José Luis Gioja

José Luis Gioja (born 1949) is an Argentine Justicialist Party (PJ) politician, former governor of San Juan Province and former President of the Argentine Senate.

José Luis Gioja
National Deputy
Assumed office
10 December 2015
ConstituencySan Juan
In office
10 December 1991 – 29 November 1995
ConstituencySan Juan
President of the Justicialist Party
In office
3 May 2016 – 21 March 2021
Preceded byEduardo Fellner
Succeeded byAlberto Fernández
Governor of San Juan
In office
10 December 2003 – 10 December 2015
Vice GovernorMarcelo Lima
Rubén Uñac
Sergio Uñac
Preceded byWbaldino Acosta
Succeeded bySergio Uñac
Provisional President of the Senate
In office
27 December 2002 – 4 December 2003
Preceded byJuan Carlos Maqueda
Succeeded byMarcelo Guinle
National Senator
In office
29 November 1995 – 4 December 2003
ConstituencySan Juan Province
Personal details
Born (1949-12-04) 4 December 1949
Rawson, San Juan Province, Argentina
Political partyJusticialist Party
Other political
affiliations		Front for Victory (2003–2017)
Citizen's Unity (2017–2019)
Frente de Todos (2019–present)
ProfessionAgronomist
Signature

Early life and education

Gioja was born in Rawson, a suburb of San Juan, Argentina, in 1949. He was raised in nearby San José de Jáchal, and earned a teaching diploma at the local normal school. He enrolled at the National University of Cuyo, and in his senior year, was elected President of the National University Student Association (ANEU), graduating with a degree in agronomy in 1973.

He married the former Rosa Palacio, with whom he had four children. Governor Eloy Camus named Gioja his private secretary upon taking office in 1973, and the latter also served as San Juan chapter President of Juventud Peronista (Peronist Youth). In 1976, whilst working for the provincial government, Gioja was detained in a forced disappearance by the military authorities following the March 1976 coup. He was imprisoned for nine months,[1] and has claimed that he was tortured by Major Jorge Olivera.[2]

Political career

In 1991, Gioja was elected to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies for San Juan for the Popular Justicialist Front. He was re-elected in 1995, but took a seat as a senator following constitutional reform increasing the number of senators. He was re-elected to the Senate in 2001 and led the Peronist bloc in the Senate from 2000, serving as Provisional Senate President from 2002 to 2003. He has been implicated in the Senate scandal in which State Intelligence funds were allegedly used to bribe senators for their vote on a 2000 labour reform package advanced by the President of Argentina at the time, Fernando de la Rúa.

Gioja was elected governor in 2003 with the backing of the Front for Victory faction allied to Néstor Kirchner, and was reelected twice as governor, in 2007 and in 2011, increasing his majority every time and winning over 68% of the vote in the 2011 election.

He was victim of a helicopter crash on October 11, 2013, during the political campaign for the 2013 legislative election. He was hospitalized immediately.[3] The national deputy Margarita Ferrá de Bartol died in the accident, and the secretary Héctor Pérez and the national deputy Daniel Tomas were hospitalized as well.[3]

His elder brother César Gioja is a senator. Another brother, Juan Carlos Gioja, has been a national deputy.

On 26 April 2016, he is elected head of the Justicialist Party.

References
  1. Diario de Cuyo (in Spanish)
  2. Human Rights Watch: Argentina (2000)
  3. Enrique Merenda (October 12, 2013). "Gioja está grave tras la caída de un helicóptero" [Gioja is in a delicate condition after the fall of a helicopter] (in Spanish). La Nación. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
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