Marcelo Guinle

Born in Santa Fe, Guinle enrolled at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and earned a Law Degree in 1974. He served as a legal adviser to the state-owned energy firm YPF from 1974 to 1979, and entered afterward into a private practice in Chubut Province as a labor lawyer. He was later appointed as a Civil, Commercial and Labor Judge on the Comodoro Rivadavia circuit and on the Chamber of Appeals of both Trelew and Comodoro Rivadavia. Guinle married Lilia Castillo, and has three sons and three grandsons.

Guinle entered politics as Government Secretary for the Municipality of Comodoro Rivadavia in 1986. He was appointed Minister of Government, Education and Justice for Chubut Province by the newly elected Governor Néstor Perl in 1987, and he served in the post until 1989. He was among those elected to the National Constitutional Convention of 1994 to reform the Constitution of Argentina and in 1995 he was elected Mayor of Comodoro Rivadavia. He ran in 1999 as the Justicialist Party candidate for governor of Chubut Province, but lost to José Luis Lizurume of the center-left Alliance.

Guinle meanwhile earned a degree in Accountancy from the University of Morón in 2000. He was elected to the Argentine Senate in 2001 as the minority senator for Chubut; he was re-elected for a six-year term in 2003 with 47% of the vote. In December 2003 he became Provisional President of the Argentine Senate, and thus third in line to the Presidency of the Republic. He served in the post until February 2006, and remained in the Senate in the majority Front for Victory caucus established by President Néstor Kirchner. He was reelected in 2009 with 56% of the vote.

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