Leopoldo Bravo

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Leopoldo Bravo (1919-03-15–2006-08-04) was an Argentine politician and diplomat. As well as serving in the Argentine Senate and as Ambassador to the Soviet Union, he was a three-time governor of San Juan Province and considered a caudillo.

Bravo qualified as a lawyer at the University of La Plata in 1942. At a young age Bravo joined the leadership of the Partido Bloquista, a provincial party which split from the Radical Civic Union in the time of Hipólito Yrigoyen. The founder of the party, Federico Cantoni, was rumoured to be Bravo's natural father. He worked in Moscow in the Argentine embassy. In 1953 he was appointed as Ambassador to the Soviet Union by President of Argentina Juan Perón, succeeding Cantoni, his rumoured father. He was one of the few ambassadors to have an interview with Joseph Stalin, and the last.

He was elected governor of San Juan in 1963 and was allied to Peronism, serving until 1966. A pragmatic and experienced politician, Bravo advised civilian and military governments. In 1973 he was vice-presidential candidate on the ticket of Ezequiel Martínez, backed by then-president Alejandro Lanusse. Although they lost that election, Bravo was however elected to the Senate for the first time that year. The Senate was dissolved in 1976.

During the military government following the 1976 coup, Bravo was reappointed Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Mongolia, serving until 1981 when he was also in charge of diplomatic representation in Italy. He was appointed governor of San Juan in 1982. In 1983 his brother Federico Bravo followed him as Ambassador in Moscow. When democracy returned in 1983, Leopoldo was elected to continue as governor, but had to resign in 1985 after poor showings in that year's legislative elections.

In 1986 Bravo became a senator for his province again. His vote was decisive in the Senate approval of the Olivos Pact that allowed President Carlos Menem to stand for a second term. After his retirement as leader, Bravo became honorary president of the Partido Bloquista, which went on to participate in the ruling Alliance of Fernando de la Rúa and take over the government of San Juan once again after the impeachment of the incumbent.

Bravo stepped down from the Senate in 2001. In his final years, he suffered from Alzheimer's and had withdrawn from public. He died of an intestinal haemorrhage and cardiac arrest. 500 people attended his funeral, although his wife could not be present. He and his wife Ivelise Falcioni had six children. One of Bravo's sons, Leopoldo Alfredo Bravo, a former deputy, was appointed ambassador in Moscow a week before his father's death, following in the footsteps of his father, uncle and supposed grandfather.