MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina's first-ever openly gay minister resigns

“It fills us with deep joy that Alexis Guerrera has assumed as the first openly gay minister in the history of our country,” the Argentine LGBT+ Federation had said in May of 2021

Argentine President Alberto Fernández Tuesday accepted the resignation of the country's first-ever openly gay cabinet member. Transport Minister Alexis Guerrera announced he would leave his post due to health-related “strictly personal matters.”

Fernández chose to promote Transport Secretary Diego Giuliano, who has a background at the National Commission of Transportation Regulation Committee (CNRT), to replace Guerrera. The CNRT is a state agency overseeing cargo and passenger transport.

Giuliano joined the CNRT in January 2020, where he stayed until June 2021. He has also served as a councilman for the Rosario city hall between 2009 and 2017 (two consecutive four-year terms).

Fernández's first choice for transport minister was Mario Meoni, who dies in a car accident in April 2021. Guerrera took office on May 3, becoming the first openly LGBT+ minister, for which the community of the Argentine LGBT Federation was grateful: “It fills us with deep joy that Alexis Guerrera has assumed as the first openly gay minister in the history of our country.”

“A being who has always been committed and who has articulated with the Argentine LGBT+ Federation since he held the seat of provincial deputy and as president of Trenes Argentinos Infraestructura”, they added at the time.

Guerrera took part Monday in the opening ceremony of the renovation work at La Plata's train station. “Behind every station we renovate, there is the political will of a government that understands that the users of our trains deserve to have a quality service and that is achieved with investments that dignify the railway system,” Guerrera said. La Plata's station was first opened in 1906.

It was Guerrera himself who suggested Giuliano as his successor.