Felipe Solá, born on July 23, 1950, is an Argentine politician from the Justicialist Party who currently serves as Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Alberto Fernández. He previously served as Governor of the Province of Buenos Aires from 2002 to 2007.
Biography of Felipe Solá
Born in Buenos Aires and raised in the exclusive Recoleta district, Solá graduated from the University of Buenos Aires as an agricultural engineer in 1981.
After graduating, Solá worked as a university professor, journalist, and advisor and researcher in economics. He married María Teresa González in 1982, with whom he had two children. The couple separated in 2003. In 2004, he met María Elena Cháves in La Plata, and the two have lived together in their home in Pilar since 2007.
In 1987, Solá was appointed Minister of Agricultural Affairs by Buenos Aires Province Governor Antonio Cafiero. Newly elected President Carlos Menem appointed him Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries in 1989, and in 1991, he was elected to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies for the Province of Buenos Aires on the Justicialist Party ticket.
Solá returned to the position of Secretary of Agriculture under Menem in 1993, remaining in office until 1998. His tenure is best known for the controversial 1996 decision to allow the cultivation of genetically modified soybeans in Argentina, which was approved just 81 days after Monsanto submitted its request.
Governor of Buenos Aires and national influence
On December 10, 1999, Solá became Vice Governor of Buenos Aires under Carlos Ruckauf, and he assumed the governorship on January 3, 2002, after Ruckauf resigned to become Foreign Minister under interim President Eduardo Duhalde, following the 2001 socio-economic collapse.
Solá distanced himself politically from Duhalde after President Néstor Kirchner did so, aligning with Kirchner’s expansionist policies. As governor, during a period of 9% economic growth, his support for Kirchner-aligned candidates in the 2005 legislative elections helped secure a decisive victory over Duhalde’s faction and other parties. In 2007, Solá successfully led the Frente para la Victoria congressional list in his province, stepped down as governor, and returned to Congress.
After being passed over as the 2007 presidential candidate for the Kirchnerist party in favor of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Solá broke with Kirchnerism during the 2008 conflict between the Argentine government and the agricultural sector. He left the ruling caucus to become a dissident Peronist. Ahead of the 2009 midterm elections, he joined Francisco de Narváez and Mauricio Macri in Unión PRO, a center-right coalition of dissident Peronists and the Republican Proposal (PRO) party.