Misplaced Pages

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Dutch. (August 2022) Click for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Misplaced Pages. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Dutch Misplaced Pages article at ]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|nl|Jorge Zorreguieta}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Misplaced Pages:Translation.

Jorge Horacio Zorreguieta Stefanini (28 January 1928 – 8 August 2017) was an Argentine politician who served as Secretary of Agriculture in the regime of General Jorge Rafael Videla. Zorreguieta was the father of Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.

Early life

Jorge Zorreguieta was born in 1928 in Buenos Aires, the son of Cesina María Stefanini Borella and Juan Antonio Zorreguieta Bonorino. He is of Spanish-Basque and Italian ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Amadeo Zorreguieta Hernández, was mayor of the city of Mendoza. He became secretary of La Sociedad Rural Argentina, a conservative interest group of landowners and ranchers. He was also president of the association Juan de Garay, a cultural institution of the Basque community.

Secretary of Agriculture

After the 1976 Argentine coup d'état of General Videla, Zorreguieta became Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. From March 1979 until March 1981 he was Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock. He was preceded by Mario Cadenas Madariaga, and succeeded by Jorge Aguado as Minister of Agriculture and Livestock.

The INTA, a research institute associated with Zorreguieta's ministry was put under the control of the Argentine Navy after the Videla-Coup. Employees from this institute disappeared during Zorreguieta's tenure.

Advisor and director

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

In 1981, Zorreguieta stepped down as minister. He became president of the Centro Argentino Azucarero (CAA), an advisory body for sugar producers in Argentina. In April 1982 Argentina went to war with the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands. Argentina was defeated, and the military government, now headed by Leopoldo Galtieri, collapsed. People who had been ministers under the military government were prosecuted for violations of human rights; Zorreguieta, who had left political office before the end, was not affected.

He also became chairman of the supervisory organization for food Coordinadora de la Industria de Productos Alimenticios (Copal).

Personal life

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Marriages and children

Zorreguieta married Marta López Gil (born 1935) in 1956. They later divorced.

They had three daughters:

• María Zorreguieta López (born 1956), married to Adrián Vilov, with issue
• Ángeles Zorreguieta López (born 1958)
• Dolores Zorreguieta López (born 1965), married to Harmond Grad Lewis, with issue

He married again, to María del Cármen Cerruti Carricart (born 8 September 1944), daughter of Jorge Horacio Cerruti and María del Cármen Carricart, on 27 May 1970 in Paraguay. They had four children:

• Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti (born 17 May 1971), married in 2002 to King (then Prince) Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, with issue
• Martín Zorreguieta Cerruti (born 1972), married to Mariana Andrés, with issue
• Juan Zorreguieta Cerruti (born 1982), married to Andrea Wolf, with issue
• Inés Zorreguieta Cerruti (1984 – 6 June 2018), was found dead at her apartment in Buenos Aires after committing suicide

From his two marriages, Zorreguieta had seven children and twelve grandchildren in total.

Scandal in the Netherlands

The news of Prince Willem-Alexander's relationship and eventual marriage plans to Máxima Zorreguieta caused controversy in the Netherlands. Máxima's father had been the Minister of Agriculture during the regime of former Argentine President Videla, a military dictator who ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1981 and who was responsible for many atrocities against civilians (An estimated 10,000–30,000 people were kidnapped and murdered during this and subsequent military regimes before democracy was restored to Argentina in 1983). Jorge Zorreguieta had resigned one year before the end of the Videla regime and claimed that, as a civilian, he was unaware of the Dirty War while he was a cabinet minister. Professor Michiel Baud [nl], who on request of the Dutch Parliament carried out an inquiry on the involvement of Zorreguieta, concluded that it would have been unlikely for a person in such a powerful position in the government to be unaware of the Dirty War. Despite finding Zorreguieta to be at fault, the marriage between his daughter Máxima and Prince Willem-Alexander was approved by parliament because Máxima herself had not done anything wrong; however Jorge Zorreguieta was not allowed to attend the 2002 wedding. Parliament's approval was necessary for Willem-Alexander to stay in line to the Dutch throne.

Visiting the Netherlands

Because of his past, Zorreguieta was not allowed to attend Máxima's wedding. However, he and his wife were invited to attend the christening of their granddaughters, the princesses Catharina-Amalia, Alexia, and Ariane. The difference was that the marriage of the heir apparent was seen as a state matter, and a baptism is considered a private matter. During the baptism ceremonies (in The Hague and Wassenaar), opponents of the former Argentine military regime protested. Zorreguieta was not present at the investiture of his son-in-law Willem-Alexander as King of the Netherlands on 30 April 2013 in Amsterdam.

Death

Zorreguieta died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma at the age of 89, on 8 August 2017. He was survived by his second wife and seven children.

References

1. "Biografie van Jorge Zorreguieta". IsGeschiedenis. 9 August 2017.
2. Hernán Carlos Lux-Wurm, Instituto Argentino de Ciencias Genealógicas: Ascendencia de Da. Máxima Zorreguieta Archived 3 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
3. "Ministros nacionales de agricultura de Argentina". ECYT-AR (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 December 2020.
4. "New complaint against Máxima's father for Argentine junta role", DutchNews.nl, 2013.
5. ^ Hill, Erin (7 June 2018). "Queen Maxima of the Netherlands' Sister, 33, Found Dead in Her Home of Apparent Suicide". People. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
6. "Dutch Queen Maxima's sister found dead in her home". CBS News. 8 June 2018. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
7. Human rights: Zorreguieta vs. Human Rights Archived 19 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine (in Dutch), March 2001.

Other sources

• Baud, Michiel (2001). The father of the bride. Jorge Zorreguieta, Argentine society and the military regime. Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica. ISBN 950-557-493-2..

• 1928 births
• 2017 deaths
• 20th-century Argentine politicians
• Argentine people of Basque descent
• Argentine people of Italian descent
• Ministers of agriculture of Argentina
• Politicians from Buenos Aires
• Deaths from leukemia in Argentina