Normando Miguel Álvarez García | |
Office1: | Argentine ambassador to Bolivia |
President1: | Mauricio Macri |
Term Start1: | 11 January 2016 |
Term End1: | 10 December 2019 |
Predecessor1: | Ariel Basteiro |
Successor1: | Ariel Basteiro |
Office2: | Minister of Labor of Jujuy Province |
Governor2: | Gerardo Morales |
Term Start2: | 10 December 2019 |
Birth Place: | San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina |
Birth Date: | 13 September 1952 |
Party: | Radical Civic Union |
Normando Miguel Álvarez García (born 13 September 1952) is an Argentine politician and lawyer. He served as the Argentine ambassador to Bolivia between 2016 and 2019, during the presidency of Mauricio Macri. As of 2021, he serves as minister of work in Jujuy Province, under the governorship of Gerardo Morales.
Álvarez García began his political career when he was elected councilor for San Salvador de Jujuy between 1985 and 1989; he later ascended to the provincial legislature when he was elected between 1989 and 1991, that last year he was a national deputy for his province, until 1999. He graduated as a lawyer in 2003 from the National University of Lomas de Zamora.[1]
After passing through the Congress, he did not hold any political office again, dedicating himself to the practice of law and political advisory activities as well as business, until the inauguration of Mauricio Macri as president in 2015. He was appointed as ambassador to Bolivia.[2]
When he served as ambassador in that country, the Bolivian political crisis occurred in 2019 when president Evo Morales resigned amid increasing protests against his reelection for a fourth term. The government of Macri immediately recognized Jeanine Áñez as president and refused to label the removal of Morales as a coup. In July 2021, the Bolivian government denounced that a commander of the Bolivian Air Force had thanked Álvarez García for the Argentine government involvement in the removal, by sending shotguns and tear gas amid the political and social crisis.[3] [4]
On 17 July 2021, he was formally accused in Argentina for his involvement in the case known as the "coup d'état" case in Bolivia.[5]
On 15 July 2021, Governor Gerardo Morales publicly defended Álvarez García from the accusations by the current Argentine government and the government of Luis Arce in Bolivia. Morales awarded Álvarez García the Order Juan Manuel Belgrano and said that the provincial government would not allow the "lie to take place" and reassured Álvarez García in his position.[6]