Although President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s economic policies may be as hole-ridden as the average porteño street, her human rights record is close to watertight. On July 21 2010, she became the first Latin American president and the tenth world leader to sign a same-sex marriage bill into law, saying: “Today we are a slightly more equal society than we were last week.”

The setting for Law 26,618 to be signed into legislation couldn’t have been more appropriate – the pink-hued Casa Rosada (Government House) had been waiting for this for seven years, ever since former president (and Cristina’s husband) Néstor Kirchner set the wheels in motion in 2003.

Extract taken from the 2011 Time Out Buenos Aires guide book.