Raúl Alfonsín: A Photo Gallery

Former president Raúl Alfonsín’s body rested on display in the Argentine Congress Wednesday as family, friends, admirers and average Argentines passed through to offer the former president their last goodbye.

Journalists were allowed to participate in the viewing but not allowed to take photos. Instead, the Senate’s official photographer emailed official photos to various media outlets.

What follows below are nine of these photos. If viewing this sort of thing makes you uncomfortable, then don’t click on the images. But if you want to know what it looked like inside the Senate gallery, click on each image and it will expand to full-size. (Click again to shrink the image back to thumbnail size.)

On Wednesday thousands of Argentines waited for blocks for a chance to see Alfonsín’s remains. Current and former leaders, including former presidents Néstor Kirchner, Carlos Menem and Fernando de la Rúa, paid their respects.

Alfonsín will be laid to rest Thursday in a nationally-televised funeral starting at 11am. Many in the local media wondered if the former presidents, some of whom are arch enemies who have vilified each other publicly, will appear together in a solemn act of social maturity at the funeral. It would be the first gathering of its kinds at least since Argentina returned to democracy.

Popularity: 1% [?]