Néstor Kirchner fanned by the political weight of Buenos Aires province (the most populous in Argentina, with almost 40 percent of the national vote), and continued through the 2005 midterm elections. Without consensus in the PJ for a candidate for senator in the Buenos Aires province, both leaders had their wives run for office: Hilda González de Duhalde for the PJ and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for the Front for Victory, which contested the election as a different party. Cristina Kirchner won the election. As in 2003, the elections were defined by Peronist factions; the opposition parties could not put up a
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for a time, and Venezuela was incorporated into the Mercosur. She maintained her support of Venezuela even during the large 2014 Venezuela protests and the imprisonment of its leader, Leopoldo López. Kirchner had a rocky relationship with the United States. Several items from a US air force plane, such as drugs and GPS devices, were seized by Argentine officials, which caused a diplomatic crisis. US State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said that they were standard tools used in counter-terrorism tactics which were being taught to the Argentine police during the joint operation, and asked for the return of the