Héctor Cavallero (2 October 1939 – 2 October 2020), nicknamed ''El Tigre'' ("The Tiger"), was an Argentine politician, who was mayor of

Rosario, Santa Fe Rosario () is the largest city in the central Argentine province of Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous city in the country, and is also the most p ...

, and a member of 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 ...

for the

Province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

of Santa Fe.

Biography

Cavallero was born in

Las Parejas, Santa Fe Las Parejas is a city in the southwest of the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, on National Route 178. Las Parejas has 11,301 inhabitants as per the . The town was founded in 1889 on lands belonging to the Ferrocarril Central Argentino railway com ...

. He attended high school in the General Paz Military Liceum in Córdoba, and studied Biochemistry at the

National University of the Littoral The National University of Litoral ( es, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, UNL) is a public university in Argentina. It is based in Santa Fe, the capital of Santa Fe Province. It has colleges and other academic facilities in Esperanza, Reconqu ...

. Cavallero was elected to the Rosario City Council in 1985, and as Mayor of Rosario in 1989 for the Popular Socialist Party (an offshoot of the

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 th ...

). Former mayor

Horacio Usandizaga Horacio Daniel Usandizaga (b. June 15, 1940 in J.B.Molina, ), also known informally as ''El Vasco'' (Spanish: The Basque), is an Argentine politician. Usandizaga studied to become a lawyer and entered political activity as a member of the Radica ...

, a

Radical Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...

, had publicly vowed to resign if

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 ...

was elected

President of Argentina The president of Argentina ( es, Presidente de Argentina), officially known as the president of the Argentine Nation ( es, Presidente de la Nación Argentina), is both head of state and head of government of Argentina. Under Constitution of Ar ...

. Upon Menem's success in the 1989 election and

Raúl Alfonsín Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín (12 March 1927 – 31 March 2009) was an Argentine lawyer and statesman who served as President of Argentina from 10 December 1983 to 8 July 1989. He was the first democratically elected president after more than ...

's early departure from office, Usandizaga kept his word, and Cavallero was appointed to complete his term. Cavallero was re-elected in his own right for the 1991–1995 period. His term as mayor spanning the period 10 December 1989 until 10 December 1995. Despite his affiliation, Cavallero eventually decided to align himself with the

Justicialist 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 ...

Menem administration. He ran for governor of Santa Fe in the 1995 election along with other Justicialist candidates, under the electoral system called ''

Ley de Lemas ''Ley de Lemas'' is a form of the double simultaneous vote (DSV) electoral system which is, or has been, used in elections in Argentina, Uruguay, and Honduras. It is an unusual variant of open list proportional representation, and works as follow ...

'', which allowed several factions of the same party to present candidates for the main election and add up their votes. Horacio Usandizaga ran for governor and obtained the majority of votes; but this system ultimately favored the "pure" Justicialist candidate

Jorge Obeid Jorge Alberto Obeid (24 November 1947 – 28 January 2014) was an Argentine Justicialist Party (PJ) politician who was twice governor of Santa Fe Province and member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies. Early life and education Obeid was born i ...

, whose votes were supplemented by Cavallero's. Having severed his ties with the Socialist Party, Cavallero remained a supporter of the increasingly conservative and unpopular Menem administration. He founded a new party, ''Partido del Progreso Social'' (Party for Social Progress), returned to the Rosario City Council in 1997, and was elected in 1999 to the

for Santa Fe. He held office until 2003. Opting not to seek a second term in Congress, Cavallero again ran for governor in 2003, and again lost to Jorge Obeid. He competed in the Justicialist-led

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 wer ...

(FpV) primaries in 2007 for mayor of Rosario with the support of FpV gubernatorial candidate

Rafael Bielsa Rafael Antonio Bielsa Caldera (born February 15, 1953) is an Argentine Justicialist Party politician from Rosario, province of Santa Fe. Since 2020 he has been Argentina's ambassador to Chile. Early life and education Bielsa spent his child ...

and against Juan Héctor Sylvestre Begnis. He defeated Begnis in the primaries, obtaining more than twice the number of votes; but in the 2 September general election, however, he lost by a landslide to his former collaborator, Socialist Mayor

Miguel Lifschitz Roberto Miguel Lifschitz (13 September 1955 – 9 May 2021) was an Argentine politician and civil engineer of the Socialist Party (Argentina), Socialist Party who was Governor of Santa Fe, Governor of Santa Fe Province from 2015 to 2019. Prior t ...

, who was thus re-elected.La Capital, 3 September 2007
Lifschitz aplastó a Cavallero y fue reelecto intendente
He was returned by voters to the Rosario City Council in 2009. In the 2015 Provincial election of Santa Fe Cavallero was elected as Deputy to the

Legislature of Santa Fe The Legislature of Santa Fe Province ( es, Legislatura de la Provincia de Santa Fe) is the bicameral legislature of the Santa Fe Province, in Argentina. It comprises an upper house, the Senate (with 19 senators), and a lower house, the Chamber ...

and he held this position until December 2019. He died of unknown causes on 2 October 2020 at the age of 81.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cavallero, Hector 1939 births 2020 deaths Argentine city councillors Justicialist Party politicians Mayors of Rosario, Santa Fe Members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies elected in Santa Fe National University of the Littoral alumni People from Belgrano Department, Santa Fe Popular Socialist Party (Argentina) politicians