Cuban doctor Jorge González Pérez, a recognized specialist in Legal Medicine who led the search for Che Guevara's remains, passed away on Tuesday in Havana at the age of 72.
The Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, announced the news on his social media, without providing details about the cause of death.
"With deep sorrow, we learned just minutes ago about the passing of Dr. Jorge González Pérez, our dear Popi, a paradigm of Medicine and Science in Cuba," he wrote.
González Pérez was an eminent forensic physician and led the Institute of Legal Medicine in Havana for decades.
Due to his undisputed talent and capability, as well as his loyalty to the government, in the 1990s he was tasked with organizing the search and identification of the remains of Che Guevara and the fighters who died with him in Bolivia in 1967.
In 2022, he led the forensic investigations in the area of the fire at the Supertanker Base in Matanzas.
He served as a deputy in the National Assembly in Cuba from 1998 to 2003 and was reelected for the following five years, during which he was president of the Health and Sports Committee. He was reaffirmed as a deputy in 2018.
He was a founding member of the Cuban Society of Forensic Medicine, which he presided over from 1990 to 2017, and he has served as the rector of the University of Medical Sciences of Havana since 2001.
Born on April 23, 1952, in Jovellanos, Matanzas, "Popi" graduated in Medicine from the University of Havana in 1975.
Two years later, he traveled to Germany, where he completed a year of training in Forensic Medicine. In 1981, he attained the First Degree in that specialty and earned his doctorate in Forensic Medicine and Criminalistics in 1987.
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