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Horacio Massaccesi (born September 12, 1948) is an Argentine politician and former Governor of Río Negro Province.


Life and times


Early career

Massaccesi was born in 1948 to an Italian Argentine family in
Villa Regina Villa Regina is a city in the General Roca Department of the . The city is connected to the rest of the towns in the Upper Río Negro Valley via National Route 22. The city was built by the Italian-Argentine Colonization Company ( es, Compañ ...
, then a largely agricultural town on the banks of the Río Negro in Argentina's region of Patagonia. He joined the centrist
Radical Civic Union The Radical Civic Union ( es, Unión Cívica Radical, UCR) is a centrist and social-liberal political party in Argentina. It has been ideologically heterogeneous, ranging from social liberalism to social democracy. The UCR is a member of the So ...
(UCR) in 1974, while in law school, and on Argentina's return to democracy in 1983, Massaccesi was elected to the
Provincial Legislature In South Africa, a provincial legislature is the legislative branch of the government of a province.'' Chapter 6: Provinces'', Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. The provincial legislatures are unicameral and vary in size from 30 ...
. Governor
Osvaldo Álvarez Guerrero Osvaldo Álvarez Guerrero (1940 – 27 July 2008) was an Argentine Radical Civic Union (UCR) politician. He served as Governor of Río Negro Province and as a National Deputy. Born in Florida (a suburb of Buenos Aires, Álvarez Guerrero joined ...
named him Minister of Government (similar to a Chief of Staff) in 1984, a recognition which led to his election to the
Argentine Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies ( es, Cámara de Diputados de la Nación), officially the Honorable Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine Nation, is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress ( es, Congreso de la Nación). It is made up of 257 ...
(Lower House of Congress) in 1985. Elected by a 38-35% margin over populist
Justicialist Party The Justicialist Party ( es, Partido Justicialista, ; abbr. PJ) is a major political party in Argentina, and the largest branch within Peronism. Current president Alberto Fernández belongs to the Justicialist Party (and has, since 2021, served ...
candidate Remo Costanzo, Massaccesi became one of only two UCR Governors elected in 1987, after the popular Álvarez Guerrero was termed out of office.UCA: Panorama preelectoral
Upon taking office, Massaccesi advanced a new Provincial Constitution. Enacted in 1988, the document allowed him to run for reelection. Following Justicialist Party candidate
Carlos Menem Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. Ideologically, he identified as a Peronist and supported economically liberal policies. H ...
's landslide defeat of the UCR for the presidency in 1989, Massaccesi adopted a pragmatic stance towards the unpredictable Menem, distancing himself with Álvarez Guerrero. Continuing financial instability, however, led Menem's new Economy Minister, Domingo Cavallo, to retain around US$60 million in revenue sharing funds derived from the orchard-rich Río Negro Province's growing export earnings. The province, which in turn owed the central bank US$100 million, found itself in circumstances not unlike most provinces in Argentina at the time.''New York Times''
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Robin Hood of patagonia

This leading to a budgetary crisis in his province and an inability to pay some 30,000 provincial employees, on July 4, 1991 Governor Massaccesi entered the General Roca branch of the public Bank of the Province of Río Negro, wherein he signed a decree authorizing the seizure of nearly US$17 million from an account held by the
Central Bank of Argentina The Central Bank of the Argentine Republic ( es, Banco Central de la República Argentina, BCRA) is the central bank of Argentina, being an autarchic entity. Article 3 of the Organic Charter lists the objectives of this Institution: “The bank ...
. Explaining that ''"I was told repeatedly that no help was coming. What were my options - to not pay my people?"'' Massaccesi was indicted by Justice Minister
León Arslanian Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...
for grand larceny, Cavallo ordered the province's accounts frozen, and the President hinted that a conservator would be appointed in the governor's stead; ultimately, however, the wave of goodwill Massaccesi earned nationally led Menem to suspend any action against the "Robin Hood of Patagonia." By mutual agreement, the province repaid the central bank within 30 days of the event. The Governor was reelected that September by a margin of 46-27%, following which he became a conditional ally of the Menem Administration, whose free market policies were a reversal of his populist 1989 platform. He and Menem also shared a personal affinity, including an interest in tennis and River Plate (one of Argentina's preeminent
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
teams).''Clarín''
Massaccesi supported the newly returned President of the UCR, former President Raúl Alfonsín, in his 1993 political overtures to the then-popular Menem. Hoping to avoid defeat in the upcoming
1995 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1995. Africa * 1995 Algerian presidential election * 1995 Beninese parliamentary election * 1995 Cape Verdean parliamentary election * 1995 Ethiopian general election * 1995 Guinean legislative elec ...
, Alfonsín negotiated the
Olivos Pact The Olivos Pact ( es, Pacto de Olivos) refers to a series of documents signed on November 17, 1993, between the governing President of Argentina, Carlos Menem, and former President and leader of the opposition UCR, Raúl Alfonsín, that formed the ...
with Menem, by which the Argentine Constitution would be extensively amended to allow the President reelection - in return for an expansion of the
Argentine Senate The Honorable Senate of the Argentine Nation ( es, Honorable Senado de la Nación Argentina) is the upper house of the National Congress of Argentina. Overview The National Senate was established by the Argentine Confederation on July 29, 185 ...
and other changes designed to favor the UCR.


Bid for the presidency

His popularity and staunch support for the pact earned Massaccesi Alfonsín's support for the UCR nomination, which the Governor won in 1994 by a margin of 2-to-1 over Federico Storani, a young UCR figure opposed to the changes. The low turnout in the UCR's 1994 primaries bode poorly for Argentina's oldest existing political party, however, and in 1995, Massaccesi and his running mate, Córdoba Province Congressman Antonio "La Tuta" Hernández, received 17% of the vote (placing third and dealing the UCR its worst national defeat, up to then). Termed out as Governor, Massaccesi left a province in financial straits, though he earned plaudits for his policies streamlining the bloated provincial government and for supporting new casinos, for instance. The UCR retained the post and he was elected to the
Argentine Senate The Honorable Senate of the Argentine Nation ( es, Honorable Senado de la Nación Argentina) is the upper house of the National Congress of Argentina. Overview The National Senate was established by the Argentine Confederation on July 29, 185 ...
that November, though charges pending on the 1991 "Robin Hood" incident barred him from the Senate until 1997. Massaccesi founded
Noticias de la Costa
', a Viedma newspaper, with his second wife Patricia Querejeta in 1996. Keeping a low profile in the Senate, he did not run for reelection in 2001 (a disastrous year for the UCR, which had gained the presidency in 1999 on an Alliance ticket with the center-left Frepaso).''La Nación''
Distanced from the UCR, he endorsed centrist
Peronist Peronism, also called justicialism,. The Justicialist Party is the main Peronist party in Argentina, it derives its name from the concept of social justice., name=, group= is an Argentine political movement based on the ideas and legacy of Ar ...
candidate Adolfo Rodríguez Saá's failed 2003 presidential bid. Rodríguez Saa, a member of the UCR's main opposition, the Justicialist Party, was Governor of nearby San Luis Province. That year, Massaccesi published ''Haceme Senador'' (''Make Me a Senator''), a criticism of the role of the media in the political process.


Massaccesi today

The former Governor was convicted of
embezzlement Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...
of public funds by a federal court in General Roca on May 6, 2005, for his seizure of the central bank funds in 1991, and given a suspended jail sentence, as well as being barred from public office. Massaccesi appealed the decision on the grounds that the ruling implied that the funds were absconded with for personal gain, when they were used in their entirety to pay public salaries (the courts have thus far denied him an appeal).''Pagina/12''
Massaccesi and his wife continue to live in Viedma, where they devote their time to their news daily, ''Noticias de la Costa''.


References and external links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Massaccesi, Horacio 1948 births Living people People from Villa Regina Argentine people of Italian descent Radical Civic Union politicians 20th-century Argentine lawyers Governors of Río Negro Province Members of the Argentine Senate for Río Negro Members of the Legislature of Río Negro Candidates for President of Argentina Argentine newspaper founders