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 provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...

, and a member of the

Argentine Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies (), officially the Honorable Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine Nation, is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress (). It is made up of 257 national deputies who are elected in multi-member constituencies c ...

for the

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

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 co ...

. 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 the Littoral (, UNL) is a public university in Argentina. It is based in Santa Fe, Argentina, Santa Fe, the capital of Santa Fe Province. It has colleges and other academic facilities in Esperanza, Santa Fe, Esperanza ...

. 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, a

Radical Radical (from Latin: ', root) may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Classical radicalism, the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and Latin America in the 19th century *Radical politics ...

, had publicly vowed to resign if

Carlos Menem Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) served as the 50th president of Argentina for ten years, from 1989 to 1999. He identified as Peronism, Peronist, serving as President of the Justicialist Party for 13 years (from 1990 to 200 ...

was elected

President of Argentina The president of Argentina, officially known as the president of the Argentine Nation, is both head of state and head of government of Argentina. Under Constitution of Argentina, the national constitution, the president is also the Head of go ...

. 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 the 7-yea ...

'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 (, ; abbr. PJ) is a major political party in Argentina, and the largest branch within Peronism. Following the 2023 presidential election, it has been the largest party in the opposition against President Javier Milei. Fou ...

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'', 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, 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 (, 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 were elected as representatives ...

(FpV) primaries in 2007 for mayor of Rosario with the support of FpV gubernatorial candidate Rafael Bielsa 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 () is the bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Santa Fe Province, in Argentina. It comprises an upper house, the Senate of Santa Fe, Senate (with 19 senators), and a lower house, the Chamber of Deputies o ...

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