Juan Carlos Alderete

In 1971, Alderete found a job at a dairy company and became involved with the local labour union. During the last military dictatorship in Argentina (1976–1983), Alderete was accused of attempting to kidnap a Ford executive's mother, for which he fled to his native Salta and stayed in one of his brothers' house. Upon returning to Buenos Aires six months later, he was captured by the authorities, and so he spent the following 7 years in the Caseros Prison.[2] Upon being released in 1981, Alderete went to the María Elena settlement in La Matanza, where he would take up residence and join the effort by other residents to legitimize their land occupation. During the economic crisis of the late 1990s, Alderete organized soup kitchens alongside Luis D'Elía.[1]

In November 2000, standing in opposition to the neoliberal economic program of President Fernando de la Rúa, Alderete and the CCC organized the first massive piquete on Route 3; the roadblock lasted 18 days.[2] In 2008, during the agrarian strike, Alderete backed the "Mesa de Enlace" (the coalition of the country's four largest agrarian associations).[4]

At the 2019 general election, Alderete was in the 23rd place in the Frente de Todos candidates list for the Argentine Chamber of Deputies in Buenos Aires Province; although he was not elected, he took office upon the resignation of Carlos Castagneto, who took up a position at AFIP.[5][6] He took office on 19 December 2019. As a member of Congress, Alderete urged the Frente de Todos government of President Alberto Fernández to reinforce the Argentine state's social spending.[7] In dissent with the government, Alderete abstained from voting in favor of the debt sustainability bill introduced by the Executive Power in January 2020.[8]