Lucía Corpacci

Lucía Benigna Corpacci (born December 4, 1958) is an Argentine surgeon and politician. She was elected Senator for Catamarca Province, and Governor in 2011.

Biography

Lucía Corpacci was born in San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca. She enrolled at the National University of Córdoba and earned a medical degree in 1982 with a specialization in epidemiology. Corpacci was a surgeon at the Rawson Hospital in Córdoba, the Muñiz Hospital in Buenos Aires, and from 1988 to 2000, the San Juan Bautista Hospital in Catamarca. Her family had become prominent in Catamarca politics: her father, Sebastián Corpacci, was a prominent local physician and served as Minister of Government for Governors Vicente Saadi and Ramón Saadi; she is also the latter's niece.

Corpacci became director of CUR, Catamarca's leading AIDS-related health care provider, in 2002, and in 2003 was appointed to the post of Director of the provincial office of the National Health Service (PAMI). Her husband's uncle, Armando Mercado, was head of the Front for Victory (FpV) Catamarca chapter, and recommended Corpacci to his ex-wife, Social Development Minister Alicia Kirchner.

She ran unsuccessfully in the 2005 elections as second in the FpV party list, and afterward headed a local bureau of the Social Development Ministry. An alliance secured by Armando Mercado between the FpV and the UCR resulted in the nomination of Eduardo Brizuela del Moral (a UCR ally of Kirchnerism, or "K Radical") for Governor and of Corpacci for Vice-Governor, and their Civic and Social Front won the 2007 election handily.

Brizuela del Moral was elected with Kirchnerist (FpV) support; but political fallout from the 2008 Argentine government conflict with the agricultural sector over a proposed export tariff hike led to his distancing himself from Kirchnerism, and he became an ally of his fellow disaffected K-Radical, Vice President Julio Cobos. Corpacci, who remained loyal to President Cristina Kirchner, resigned her post as Vice-Governor, and was elected Senator during the 2009 elections.

Corpacci ran against Governor Brizuela, who sought a third term, in 2011. Though she had inherited a measure of popularity from her late father, her being a member of the Saadi family presented risks: her uncle, Ramón Saadi, had been removed as Governor following the 1990 murder María Soledad Morales by two sons of close Saadi allies. She was elected Governor of the Province on the March 13, 2011 elections, defeating the incumbent by 4 points.

Following her victory, she declared herself "proud to be a Saadi....they are a traditional family of immigrant roots who accomplished much for this province." Regarding controversies surrounding former Governors Vicente and Ramón Saadi, she stated that "Saadi is not a bad word. I never campaigned for Ramón...but he's not the demon the media portray him." The nation's Interior Minister, Florencio Randazzo, said that Corpacci "doesn't represent Ramón Saadi politically" and blamed media disinformation for drawing the connection. Ada Morales, mother of María Soledad, dismissed claims of media disinformation, saying that "It would seem as if nobody raped María Soledad, nobody killed her, nobody disfigured her."

Her tenure as governor was marked by increased investment in hospitals and other infrastructure, larger numbers of police, and by the promotion of Catamarca as a conference hub and tourist destination. Her administration, however, was slow to reform the province's inefficient judicial system, something critics attributed to Governor Corpacci's reluctance to create new disputes with the opposition UCR (which had appointed most of the local judiciary).