Julio Cobos

Julio Cobos
Cobos in 2009
National Deputy
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 December 2021
Constituency	Mendoza
In office 10 December 2013 – 10 December 2015
Constituency	Mendoza
National Senator
In office 10 December 2015 – 10 December 2021
Constituency	Mendoza
Vice President of Argentina
In office 10 December 2007 – 10 December 2011
President	Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Preceded by	Daniel Scioli
Succeeded by	Amado Boudou
Governor of Mendoza
In office 10 December 2003 – 10 December 2007
Vice Governor	Juan Carlos Jaliff
Preceded by	Roberto Iglesias
Succeeded by	Celso Jaque
Personal details
Born	(1955-04-30) 30 April 1955 (age 69) Mendoza, Argentina
Political party	Radical Civic Union
Other political affiliations	Front for Victory (2007–2008) Plural Consensus (2008–2011) Progressive, Civic and Social Front (2013–2015) Juntos por el Cambio (2015–present)
Spouse	Cristina Cerutti ​ ​ (m. 1980; div. 2016)​
Domestic partner	Natalia Obón (Since 2016)
Children	4
Alma mater	National Technological University
Profession	Civil and construction engineer
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Julio César Cleto Cobos (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈxuljo ˈkoβos] ^ⓘ; born 30 April 1955) is an Argentine politician who was the Vice President of Argentina in the administration of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner from 2007 to 2011.^[1] He started his political career as member of the Radical Civic Union party (UCR), becoming Governor of the Province of Mendoza in 2003. He was expelled from the UCR in 2007, and was then selected by presidential candidate Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, of the ruling Front for Victory (FpV), as her candidate for vice-president in the elections of that year, which they won.

His popular prestige got a big boost in 2008, when the Senate was voting on a controversial and contentious law to increase taxes on grain exports. The voting ended in a tie, which gave Cobos, as President of the Senate, the deciding vote. In a stunning and now notorious move, he voted against the law. This led to strong criticism from his party, who deemed him a traitor, and approval from sectors of the population that opposed the government. As he further distanced himself from the FPV, the UCR revoked his expulsion from the party.

Cobos was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 2013, to the Senate in 2015, and again to the Chamber of Deputies in 2021.