Juan Alberto Belloch (born 1950) is a Spanish judge and socialist politician, who served in different cabinet posts. He served as the mayor of

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

between June 2003 and 13 June 2015.

Early life and education

Belloch was born in

Mora de Rubielos Mora de Rubielos is a municipality located in the mountainous area of the Iberian System, province of Teruel, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2009 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 1,756 inhabitants. Mora de Rubielos has a beau ...

Teruel Province Teruel (Catalan: ''Terol'' ) is a province of Aragon, in the northeast of Spain. The capital is Teruel. It is bordered by the provinces of Tarragona, Castellón, Valencia (including its exclave Rincón de Ademuz), Cuenca, Guadalajara, and Za ...

, in 1950. He graduated from the University of Barcelona with a law degree.

Career and activities

Belloch worked as a judge in the Basque county. He is the founder of the

Judges for Democracy Judges for Democracy ( es, Jueces para la Democracia, JpD) is one of the five Spanish professional associations of judges and magistrates. It was founded by Juan Alberto Belloch Juan Alberto Belloch (born 1950) is a Spanish judge and socialist ...

and was an active member of the organization until 1990. He also established the association for human rights in 1984. He served as the president of the provincial court of Vizcaya. In 1990, he was appointed a member of the general council of the judiciary. Belloch is a member of Spain's

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

. On 14 July 1993 he was appointed justice minister in a cabinet reshuffle and became part of the cabinet led by the prime minister

Felipe Gonzalez Felipe is the Spanish variant of the name Philip, which derives from the Greek adjective ''Philippos'' "friend of horses". Felipe is also widely used in Portuguese-speaking Brazil alongside Filipe, the form commonly used in Portugal. Noteworthy pe ...

. However, he was an independent member of the cabinet. He served in the post until 6 May 1996. He was also appointed interior minister on 5 May 1994, replacing Antoni Asunción Hernández in the post, who resigned from office in late April 1994. Therefore, both justice ministry and interior ministry were headed by Belloch. His attempts to clean the ministry of interior led to the discovery of the GAL affair which triggered the trial and arrest of the former interior minister

José Barrionuevo José Barrionuevo (born 13 March 1942) is a Spanish politician. He was the minister of interior from 1982 to 1988. He was jailed from 1998 to 2001 due to his involvement in a dirty war against ETA members. Early life and education Barrionuevo wa ...

. The affair then was searched by an inquiry committee in the Spanish senate and following the inquiry it was dissolved. Belloch was in office until 6 May 1996 and was succeeded by

Jaime Mayor Oreja Jaime Mayor Oreja (born 12 July 1951) is a former Spanish conservative politician of the People's Party. He served as member of the Basque Parliament, of the Spanish Parliament, and of the European Parliament, as well as being Spanish Minist ...

in the post. He became a member of the Spanish parliament in 1996, representing

Zaragoza province Zaragoza (), also called Saragossa in English,''Encyclopædia Britannica''Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)/ref> is a province of northern Spain, in the central part of the autonomous community of Aragon. Its capital is Zaragoza, which is also t ...

. and served there until 2000. Next he became a senator for Zaragoza and held the post from 2000 to 2004. After leaving office, he became a Zaragoza councilman. He ran for the mayor of Zaragoza and was elected to the post in June 2003. He was reelected for office in 2007 and in 2011. In 2008, he was appointed the chairman of the association of cities and regions hosting an international exposition (AVE). He attempted to make Zaragoza the European Capital of Culture for 2016. His other significant activity as mayor was to make the city the host of

the Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were hel ...

in 2022. In the

municipal elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

in May 2015 he lost and Pedro Santisteve was elected as the mayor of Zaragoza.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Belloch, Juan Alberto 20th-century Spanish judges 1950 births Interior ministers of Spain Justice ministers of Spain Living people Mayors of Zaragoza Members of the 6th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the General Council of the Judiciary Members of the Senate of Spain Municipal councillors in the province of Zaragoza People from Gúdar-Javalambre Spanish human rights activists Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politicians University of Barcelona alumni