José Luis Gioja | |
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Governor of San Juan Province | |
In office December 10, 2003 – December 10, 2015 |
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[[Lieutenant Governor of San Juan Province|Lieutenant]] | Marcelo Lima |
Preceded by | Wbaldino Acosta |
Succeeded by | Sergio Uñac |
Argentine Senator from San Juan Province |
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In office November 29, 1995 – December 4, 2003 |
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Argentine Deputy from San Juan Province |
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In office 1991–1995 |
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Argentine Deputy from San Juan Province |
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Assumed office December 10, 2015 |
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Personal details | |
Born |
Rawson Department, San Juan |
December 4, 1949
Political party | Justicialist Party |
Profession | Agronomist |
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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.
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.