José Luis Gioja

Infobox_Governor
name= José Luis Gioja


caption= José Luis Gioja (left) with Néstor Kirchner, former president of Argentina.
order=
office= Governor of San Juan
term_start=December 10, 2003
term_end=
lieutenant= Marcelo Lima
predecessor= Wbaldino Acosta
successor=
office2= Argentine Senator
from San Juan Province
term_start2= 29 November 1995
term_end2= 4 December 2003
office3= Argentine Deputy
from San Juan Province
term_start3= 1991
term_end3= 1995
birth_date= 1949
birth_place= San José de Jáchal
profession= Engineer
party= Justicialist Party
footnotes=

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.

In 1976, whilst working for the provincial government, Gioja was detained in a forced disappearance by the military authorities following that year's coup. He was imprisoned for nine months [http://www.diariodecuyo.com.ar/home/new_noticia.php?noticia_id=148825] and has claimed that he was tortured by Major Jorge Olivera [http://hrw.org/english/docs/2000/08/28/argent727.htm] .

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 Senate President from 2002.

Gioja was elected governor in 2003 with the backing of the Front for Victory faction allied to Néstor Kirchner. He has been implicated in the Senate scandal in which state funds were allegedly used to bribe senators for their vote for a labour reform package by then President of Argentina Fernando de la Rúa. He 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

*es icon [http://www.sanjuan.gov.ar/ San Juan Province]
*es icon [http://www.clarin.com/diario/2002/12/28/p-00802.htm Profile] , "Clarín", 2002-12-28
*es icon [http://www.cuyonoticias.gov.ar/ CuyoNoticias Diario digital de la región Cuyo]