César Jaroslavsky

César Jaroslavsky (May 3, 1928 – February 7, 2002) was an Argentine politician prominent in the UCR.

Life and times Early life Jaroslavsky was born in Victoria, Entre Ríos Province, in 1928. His father, a wheat farm laborer, died in 1941, and the family moved to Buenos Aires, where César found work in a brick factory. He joined the centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR) in 1945, though the October 13 arrest of the UCR's chief rival, populist leader Juan Perón, prompted the young Jaroslavsky to join the historic October 17 protests for his release (Perón would go on to win the pivotal 1946 general elections).

Returning to Victoria, Jaroslavsky was a provincial swimming champion at age 20 and later that year, was elected President of the Entre Ríos chapter of the UCR Youth. A bank teller initially, he joined the editorial staff at the local news daily, La Mañana, in 1952. Assigned as secretary to UCR lawmaker Eduardo Laurencena, Jaroslavsky earned some prominence when Laurencena was appointed President of the Central Bank of Argentina, in 1956. He was elected to the Provincial Legislature of Entre Ríos in 1958, and re-elected in 1963.

An unprecedented financial crisis led to a loss of both the presidency and congress for the UCR in the 1989 elections, and it befell Jaroslavsky to lead negotiations with representatives of the victor, Carlos Menem, on June 15. Jaroslavsky had maintained good relations with Peronist lawmakers, however,

Jaroslavsky lost his son, Juan Pablo, in a 1994 firing range accident. Taking part in the Constitutional Convention that August, he was brought on as campaign manager to the relatively inexperienced UCR presidential nominee, Governor Horacio Massaccesi. Following the UCR's defeat in the 1995 elections, Jaroslavsky retired from active politics. He authored a reflection on the defeat, Hay otro camino (There is Another Way), in 1996, and saw his daughter, María Gracia, elected to Congress in 1997.

César Jaroslavsky died of a heart attack in Buenos Aires in 2002; he was 73.