Darío Alessandro, former leader of the bloc of MPs Frepaso and Alianza, has died

The former lawmaker and diplomat Darius alessandro, who was president of the block of deputies of Frepaso and Alianza Yes also official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ambassador to Cuba and Peru during Kirchnerism, he is dead in the early hours of yesterday at the age of 69, after the postoperative period of cancer surgery.

Sociologist by training, son of a Peronist historian also called Darío, Alessandro was one of the founders of Vísperas magazine which was published before the end of the dictatorship and later joined the editorial group of Unidos magazine, led by Carlos “Chacho” Álvarez. He was a national deputy for two legislatures, between 1995-1999 and 1999-2003, and during this period he first served as head of the Frepaso block then, after the formation of the Alliance with the UCR, at the head of the unified bench of the coalition.

Alessandro had been legislative secretary of the bloc of the Group of 8. This political space, which later led to the creation of the Big front, was composed of the deputies who broke with the justicialismo, then directed by Carlos Menem, raising their disagreement with the privatizations, the dismantling of the productive apparatus, the pardons and after having denounced acts of corruption.

Between 1999 and December 2001, the deterioration and ultimately the collapse of convertibility ran through all of Alessandro’s parliamentary work in a complex scenario which, as those who have dealt with him over the years have recognized, has been ” very difficult ”and“ very exhausting ”. In personal terms. “Darío was a very hard-working MP, a great activist, a guy very committed and passionate about the causes he had chosen, and he was also a very good parliamentarian”, he recalled during a dialogue with Telam José Vitar, former deputy and current leader of the Frente Grande in his province, for whom Alessandro “He must have played at a very difficult time”, due to the fall of the Fernando de la Rúa government and the 2001/2002 social crisis.

These days steeped in mobilizations, gatherings in the squares and repression with the wounded and the dead they found Alessandro at the head of the Alliance bench. On one of those nights in December 2001, during which the demonstrators entered Congress after forcing several doors, Alessandro himself decided to stay in the premises of the Chamber of Deputies with the intention of avoiding – with his presence at the scene of the incidents – an episode of increased violence or repression.

His wife, the writer Marta Cichero, defined him as a person who, in general, “tried to join positions, which was always more one of harmony than of confrontation”. Alessandro shared many years of activism with “Chacho” Álvarez, from the early 1970s until the Alliance came to government in 1999, although they subsequently distanced themselves.

Consulted by Telam, The former vice president and founder of Frepaso said the late former diplomat and lawmaker was “forever” a “Great friend and companion”. “I have always loved his father as well as mine, and in the most difficult times, Darío Sr. and Darío Jr. were, for me, fundamental people in my activism since the 70s,” said Álvarez.

After the arrival in government of Néstor Kirchner, Alessandro was summoned by the then chancellor Rafael Bielsa to serve as under-secretary for Latin American politics. So, he was appointed Ambassador to Cuba and, with Cristina Fernández in the government, Ambassador to Peru. Alessandro’s remains were buried today, around noon, in a cemetery in the province of Buenos Aires.

THE NATION