Gerardo Morales (politician)

Gerardo Rubén Morales (born 18 July 1959) is an Argentine politician, Governor of Jujuy Province and Secretary General of the Radical Civic Union. He was a member of the Argentine Senate representing Jujuy Province, elected for the Front of Jujuy. He was a candidate for Vice President of Argentina on Roberto Lavagna's UNA ticket in the 2007 elections. Since 2015, he has been Governor of Jujuy, the first non-Peronist elected to the post since the restoration of democracy. Morales was born in Jujuy Province. He worked on the Ferrocarril General Manuel Belgrano railway as a waiter at age 18, and was promoted to the post of administrator. He enrolled at the National University of Jujuy, where he earned a degree in Accountancy. Morales was later appointed Director of Liquidations at the Provincial Insurance Institute. He also lectured and was politically active at university, teaching in Political Economy courses from 1985 to 1993. He married in 1985, and had three children; he admitted to past infidelities in a 2008 interview. In 1989 Morales was elected as a provincial deputy and in 1993 became leader of the UCR block in the legislature. He served as president of the Finance Committee in 1991 and 1992. He was nominated for Vice Governor of Jujuy in a defeated 1991 UCR ticket, and with the support of party leader Raúl Alfonsín, ran for Governor of Jujuy in 1995 and 1999, albeit unsuccessfully. He stepped down as a Jujuy Congressman in 2000 to join the national government of President Fernando de la Rúa as Secretary for Social Development. Morales was elected to the Argentine Senate in 2001 mid-term elections. After the election of Néstor Kirchner as President of Argentina in 2003, many leading Radicals publicly supported Kirchner's populist left-wing agenda. The group, known as Radicales K, included provincial governors and national legislators. The national president of the Radicals, Roberto Iglesias took a hard-line approach against Kirchner, however, opposing efforts to re-align UCR elected officials toward the popular Kirchner.