Argentine leader back in hospital with head injury
By MICHAEL WARREN, Associated Press
Oct 7, 2013 12:28 PM CDT
File - In a Monday, Sept. 30, 2013 file photo, Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez speaks during a ceremony in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fernandez’s government was moving into uncharted political territory on Sunday, Oct. 6, 2013 after doctors ordered the Argentine president to take a month’s rest...   (Associated Press)

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez returned to the hospital on Monday, presumably for more treatment of the head injury that prompted her doctors to order a month's rest.

Her caravan entered the Fundacion Favaloro as her Cabinet gathered without her for a speech by Vice President Amado Boudou, who declared that her government "will continue while she gets the rest she deserves." Earlier Monday, Boudou and other top officials made a show of unity as they delivered some squad cars to the border police.

"What Cristina wants is for us to maintain the administration," Boudou said, "and to carry on this project that (her late president and husband) Nestor Kirchner began and that Cristina has continued."

"Be strong Cristina! We're all going forward together!" Boudou said.

What he didn't say _ and no one else would venture to guess _ was whether Fernandez will formally delegate her executive powers while she recovers. Boudou is under investigation for alleged corruption and illegal enrichment and currently has one of the worst images among Argentine politicians.

Even Sen. Anibal Fernandez, who often acts as a government spokesman, told the Telefe channel that "We don't have clear idea what will happen."

Doctors ordered Fernandez on Saturday to rest for a month after discovering a chronic subdural hematoma inside her skull that has been pressing against her brain and giving her headaches. The doctors' statement said it was caused by a blow to the head on August 12 and was only discovered Saturday.

But the statement, read late Saturday night by her spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro after she had spent nine hours in the hospital, provided no more details about the accident or the injury it caused. Neither did Scoccimarro say on Monday why she returned to Favaloro, where doctors had made the diagnosis.

Outside experts told The Associated Press on Sunday that when such a condition persists for nearly two months, it likely won't disappear by itself and surgery will be required, drilling through the skull to relieve pressure on the brain.

Earlier Monday, the president remained secluded in the presidential residence with her children, Maximo and Florencia Kirchner.

"She's in good spirits, but she needs to rest," Sen. Fernandez said.

Questions left by The Associated Press with Scoccimarro were not immediately returned, but a presidential employee confirmed that she had returned to the hospital. The person spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to be quoted.

Argentina's constitution provides for, but does not require, a formal transfer of power in case of health problems, said Daniel Sabsay, a constitutional lawyer. A full medical leave would require congressional approval, but short of that, "she alone decides, according to the problem she faces and her doctors' advice, if she needs to delegate some powers to the vice president," he told Radio Continental.

The president's critics said, however, that the government should be much more transparent about her health. The doctors' three-paragraph statement raised many unanswered questions and contradicted earlier claims about the nature of her hospital visits.

"There needs to be more information to lower the people's anxiety," said Fabian Perechodnik, who directs the Poliarquia political consulting firm.

President Fernandez is such an outsized figure in Argentine politics that it's difficult to imagine the government without her at its center. Now she'll be off the campaign trail three weeks before elections that could loosen the ruling party's hold on Congress.

Boudou was joined at the police car delivery by one of the president's would-be successors in the 2015 elections, Buenos Aires Gov. Daniel Scioli, and her hand-picked candidate leading the ruling party's congressional slate on Oct. 27, Martin Insaurraulde.

Kirchnerism "is more united than ever," Scioli said. "We want to reassure the people that this team is united and determined."

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Almudena Calatrava contributed to this report.

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