Early life and career Lavagna was born in the
Saavedra section of
Buenos Aires in 1942. His father, the owner of a
linotype printing shop, relocated the family to the western suburb of
Morón a few years later, and Lavagna enrolled at the
University of Buenos Aires Faculty of Economic Sciences, where he graduated with a degree in
political economy in 1967. He then obtained a scholarship to study in Belgium, where he earned a graduate degree in econometrics and economic policy. At the university, he met Claudine Marechal, a student from
Belgium whom he married in 1970, and with whom he had three children. Lavagna also holds an
honorary doctorate from the University of Concepción del Uruguay. Following the election of
Peronist candidate
Héctor Cámpora in 1973, Lavagna was named National Director of Price Policy in the Commerce Secretariat, and was shortly afterwards named Director of Incomes Policy by the Economy Minister,
José Ber Gelbard; as such he helped oversee a key policy initiative of Gelbard's "Social Pact," which sought to involve management in efforts to control inflation while raising stagnant median wages. Gelbard's resignation in November 1974 led to Lavagna's entry into the private sector following a stint at the Ministry of Public Works, becoming a member of the board of directors of La Cantábrica, a since closed Morón steelmaker, until 1976. He also co-founded
Ecolatina, a
think tank, in 1975, and was a member of the board of the Institute for Applied Economics and Society (IdEAS), from 1980 to 1990. Lavagna reentered public service as President
Raúl Alfonsín's Secretary of Industry and Foreign Commerce, between 1985 and 1987, during which he helped negotiate the preliminary trade accords with
Brazil that later led to the establishment of the
Mercosur trade region in 1991. He left the board of Ecolatina in 2000 to accept a post as
Ambassador-at-large to international economic conferences, and to the
European Union.
Minister of Economy in 2004 Lavagna was appointed Minister of Economy by interim
President Eduardo Duhalde, on April 27, 2002. Taking office at the depth of the
Argentine economic crisis, Lavagna prioritized the planned rescision of the
corralito (withdrawal limits on local bank accounts) over the stabilization of the
Argentine peso, which had declined by 75% in four months. This put him at odds with the President of the
Central Bank,
Mario Blejer, who resigned in June. The peso stabilized, however, as
foreign trade surpluses mounted, and confidence returned to the Argentine financial system. The
corralito was phased out between December 2002 and March 2003, the economy began a vigorous recovery, and Lavagna was confirmed in his post by President
Néstor Kirchner upon his taking office in May 2003. Lavagna earned further plaudits from his handling the
Argentine debt restructuring, launched on January 14, 2005, by which more than 76% of the
defaulted
public debt bonds (worth about 93 billion
dollars) for longer-term debt, with an important
reduction in principal. Despite these successes, Lavagna was ousted by President Kirchner on November 28, 2005, after persistent rumors followed by official denials. He was replaced by
Felisa Miceli, President of
Banco de la Nación Argentina and a former student of Lavagna's. The reasons for the forced resignation of the Minister were not made public, though speculations ranged from the failures in fighting
inflation to Lavagna's recent accusations of
cartelization against certain private companies involved in contracts with the government, which were seen as an indirect attack against
Julio de Vido, Minister of Public Works and personally close to the President. Meanwhile, Miceli would go on to resign in 2007 over a money scandal, referred to by the press as
toiletgate. Lavagna only told the press that the President had decided his removal as part of a common post-
election renewal. The next day,
José Pampuro, former Minister of Defense, admitted that relations between Kirchner and Lavagna had become "complicated" since the elections, and that the situation was "tense" during the week before Lavagna's removal. Off-the-record sources also indicated that Lavagna's independence clashed with Kirchner's desire to have a homogeneous cabinet.
2007 candidacy and later Unctad meeting Lavagna formed a front, UNA (
Una Nacion Avanzada, "An Advanced Nation"), to run against the government's candidate,
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in the
October 2007 presidential elections. Senior members of the
Radical Civic Union (UCR),
Socialists and Peronist supporters of former President Duhalde voiced support for a coalition behind Lavagna's candidacy, although this proved controversial in all three parties. His plan for his first 100 days of government was based on improving security and employment and reducing poverty. The UCR endorsed Lavagna in the first election since the party's establishment in 1892 that the UCR ran in a coalition rather than field its own candidate;
Gerardo Morales, leader of the UCR, was named Lavagna's running mate (Mrs. Kirchner also had a Radical as her running mate,
Mendoza Governor
Julio Cobos). Lavagna and UNA came third with over 3 million votes and 17%, behind Fernández and
Elisa Carrió, and won solely in
Córdoba Province. Following the 2007 election, Lavagna reached an accord with his former rivals and held talks with Néstor Kirchner over the future of the governing
Justicialist Party (PJ). Lavagna was expected to become a vice-president of the Party, seen as a move to widen the base of the party and strengthen Mrs. Kirchner's government; he subsequently declared however that he would not seek a position on the PJ executive. Lavagna later became an opponent of President Fernández de Kirchner, and in 2013 co-founded
Unidos Para Cambiar ('United for Change') with three leading opponents of
Kirchnerism within the PJ:
Córdoba Governor
José Manuel de la Sota,
Dissident CGT labor federation head
Hugo Moyano, and
Federal Peronist Congressman
Francisco de Narváez. ==See also==