Miguel Andrés Costas Zottos (born 30 December 1961) is an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

politician who served as a National Deputy elected in

Salta Province Salta () is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the east clockwise Formosa Province, Formosa, Chaco Province, Chaco, Santiago del Estero Province, Santiago del Es ...

from 2017 to 2021. A member of the localist Salta Renewal Party, Zottos previously served in both houses of the Salta Legislature, and as

Vice Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a " second-in-com ...

of Salta under

Juan Manuel Urtubey Juan Manuel Urtubey (born September 6, 1969) is an Argentine politician, lawyer, university professor and former governor of Salta Province. Formerly a senior figure in the ruling Front for Victory faction of the Justicialist Party (PJ) in the Arg ...

from 2007 to 2015.

Early life

Zottos was born on 30 December 1961 in Tartagal,

, to a family of

Greek Cypriot Greek Cypriots (, ) are the ethnic Greek population of Cyprus, forming the island's largest ethnolinguistic community. According to the 2023 census, 719,252 respondents recorded their ethnicity as Greek, forming almost 99% of the 737,196 Cypri ...

descent. He was raised in the

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

faith, and married into the

Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch (), also known as the Antiochian Orthodox Church and legally as the Rum (endonym), Rūm Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East (), is an autocephalous Greek Orthodox church within the wider ...

with Marisa Yudi, of

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

descent. He finished high school at the Escuela de Comercio Alejandro Agüado in Tartagal, and has an unfinished degree on economics from the

National University of Salta The National University of Salta () is an Argentine public national university in Salta. It was founded on 11 May 1972 as a part of the ''Plan Taquini'', a reorganization plan for education. It has around 20,000 students. Overview The universi ...

Political career

Zottos began his career in 1992 as Undersecretary of Border Areas in the

Salta Salta () is the capital and largest city in the Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Salta Province, the same name. With a population of 618,375 according to the 2010 census, it is also the List of cities in Argentina, 7th most-populous ...

city government; he then went on to serve as a member of the Tartagal City Council. In 1993, he briefly served as interim mayor of Tartagal. In 1995 he was elected to the Salta Province Chamber of Deputies, representing the General San Martín Department; he was president of the Salta Renewal Party parliamentary bloc in the Chamber starting in 1999. Zottos was elected to 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 ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

. Zottos was the running mate of

at the 2007 gubernatorial election in Salta; the ticket won with 46.39% of the popular vote, and Urtubey was elected. Both Urtubey and Zottos were sworn in on 10 December 2007. The Urtubey-Zottos ticket was re-elected in 2011, this time with 59.57% of the vote. Although Urtubey sought and won a third term in 2015, Zottos did not run for re-election alongside him. Instead, he ran for a seat in the Provincial Senate. Zottos ran for the

again in the 2017 legislative election, this time as the first candidate in the "Unity and Renewal Front" list. The list became the second-most voted, with 24.44% (behind

Cambiemos (JxC, ) was a political coalition in Argentina. A liberal coalition, it was created in 2015 as Cambiemos (), and renamed in 2019. It was composed of Republican Proposal, Radical Civic Union, Civic Coalition ARI and United Republicans. These ...

—

PAIS Pais is a red wine grape that has played a prominent role in the Chilean wine industry. Up until the turn of the 21st century, it was Chile's most planted variety until it was overtaken by Cabernet Sauvignon. Today it is most commonly used in the ...

's 30.25%), and Zottos was elected. He took office on 6 December 2017. As deputy, Zottos formed part of the ''Bloque Justicialista'' parliamentary bloc from 2017 to 2019, and later presided the bloc within the '' Interbloque Federal'' from 2019 to 2021.

References

External links

Profile on the official website of the Chamber of Deputies
(in Spanish) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zottos, Andrés Living people 1961 births Argentine people of Greek descent Members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies elected in Salta Vice governors of Salta Province People from Salta Province Members of the Chamber of Deputies of Salta Members of the Senate of Salta 20th-century Argentine politicians Argentine deputies 2001–2003 Argentine deputies 2003–2005 Argentine deputies 2005–2007 Argentine deputies 2017–2019 Argentine deputies 2019–2021