José Carlos Martínez

Who was José Carlos Martínez?

José Carlos Martínez was an Argentine politician, formerly of ARI. He sat in the Argentine Senate representing Tierra del Fuego Province.

Martínez graduated from the National Technical University and gained a masters at the University of Alcalá, Spain in 1988 and again in 2002. From 1981 until 1985 he worked in the San Roque Hospital in Córdoba. He moved to Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego in 1985, working from the following year in the Río Grande regional hospital. He was elected to be Director of the Provincial Institute of Social Prevision from 1995 until 2001. He then served as Director of the social security organisation IPAUSS. He was active in the trade unions Argentine Workers' Center and the Association of State Workers.

In 2003, Martínez was elected to the provincial legislature, serving until 2007. He was elected to the Senate in 2007.

As part of building a broader coalition ahead of the 2007 elections, ARI's leader Elisa Carrió, reached out to centrist figures such as Patricia Bullrich and María Eugenia Estenssoro. This proved controversial in ARI ranks and several national legislators formed a separate block called the Autonomous ARI in Congress.