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Carlos Ruckauf
31st Vice-President of Argentina
In office July 8, 1995 – December 10, 1999
President	Carlos Saúl Menem
Preceded by	Eduardo Duhalde
Succeeded by	Carlos Álvarez
Born	July 10, 1944(1944-07-10) Ramos Mejía

Carlos Federico Ruckauf (born July 10, 1944) is a Peronist politician in Argentina, member of the Justicialist Party.

He was Isabel Perón's Minister of Labour before the March 1976 military coup, and signed the decree 261/75 which ordered the "annihilation of the subversives," preparing the so-called "Dirty War." After the 1983 reestablishment of civilian government, Carlos Ruckauf became Interior Minister then vice-president of Argentina in July 1995 in the government of Carlos Menem and held that position until December 1999, when the Menem government left office. In the elections of 1999, he was elected governor of Buenos Aires Province.

Ruckauf left that position amidst Argentina's political turmoil in December 2001 to rejoin the federal government under Eduardo Duhalde. He became foreign minister and served in that position until May 25, 2003 when the Duhalde government left office.

Later in 2003 Ruckauf was elected to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies for Buenos Aires Province. He sat in the Federal Peronist block opposed to the government of Nestor Kirchner, until leaving Congress in 2007.

Until the 1980s

Carlos Ruckauf first worked as a secretary. But his relations with Lorenzo Miguel, leader of the Unión Obrera Metalúrgica (steelworkers' trade-union), helped him become Isabel Peron's Minister of Labour in July 1975, a function he kept until the March 1976 coup. Contrary to various Peronists during the military dictatorship (self-titled "National Reorganization Process"), Carlos Ruckauff managed to escape arrest, allegedly because of support by Admiral Eduardo Massera, himself a Peronist, through the intermediary of an official of the Federal Police, Ramón Ramírez.

1980s till today

Carlos Ruckauf became president of the Justicialist Party in Buenos Aires Capital in 1983, under president Raúl Alfonsín. After holding a seat as deputy, he was named extraordinary embassador and plenipotentiary of Argentina in Italy, Malta and the FAO (1989-91). Interior Minister (1993) then vice-president of Argentina (1995) under Carlos Menem, his role has been questionned by familiars of the victims of the 1995 AMIA bombing.

Elected governor of Buenos Aires Province in 1999, he issued the Patacón, bonds specially issued in 2001 in the Province to deal with the scarcity of Argentine Pesos.

He has been accused of being responsible for the "disappearance" of 14 Mercedes Benz workers in 1975. ^[1].

References