21 Facts About Mario Meoni

Mario Andres Meoni was an Argentine politician who served as Minister of Transport from 2019 until his death in 2021.

Mario Meoni had previously served as intendente of Junin, a partido in Buenos Aires Province, from 2003 to 2015.

Mario Andres Meoni was born in 1965 in a road camp in Ascension, a small town in General Arenales Partido in northern Buenos Aires Province.

Mario Meoni's father was a roadway maintenance worker, and he was of Italian descent through his grandfather, who worked as a smith.

Mario Meoni's family moved to Junin when he was six years old.

Mario Meoni became interested in political activism after the return of democracy to Argentina in 1983, being drawn to the Radical Civic Union inspired by President Raul Alfonsin.

Mario Meoni married Laura Oliva in 1991 and together they had twin sons.

In 1987, Mario Meoni was hired to work in the Plan Alimentario Nacional of the Ministry of Social Action, during the presidency of Raul Alfonsin.

In 1999 Mario Meoni was elected to the Buenos Aires Province Chamber of Deputies in the UCR list, representing the fourth electoral district; he was the parliamentary bloc's vice president.

In 2003, after several unsuccessful runs, Mario Meoni won the UCR primary to the intendencia of Junin.

Ahead of the 2007 general election, Mario Meoni left the ranks of the UCR and joined the dissident "Radicales K" who supported the Kirchnerist government and the presidential candidacy of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner; thus he ran for re-election in the provincial list of the Plural Consensus coalition.

Mario Meoni went on to call for a public referendum to validate Cobos's permanency in his post following his controversial vote against Resolution 125, an idea that never materialized.

Mario Meoni ran for a third term in 2011, this time forming part of Union Social para el Desarrollo, the electoral alliance that backed the presidential candidacy of Ricardo Alfonsin.

In 2015, Mario Meoni ran for a fourth term, this time under the United for a New Alternative coalition of which the Renewal Front was part.

Mario Meoni lost against the PRO candidate, Pablo Petracca, by over 7 thousand votes.

On 14 January 2016, Mario Meoni was appointed one of the members of the directive board of the Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires by the Provincial Senate of Buenos Aires, representing the Renewal Front and in replacement of Daniel Arroyo.

At the 2019 general election, Mario Meoni ran again for the mayoralty of Junin against incumbent Petracca, but failed to regain the district and lost by a wide margin.

On 6 December 2019, President-elect Alberto Fernandez announced the composition of his incoming cabinet, in which Mario Meoni was touted to be the next Minister of Transport, succeeding Guillermo Dietrich.

Mario Meoni took office alongside the rest of the cabinet on 10 December 2019.

Just before 10 pm on 23 April 2021, Mario Meoni died when his Ford Mondeo lost control and overturned on Route 7 near San Andres de Giles, a town in Buenos Aires Province.

Mario Meoni was heading towards Junin, the city he had previously served in and where his family lives.