José Manuel de la Sota is an Argentine lawyer, politician, professor, and singer. He served as governor of the province of Córdoba, as well as national deputy for Córdoba and ambassador to Brazil. During the 1980s, he was one of the promoters of the Peronist Renewal movement.
Who is José Manuel de la Sota?
He was born in Córdoba, Argentina, on November 28, 1949.
He pursued higher education at the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the National University of Córdoba. After graduating as a lawyer from that institution, he later worked there as a professor.
Shortly after earning his law degree, José Manuel de la Sota joined the Peronist Lawyers Group, which provided legal assistance to Peronist militants imprisoned for their political activities, helping to release them from police stations and military barracks.
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In 1973, José Manuel de la Sota was appointed administrative secretary of the Córdoba City Council, at the time when Justicialist Juan Carlos Ávalos was elected mayor of Córdoba. After several issues led to Ávalos’s resignation, in 1975 de la Sota was appointed secretary of government of Córdoba by then-mayor José Domingo Coronel.
Shortly afterward, on March 24, 1976, the military coup in Argentina affected Peronist militants, including de la Sota himself.
Political activity
In 1985, he was elected National Deputy for Córdoba. In 1986, he was a Constitutional Assembly Member in Córdoba for the Christian Democratic Party and was elected President of the Justicialist Party of Córdoba. He ran for governor of the province as the party’s candidate in 1987 and 1991.
He was reelected as party president in 1991 and again in 1997. Between 1990 and 1992, he served as Ambassador of the Argentine Republic to the Federative Republic of Brazil.
As governor of Córdoba, he was elected for the term from 1999 to 2003. After that, he ran for reelection, completing his second term between 2003 and 2007. In 2011, he was once again elected governor.