Adolfo Rodríguez Saá (born 25 July 1947) is an
Argentine Peronist politician. Born in a family that was highly influential in the history of the
San Luis Province
San Luis () is a province of Argentina located near the geographical center of the country (on the 32° South parallel). Neighboring provinces are, from the north clockwise, La Rioja, Córdoba, La Pampa, Mendoza and San Juan.
History
The cit ...
, he became the province's
governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
in 1983, after the end of the
National Reorganization Process military dictatorship. He remained governor up to 2001, being re-elected in successive elections.
President
Fernando de la Rúa
Fernando de la Rúa (15 September 19379 July 2019) was an Argentine politician and a member of the Radical Civic Union (UCR) political party who served as President of Argentina from 10 December 1999 to 21 December 2001. De la Rúa was born in ...
resigned in that year, amid the
December 2001 riots, and the Congress elected Rodríguez Saá as the
president of Argentina. In response to the
1998–2002 Argentine great depression
The Argentine Great Depression was an economic depression in Argentina, which began in the third quarter of 1998 and lasted until the second quarter of 2002. It followed the fifteen years stagnation and a brief period of free-market reforms.
...
, he declared the highest
sovereign default
A sovereign default is the failure or refusal of the
government of a sovereign state to pay back its debt in full when due. Cessation of due payments (or receivables) may either be accompanied by that government's formal declaration that it wi ...
in history and resigned days later amid civil unrest.
The
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
elected a new president,
Eduardo Duhalde, in order to complete the term of office of de la Rúa (but Duhalde failed to do so, and eventually that term was completed by
Néstor Kirchner
Néstor Carlos Kirchner (; 25 February 195027 October 2010) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, Governor of Santa Cruz Province from 1991 to 2003, Secretary General of UNASUR and ...
, instead). Rodríguez Saá ran for President subsequently in the
2003 and
2015 presidential elections, but he was not successful.
Early life
Rodríguez Saá was born to an important political family in
San Luis. The Rodriguez Saá family is well known in the Province of San Luis and can be traced to the 19th century and to descendants of the
federal ''caudillo''
Juan Saá, who fought in the
battle of Pavón
The Battle of Pavón, a key battle of the Argentine Civil Wars, was fought in Pavón, Santa Fé Province, Argentina on 17 September 1861 between the Army of the State of Buenos Aires, commanded by Bartolomé Mitre, and the Army of Republic of t ...
during the
Argentine Civil War
The Argentine Civil Wars were a series of civil conflicts of varying intensity that took place through the territories of Argentina from 1814 to 1853. Initiation concurrently with the Argentine War of Independence (1810–1820), the conflict ...
. Rodríguez Saá's grandfather and namesake
Adolfo Rodríguez Saá
Adolfo Rodríguez Saá (born 25 July 1947) is an Argentine Peronist politician. Born in a family that was highly influential in the history of the San Luis Province, he became the province's governor in 1983, after the end of the National R ...
and his great-uncle were both governors of the province, and his father was the police chief.
He attended the "Juan Pascual Pringles" school, which was associated with the
National University of Cuyo
The National University of Cuyo ( es, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, UNCuyo) is the largest center of higher education in the province of Mendoza, Argentina.
As of 2005, the university had 12 academic schools in the city of Mendoza and a delegat ...
. He studied law at the
University of Buenos Aires
The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one of the most prestigi ...
, graduating in 1971. He worked as a teacher in his former school for two years. He was an editor of the anti-Peronist pamphlet "La voz de San Luis" ( es, The voice of San Luis), but became a Peronist in 1969 during his studies in Buenos Aires. He joined the Peronist Youth in the year of his graduation and worked as their representative in San Luis.
The Peronist party, proscribed since 1955, was allowed to run for the
1973 elections. The Peronist party won the elections, and
Héctor Cámpora became president. Rodríguez Saá became a provincial legislator, and led the Peronist deputies in the chamber. He joined the right-wing Peronist unions, led by Oraldo Britos. He opposed the governor Elías Adre, who was aligned with left-wing Peronism. After the
1976 Argentine coup d'état
The 1976 Argentine coup d'état was a right-wing coup that overthrew Isabel Perón as President of Argentina on 24 March 1976. A military junta was installed to replace her; this was headed by Lieutenant General Jorge Rafael Videla, Admiral E ...
, he left politics and worked in a law firm with his brother.
Governor
The
National Reorganization Process dictatorship came to an end in 1983, when
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 ...
won the
1983 elections. Rodríguez Saá was elected governor of San Luis in those elections, in a close contest with the
Radical Civic Union. He was helped by the clergy of the province, who opposed the radical candidate because of his
secularism
Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations.
Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a sim ...
.
As a governor, Rodríguez Saá attracted huge investments to the province, which led to the growth of local industries, public works, social services and tourism. Levels of employment and industrial production, as well as measures of scholastic achievement and crime-fighting success were higher than those of the country at large. He was a
populist
Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term develop ...
and authoritarian governor who was accused of
nepotism, corruption and restricting freedom of the press. He united the governors of the smaller Argentine provinces in a front, called ''
Frente Federal Solidario''.
He ran in the primary elections of the
Justicialist Party (PJ) for the
1989 presidential elections.
Carlos Menem, governor of La Rioja, prevailed in both the primary and the main elections and became the new president of Argentina. Rodríguez Saá was elected to the Constituent Assembly that drafted the
1994 amendment of the Argentine Constitution
The 1994 amendment to the Constitution of Argentina was approved on 22 August 1994 by a Constitutional Assembly that met in the twin cities of Santa Fe and Paraná. The calling for elections for the Constitutional Convention and the main issues t ...
. He attempted to run in the primary elections for the
1995 presidential elections against Menem, who was seeking re-election. Not seeing any chance of prevailing against the president, he abandoned his candidacy. He also attempted to run in the primary elections for the
1999 presidential elections, and resigned his candidacy again, this time on behalf of
Eduardo Duhalde, governor of the
Buenos Aires Province. Duhalde lost the elections to the radical
Fernando de la Rúa
Fernando de la Rúa (15 September 19379 July 2019) was an Argentine politician and a member of the Radical Civic Union (UCR) political party who served as President of Argentina from 10 December 1999 to 21 December 2001. De la Rúa was born in ...
, and Rodríguez Saá was again re-elected as governor. He attempted to divide the city of
San Luis into four municipalities, as the mayor was a political rival, but had to drop the project because of the popular unrest generated by the proposal.
Presidency
President
Fernando de la Rúa
Fernando de la Rúa (15 September 19379 July 2019) was an Argentine politician and a member of the Radical Civic Union (UCR) political party who served as President of Argentina from 10 December 1999 to 21 December 2001. De la Rúa was born in ...
resigned after the
December 2001 riots that had been caused by the
1998–2002 Argentine great depression
The Argentine Great Depression was an economic depression in Argentina, which began in the third quarter of 1998 and lasted until the second quarter of 2002. It followed the fifteen years stagnation and a brief period of free-market reforms.
...
. As his vice president
Carlos Álvarez had resigned as well months before, Congress called for a special assembly to designate a new president. Until then,
Ramón Puerta
Federico Ramón Puerta (born 9 September 1951) is an Argentine Peronist politician who has served as a governor, national senator and deputy and briefly as President of Argentina in 2001.
Biography
Puerta was born in Apóstoles, Misiones Provi ...
served as acting president from 21 December to 22 December. Adolfo Rodríguez Saá became president after being elected with 169 votes to 138. He was supported by the
PJ and smaller
right-wing parties such as
Republican Force
The Republican Force ( es, Fuerza Republicana, links=no, FR) is a provincial conservative political party in Tucumán Province, Argentina.
The party was set up by Antonio Domingo Bussi, who was Tucumán's Governor during the early years of the N ...
and
Action for the Republic. The ''Unión Cívica Radical''
(UCR) and
Alternative for a Republic of Equals
Civic Coalition ARI ( es, Coalición Cívica ARI, CC-ARI), until October 2009 known as Support for an Egalitarian Republic ( es, Afirmación para una República Igualitaria, ARI), is a centrist political party in Argentina founded in 2002 by Eli ...
voted against him. He was replaced in the governor's office by vice-governor
María Alicia Lemme, and took office on 23 December 2001.
Rodríguez Saá got the mandate of president with instructions from the Assembly to call for elections the following 3 March, with a
ballotage round on 17 March if needed. The new president would complete de la Rúa's term of office. Those elections were to be held under the ''
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 foll ...
'' with double simultaneous voting, with the victor scheduled to take office on 5 April.
During his short time in office, Rodríguez Saá announced the creation of a new currency, the ''
argentino'', which would have circulated alongside the peso and the dollar.
The civil unrest of previous days resurfaced when he announced his cabinet, as it included
Carlos Grosso
Carlos Alfredo Grosso (born 1943) is an Argentinian politician who was '' intendente'' (mayor) of Buenos Aires from 1989 to 1992. A member of the Justicialist Party, he was appointed by President Carlos Menem
Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 ...
as
Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers.
Grosso was a very unpopular former mayor of Buenos Aires. As a result, Rodríguez Saá gave up his whole cabinet before they could take office, with the sole exception of
Rodolfo Gabrielli, in the Interior Ministry. He also declared a
sovereign default
A sovereign default is the failure or refusal of the
government of a sovereign state to pay back its debt in full when due. Cessation of due payments (or receivables) may either be accompanied by that government's formal declaration that it wi ...
on the Argentine national debt, which was celebrated by the chamber of deputies. It was the highest sovereign default in history. Those measures, uncharacteristic of a president with a brief term of office, were resented by the leaders of the Justicialist party.
Rodríguez Saá prepared a budget bill for 2002, which was sent to the Congress. It included an important decrease in the deficits, as requested by
Anne Krueger
Anne Osborn Krueger (; born February 12, 1934) is an American economist. She was the World Bank Chief Economist from 1982 to 1986, and the first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2001 to 2006. She is current ...
from the
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...
. Krueger also requested a new
coparticipation law, to determine the way the nation and the provinces manage tax revenues. Rodríguez Saá called for a meeting with governors in Chapadmalal, but only six governors out of twenty-three attended:
Carlos Ruckauf,
Juan Carlos Romero,
Gildo Insfrán
Gildo Insfrán (born 19 January 1951) is an Argentine Justicialist Party (PJ) politician, who has been Governor of Formosa Province since 1995.
Having been close to former President Carlos Menem, Insfrán later became close to President Néstor ...
,
Ángel Mazza,
Carlos Rovira
Carlos Eduardo Rovira (born February 18, 1956) is an Argentine Justicialist Party (PJ) politician, until 2007 governor of Misiones Province at the head of the Front for the Renewal of Concord.
Rovira was born in Posadas and studied chemical e ...
and
Alicia Lemme.
José Manuel de la Sota
José Manuel de la Sota (28 November 1949 – 15 September 2018) was an Argentine politician who was a member of Justicialist Party. He was the governor of Córdoba Province from 1999 until 2007, and was reelected to the post for the 2011–15 ...
, governor of Córdoba, withdrew his support, suspecting that Rodríguez Saá had plans to cancel the elections and stay as president up to 2003.
On 30 December, he returned to San Luis with
Daniel Scioli
Daniel Osvaldo Scioli (, ; born 13 January 1957) is an Argentine politician, sportsman, and businessman. He was Vice President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007 and Governor of Buenos Aires Province from 2011 to 2015. From 2020 to 2022 he was Arge ...
and resigned, alleging lack of support from the rest of the Justicialist Party. Insfrán, Maza and minister
Rodolfo Gabrielli tried to convince him to stay as president; his brother
Alberto Rodríguez Saá supported his decision. In announcing his resignation in a ''
Cadena nacional'', he recounted the achievements of his one-week administration and accused Justicialist governors and legislators of meanness and shortsightedness. He dispatched his resignation from San Luis to Buenos Aires, and the Congress accepted it on 1 January 2002. The Senate chairman
Ramón Puerta
Federico Ramón Puerta (born 9 September 1951) is an Argentine Peronist politician who has served as a governor, national senator and deputy and briefly as President of Argentina in 2001.
Biography
Puerta was born in Apóstoles, Misiones Provi ...
would have been the interim president, but resigned as well, so
Eduardo Camaño, president of the
Chamber of Deputies, was appointed interim president instead.
After new deliberations, they elected
Eduardo Duhalde as president, this time with a mandate that would fill the remaining time of de la Rúa's mandate.
Post-presidency
After the end of
Eduardo Duhalde's term, Rodríguez Saá ran for the presidency in the
April 2003 elections. Those elections allowed the Lemas law, and the PJ did not provide an official candidate. Each precandidate was allowed instead to run for presidency on his own "lema", and Rodríguez Saá did so. The other candidates of the PJ were
Néstor Kirchner
Néstor Carlos Kirchner (; 25 February 195027 October 2010) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, Governor of Santa Cruz Province from 1991 to 2003, Secretary General of UNASUR and ...
and Carlos Menem. Rodríguez Saá came in fourth, with 14.1% of the vote, behind both of the other PJ candidates and
Ricardo López Murphy. Kirchner became the president of Argentina after those elections.
Rodríguez Saá's brother
Alberto Rodríguez Saá became the new governor of San Luis in 2003. Together with Carlos Menem, they attempted to create an alternative political group against Kirchner within the PJ. Adolfo Rodríguez Saá was elected
Senator for San Luis representing this group at the
2005 election. He was reelected in 2011, with a term of office up to 2017. He tried to run for
governor of Buenos Aires Province
The Governor of Buenos Aires Province ( es, Gobernador de la Provincia de Buenos Aires) is a citizen of the Buenos Aires Province of Argentina, holding the office of governor for the corresponding period. The governor is elected alongside a vic ...
in 2011, but the local judiciary did not allow him, as he did not have the required time living in the province. The mayor
Sergio Massa
Sergio may refer to:
* Sergio (given name), for people with the given name Sergio
* Sergio (carbonado), the largest rough diamond ever found
* ''Sergio'' (album), a 1994 album by Sergio Blass
* ''Sergio'' (2009 film), a documentary film
* ''Se ...
organized the coalition
United for a New Alternative to run for the
2015 presidential election and invited Rodríguez Saá to join, but he refused to join and ran with his own party,
Federal Commitment
Federal Commitment is an Peronist political party in Argentina formed by the fusion of Es Posible Party and the Independent Movement of Justice and Dignity. The party is currently part of the governing Everyone’s Front coalition of Presiden ...
. With 1.64% of the vote, it was the least voted party in the national elections. He later joined the Juntos por el Cambio of the then-President Mauricio Macri in June 2019 but left the coalition and joined the Frente de Todos of President Cristina Kirchner in December 2019.
Personal life
Adolfo Rodríguez Saá was kidnapped on 21 October 1993. He was governor of San Luis at the time. He was taken to a room in the hotel "Y no C" and forced to perform for a pornographic video. He was forced to pay a ransom of 3 million dollars and was left in the trunk of a car. The video has never been made public, and the kidnappers Walter Alejandro Salgado, Nélida Esther Sesín and Eduardo Alberto Doyhenard were sentenced in 1995. The trial took 11 days, and it included the testimonies of 132 witnesses. It was aired on live television. Esther Sesín claimed during the trial that she had been his lover for eight years. All the kidnappers have served their sentences and currently live in other provinces.
Rodrígues Saá has worked as a cattle rancher in San Luis since his defeat in the 2003 elections.
[Reato, p. 27]
Bibliography
*
*
*
References
External links
Official site
Biography by CIDOB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodriguez Saa, Adolfo
Presidents of Argentina
Members of the Argentine Senate for San Luis
1947 births
Living people
Governors of San Luis Province
Justicialist Party politicians
Kidnappings in Argentina
University of Buenos Aires alumni
People from San Luis Province
Argentine people of Spanish descent
Argentine people of Palestinian descent
20th-century Argentine politicians
21st-century Argentine politicians