Olijela del Valle Rivas

Olijela del Valle Rivas (14 April 1926 – 5 February 2024) was an Argentine teacher and politician of the Justicialist Party.

Olijela del Valle Rivas
Member of the Legislature of Tucumán
In office 10 December 2003 – 10 December 2011
Member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies
In office 10 December 1999 – 10 December 2003
Constituency	Tucumán Province
Secretary for International Educational Cooperation and Integration of the Ministry of Education
In office 16 December 1998 – 10 December 1999
President	Carlos Menem
Member of the Argentine Senate
In office 10 December 1983 – 10 December 1998
Succeeded by	Palito Ortega
Constituency	Tucumán Province
Personal details
Born	(1926-04-14)14 April 1926 Tucumán Province, Argentina
Died	5 February 2024(2024-02-05) (aged 97) San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina
Political party	Justicialist
Spouse	Fernando Riera [es] ​ ​ (m. 1966; died 1998)​
Occupation	Teacher

Biography

Olijela del Valle Rivas was born in Tucumán Province in 1926. She was the first female principal and teacher at the 9 de Julio Institute in San Miguel de Tucumán, founded in 1967.^[1]

In 1962, while working as a teacher, she met Fernando Riera [es], a 47-year-old Justicialist politician who was campaigning for governor. They were married from 1966 until his death in 1998. She was a national senator for Tucumán Province from 1983 to 1998, succeeded in her seat by Ramón "Palito" Ortega.^[2] In the Senate, she served on eleven committees.^[3]

In 1995, Rivas was a candidate for governor in the provincial elections [es] for the Front of Hope, together with José Carbonell. They finished in second place with 32.08% of the votes,^[4] losing to former military governor Antonio Domingo Bussi.^[5][6]

In December 1998, she was appointed head of the Ministry of Education's Secretariat for International Educational Cooperation and Integration. This position was created by Decree 1460/98 by then-president Carlos Menem, days after Rivas left her seat in the Senate.^[3][7] Previously, Rivas was to be appointed the ministry's Secretary of Educational Programming and Evaluation, but the incumbent, Manuel García Solá [es], refused to resign and was supported by Minister Susana Decibe.^[8]

From 1999 to 2003, Rivas was a member of the Chamber of Deputies for the Justicialist Agreement for Change [es] front, heading its list of candidates.^[9][10]

She was then a provincial legislator and chaired the Culture and Education Committee.^[11] In 2006, she was a provincial constituent convention member, where she proposed adding electronic voting to the provincial constitution.^[12]

In the 2007 provincial elections [es], she was unable to run with the Front for Victory in spite of filing legal challenges before local and federal courts; she was re-elected to her seat by another party.^[13]

Olijela del Valle Rivas died in San Miguel de Tucumán on 5 February 2024.^[5]