Julio César Cleto Cobos (born Mendoza, Argentina, April 30, 1955) is an Argentine politician, serving as the Vice President of Argentina alongside President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner from 2007 to 2011. He started his political career as member of the Radical Civic Union (UCR), becoming Governor of Mendoza in 2003. He was expelled from the party in 2007, when he joined Cristina Fernández, from the Front for Victory, to run as candidate for vice-president.
His popular prestige got a big boost in 2008, when the senate was voting a project of law to ratify an increase of taxes on grain exports. The voting ended in a tie, circumstances that set him, as President of the Senate, to cast the deciding vote. On a controversial decision, he voted against the law project promoted by the Government. This led to strong critics from the ruling Front for Victory party, and from the media, who deemed him a traitor, and approval from sectors of the population that opposed the government. As he further distanced himself from the government, the UCR revoked his expulsion from the party. By 2010, he was considered a presidential pre-candidate for the 2011 presidential elections.