Héctor Cavallero

Héctor Cavallero (born 2 October 1941), nicknamed "El Tigre", "The Tiger", is an Argentine politician, who was mayor of Rosario and a member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies for the province of Santa Fe [http://www.desarrolloyregion.com/ampliar_novedades.asp?contentId=3508 Profile of National Deputy candidates] .]

Cavallero was born in Las Parejas, Santa Fe, but went to high school in the General Paz Military Liceum in Córdoba, and studied Biochemistry at the Universidad Nacional del Litoral.

Cavallero was first elected mayor of the large city of Rosario, in southern Santa Fe, in 1989, for the Popular Socialist Party (an offshoot of the Socialist Party). Former mayor Horacio Usandizaga, a Radical, had publicly vowed to resign if Carlos Menem was elected President of Argentina. Upon Menem's success in the 1989 election and Raúl Alfonsín early departure from office, Usandizaga kept his word, and Cavallero was set to complete his term. After the remaining two years, Cavallero was reelected for the 1991–1995 period.

Despite his affiliation, Cavallero eventually decided to align himself with the Justicialist Menem administration. He ran for governor of Santa Fe on the 1995 election along 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 presented himself for governor and obtained the majority of votes, but the system, however, ended up favouring the "pure" Justicialist candidate Jorge Obeid, whose votes were supplemented by Cavallero's.

Having severed his ties with his former party and lost an election, Cavallero remained a supporter of the increasingly criticized Menem administration. He founded a new party called "Partido del Progreso Social" (Party for Social Progress), and in 1999 he was elected national Deputy for Santa Fe. His term coincided with the economic depression and collapse of the Argentine economy. In 2003 he ran for governor again, and lost (again) to Jorge Obeid.

In 2007 he competed in the primary election of the Justicialist-led Front for Victory, for mayor of Rosario, with the support of governor candidate Rafael Bielsa and against Juan Héctor Sylvestre Begnis. He beat Sylvestre Begnis, obtaining more than double his votes. On the main election of 2 September 2007, however, he lost by a landslide to his former collaborator, the Socialist Miguel Lifschitz, who was seeking reelection. [La Capital, 3 September 2007. [http://www.lacapital.com.ar/2007/09/03/politica/noticia_414459.shtml Lifschitz aplastó a Cavallero y fue reelecto intendente] .]

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