Julio César Martínez (born 23 March 1962) is an Argentine politician of the Radical Civic Union (UCR).

As the Civic Front for Change candidate, he sought to challenge the re-election bid of Justicialist Party governor Luis Beder Herrera.

[10] On 10 December 2015, following the election of Mauricio Macri as President of Argentina, Martínez was appointed as Minister of Defense in the incoming cabinet, taking over from Agustín Rossi.

One of his first acts as minister was Martínez shutting down plans for a state-commissioned revamp of Air Force planes.

The renovation project for the Puerto Belgrano Naval Base was paralyzed, as was the renovation of ARA Santa Cruz, one of the Argentine Navy's three (at the time) submarines, and a project to produce the second series of six radars built by Fabricaciones Militares and INVAP was scrapped altogether.

[15][16] In the 2017 legislative election, Martínez ran for one of La Rioja's three seats in the National Senate, as the first candidate in the Cambiemos list.