Beatriz Rojkes de Alperovich

Early life and education

Beatriz Liliana Rojkes was born in San Miguel de Tucuman to Luisa Werblud and Salomon Rojkes, both Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Europe. Salomon Rojkes inaugurated a textile mill in the city, Textil Americana. She earned a degree in Psychopedagogy and married a fellow member of Tucuman's Jewish community, Jose Alperovich, with whom she had four children.

Career

She became a partner in her father-in-law's auto dealership, Leon Alperovich de Tucuman S.A., in 1997, and by 2010 controlled 98% of the firm (one of Tucuman's largest Ford and Volkswagen distributors). Following the election of her husband as Governor of Tucuman, she was elected in 2005 to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies on the Front for Victory ticket (the majority, center-left Justicialist Party faction then headed by President Nestor Kirchner). She introduced numerous bills advancing children's rights, women's rights and nutrition, among other issues.

She was elected to the Senate in 2009. Her stake in the Rojkes and Alperovich family businesses made her the wealthiest woman in the Senate by 2010, and the fourth-wealthiest overall. She was named to the Senate committees on Constitutional Affairs, Labor, Health, Ombudsmanship, and Bermejo River works.

Early in 2010, the opposition was able to transfer Rojkes de Alperovich's position on the Congressional Bicameral Committee to an opposition politician, Luis Juez. The government protested. On April 29, 2010, the Appeals Court confirmed Rojkes's reinstatement on the committee. She said that “We will be able to work normally from now on.”

Rojkes was elected Provisional President of the Senate on November 30, 2011. Married to one of the few Jews in Argentina to be elected governor, she herself made history by becoming both the first Jew and the first woman to hold this key post. Rojkes promised the President her “loyalty.” In a radio interview, Rojkes de Alperovich said that she “fully supports the political system” of the Kirchner regime and that she was “proud” to have been selected for the position. The Provisional President of the Senate is second in the line of succession to the Presidency in Argentina.

Speculation mounted in the days leading to the second inaugural of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner that Senator Alperovich might be asked to administer the Oath of Office in lieu of Vice President Julio Cobos, who had been distanced from the rest of the administration since his surprise tie-breaking vote in 2008 against an export tax increase supported by the president. President Fernandez de Kirchner ultimately opted to take the oath independently, as did Vice President Amado Boudou.

In June 2013, Cristina Kirchner criticized opposition politicians for failing to come up with new ideas so as to make possible “a healthy democratic debate.” When she made the remarks, she was flanked by Alperovich and Rojkes, whom the Buenos Aires Herald described as “two staunch supporters of her administration.” In February 2014, it was announced that Rojkes de Alperovich would be replaced as provisional leader of the Senate by Zamora.

Controversies

At a public event in March 2006, Rojkes condemned the writer and journalist Tomas Eloy Martinez, calling him a former Tucumano – effectively disowning him as a resident of the province – because he had published an article in La Nacion about the high level of poverty in the province.

She was criticized in November 2011 by a political opponent, Senator Jose Cano, for saying that there were no street urchins in the province of Tucuman. Cano said that her remark gave him the feeling that “she lives in another province.”

Rojkes caused controversy in 2012 by commenting on the brutal murder of a six-year-old girl, Mercedes Figueroa, saying that her parents were “drunks” who had not cared for her properly and that as First Lady she could not associate herself with such people. She later apologized for the remarks.

Marita Veron case

The disappearance of a young woman named Marita Veron in Tucuman became a public issue and was held up as an example of the extent of human smuggling in the province. Suspects went on trial but were acquitted on December 12, 2012, in a verdict widely seen as exemplary of the corruption of courts in the province and the collusion of judges with gangsters. Rojkes said that she was “shocked” and “surprised” by the court's decision to free all of the defendants, but also, in what became a very controversial statement, added that prostitution and human trafficking “exists and will continue to exist.”

El Molino incident

In March 2015, Rojkes visited the southern town of El Molino, which had recently experienced serious flooding. In response to local residents who had been affected by the flooding and who were angry at delays in government assistance, she told them, “Don’t get angry, because you will make the whole world go crazy and you won’t solve anything.” She added, “We are listening, but it’s not my fault if the river floods.” This statement caused outrage among the locals, and led to a heated discussion. When one flood victim was particularly critical of the government's response and of her attitude, she responded dismissively. This led to a heated argument between the two in which she called the man a "bum" and he alled her a "crook". During the argument she called out that she owned ten mansions.

Her remarks were caught on video and quickly went viral. Rojkes later denied that she actually had ten houses. On March 23, 2015, she called the incident a set-up and said that she “fell for it in the worst way.” She added: “I reacted like an idiot” and attributed her reaction to “a mix of pain, impotence, of being unable to provide a solution. It made me lose my temper.” The flood victim told a television reporter “that he was only trying to get the provincial government to send machinery that could help prevent floods in the future.” Rojkes apologized for her remarks to the man, while Cabinet Chief Anibal Fernandez accused the man of provoking her.

Radical Civic Union (UCR) gubernatorial candidate Jose Cano criticized Rojkes for her remarks in El Molino, saying “she belonged to a caste of political leaders who believe they are superior to everyday citizens” and noting that she had “a long history of outbursts.” For example, she had “drunkenly called the family of the assassinated girl (six-year-old Mercedes Figueroa), she threatened the doctors that protested in favour of higher salaries and questioned mothers that take drugs for not taking care of their children.”

In a March 25, 2015, commentary headlined “Adding insult to injury,” the editors of the Buenos Aires Herald condemned Rojkes de Alperovich for the remarks she made to the flood victims. “Throwing in the face of somebody who has just lost his home her possession of 10 mansions (in any case a false claim, according to her) is so obviously wrong that it becomes hardly necessary to elaborate,” they stated. “This is not the first evidence of an authoritarian regime in the province governed by her husband for the last 12 years – remember that by far the bloodiest repression of the late 2013 looting occurred in Tucuman. The latest Rojkes gaffe thus largely serves to suggest that this is an authoritarian style where the sticks are much longer than the carrots.”

In an April 2015 commentary for La Nacion, Fernando Bracaccini and Renzo Lavin suggested that the incident in El Molino underscored the lack of accountability for public officials under the Kirchner regime. They noted that Rojkes had not made public any information about her income or fortune since 2009, and that there was no way to know how many houses she owned. A 2013 federal law, they explained, enabled public officials to avoid disclosing their private financial or property information by putting it in the names of their spouses or children, and under provincial legislation her husband, even though serving as governor of Tucuman, was not required to disclose such data.

Alleged Nepotism

A July 2012 article in La Nacion held up the province of Tucuman, and particularly the relatives of Rojkes and Alperovich, as “a crude example” of nepotism in government and the enrichment of Kirchner-connected families with government funds. At the time the article was published, Rojkes's sister Silvia Rojkes Temkin was the provincial Minister of Education, her brother Carlos Rojkes was an officer in the national Senate, her niece Veronica Rojkes was a member of the National Congress, and her brother Ruben Rojkes was a supplier to the province of Tucuman state. Also, Paul Zeitume, Alperovich's son, was Director of Commerce for Tucuman province; Isaac Bromberg, an Alperovich cousin, was a national deputy; another cousin, Beatriz Mirkin, was a former Minister of Social Development and a current national deputy; Oscar Mirkin, yet another cousin, was Secretary of Public Works in Tucuman; and Lucia Temkin, niece of Alperovich's private secretary, was provisional president of the national Senate.

Corruption allegations

In November 2014, Rojkes was criticized by opposition leaders for claiming that there had been “no corruption” in Tucuman during her husband's term as governor. Opposition politician Manuel Avellaneda said that she must have a “very poor memory,” given the number of allegations of corruption that had been made against her husband, his efforts to control the judiciary, and his refusal to take action for greater transparency. Avellaneda said that according to Enrique Romero, Alperovich's administration is the “most corrupt in history.” Avellaneda stated that “as in dictatorships, corruption is the soul of the government of her husband, which is the most corrupt in the democratic history of Tucuman.”