Juan Pedro Bordaberry Herrán (born 28 April 1960) is a Uruguayan attorney, lecturer, and politician, who served as a Senator of the Republic from 2010 to 2020, as Minister of Tourism and Sports from 2003 to 2005, and as Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining from 2002 to 2003. A member of the Colorado Party, he was the party's candidate for president in the 2009 and 2014 presidential elections.

Bordaberry was born on 28 April 1960 in the capital city of Montevideo, the fourth child of Juan María Bordaberry and his wife, Josefina Herrán Puig.^[1] Bordaberry comes from a family heavily involved in politics; his father, who was of Basque descent,^[2] was elected president in 1971 and, in 1973, led a self-coup d'état, dissolving the General Assembly and initiated the civil-military dictatorship.^[3] His great-grandfather, Domingo Bordaberry, served as a senator and rancher. His great-grandfather, Santiago Bordaberry (born Jaques Bordaberry) was an immigrant from the French Basque Country who arrived in Uruguay in the second half of the 19th century.^[4] His great-great-grandfather and great-great-aunt Alejo Gregorio and Amalia Victoria Arocena Artagaveytia (the latter of whom was the paternal grandmother of Alberto Zumarán) were nephews of business magnate Ramón F. Artagaveytia Gómez, one of the three Uruguayans who lost their lives during the sinking of the Titanic, and double cousins and second uncles to Emilia Nicanora Artagaveytia Arocena, paternal grandmother of the former National Party senator, Francisco Gallinal.^[5]

Bordaberry attended primary school at St. Andrews School, and secondary school at The British Schools and John XXIII Institute.^[6] He enrolled at the University of the Republic, from which he graduated in 1986 with a law degree.^[7] As a lawyer, he worked mainly in the financial sector. Up until 1 April 2009, Bordaberry was a partner for the Jiménez de Aréchaga, Viana & Brause law firm (now a part of Dentons), a stake that he sold to dedicate himself entirely to his political activity. He also served as a professor for the University of the Republic from 1986 until 1991 and for the Universidad ORT Uruguay from 1995 until 2000.^[8]

Bordaberry began his career in public service as National Director of Industrial Property, reporting to the Minister of Industry and Energy from 1992 to 1994. In 2000 he was appointed Undersecretary of Tourism by President Jorge Batlle and served as Minister of Tourism and Sports from 2003 to 2005. In the 2005 municipal elections, he was a candidate for Intendant of Montevideo, obtaining 26% of the vote, compared to 56% for the Broad Front candidate, Ricardo Ehrlich.

Sometime after his defeat in the municipal elections, Bordaberry left the Lista 15 faction, and in 2007 he founded the Vamos Uruguay faction.^[9]

Pedro Bordaberry's decision to seek a political base in Montevideo contrasts with his father, dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry, who had a long association with rural affairs. Juan Maria Bordaberry was arrested in 2006 in connection with the 1976 assassination of two legislators, Senator Zelmar Michelini and House Leader Héctor Gutiérrez. Pedro Bordaberry has since been vocal in his support. Despite his own family history of dictatorship, Bordaberry has on several occasions accused former president José Mujica of being or striving to become a dictator.^[27][28]

Bordaberry sometimes participates in outdoor public meetings on horseback, or in traditional "gaucho" horseriding attire.^[29][30] He has also contributed to literary criticism of the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, writing on Borges's theme of the complexity of memory.^[31]

Bordaberry is also known as a major figure in the sports of Uruguay, having played soccer for his university, basketball for Club Trouville, and rugby for the Old Boys & Old Girls Club. In fact, in 1998, Bordaberry, along with Richard Van Rompaey and Jorge Villa, was the president of the Uruguayan Rugby Union.^[32] On 21 August 2018, FIFA appointed a "normalisation committee" for the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF). Bordaberry was put in charge, alongside politician Armando Castaingdebat, and former professional association football player Andrés Scotti.^[33]

He married psychologist and psychotherapist María José Oribe in 1985. The couple have three children: Pedro, Agustín, and Matías.^[34] On 15 March 2020, Bordaberry announced that he had contacted COVID-19, making him one of the first people in Uruguay to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. He is the author of a number of publications, including his books The Principle of Irretroactivity of the Rules in the Jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Justice (1991), Ten Years of Seven (1998), Stories from Pueblo Faro by José Ignacio (1999) and Let Them Deny Me (2006).^[35]