Mario Lugones to head Health Ministry after Mario Russo steps down
After learning about the official’s exit, the government quickly appointed his successor.
Health Minister Mario Russo has resigned from his government post due to “strictly personal” reasons, with Mario Lugones already confirmed as his replacement.
According to Casa Rosada sources, the former head of the health portfolio “is leaving for personal issues,” not because the President has ousted him.
Shortly after Russo’s exit was leaked on Thursday night, the government confirmed cardiologist Lugones would be the officical's replacement.
The official “will bring to the Ministry his extensive experience in the health sector, having been in charge of Sanatorio Güemes, focusing on medical teaching and clinical research," read a government statement.
Lugones was previously head clinician at the Coronary Unit of Sanatorio Güemes, in addition to a cardiologist at Praxis Médica and the Favaloro Foundation.
He was formerly the director of the IMSSET Medical Institute for Social Security and Technological Evaluation at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and was a director of the Master’s Degree for Health System Management at UBA.
Russo assumed his position last December 10.
Through a press release from his portfolio, the former minister thanked “President [Javier] Milei, Presidential Chief-of-Staff Karina Milei, Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos, and all the Ministers in the Cabinet for the opportunity to be part of the government in the task of reorganising the health system for the benefit of all Argentines”.
This is the third exit of a front-line official since Milei's inauguration last December, following former Infrastructure minister Guillermo Ferraro and ex-Cabinet chief, Nicolás Posse.
– TIMES/NA