Hugo Moyano (born January 9, 1944) is an Argentine labor leader who served as Secretary General of the CGT, the country’s largest trade union, from 2004 to 2012. A split within the CGT emerged during 2012, and Moyano was elected to lead the dissident CGT faction. He also serves as president of Club Atlético Independiente, one of the largest football clubs in Argentina and the world, and as treasurer of the Argentine Football Association. He is the founder and leader of the Party of Culture, Education and Labor (CET).
Early life and career
Moyano was born in La Plata in 1944. His family settled on the Mar del Plata coast early in his childhood, and he entered the workforce as a teenager working for Expresos y Mudanzas, a local moving company. He was elected union delegate in 1962 and soon became a leader in the Mar del Plata chapter of the Truckers’ Union, a member of the CGT labor federation. Moyano was elected head of the local chapter in 1972. He married three times: with Olga Mariani (two children), Patricia Villares (four children), and Liliana Zulet (one daughter).
Moyano made an agreement with the right-wing National University Roundtable (CNU) to jointly establish the Peronist Youth Union (JSP) in 1973. His entry into politics came amid rising tensions between the far left and the far right in Peronism, shortly after the end of its political ban. A staunch opponent of the Peronist left, he joined the JPRA, a right-wing counterpart to the influential leftist Peronist Youth (JP); both the JSP and the JPRA had close ties with José López Rega (head of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance).
However, the CGT, cornerstone of Peronist support, became one of the Dirty War’s targets after the March 1976 coup: union activity was banned and thousands of its members “disappeared.” Restrictions were later eased and the CGT was reconstituted under beer workers’ leader Saúl Ubaldini in 1980. Moyano was appointed head of the CGT delegation in Mar del Plata and was arrested during numerous protests against the regime’s economic policies. After the collapse of those policies in 1981 and the loss of the Falklands War the following year, general elections were called for 1983, and Moyano was named head of the Mar del Plata chapter of the Justicialist Party founded by the late Juan Perón.
Union leadership
Moyano lost his second wife and a son to health problems in 2011. His support for President Cristina Kirchner waned during her re-election campaign, when she rejected Moyano’s demands to include more CGT officials on the congressional list of the ruling Front for Victory party. He resigned from executive positions within the Justicialist Party, including president of the Buenos Aires province chapter, in February 2012 after a two-year term. Moyano’s alliance with the Kirchner administration effectively ended with a series of strikes called by the Truckers’ Union (led by his son Pablo) in June 2012.
The administration’s decision to file legal charges and impose fines on the Truckers’ Union for failing to meet labor conflict mediation requirements was followed by Moyano’s own call for a 10-hour general strike on June 27. This break with the administration led to a split within the CGT, as most of the largest unions rallied behind Steelworkers’ Union (UOM) leader Antonio Caló, who was elected Secretary General of the official CGT in October 2012, while Moyano continued to lead the now dissident CGT in a loose alliance with Barrionuevo and Pablo Micheli from the dissident CTA.