Ramón Puerta

Infobox_President | name=Ramón Puerta


nationality=Argentine
office=Argentine Senator
from Misiones Province
term_start= 10 December 2001
term_end= 9 December 2005
order2= Acting Head of the Executive Branch of Argentina
term_start2=21 December 2001
term_end2=22 December 2001
predecessor2=Fernando de la Rúa
successor2=Adolfo Rodríguez Saá
office3=Argentine Deputy
from Misiones Province
term_start3= 10 December 1999
term_end3= 9 December 2001
office4=Governor of Misiones
term_start4= 10 December 1991
term_end4= 9 December 1999
predecessor4= Julio César Humada
successor4= Carlos Rovira
birth_date=birth date and age|1951|09|09
birth_place=Misiones
dead=alive
spouse=
party=Justicialist
vicepresident=
profession=Engineer

Federico Ramón Puerta (born September 9, 1951) is an Argentine Peronist politician who has served as a governor, senator and national deputy and effectively acted as President of Argentina during 2001.

Puerta was born in Apóstoles, Misiones Province. He attended the Universidad Católica Argentina in Buenos Aires and qualified as a civil engineer. However, he entered the family business of the cultivation of yerba maté, and became a successful businessman and millionaire.

Puerta was elected a national deputy for Misiones in 1987. In 1991 he was elected Governor of Misiones Province, re-elected in 1995 and served until 1999. He followed the liberal economic model of President Carlos Menem, including privatising the provincial bank of which his own grandfather had been a founder.In 1999 he was re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies and in 2001 he was elected to the Senate. In November of that year, he was elected provisory President of the Senate, constitutionally third in line to the presidency of the country.

Puerta served as the acting head of the executive branch of the country for two days on December 21 and December 22, 2001.He came to that position because he was the provisory President of the Senate and, as there was no vice-president, he was next in line to the presidency, and the incumbent president resigned. A week after giving up the presidency, Puerta resigned as leader of the Senate in order to avoid retaking the presidency because another president had resigned.

Puerta stood to be governor of Misiones in 2003 but lost to his successor, Carlos Rovira. He retired from the Senate in 2005.He ran for governor of Misiones again in 2007, and was defeated in the October election, coming in third place with 15% of the vote.

Puerta is unmarried and has two children.

References

* [http://www.ramonpuerta2007.com.ar Sitio oficial de Ramón Puerta]
* [http://puerta.senado.gov.ar Former senate profile]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/latin_america/newsid_1722000/1722850.stm 'Quién es Ramón Puerta?'] , BBC World, 2001-12-21, accessed 2006-08-13