much braveness as Kirchner to recover the Argentine economy."

Lula also told incumbent Argentine President Cristina Fernandez: "Brazil and Argentina have to be together because we are not enemies, we are companions." Fernandez is the widow of Nestor Kirchner.

Spanish King Juan Carlos noted that the 20th Ibero-American Summit was a kind of "posthumous homage" for Kirchner, because the late Argentine leader had always "stressed the recovery and progress of this great country."

Kirchner had "an outstanding place in Argentina's history and Ibero-America, because he boosted the construction of a more prosperous and solidary region, and served as a defender of human rights, freedom and justice," the king added.

He also expressed "deepest gratitude" to Kirchner and Fernandez for their "friendship with Spain" over all these years.

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