Alfredo Bravo
Encyclopedia
Alfredo Bravo was an Argentine
Socialist
politician, teacher, leader of the teachers' union CTERA, human rights
fighter, and legislator
.
, Entre Ríos Province
. He studied in Avellaneda
, Buenos Aires Province
, and became a teacher at 18. Teaching in the rural north of Santa Fe Province
, he returned upon being called for compulsory military training
. He moved to Buenos Aires
afterwards, where he joined the union movement.
Bravo left the Socialist Party
in 1957, since he opposed the participation of many of his fellow party members in the Consultative Junta convened by the military regime
that had ousted President Juan Perón
two years earlier. He took part in the writing of the Teacher's Statute, and was involved in the 1973 unification of the teachers' labour movement into the Education Workers Confederation of the Argentine Republic (CTERA), of which he became Secretary General.
On September 8, 1977, about a year and a half after the coup d'état
that started the dictatorship of the National Reorganization Process
, Bravo was kidnapped by a government task force while he was teaching. He remained "disappeared
" until September 20, and was only released in 1979. During his detention he was torture
d, which left him with vascular damage in his legs. Bravo recognized Buenos Aires Provincial Police
officer Miguel Etchecolatz
and General Ramón Camps
as his torturers.
Once freed, he became a human rights militant at the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights
(APDH). President Raúl Alfonsín
, who was elected democratically in 1983 and ordered the trial of the dictatorship's leaders, appointed him Subsecretary of State in the area of Education; however, Bravo resigned after the passing of the Full Stop Law
and the Due Obedience Law
, which halted judicial procedures on many people involved in the crimes of the dictatorial period.
Bravo returned to his party (the moderate faction, called Democratic Socialist Party
) in the late 1980s, and was elected a National Deputy
in 1991. He was reelected in 1995 and 1999. He became a personal friend of his fellow Deputy Elisa Carrió
(founder of ARI
), and participated in the Alliance for Work, Justice and Education
, which brought Fernando de la Rúa
to the presidency in the 1999 elections, though he later distanced himself from de la Rúa's austerity
policies.
As a fan of River Plate
, que was a member of the Representative's Assembly for the Agrupación Tradicional, between 1993 and 1997. In 1997, he ran for President. In 2001, Alfredo Bravo was part of the formula of the Agrupación Tradicional who had Carlos Lancioni as candidate for President.
In 2001 he ran for senator
representing the City of Buenos Aires and obtained enough votes to win a seat, but a legal conflict led to the assumption of Gustavo Béliz instead. In the 2003 elections
he ran for President (with Rubén Giustiniani
as candidate for Vice-President); but only gathered about 1% of the vote.
On the early hours of May 26, 2003, one day after the inauguration of President Néstor Kirchner
, Bravo suffered a heart attack
and died. He was waked at the Salón de los Pasos Perdidos of the Argentine Congress, attended by figures from across the political establishment.
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
Socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
politician, teacher, leader of the teachers' union CTERA, human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
fighter, and legislator
Argentine National Congress
The Congress of the Argentine Nation is the legislative branch of the government of Argentina. Its composition is bicameral, constituted by a 72-seat Senate and a 257-seat Chamber of Deputies....
.
Life and times
Bravo was born in Concepción del UruguayConcepción del Uruguay
Concepción del Uruguay is a city in Argentina.It is located in the Entre Ríos province, on the western shore of the Uruguay River, some 320 kilometers north from Buenos Aires. Its population is about 65,000 inhabitants .-History:...
, Entre Ríos Province
Entre Ríos Province
Entre Ríos is a northeastern province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires , Corrientes and Santa Fe , and Uruguay in the east....
. He studied in Avellaneda
Avellaneda
Avellaneda is a port city in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the seat of the Avellaneda Partido, whose population was 328,980 as per the ....
, Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
, and became a teacher at 18. Teaching in the rural north of Santa Fe Province
Santa Fe Province
The Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...
, he returned upon being called for compulsory military training
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
. He moved to Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
afterwards, where he joined the union movement.
Bravo left the Socialist Party
Socialist Party (Argentina)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in Argentina. The history of socialism in Argentina began in the 1890s, when a group of people, notably Juan B. Justo, expressed the need for a greater social focus....
in 1957, since he opposed the participation of many of his fellow party members in the Consultative Junta convened by the military regime
Revolución Libertadora
The Revolución Libertadora was a military uprising that ended the second presidential term of Juan Perón in Argentina, on September 16, 1955.-History:...
that had ousted President Juan Perón
Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón was an Argentine military officer, and politician. Perón was three times elected as President of Argentina though he only managed to serve one full term, after serving in several government positions, including the Secretary of Labor and the Vice Presidency...
two years earlier. He took part in the writing of the Teacher's Statute, and was involved in the 1973 unification of the teachers' labour movement into the Education Workers Confederation of the Argentine Republic (CTERA), of which he became Secretary General.
On September 8, 1977, about a year and a half after the coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
that started the dictatorship of the National Reorganization Process
National Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...
, Bravo was kidnapped by a government task force while he was teaching. He remained "disappeared
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
" until September 20, and was only released in 1979. During his detention he was torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
d, which left him with vascular damage in his legs. Bravo recognized Buenos Aires Provincial Police
Buenos Aires Provincial Police
The Buenos Aires Provincial Police is the police service responsible for policing the Province of Buenos Aires, in Argentina....
officer Miguel Etchecolatz
Miguel Etchecolatz
Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz is a former senior Argentine police officer, who worked in the Buenos Aires Provincial Police during the first years of the military dictatorship. Etchecolatz was an active participant in the "anti-subversion operation" known as the National Reorganization Process...
and General Ramón Camps
Ramón Camps
Ramón Juan Camps was an Argentine general and the head of the Buenos Aires Provincial Police during the military dictatorship known as the National Reorganization Process...
as his torturers.
Once freed, he became a human rights militant at the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights
Permanent Assembly for Human Rights
The Permanent Assembly for Human Rights is an Argentine non-governmental human rights organization; founded in 1975.- History :...
(APDH). President Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín was an Argentine lawyer, politician and statesman, who served as the President of Argentina from December 10, 1983, to July 8, 1989. Alfonsín was the first democratically-elected president of Argentina following the military government known as the National Reorganization...
, who was elected democratically in 1983 and ordered the trial of the dictatorship's leaders, appointed him Subsecretary of State in the area of Education; however, Bravo resigned after the passing of the Full Stop Law
Ley de Punto Final
Ley de Punto Final was a law passed by the National Congress of Argentina after the end of the military dictatorship of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional . Formally, this law is referred to by number Ley de Punto Final (Spanish, roughly translated Full Stop Law) was a law passed by the...
and the Due Obedience Law
Ley de Obediencia Debida
Ley de Obediencia Debida was a law passed by the National Congress of Argentina after the end of the military dictatorship of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional . Formally, this law is referred to by number Ley de Obediencia Debida (Spanish, Law of Due Obedience) was a law passed by the...
, which halted judicial procedures on many people involved in the crimes of the dictatorial period.
Bravo returned to his party (the moderate faction, called Democratic Socialist Party
Democratic Socialist Party (Argentina)
The Democratic Socialist Party was a political party in Argentina formed in 1959 as a division of the Socialist Party.The most important figure of the PSD was Alfredo Bravo, a teacher and civil rights activist, which was a deputy and the presidential candidate of the Socialist Party in the 2003...
) in the late 1980s, and was elected a National Deputy
Argentine Chamber of Deputies
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress. This Chamber holds exclusive rights to create taxes, to draft troops, and to accuse the President, the ministers and the members of the Supreme Court before the Senate....
in 1991. He was reelected in 1995 and 1999. He became a personal friend of his fellow Deputy Elisa Carrió
Elisa Carrió
Elisa María Avelina Carrió is an Argentine politician, founder of the party initially known as Alternative for a Republic of Equals , now Civic Coalition ARI ....
(founder of ARI
Support for an Egalitarian Republic
Civic Coalition ARI is a social liberal Argentine political party, founded in 2001 by Elisa Carrió. It is a member of the Civic Coalition with centrist and centre-left parties.- Creation and political representation :...
), and participated in the Alliance for Work, Justice and Education
Alliance for Work, Justice and Education
The Alliance for Work, Justice and Education was a party coalition in Argentina around the turn of the third millennium...
, which brought Fernando de la Rúa
Fernando de la Rúa
Fernando de la Rúa is an Argentine politician. He was president of the country from December 10, 1999 to December 21, 2001 for the Alliance for Work, Justice and Education ....
to the presidency in the 1999 elections, though he later distanced himself from de la Rúa's austerity
Austerity
In economics, austerity is a policy of deficit-cutting, lower spending, and a reduction in the amount of benefits and public services provided. Austerity policies are often used by governments to reduce their deficit spending while sometimes coupled with increases in taxes to pay back creditors to...
policies.
As a fan of River Plate
Club Atlético River Plate
Club Atlético River Plate is an Argentine sports club based in the Nuñez neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is best known for its professional football team, which currently competes in Nacional B, the second tier of Argentine football....
, que was a member of the Representative's Assembly for the Agrupación Tradicional, between 1993 and 1997. In 1997, he ran for President. In 2001, Alfredo Bravo was part of the formula of the Agrupación Tradicional who had Carlos Lancioni as candidate for President.
In 2001 he ran for senator
Argentine Senate
The Argentine Senate is the upper house of the Argentine National Congress. It has 72 senators: three for each province and three for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires...
representing the City of Buenos Aires and obtained enough votes to win a seat, but a legal conflict led to the assumption of Gustavo Béliz instead. In the 2003 elections
Argentine general election, 2003
Argentina held presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday, April 27, 2003. Turnout was 78.2% and the results were as follows:-Argentine Congress:-Background:...
he ran for President (with Rubén Giustiniani
Rubén Giustiniani
Rubén Héctor Giustiniani is an Argentine senator from Santa Fe province. An engineer by occupation, he is also president of the Socialist Party ....
as candidate for Vice-President); but only gathered about 1% of the vote.
On the early hours of May 26, 2003, one day after the inauguration of President Néstor Kirchner
Néstor Kirchner
Néstor Carlos Kirchner was an Argentine politician who served as the 54th President of Argentina from 25 May 2003 until 10 December 2007. Previously, he was Governor of Santa Cruz Province since 10 December 1991. He briefly served as Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations ...
, Bravo suffered a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
and died. He was waked at the Salón de los Pasos Perdidos of the Argentine Congress, attended by figures from across the political establishment.