Juan Pablo Schiavi

Juan Pablo Schiavi (b. Buenos Aires, June 10, 1957) is an Argentinian agronomist and politician who has held a wide range of positions at the top of national and municipal government of Argentina.

Following the resignation of Raúl Jaime in 2009, Schiavi was appointed Argentina’s Ministry of Transportation. He left the position after the Once Tragedy of 2012, a product of infrastructure problems that were widely believed to be the result of corruption and negligence in his ministry. He was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment for his responsibility in the accident.

In an account of Schiavi’s history of political loyalties, the newspaper La Nación described him as having been, in turn, a “Grossista” (a disciple of Carlos Grosso) a “Macrista” (Mauricio Macri), a “Telermanista” (Jorge Telerman), a “Devidista” (Julio De Vido), and finally a “Cristinista” (Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner).

At age 15, he was active in the Montoneros, a left-wing urban guerrilla group. He went on to become a member of the militant Peronist Youth and belonged to a group of “angry militant Peronists” who made headlines when they tried to force their way into the Casa Rosada on 19 December 1982.

Schiavi received a degree in agricultural engineering at the University of Buenos Aires in 1985. Between 1983 and 1985 he did laboratory and field experiments involving wheat and corn for the National Institute of Agricultural Economics.

In 1985 he became managing partner of a long-distance carrier and directed a study of agricultural advisers.

He won his first political office in 1987 when he served as a consultant to the Peronist bloc on the City Council of Buenos Aires.

While Carlos Grosso was Mayor of the City of Buenos Aires, he appointed Schiavi as Ministry of Maintenance Services for the municipality, which meant that he was “in charge of the lucrative agreements for the collection of waste.” The city’s main waste-disposal contractor was Manliba, a firm that was a part of Grupo Macri-SOCMA. During this period Schiavi entered the orbit of the president of SOCMA, Mauricio Macri, for whom he would later work, and also developed a close relationship with SOCMA executive Daniel Chaín, who later became the city’s Secretary of Urban Development. After Carlos Grosso, described by La Nación as “an icon of Peronist renovation,” left his job “amid a flood of corruption allegations,” Schiavi went into business with Chain, with whom he ran an architectural firm during most of the 1990s. Together they renovated some 30 train stations.

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Wikipedia