José Octavio Bordón

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José Octavio Bordón (December 22, 1945 in Rosario) is an Argentine politician and diplomat. A former governor and candidate for President of Argentina, he has been the Argentine Ambassador to the United States since June 2003.

Bordón graduated in sociology from the Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires in 1970. He was Professor of Political Sociology at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo 1972-1976 and again 1983-1995. He became President of the Fundación Andina in 1982. In 1983 he was elected to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies as deputy for Mendoza Province for the Justicialist Party. He was deputy chairman of the foreign affairs committee.

In 1987 Bordón was elected governor of Mendoza Province, stepping down in 1991. The following year he was elected to the Argentine Senate. Over that period he had become distant from the Peronist leadership, which under President Carlos Menem had moved to the right with neoliberal economic policies. In 1994 he led his followers into a new leftwing alliance, FrePaSo, with other parties and dissident Peronists. FrePaSo's popularity grew quickly. At that time he was a visiting professor at Georgetown University.

Bordón became presidential candidate for FrePaSo for the 1995 election, with Carlos Chacho Álvarez as his running mate. Despite being such a new party, Bordón and Álvarez came second with over 30%, beating more established parties. However, not long after the election, Bordón fell out with FrePaSo in a leadership dispute and returned to the Justicialist Party.

Bordón worked as a consultant at the Inter-American Development Bank from 1998 until 1999, and then again in 2003. He served as General Director of Culture and Education for Buenos Aires Province from 1999 until 2001. In 2002-03, he was Executive Director of the Social and Economic Development Program. He is a member of the Inter-American Dialogue. He was Director of Diálogo y Perspectiva Internacional magazine 1989-94, and Director of Temas de MERCOSUR magazine 1996-2000.

Bordón is married to Mónica González Gaviola and has three children.

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Preceded by
Santiago Llaver		 Governor of Mendoza
1987 – 1991		 Succeeded by
Rodolfo Gabrielli
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