Miguel Ángel Pichetto
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Miguel Ángel Pichetto (b. 24 October 1950) is an Argentine Justicialist Party politician. He is a Senator for Río Negro Province and leads his party in the Senate. He was the defeated candidate to be governor of Río Negro in the 2007 elections.
Pichetto was born in Banfield, Buenos Aires Province and studied at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata. In 1976 he qualified as a lawyer and based himself in Río Negro. In 1983 he was elected a councillor in the city of Sierra Grande and in 1985 became Mayor of the city, serving until 1987. He also took leading roles in the provincial Justicialist Party.
In 1988 Pichetto was elected to the provincial assembly and was re-elected in 1991. In 1993 he was elected to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies and was vice-President of the Justicialist block in the house from 1997. He took a leading role on legal, justice and penal matters and was appointed to the Council of Magistrates of the Nation, the senior justice advisory body, in 1998, re-elected in 2001. He sat on the committees on prosecution, the appointment of judges and judicial school, and latterly chaired the disciplinary committee and served on the administration and finance committee.
Pichetto was elected a senator in 2001, his term ending in 2007. In December 2002 he was elected President of the PJ block in the Senate. He is part of the Front for Victory faction in support of President Néstor Kirchner.
Pichetto campaigned to be governor of Río Negro province in the 2007 elections. There was some doubt as to whether Kirchner will support Pichetto of his own party, or the incumbent Radical governor, Miguel Saiz, who is a leading supporter of Kirchner in Radical ranks. Eventually Kirchner kept out of the provincial elections, and Pichetto lost to Saiz. Pichetto was returned to the Senate.
He is married with two children.
