Iván González Cancel

Nothing is more anti-statehood than corruption, says the man who aspires to challenge Gov. Fortuño for La Fortaleza, on a platform which overturns almost every assumption his own party has promoted. "This administration doesn't show any interest in finding out about corruption, which destroys every effort to improve the life of Puerto Ricans," cardiologist Dr. Iván González Cancel told the Daily Sun in an interview Saturday, the same day he opened his 2012 primary campaign office.

By 2009, Dr. Gonzalez Cancel was arguably among the most respected and prominent physicians in Puerto Rico. Due to his professional background and experience he was nominated by Governor Luis Fortuño as Secretary of Health of Puerto Rico.

Tapped as secretary of Health in 2009, he ran into trouble when Fortuño withdrew his nomination. "I refused to participate in a proposed scheme tainted by corruption, and I didn't want to give up surgery completely so he pounced on the excuse to withdraw my nomination," said González Cancel, who said he would give up all his medical positions if he were to become governor. In fact, the short stint at the Health Department probably sparked his interest in public service and launched him on his path to the governorship.

In 1993 after completing his training in mainland United States he returned to Puerto Rico to practice as a Cardiovascular and Heart Transplant Surgeon. It is in 1999 when he makes history by conducting the first heart transplant surgery in Puerto Rico. On June 27, 1999, Dr.Iván González Cancel along with a group of healthcare professionals performed the surgery which took 3 hours and 17 minutes at the Cardiovascular Center of Puerto Rico. Among the group of physicians that participated in the successful surgery were: Dr. Héctor Banchs Pieretti, Dr. Cid Quintana, Dr. Rolando Colón, Dr. Héctor Delgado Osorio and Dr. Efraín Defendini.

In 1977 he was admitted to the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. He excelled as an undergraduate student and in 1980 enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. During his medical studies he decided to become a Surgeon and in 1989 joined the Puerto Rico Medical Center Surgery Residency Program. After being told that at that time becoming a Cardiovascular Surgeon was impossible and that he should forget about it; in 1989 he joins the Cardiovascular Surgery faculty at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. After completing his training in Cardiovascular Surgery he decides to pursue a fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh in Heart and Lung Transplant.

He was born in 1960 in municipality of Utuado, Puerto Rico. He lived in Utuado until the age of 10, when the González Cancel family decided to move to Bayamon, PR. It was in Bayamon where the young Iván González Cancel studied fifth and sixth grade. In 1970 his family had move once again, this time to the community of Levittown in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. He conducted all his elementary, and high school studies in the Public School System of Puerto Rico.