Beatriz Liliana Rojkés de Alperovich (born February 4, 1956)[1] is an Argentine speech therapist, businesswoman, and Justicialist Party politician.
In 2015, she visited flood victims in the town of El Molino and made headlines when she called one of them a “lazy bum” and boasted of having ten mansions.
[14] In June 2013, Cristina Kirchner criticized opposition politicians for failing to come up with new ideas so as to make possible “a healthy democratic debate.” When she made the remarks, she was flanked by Alperovich and Rojkés, whom the Buenos Aires Herald described as “two staunch supporters of her administration.”[15] In February 2014, it was announced that Rojkés de Alperovich would be replaced as provisional leader of the Senate by Gerardo Zamora.
Cano said that her remark gave him the feeling that “she lives in another province.”[18] Rojkés caused controversy in 2012 by commenting on the brutal murder of a six-year-old girl, Mercedes Figueroa, saying that her parents were “drunks” who had not cared for her properly and that as First Lady she could not associate herself with such people.
[17] The disappearance of a young woman named Marita Verón in Tucumán became a public issue and was held up as an example of the extent of human smuggling in the province.
Suspects went on trial but were acquitted on December 12, 2012, in a verdict widely seen as exemplary of the corruption of courts in the province and the collusion of judges with gangsters.
[17] On March 23, 2015, she called the incident a set-up and said that she “fell for it in the worst way.” She added: “I reacted like an idiot” and attributed her reaction to “a mix of pain, impotence, of being unable to provide a solution.
[20] Radical Civic Union (UCR) gubernatorial candidate José Manuel Cano criticized Rojkés for her remarks in El Molino, saying “she belonged to a caste of political leaders who believe they are superior to everyday citizens” and noting that she had “a long history of outbursts.” For example, she had “drunkenly called the family of the assassinated girl (six-year-old Mercedes Figueroa), she threatened the doctors that protested in favour of higher salaries and questioned mothers that take drugs for not taking care of their children.”[21] In a March 25, 2015, commentary headlined “Adding insult to injury,” the editors of the Buenos Aires Herald condemned Rojkés de Alperovich for the remarks she made to the flood victims.
“This is not the first evidence of an authoritarian regime in the province governed by her husband for the last 12 years – remember that by far the bloodiest repression of the late 2013 looting occurred in Tucumán.
Opposition politician Manuel Avellaneda said that she must have a “very poor memory,” given the number of allegations of corruption that had been made against her husband, his efforts to control the judiciary, and his refusal to take action for greater transparency.