Daniel Román Peralta (born 1 July 1955) is an Argentine Justicialist Party politician who was

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of Santa Cruz Province from 2007 to 2015.

Early life and career

Peralta was born in

Cañada de Gómez Cañada de Gómez is a city in the . It is the head town of the Iriondo Department and is located about west of Rosario and from the provincial capital, on National Route 9. It has a population of about 29,000 inhabitants (). The town was fou ...

Santa Fe Province The Province of Santa Fe ( es, Provincia de Santa Fe, ) is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco (divided by the 28th parallel south), Corrientes, Entre R� ...

. His parents, Nélida Cremona and Hugo Peralta, relocated to Santa Cruz Province and both became prominent Peronist figures there. Their son became a

bank teller A bank teller (often abbreviated to simply teller) is an employee of a bank whose responsibilities include the handling of customer cash and negotiable instruments. In some places, this employee is known as a cashier or customer representative. ...

, and joined the Bank Employees' Union in 1973. He was named secretary general of the Bank Employees' Union of Santa Cruz in 1983, and later head of the provincial chapter of the CGT. Peralta was appointed Minister of Social Policy by Governor Ricardo del Val in 1988. He returned to the private sector in 1991 as manager of the

Punta Arenas, Chile Punta Arenas (; historically Sandy Point in English) is the capital city of Chile's southernmost region, Magallanes and Antarctica Chilena. The city was officially renamed as Magallanes in 1927, but in 1938 it was changed back to "Punta Aren ...

, branch of the then state-owned Bank of Santa Cruz, and in 1995 became manager of its central branch in

Río Gallegos Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

. Peralta led the transitional committee during the bank's 1996

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

Political career

Governor

Néstor Kirchner Néstor Carlos Kirchner (; 25 February 195027 October 2010) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, Governor of Santa Cruz Province from 1991 to 2003, Secretary General of UNASUR and ...

, who had been a protégé of Peralta's parents, appointed him Secretary of Labour in 1999, and in 2003, he was elected to the Provincial Legislature on the Justicialist Party ticket. Kirchner, who became President of Argentina, appointed Peralta director of the state coal concern, Yacimientos Carboníferos Fiscales (YCF), in 2004. Taking a

leave of absence The labour law concept of leave, specifically paid leave or, in some countries' long-form, a leave of absence, is an authorised prolonged absence from work, for any reason authorised by the workplace. When people "take leave" in this way, they are ...

from the party's regional congress, Peralta accepted the post following a mine accident which killed 14.

Governor of Santa Cruz

Upon incumbent governor Carlos Sancho's announcement of his resignation on 11 May 2007, in which he cited poor health (Sancho had himself taken office when the previous governor resigned amid scandal and fights with Kirchner), Peralta returned to his post as Provincial Deputy and was elected 1st Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies, effectively making him the legislature's senior member. This allowed him to be named acting governor upon Sancho's resignation. In the general elections in October 2007, Peralta was officially elected Governor, beating UCR candidate Eduardo Costa by almost 20 points on the Kirchnerist

Front for Victory The Front for Victory ( es, Frente para la Victoria, FPV) was a centre-left Peronist electoral alliance in Argentina, and is formally a faction of the Justicialist Party. Former presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner we ...

slate; he was sworn into office in December 2007. Peralta took office as Governor of Santa Cruz at a troubled time for the Province, amid strikes, sporadic riots, and allegations of police brutality; amid high levels of federal spending on local infrastructure projects the situation in the province later stabilized. Inheriting a growing pension system deficit, the governor ordered withholding rates increased and benefited trimmed for early retirees. Governor Peralta continued to enjoy the support of President

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner (; born 19 February 1953), often referred to by her initials CFK, is an Argentine lawyer and politician who has served as the Vice President of Argentina since 2019. She also served as the President o ...

, the successor and widow of Néstor Kirchner. She defended the governor against calls from the opposition for impeachment following his refusal to reinstate Eduardo Sosa, a prosecutor who had been dismissed by then-Governor Kirchner in 1995, and who won a federal court ruling to that effect. Peralta presided over a federally and provincially funded

public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, sc ...

boom in Santa Cruz. Much as his predecessors did, however, Peralta faced restive labor unions in the province, and contended with a series of general strikes in the educational and petroleum sectors during 2011; strikes in the latter industry reportedly cost the province US$50 million in lost revenues, as well as over US$200 million in federal revenue. Elections in 2011 returned both Governor Peralta and President Fernández de Kirchner to their respective offices. Their alliance was strained in 2012, however, by allegations the governor had the president spied upon during at least one of her frequent visits to her

El Calafate El Calafate, also known as ''Calafate'', is a city in Patagonia, Argentina. It is situated on the southern border of Lake Argentino, in the southwest part of the Santa Cruz Province (Argentina), Santa Cruz Province, about northwest of Río Galleg ...

family residence. Peralta concluded that the president was behind the Provincial Legislature's opposition to his budget proposal (which included a US$200 million deficit), and by September had broken with President Fernández de Kirchner outright.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peralta, Daniel 1955 births Living people People from Iriondo Department Justicialist Party politicians Members of the General Confederation of Labour (Argentina) Governors of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina