Bullrich was born on 11 June 1956 in Buenos Aires, daughter of Alejandro Bullrich, a cardiologist, and Julieta Luro Pueyrredón. She was the youngest of four siblings until her parents' separation, following which her father had three more children.^[3]

Bullrich belongs to two wealthy families on each of her parents' sides. On her mother's side, she belongs to the Pueyrredón family, a traditional lineage of Spanish, French, and Irish descent whose members featured prominently in the early years of Argentine Independence (such as Juan Martín de Pueyrredón and Honorio Pueyrredón).^[4] On her father's side, she descends from Adolfo Bullrich, a businessman and politician of German ancestry, who served as Mayor of Buenos Aires from 1898 to 1902.^[5]

She became politically engaged from an early age, abandoning a potential career in field hockey to dedicate herself fully to political activism.^[6] By the time she was 17, she was an active member of the Peronist Youth. She also worked at the Cheburger fast food joint and became a member of the food workers' union, encouraging coworkers to unionise as well.^[3]

Peronist Youth years edit

She joined the Juventud Peronista, the youth wing of the Peronist movement, aged 17. On 20 June 1973, she joined the procession to Ezeiza to bear witness to Juan Perón's return to Argentina following his 18-year exile, but left before the Ezeiza Massacre took place that same day.^{[citation needed]}

She was also present at the Plaza de Mayo on May Day 1974, when Perón, by then once again president of Argentina, expelled the Montoneros and the left-wing youth groups from the celebrations. Bullrich herself was a member of the Montoneros, active in the Columna Norte subgroup commanded by Rodolfo Galimberti.^[7] Galimberti was also in a relationship with Bullrich's sister, Julieta.^[8] Bullrich has denied being a Montoneros member.^[9][10]

Following Perón's death in 1974, a period of political violence and persecution against Montoneros and other left-wing Peronists ensued. In 1975, Bullrich was arrested for spray-painting political messages on the entrance of the University of Buenos Aires Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, and spent six months in prison. Upon being released, she dropped out of her sociology degree at the University of Buenos Aires and enrolled at the Universidad de Belgrano to study law.^[3]

Following the 1976 coup d'état, she went into exile with her partner at the time, Marcelo Langieri, first settling in Brazil, and later in Mexico and Spain.^[11]

After the return of democracy, she became Organisation Secretary of the Justicialist Party of Buenos Aires and was elected as a Peronist deputy in 1993.^[12] In 1995, she was named the Legislator of the Year.

Disillusioned with the Peronist cause, Bullrich left Congress in 1997 and set up the UPT, originally as a vehicle for studying and campaigning on the subject of crime and security.^[13] From 1996 to 1999, she was a member of Gustavo Béliz's New Leadership party.^[14] She worked for the state government in Buenos Aires Province on security matters, developing a community policing project in Hurlingham, which became well known nationally and internationally.^[12]

In 1999, the UPT became part of the Alliance for Work, Justice and Education, which took Fernando de la Rúa to the Presidency. Bullrich was appointed to office in the Department of Criminal Policy and Penitentiary Matters. In 2001, she was made a cabinet minister, as Secretary of Labour, Employment and Human Resources and, later that year, as Secretary of Social Security.^[12] During the 2001 economic crisis, she led the plan to substantially reduce the pay of state employees and the level of state pensions.^{[citation needed]}

Following the collapse of the Alliance government of de la Rúa, Bullrich and her colleagues formally launched UPT as a political party on 6 March 2002.^[13] The following year, the Party participated in the elections for Buenos Aires City, with Bullrich as the candidate for Head of Government for the Alianza Unión para Recrear Buenos Aires, working with the Recrear movement of Ricardo López Murphy. They came fourth with almost 10% of the vote.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007, Bullrich led UPT into the Civic Coalition (2007–2011) alongside various opposition groups and social movements, principally ARI led by Elisa Carrió. The Coalition won several seats in the upper and lower houses of Congress and Bullrich herself was elected as National Deputy for Buenos Aires. Her centrist politics and polemical history as a government minister, however, contributed to the disenchantment of a group of left-wing members of ARI who left the Civic Coalition.^{[citation needed]}

Following the election of Mauricio Macri to the presidency on 22 November 2015, it was announced on 25 November 2015 that Bullrich had been nominated the Minister of Security of the Nation.^[2]

In the 2023 Argentine general election, she ran for president as the head of the liberal Juntos por el Cambio alliance and came third in the first round, losing to Sergio Massa and Javier Milei. On 25 October 2023, Bullrich officially endorsed Javier Milei for the runoff election.^[15]

In December 2023, Patricia Bullrich returned to government as security minister in president Javier Milei's Cabinet.^[16]

Initially Patricia Bullrich belonged to the revolutionary peronist left, within the organizations Juventud Peronista and Montoneros, where Marxist and Peronist ideals were prevalent. Then, she gradually shifted to far-right positions.^{[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]} Including right-wing populist ideals,^[29][30][31] liberal and even ultra-liberal^[32] economic thoughts, and hard-line conservative ideas on cultural matters.^[33][34] Although in some cases not so conservative as the decriminalization of abortion.^[35]

Bullrich stated that she was in favor of arming of citizens, stating "whoever wants to be armed should be armed" after exiting a restaurant.^[36]

D'Alessio extortion scandal edit

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Bullrich was implicated in the D'Alessio scandal, in which Marcelo D'Alessio was accused of extorting various individuals, using real evidence obtained through hidden cameras or otherwise obtained from their private lives, and/or planted evidence, in order to "force people to confess to crimes or implicate others". According to HRW, "intercepted communications suggest that Patricia Bullrich, the security minister, 'had links' and 'gave instructions' to D’Alessio."^[37]

Executive edit

Legislative edit