Earning a law degree in 1973, he returned to Santa Cruz, was named Inspector General of the Provincial Justice Ministry, and in 1975, was appointed Minister of Social Policy.

[3] His rival in the primaries, a young banking attorney, Néstor Kirchner, was appointed head of the Provincial Social Security Fund by the new governor.

Puricelli hoped this might earn his fledgling administration greater backing from Kirchner's supporters, but the move backfired when in April 1984, the latter refused the governor's request for borrowing from the fund to cover the provincial deficit.

As governor, Puricelli pursued a greater share of the hundreds of millions of dollars in fossil fuel royalties generated largely by the then-state owned oil concern, YPF, and sued the federal government to that effect.

[4] Constitutionally barred from seeking re-election upon the end of his term in 1987, Puricelli was elected President of the Santa Cruz chapter of the Justicialist Party.

[4] Following the collapse of the Alliance government at the end of 2001, however, Puricelli returned to the Justicialist fold as secretary of provincial affairs for President Eduardo Duhalde.