Beatriz Rojkés de Alperovich

Beatriz Liliana Rojkés de Alperovich (born February 4, 1956) is an Argentine speech therapist, businesswoman, and Justicialist Party politician. She was elected to the Argentine Senate in 2009, and in 2011 became the first woman and first Jew to be designated as its Provisional President; the post put her second in Argentine line of succession, after Vice President Amado Boudou.

Both Rojkés and her husband, José Alperovich, who has been governor of Tucumán since 2003, are considered leading “K” (or Kirchner) politicians who are “very close to the Casa Rosada.” Their lavish way of life has been severely criticized, as has the fact that several of their relatives have been given high-level government jobs. Both of them have been the subject of corruption allegations. Also, Rojkés has frequently made remarks that have been viewed in the media as insensitive to the poor and to crime victims. In 2015, she visited flood victims in the town of El Molino and made headlines when she called one of them a “lazy bum” and boasted of having ten mansions.

Early life and education Beatriz Liliana Rojkés was born in San Miguel de Tucumán to Luisa Werblud and Salomón Rojkés, both Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Europe. Salomón Rojkés inaugurated a textile mill in the city, Textil Americana. She earned a degree in Psychopedagogy and married a fellow member of Tucumán's Jewish community, José Alperovich, with whom she had four children.

Career She became a partner in her father-in-law's auto dealership, León Alperovich de Tucumán S.A., in 1997, and by 2010 controlled 98% of the firm (one of Tucumán's largest Ford and Volkswagen distributors). Following the election of her husband as Governor of Tucumán, she was elected in 2005 to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies on the Front for Victory ticket (the majority, center-left Justicialist Party faction then headed by President Néstor Kirchner). She introduced numerous bills advancing children's rights, women's rights and nutrition, among other issues.

She was elected to the Senate in 2009. Her stake in the Rojkés and Alperovich family businesses made her the wealthiest woman in the Senate by 2010, and the fourth-wealthiest overall.

In early 2010, the opposition was able to transfer Rojkés de Alperovich's position on the Congressional Bicameral Committee to an opposition politician, Luis Juez. The government protested. On April 29, 2010, the Appeals Court confirmed Rojkés's reinstatement on the committee. She said that “We will be able to work normally from now on.”

Rojkés was elected Provisional President of the Senate on November 30, 2011. Married to one of the few Jews in Argentina to be elected governor, Rojkés promised the President her “loyalty.” In a radio interview, Rojkés de Alperovich said that she “fully supports the political system” of the Kirchner government and that she was “proud” to have been selected for the position. The Provisional President of the Senate is second in the line of succession to the Presidency in Argentina.

Speculation mounted in the days leading to the second inaugural of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner that Senator Alperovich might be asked to administer the Oath of Office in lieu of Vice President Julio Cobos, who had been distanced from the rest of the administration since his surprise tie-breaking vote in 2008 against an export tax increase supported by the president. President Fernández de Kirchner ultimately opted to take the oath independently, as did Vice President Amado Boudou.

In June 2013, Cristina Kirchner criticized opposition politicians for failing to come up with new ideas so as to make possible “a healthy democratic debate.” When she made the remarks, she was flanked by Alperovich and Rojkés, whom the Buenos Aires Herald described as “two staunch supporters of her administration.” In February 2014, it was announced that Rojkés de Alperovich would be replaced as provisional leader of the Senate by Gerardo Zamora.

Controversies At a public event in March 2006, Rojkés condemned the writer and journalist Tomás Eloy Martínez, calling him a former Tucumáno – effectively disowning him as a resident of the province – because he had published an article in La Nación about the high level of poverty in the province.

She was criticized in November 2011 by a political opponent, Senator Jose Cano, for saying that there were no street urchins in the province of Tucumán. Cano said that her remark gave him the feeling that “she lives in another province.”

Rojkés caused controversy in 2012 by commenting on the brutal murder of a six-year-old girl, Mercedes Figueroa, saying that her parents were “drunks” who had not cared for her properly and that as First Lady she could not associate herself with such people. She later apologized for the remarks.

El Molino incident In March 2015, Rojkés visited the southern town of El Molino, which had recently experienced serious flooding. In response to local residents who had been affected by the flooding and who were angry at delays in government assistance, she told them, “Don’t get angry, because you will make the whole world go crazy and you won’t solve anything.” She added, “We are listening, but it’s not my fault if the river floods.” When one flood victim was particularly critical of the government's response and of her attitude, she responded dismissively.

Her remarks were caught on video and quickly went viral. Rojkés apologized for her remarks to the man, while Cabinet Chief Aníbal Fernández accused the man of provoking her.

In an April 2015 commentary for La Nación, Fernando Bracaccini and Renzo Lavin suggested that the incident in El Molino underscored the lack of accountability for public officials under the Kirchner government. They noted that Rojkés had not made public any information about her income or fortune since 2009, and that there was no way to know how many houses she owned. A 2013 federal law, they explained, enabled public officials to avoid disclosing their private financial or property information by putting it in the names of their spouses or children, and under provincial legislation her husband, even though serving as governor of Tucumán, was not required to disclose such data.