Jorge Alberto Obeid (24 November 1947 – 28 January 2014) was an Argentine

Justicialist Party 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 ...

(PJ) politician who was twice

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 ...

Santa Fe Province The Province of Santa Fe ( es, Provincia de Santa Fe, ) is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco (divided by the 28th parallel south), Corrientes, Entre R ...

and 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 n ...

Early life and education

Obeid was born in

Diamante, Entre Ríos Diamante is a city in the west of the province of Entre Ríos, Argentina, on the eastern shore of the Paraná River. It has about 20,000 inhabitants as per the . It is the head town of the Diamante Department Diamante is a Departments of Argent ...

, to Edi D'Acierno, of Italian descent, and Juan Obeid, of Lebanese descent. He enrolled 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, Re ...

, in Santa Fe, and graduated with a degree in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials in ...

. He taught there from 1972 to 1976, and became a

Peronist Youth Peronism, also called justicialism,. The Justicialist Party is the main Peronist party in Argentina, it derives its name from the concept of social justice., name=, group= is an Argentine political movement based on the ideas and legacy of Ar ...

activist at the time. This forced him to leave the country following the

March 1976 coup March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of Marc ...

, and returning from exile in

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

in 1977 to visit family in Diamante he was detained. Following the return of democracy in 1983, Obeid worked as a chemist in a

polyurethane Polyurethane (; often abbreviated PUR and PU) refers to a class of polymers composed of organic chemistry, organic units joined by carbamate (urethane) links. In contrast to other common polymers such as polyethylene and polystyrene, polyurethan ...

plant. He married Elba Inés Kemer, and they had five children.

Political career

Obeid remained active in Peronist politics after his return, and in 1987 was elected to the Santa Fe City Council. He became President of the Council in 1989, and when Mayor Carlos Aurelio Martínez resigned later that year, he succeeded him as mayor. Obeid was elected mayor in his own right in 1991, and later served as President of Argentine Federation of Cities (1992–93) and as representative for Santa Fe Province in the 1994 Constitutional Convention.

Governor of Santa Fe

He was elected governor of the province for the first time in 1995, winning an election that was fraught with problems, including a breakdown in the computer system counting the ballots that forced a recount to be done by hand. Obeid was declared the winner after 37 days, subsequent to charges of fraud and manipulation. He was backed by outgoing governor

Carlos Reutemann Carlos Alberto "Lole" Reutemann (12 April 1942 – 7 July 2021) was an Argentine racing driver who raced in Formula One from to , and later became a politician in his native province of Santa Fe, for the Justicialist Party, and governor of ...

and Buenos Aires Province Governor

Eduardo Duhalde Eduardo Alberto Duhalde (; born 5 October 1941) is an Argentine Peronist politician who served as the interim President of Argentina from January 2002 to May 2003. He also served as Vice President and Governor of Buenos Aires in the 1990s. Bor ...

, narrowly defeating

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

candidate

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 Radical ...

and an alternative Peronist candidate backed by President

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. ...

Rosario 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 po ...

Mayor

Héctor Cavallero Héctor Cavallero (2 October 1939 – 2 October 2020), nicknamed ''El Tigre'' ("The Tiger"), was an Argentine politician, who was mayor of Rosario, Santa Fe, and a member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies for the Province of Santa Fe. Biogra ...

. He served until 1999, when former Governor Reutemann was returned by voters to a second four-year term. The provincial constitution of Santa Fe does not allow for reelection of a governor, and Obeid was elected to the

in 1999. He was then returned by voters as governor for a second, non-consecutive term in 2003. Under his administration, and following his initiative, the provincial legislature repealed the controversial electoral law 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, open party-list proportional representation, li ...

'', which had allowed Obeid to twice win the governorship after obtaining fewer votes than his closest opponent. Termed out of office, Obeid headed the

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 w ...

Santa Fe

party list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

for seats in the Chamber of Deputies. His term as governor ended in December 2007 and he was succeeded by the Socialist Mayor of Rosario,

Hermes Binner Hermes Juan Binner (June 5, 1943 − June 26, 2020) was an Argentine physician and a politician. He was Governor of Santa Fe from 2007 to 2011.pulmonary embolism Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage of an artery in the lungs by a substance that has moved from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream (embolism). Symptoms of a PE may include shortness of breath, chest pain particularly upon breathing ...

; he was 66.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obeid, Jorge 1947 births 2014 deaths People from Entre Ríos Province Argentine people of Lebanese descent Argentine people of Italian descent National University of the Littoral alumni Argentine chemical engineers Mayors of Santa Fe, Argentina Governors of Santa Fe Province Justicialist Party politicians Members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies elected in Santa Fe Deaths from pulmonary embolism