José Luis Gioja

José Luis Gioja
Governor of San Juan
Incumbent
Assumed office December 10, 2003
Lieutenant	Marcelo Lima
Preceded by	Wbaldino Acosta
Argentine Senator from San Juan Province
In office November 29, 1995 – December 4, 2003
Argentine Deputy from San Juan Province
In office 1991–1995
Personal details
Born	December 4, 1949 (1949-12-04) Rawson Department, San Juan
Political party	Justicialist Party
Profession	Agronomist

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

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, and has claimed that he was tortured by Major Jorge Olivera.

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 as governor in 2007.

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

External links

• (Spanish) San Juan Province
• (Spanish) Profile, Clarín, 2002-12-28
• (Spanish) CuyoNoticias Diario digital de la región Cuyo

Preceded by Juan Carlos Maqueda	Provisory President of the Argentine Senate 2002–2003	Succeeded by Marcelo Guinle
Preceded by Wbaldino Acosta	Governor of San Juan 2003–present	Incumbent