The wife of Argentina's president will run in his place as the government candidate for the country's October national elections.
Nestor and Cristina Kirchner, who have been compared to Bill and Hillary Clinton, have ended months of speculation by announcing he will step down and she will run.
President Kirchner repeatedly hinted during public appearances in recent months the government candidate would either be a 'pinguino' or 'pinguina', Spanish for a male or female penguin.
That is a reference to the frigid Patagonian region where the couple began their political careers.
Despite President Kirchner's popular leadership and success with his country's continuing recovery from its 2001-2002 economic crisis, analysts believe exhaustion and health problems may be why he is giving up the office.
Current polls show Ms Kirchner with a big lead ahead of October's contest.
Like her US counterpart Hillary Clinton, Cristina Kirchner has been traveling abroad on official visits in order to raise her profile at home.
The 54-year-old lawyer and outspoken senator would become the country's first elected female leader, but not the first woman to run the country.
Isabel Peron, the widow of strongman Juan Domingo Peron, took over as president after he died in 1974.
She was ousted in a military coup two years later.
