Patricia Bullrich
Patricia Bullrich (; born 11 June 1956) is an Argentine politician. She was Minister of Security under Mauricio Macri and is the chairwoman of Republican Proposal.

Born in Buenos Aires, Bullrich graduated from the University of Palermo, and as a young woman she was involved with the Peronist Youth. Following the election of Macri to the presidency in the 2015 Argentine general election, it was announced that Bullrich had been nominated the Minister of Security.

Early life
Bullrich was born on 11 June 1956 in Buenos Aires, daughter of Alejandro Bullrich, a cardiologist, and Julieta Luro Pueyrredón. She was the youngest of four siblings until her parents' separation, following which her father had three more children.

Bullrich belongs to two wealthy families on each of her parents' sides. On her mother's side, she belongs to the Pueyrredón family, a traditional lineage of Galician, French, and Irish descent whose members featured prominently in the early years of Argentine Independence (such as Juan Martín de Pueyrredón and Honorio Pueyrredón). On her father's side, she descends from Adolfo Bullrich, a businessman and politician of German ancestry who served as Mayor of Buenos Aires from 1898 to 1902.

She became politically engaged from an early age; she abandoned a potential career in field hockey to dedicate herself fully to her political activism. By the time she was 17, she was an active member of the Peronist Youth; she also worked at the Cheburger fast food joint and became a member of the food workers' union, and encouraged her coworkers to unionise as well.

Peronist Youth years
She joined the Juventud Peronista, the youth wing of the Peronist movement, aged 17. On 20 June 1973 she joined the procession to Ezeiza to bear witness to Juan Perón's return to Argentina following his 18-year exile; she left before the Ezeiza Massacre took place that same day.

She was also present at the Plaza de Mayo on May Day 1974, when Perón, by then once again president of Argentina, expulsed the Montoneros and the left-wing youth groups from the celebrations. Bullrich herself was a member of the Montoneros, active in the Columna Norte subgroup commanded by Rodolfo Galimberti. Galimberti was also in a relationship with Bullrich's sister, Julieta. Bullrich has denied being a Montoneros member.

Following Perón's death in 1974, a period of political violence and persecution against Montoneros and other left-wing peronists ensued. In 1975, Bullrich was arrested for spray-painting political messages on the entrance of the University of Buenos Aires Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. She spent six months in prison. Upon being released, she dropped out of her sociology degree at the University of Buenos Aires and enrolled at the Universidad de Belgrano to study law.

Following the 1976 coup d'état, she went into exile with her partner at the time, Marcelo Langieri, first settling in Brazil, and later in Mexico and Spain.

Political career

After the return of democracy, she became Organisation Secretary of the Justicialist Party of Buenos Aires and was elected as a Peronist deputy in 1993. In 1995 she was named the Legislator of the year.

Disillusioned with the Peronist cause, Bullrich left Congress in 1997 and set up the UPT, originally as a vehicle for studying and campaigning on the subject of crime and security. From 1996 to 1999, she was a member of Gustavo Béliz's New Leadership party. She worked for the state government in Buenos Aires Province on security matters, developing a community policing project in Hurlingham which became well known nationally and internationally.

In 1999, the UPT became part of the Alliance for Work, Justice and Education which took Fernando de la Rúa to the Presidency and Bullrich was appointed to office in the Department of Criminal Policy and Penitentiary Matters. In 2001, she was made a cabinet minister, as Secretary of Labour, Employment and Human Resources, and later that year as Secretary of Social Security. During the 2001 economic crisis, she led the plan to substantially reduce the pay of state employees and the level of state pensions.

Following the collapse of the Alliance government of De la Rúa, Bullrich and her colleagues formally launched UPT as a political party, on 6 March 2002. The following year, the Party participated in the elections for Buenos Aires City, with Bullrich as the candidate for Head of Government for the Alianza Unión para Recrear Buenos Aires, working with the Recrear movement of Ricardo López Murphy. They came fourth with almost 10% of the vote.

In 2007, Bullrich led UPT into the Civic Coalition (2007–2011) alongside various opposition groups and social movements, principally ARI led by Elisa Carrió. The Coalition won several seats in the upper and lower houses of Congress and Bullrich herself was elected as National Deputy for Buenos Aires. Her centrist politics and polemical history as a government minister, however, contributed to the disenchantment of a group of left-wing members of ARI who left the Civic Coalition.

Following the election of Mauricio Macri to the presidency on 22 November 2015, it was announced on 25 November 2015 that Bullrich had been nominated the Minister of Security of the Nation.

Controversies
Bullrich stated that she was favor of arming of citizens, stating "whoever wants to be armed should be armed" after exiting a restaurant.

D'Alessio extortion scandal 
According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW), Bullrich was implicated in the D'Alessio scandal, in which Marcelo D'Alessio was accused of extorting various individuals using real evidence obtained through hidden cameras or otherwise obtained from their private lives, and/or planted evidence, in order to "force people to confess to crimes or implicate others." According to HRW, "intercepted communications suggest that Patricia Bullrich, the security minister, 'had links' and 'gave instructions' to D’Alessio."

Electoral history

References

1956 births
Living people
Politicians from Buenos Aires
Argentine people of German descent
Argentine people of French descent
Argentine people of Irish descent
Argentine people of Galician descent
Government ministers of Argentina
Members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies elected in Buenos Aires
Justicialist Party politicians
Women members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies
Women government ministers of Argentina
20th-century Argentine women politicians
20th-century Argentine politicians
21st-century Argentine women politicians
21st-century Argentine politicians
University of Palermo (Buenos Aires) alumni