Former Argentine Health Minister Ginés González García died on Friday age 79, his family announced via social media. Media reports stated that he passed away in a Buenos Aires hospital, where he was being treated for cancer.
García first served as national health minister (2002-2007) and was later appointed ambassador to Chile, a post he filled during Cristina Kirchner’s two presidential terms (2007-2015). His final tenure as health minister during the Alberto Fernández administration (2019-2021) ended in a scandal amid accusations that he had allowed friends and relatives to get early access to COVID vaccines.
On Thursday, a federal court had confirmed García’s indictment in an investigation into whether he had granted members of his inner circle “privileged access” to the vaccine during the early rollout in early 2021. The scandal, which came to be known as the “VIP Vaccinatorium,” broke out after famed journalist Horacio Verbitsky acknowledged in an interview that he had been one the beneficiaries of the alleged scheme.
Born in 1945 in Buenos Aires Province, González García graduated from the National University of Córdoba’s medical school in 1967. He trained as a surgeon, but opted to go into public health management, working in posts in Salta, La Rioja, and Buenos Aires. His first stint in government came in 1988, when he became health minister of Buenos Aires Province under former Governor Antonio Cafiero.
He was first named national health minister in 2002 during the Eduardo Duhalde presidency and later confirmed by Néstor Kirchner upon his inauguration in 2003. During his tenure he launched the Remedy Plan, an initiative granting free access to medications intended to treat 80% of conditions treated in primary care.
The ministry was also active in sex education programs, distributing birth control pills and condoms for free. In 2007, they distributed a booklet on accessing abortions in instances where it was legal at the time (which included cases of rape).
González García was a staunch defender of legal abortion long before Argentina legalized it in 2020, and was heavily criticized by the Catholic Church for his activism. In 2005, Bishop Antonio Baseotto said that García deserved to be “thrown out to sea with a rock tied to his neck” after the minister gave an interview saying the procedure should be legal. González García was health minister when Argentina’s Congress legalized abortion on December 30, 2020.