Mario Meoni in December 2019 after being appointed Minister of Transport.Anadolu Agency / Getty
The Argentine Minister of Transport, Mario Meoni, died this Friday in a traffic accident.
The 56-year-old official lost control of the official car that was driving at the height of San Andrés de Giles, located 100 kilometers west of the city of Buenos Aires.
Meoni was traveling alone to his town, Junín, of which he had been mayor, when he lost control of the vehicle and rolled over.
Hours before the accident, the minister had participated in a government event with President Alberto Fernández in the province of Santa Fe
The accident occurred at kilometer 112 of Route 7, which at that point is undergoing expansion works.
Meoni was married and traveled every weekend to Junín to visit his two children.
He did it alone, at the wheel of the Ford Mondeo assigned to him by the ministry, and without custody.
At the time of the accident, heavy rain was falling on the area.
“It is with great sadness that I received the ungrateful news of the death of Mario Meoni, Minister of Transport of our Government.
With him we lose a thorough, tireless and honest politician.
An exemplary official.
With sincere regret I accompany those like me who have loved and respected him, ”President Fernández wrote on his Twitter account.
It is with great sadness that I received the ungrateful news of the death of @mariomeoni, Minister of Transport of our Government.
With him we lose a thorough, tireless and honest politician.
An exemplary official.
With sincere regret I accompany those like me who have loved and respected him.
pic.twitter.com/NV8gX5GmKJ
- Alberto Fernández (@alferdez) April 24, 2021
Meoni entered the Fernández government through the Renovador Front, a party that joined the Kirchnerist Front of All through its leader, the former presidential candidate Sergio Massa.
Before joining Massismo, the former mayor had been a member of the Radical Civic Union (UCR), the centennial party that in 1983 led the return to democracy in Argentina with President Raúl Alfonsín.
His death deserved messages from the entire Argentine political arc, both from radicals and liberals as well as from Peronism in the Government.
Subscribe here
to the
EL PAÍS América
newsletter
and receive all the informative keys of the current situation in the region.