Rafael Bielsa

Who is Rafael Bielsa?

Rafael Antonio Bielsa Caldera is an Argentine Justicialist Party politician from Rosario, province of Santa Fe. He is the brother of former Argentina national football team coach Marcelo Bielsa; both are well-known Newell's Old Boys supporters. He is also the brother of architect María Eugenia Bielsa, Vice-Governor of Santa Fe from 2003 to 2007.

Bielsa spent his childhood in Morteros, Córdoba, the birthplace of his mother. He studied at the Faculty of Law of the National University of Rosario and became a lawyer. Bielsa is also a poet, writer and essayist.

In 1974 Bielsa began at the Federal Court of Rosario. In 1977, during the Dirty War, suspected of being a member of the Montoneros radical guerrilla group, Bielsa was detained and taken to the "El Castillo" illegal detention centre, where he spent two months of questioning and torture. After a period in Spain, he returned to Argentina in 1980, and started working in different positions of the military government, mainly in the Ministry of Justice.

Upon the return to democracy in 1983, Bielsa worked in a Secretariat of the Ministry of Education in different functions. He served as adviser to the Office of the President of Argentina during the early years of the Carlos Menem administration, at the Ministry of Justice, as well as for specific international projects and other posts. He published several books of poetry during the 1980s and 1990s.