President Alberto Fernández swore-in Alexis Guerrera as Argentina's new transport minister on Monday, 10 days after the death of previous post-holder Mario Meoni in a car accident.
Guerrera, who served as mayor of General Pinto from 2003 to 2019, took the oath of office at a ceremony at the Casa Rosada, with all the ministers of the president's Cabinet in attendance.
The 50-year-old has been promoted from his role as president of Trenes Argentinos Infraestructura (TAI) in order to replace Meoni, who died in a fatal road-traffic accident on Friday, April 23, near San Andrés de Giles, Buenos Aires Province.
Like his predecessor, Guerrera is also a member of Lower House Speaker Sergio Massa's Frente Renovador party, which he joined in 2016 after departing the Victory Front (FpV) coalition. He was elected as a deputy representing Buenos Aires Province in 2019, though he requested a leave of absence to take up the position leading TAI.
"It is not the best circumstances that leads me to assume the leadership of the Transport Ministry but I am fully aware of facing the greatest political challenge of my career," said the incoming minister in a post on Twitter, referencing Meoni's untimely passing.
The new minister thanked both Fernández and Massa "for the confidence given to continue the path that Mario Meoni began to develop at the end of 2019: to integrate the country through an inclusive, safe, federal and egalitarian transportation system."
"We have an arduous task ahead of us that is made more difficult by the advance of the second wave of the coronavirus," he added. "But in parallel, the most important vaccination campaign in our history is being implemented in every corner of the country and it does not stop."
Guerrera vowed to work "to expand rights in line with the political decisions of a government that believes in a present state."
– TIMES/NA
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