Luis Patti

Luis Abelardo Patti (born 26 November 1952) is an Argentine politician and a former senior police officer, accused of involvement in torture and murder during the 1970s. He is leader of the conservative Federalist Union Party.

Patti was born in rural Baigorrita, Buenos Aires Province, and as a child worked in a bakery. He entered the Buenos Aires Provincial Police Academy at 16 years old and was first stationed to the northern suburbs of Buenos Aires around Pilar and Belén de Escobar. Accusations against him date back to his early years in the force, a period of political instability and tough police action against guerillas, dissidents and other activities. He was accused in a local newspaper in 1973 of killing three youths wrongly believed to have committed a crime. Patti was tried for the torture of a prisoner in 1976, but the trial was suspended and not resumed before the time limit. In 1983 he faced two further trials, including for the kidnapping and murder of Osvaldo Cambiasso and Eduardo Pereyra Rossi. Again both trials were suspended. He rose through the ranks to become a police inspector and commisar and was decorated. In 1990 he faced accusations of torturing two alleged thieves with an electric prod.

In 1991 Patti was appointed by President Carlos Menem to lead the high-profile investigation into the murder of a young woman, María Soledad Morales, in Catamarca Province. He concluded it was a crime of passion, amid further allegations of the use of torture with suspects, but some years later the son of a politician with influential friends was convicted of the murder after a separate investigation.

In 1993, Patti left the police and joined the Justicialist Party. He wrote a column in the La Prensa newspaper and was appointed Intervenor of the Central Market by the government. Despite the accusations against him and graffiti around the area, Patti was elected Mayor of Escobar in 1995 with 73% of the vote. Patti launched a new party in 1999, Unidad Bonaerense, now called Partido Unidad Federalista (PA.U.FE). He was re-elected in Escobar that year and stood to be Governor of Buenos Aires Province. Patti obtained second place, but was defeated by Felipe Solá of the Justicialist Party by a 40% margin.

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