The Peronist leader combines glamour with political acumen, enormous popularity and a tough determination to beat down her rivals. And now she has put the Falklands back on the political agenda

She dismisses Britain as "a coarse and decadent colonial power" and has turned Argentina's once almost forgotten dispute with London over the Falkland Islands into a cornerstone of national policy, vowing to "continue battling tirelessly to gain recognition of what is already [Argentina's] sovereign right over those islands".

To her diminishing circle of critics, once numerous and vociferous but now humbled by the stunning 54% victory that ushered President Cristina Kirchner into a second term of office two months ago, those words might sound like populist hyperbole leading up to the 30th anniversary of the Falklands war. But Kirchner's passionate verbal forays against perceived foes abroad and at home are seldom just political vapour. She almost always manages to pack potent bite into them.

"I know we will recover what is ours hand in hand with South America, hand in hand with Latin America and hand in hand with our brothers who fully support us in the struggle against colonialism," Kirchner said last year in a passionate speech about the islands that Argentina claims as "Las Malvinas".

The paen to South American unity became hard political fact when Argentina, Brazil and Chile, among others, agreed in December to start blocking Falklands-flagged ships from entering their ports. Together with the threat of suspending the only commercial flight linking Port Stanley with the continental mainland , Kirchner might be on the brink of completely isolating the Falklands from South America.

Comparisons with "Evita," the second wife of Peronist party founder Juan Perón are inevitable. Like Eva Duarte, who died of cancer in 1952 at the age of 33, Kirchner enjoys first-name recognition throughout Argentina simply as Cristina. Her legions of supporters proudly call themselves "Cristinistas".

The massive popularity she enjoys is also partly based on angry tirades against the country's privileged class, a derided clan that today encompasses the corporations that Cristina accuses of squirrelling profits abroad instead of investing them in Argentina.

And like Evita, President Kirchner has addressed the real problems of the working class, launching a universal child benefit plan that has boosted school attendance and reduced poverty, upping pension benefits for the elderly, while at the same time managing to keep the economy strong despite the economic crisis in Europe and America.

Blessed with sharp political instincts, a direct connection with her constituents, a quick brain and proud good looks, Kirchner, 58, entered politics with the Peronist Youth of the 1970s, rising to senator in the 1990s before being elected president in 2007. She is not ashamed of working hard to maintain her looks. "I have painted myself like I was a door since I was 14," she has confessed.

Completing the parallels with the founding couple of Peronism, Kirchner formed a tight political alliance with her husband and law-school sweetheart, Néstor Kirchner, that remained unbroken from their marriage in 1975 to his "dark horse" presidential election in 2003 through to his sudden death in 2010. The massive outpouring of sympathy for the suddenly widowed president finally cemented an emotional bond with the people unseen since the days of Evita.

Shrill of voice with a tendency to sermonise on national broadcast television and possessing a confrontational style that brooks no opposition, Kirchner has survived massive personal and political setbacks from the unexpected death of her husband, a political mastermind who continued micromanaging Argentina behind the scenes even after she had taken office, to the economic downturn combined with a farmers' revolt three years ago that threatened her presidency.

The soy-fuelled export boom partly responsible for nine years of uninterrupted growth under the Kirchner period has been a key to her survival. But another factor behind her popularity is that Cristina is Perón and his wife wrapped in a single package. Evita had the heart, but not the power, something that Cristina enjoys in plenty.

"Cristina is more powerful than Perón ever was," says Carlos Corach, interior minister during the 10-year government of Peronist former president Carlos Menem during the 1990s. "I would dare say she is the most powerful president in the history of Argentina."

Indeed, the near-dematerialisation of political opposition since she took office is perhaps worrying. In last year's presidential elections, her nearest rival, 68-year-old socialist Hermes Binner, came in 37 points behind with a paltry 17% of the vote. With the Peronists in power for 20 of the 29 years since the return of democracy in 1983 a single-party scenario seems possible.

President Kirchner's fighting spirit is not reserved for David Cameron alone (she once lambasted Cameron's rebuttal of Argentina's Malvinas claim as "mediocre or stupid"). At the start of her first presidency, she began a similar war of words against the opposition newspaper Clarín, suggesting it had ganged up with the nation's farm-owning establishment to plot a coup.

The flagship of a multimedia conglomerate that includes the country's biggest network TV station, a major cable company and internet service provider, as well as being the largest-circulation Spanish-language newspaper in the world, Clarín continued publishing hard-hitting investigations into corruption and strong opinion columns questioning Kirchner's perceived authoritarian excesses.

Clarín may have miscalculated its adversary, for Argentina's first elected woman president put iron in her punch in the shape of a media law that will soon force Clarín to divest itself of part of its cable and internet services plus a newsprint law that places paper production at the Papel Prensa company Clarín partly owns under government control.

Her critics rightly point out the authoritarian streak suggested by her penchant to rule through a tight circle of intimate advisers as well as her almost despotic attitude towards the independent press, whose journalists are continually blasted by the state-owned media. But it is also true to say that newspapers such as Clarín have been merciless in their attempts to ridicule the president, labelling her Argentina's "Botox Queen" and going out of their way to publish unflattering pictures of her. Her recent thyroid operation is a case in point. After being diagnosed with thyroid cancer in late December, Kirchner went into hospital four weeks ago for the removal of her thyroid gland. She had taken the bad news bravely and appeared composed announcing the news to the nation, even jokingly warning her vice-president Amado Boudou: "Be careful what you do" while she was on sick leave.

But when the unexpected news came that there had been a misdiagnosis , the opposition press had a field day. Rumours circulated that the cancer diagnosis was a cover for plastic surgery or that the misdiagnosis had resulted from the fear that the president was said to instil even in her medical team.

Not averse to melodrama, when she reappeared in public 12 days ago, apart from taking advantage of the occasion to chastise Britain for "depleting our national resources, our oil and our fishery" in the South Atlantic, President Kirchner wore a dress that revealed the scar left by the operation. "I was going to wear a scarf because it doesn't look too aesthetic," Kirchner said as she pushed her hair aside so photographers could get a full view. "But then I thought, if I wear a scarf Clarín tomorrow would say there was no operation. You all know how easily I succumb to aesthetics, but I said, 'Darling, politics before aesthetics.'"

It was a gesture that probably won her more public sympathy than disapprobation and it was in response to a pitiless press that has repeatedly misjudged the close rapport between Cristina and an overwhelming majority of voters.

Entering her second term in office, which by the current constitution is her last, while also the third consecutive term of the now single-wheeled Kirchner tandem, it is that bond with her supporters that gives hope to those who wish her to remain beyond 2015 and alarms those who see democracy weakened by such a possibility.

"Argentina has found a leader who is much more than a president and this doesn't happen very often," said Vice-President Boudou, who has been proposing a constitutional reform to allow Kirchner a third term.

"We need another four years to keep pushing the measures to keep transforming Argentina."

Although every Peronist president from Juan Perón himself in the 1950s to President Menem in the 1990s sought a third term, none has achieved it so far. If she can manage some kind of victory with Britain over the Falklands, President Kirchner may yet become the first Peronist to break that three-term barrier.

Argentinian amateur racing driver who also represented his country at sailing

The Argentinian sportsman Roberto Mieres, who has died aged 87, was a fine example of the kind of gifted amateur racing driver who could still find a place in the grand prix races of the 1950s. At the wheel of a Gordini or a Maserati, he could be relied upon to give a decent account of himself, if seldom managing to embarrass the great stars of the day.

One of Mieres's finest performances came in the British Grand Prix of 1955, held at the Aintree circuit, formed from the perimeter road of the Grand National course. In front of a capacity crowd, he and his Maserati 250F succeeded in splitting the four cars of the all-conquering Mercedes-Benz team, leading the car of Piero Taruffi before retiring with engine failure.

Mieres was born into a wealthy family in the city of Mar del Plata, and took advantage of the opportunity to practise a number of sports, including tennis, rowing, rugby – which he gave up after breaking a leg – and sailing, in which he represented Argentina at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. But motor racing was his real love, and he began his career in 1947, first at the wheel of an MG and then with a Bugatti whose previous drivers included the Italian ace Achille Varzi.

In 1950 he was invited to join his compatriots Juan Manuel Fangio and José Froilán González on a trip to Europe. There, subsidised by their national motor club, they took part in several international races. Mieres's best result, at the wheel of a Maserati 4CLT-48, was fourth place in the Grand Prix of Geneva (Switzerland had not yet banned motor racing).

Back in Argentina, he raced a Jaguar XK120, but in 1953 he recrossed the Atlantic at the behest of Amédée Gordini, who offered him a seat in his team of little Simca-engined single-seaters. Mieres finished a praiseworthy sixth in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, which was won by Fangio's Maserati, and at the end of the season he placed an order for one of the Maserati company's potent and beautiful new 250F models, on sale to private owners for £5,000 each. When delivery was delayed by several months, the factory gave him a year-old A6GCM model, updated with the 1954 engine. He drove the car, painted in his national colours of blue and white, to second place in front of his home crowd in the Buenos Aires Grand Prix. After finishing sixth in the 1954 British Grand Prix at Silverstone – one of four Argentinians in the top six on a wet day – he was invited to join the works Maserati team, alongside Stirling Moss and Luigi Musso. Fourth-place finishes in Switzerland and Spain in factory-run cars led to his retention for the following season, partnering Musso and Jean Behra.

After good finishes in the non-championship races in Turin (second), Pau (third) and Bordeaux (third again, behind his two team-mates), there was less luck once the 1955 championship proper began. He finished fourth in Holland and seventh at Monza in the last race of his grand prix career, two laps behind Fangio's winning Mercedes. The 250F he drove throughout the 1955 season was for many years to be seen in the Donington Park museum in Leicestershire.

At the end of the 1955 season, Mieres retired from serious racing to look after his business interests and pursue his interest in sailing. He returned to the track occasionally in the following years, and it is thought to have been on oil dropped from his Porsche during the 1958 Cuban Grand Prix that an inexperienced local driver, Armando Garcia Cifuentes, spun his Ferrari and crashed into the crowd, killing several spectators. The tragedy was overshadowed by the kidnapping of Fangio, the world champion, who was taken from a Havana hotel on the eve of the race and held for 24 hours by pro-Castro rebels.

Known to his fellow countrymen as "Bibito", a diminutive of his first name, Mieres spent his last 30 years on a farm in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

• Roberto Casimiro Mieres, racing driver, businessman and farmer, born 3 December 1924; died 26 January 2012

Leftwing protesters chant and burn the union flag outside the British embassy in Argentina over the Falklands debate

Duke of Cambridge's six-week posting comes amid rising tensions between Britain and Argentina over the disputed islands

Prince William has arrived in the Falkland Islands amid simmering tensions between Britain and Argentina over the disputed territory.

His arrival, ahead of a tour of duty as an RAF search and rescue pilot, came as the Royal Navy prepares to send one of its most advanced new warships to the area. It has already sparked controversy in Argentina, which claims the prince will be wearing the uniform of a "conqueror" when he deploys.

The Ministry of Defence said William's six-week posting to the remote outcrop, which Buenos Aires calls Las Malvinas, was part of a "routine operational deployment".

The Duke – who has flown to the archipelago as part of a crew of four RAF personnel – will attend a series of briefings and take part in a "familiarisation flight" before he begins his search and rescue work.

A Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesman said: "MoD can confirm Flight Lieutenant Wales, as part of a four-man search and rescue (Sar) crew, has arrived in the Falkland Islands on a routine operational deployment and will shortly take up Sar duties post a period of briefings and a familiarisation flight."

The Duke's deployment in the Falklands comes amid a diplomatic war of words between the British and Argentinian governments.

It follows an announcement that HMS Dauntless, an ultra-modern Type 45 destroyer, is due to set sail for the South Atlantic on her maiden mission in the coming months. She is expected to replace frigate HMS Montrose in the region.

The Royal Navy has rejected suggestions the decision to send the destroyer to the area was a riposte to increased tensions over the sovereignty of the Falklands and said the ship's deployment was long planned.

William's posting has been similarly defended by the MoD as part of a normal squadron rotation.

But it has been branded as a provocative act by Argentina. In the latest salvo, the country's Foreign Ministry said it "rejected the British attempt to militarise [the] conflict" and expressed regret that an heir to the throne would arrive wearing "the uniform of a conqueror".

The Argentinian government on Thursday

The film, which shows Margaret Thatcher during the Falklands war, goes down badly on its release in Buenos Aires

Meryl Streep may have been nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, but Argentinian critics panned the film on its premiere in Buenos Aires on Thursday.

The film opened in Argentinian theatres amid anger over the Falkland Islands. In the film, Thatcher is shown ordering the sinking of the Argentinian warship Belgrano, which killed 323 sailors and remains controversial because the ship was considered to be outside the war zone.

She also dismisses the entreaties of the US ambassador to settle the dispute peacefully, suggesting that as a woman she had to "go to war every day" to maintain her hold on power.

Reducing the war to a question of feminism was "absurd, to say the least," the daily Clarin wrote in Thursday's review.

Others praised Streep's acting, but panned the script as mediocre. "A character so controversial for her own citizens, the citizens of the world and especially for Argentinians, Thatcher deserves a better movie," huffed La Nación.

Buenos Aires and London have escalated a war of words ahead of the 30th anniversary of Argentina's ill-fated invasion of the islands on 2 April 1982. More than 900 soldiers and sailors were killed in the conflict.

Britain has sent its most advanced warship, the HMS Dauntless, to the islands. Argentina's vice-president, Amado Boudou, said on Thursday that Britain had falsely accused his country of threatening another invasion in order to distract Britons from their economic worries.