Jump to content

Enrique Peña Nieto

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Luigiustino (talk | contribs) at 17:10, 16 March 2009 (→Presidential Ambitions: fixed typo). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Not to be confused with Enrique Nieto.
Enrique Peña Nieto
Governor of the State of Mexico
Incumbent
Assumed office
September 16, 2005
Preceded byArturo Montiel
Personal details
Born (1966-07-20) July 20, 1966 (age 58)
Atlacomulco, State of Mexico
Political partyInstitutional Revolutionary Party
SpouseMónica Pretelini Sáenz †
Alma materUniversidad Panamericana
ProfessionLawyer

Enrique Peña Nieto (Atlacomulco, Estado de México, July 20th 1966) is a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional,PRI.) He was nominated as the PRI’s candidate for the governorship of the State of Mexico for the term that spans from 2005 to 2011. Peña Nieto won the on elections on July 3rd, 2005, with a significant margin of the popular vote and he's been the governor since September 2005.


Family Origins

His father, Enrique Peña del Mazo (1937-2005), had a professional degree in electric engineering and worked as an employee for the Federal Electricity Commission. As such, he was a civil servant for the State of Mexico between 1975 and 1981. His mother, Maria del Socorro Nieto Sanchez, combined caring for her family with her profession as a school teacher. Together, they had 4 children: Enrique, Arturo, Veronica and Ana Cecilia. In 1977 the family left Atlacomulco and moved to Toluca, Mexico State´s capital.

Education

During an interview published in Mexican Leaders magazine, Peña Nieto relates how he participated in his first political exercises as a junior in high school when he served as representative for his class during public ceremonies. However, his formal training and first incursions in state politics would wait until the end of his studies. [1]

Peña Nieto moved to Mexico City in order to get his law degree from theUniversidad Panamericana. After getting his degree and defending his thesis “Alvaro Obregon and the Modern Presidential System”, he taught law at his alma mater. In subsequent years he would go on to get his MBA at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (1990-1995) and complement his studies with English language courses. Pena Nieto had a facility to join PRI since Montiel was his uncle.

Political beginnings

In May 1990 he became secretary of the Citizen Movement of Zone I of the State Directive Committee of the National Confederation of Popular Organizations (CNOP). A year later he participated as delegate to the Organization and Citizen Front in different municipalities of the Estado de Mexico. He also served as instructor at the Electoral Training Center of the PRI. During this time Peña Nieto also held administrative positions in the state government. Between 1993 and 1998, during Emilio Chuayfett’s term as governor, he was chief of staff for the Secretary of economic development of the State of Mexico. His experience made him learn more about the problems and challenges of the most populated state in Mexico. At the end of this period he worked as deputy secretary of government for the State of Mexico (1999-2000). [2]

During the period between 2000 and 2002 Peña Nieto exercised different tasks for the state´s administration: government administration secretary, president of the directive council for the Social Security Institute of the State of Mexico and its municipalities, president of the internal council of the Health Institute of the State of Mexico and vice-president for the State of Mexico’s government board for the Integral Family Development System (DIF). In the meantime he was individual member of the National Institute of Public Administration and member of the administrative council for different decentralized public agencies.

While his career evolved his personal life was also moving forward. At 27 years old, in 1993, he married Mónica Pretelini Sáenz (1962-2007.) She held aB.A. in Art History and she attended several postgraduate courses in Human Development.

Together they had 3 children: Paulina, Alejandro and Nicole. They were married for thirteen years until the premature death of Mónica Pretelini

Local council and his run for Mexico State’s governorship

His performance as a state functionary and within his Party helped Peña Nieto build a strong base for the development of his political career and his movement into popular election positions. As a member of the PRI´s National and State Political Council and delegate to the PRI´s XVIII General Assembly in 2001, Peña Nieto was nominated for the local representative spot for the XIII District, in the LV Legislature.

He won the elections and, thanks to his previous experience, had a very positive legislative performance. [3]

Between September 2003 and September 2004 he was named coordinator of the PRI´s parliamentary group in the LV Legislature and as chairman of the Board of Political Coordination of the local congress. According to the book Enrique Peña Nieto, Memory of a campaign[4], by collaborating with other parliamentary factions, Peña Nieto was able to get 92% of his initiative approved unanimously.

On October 17, 2004, he officially began his participation in the PRI´s internal nomination process for the governorship of the State of Mexico. The other candidates considered for the governorship were: Guillermo González Martínez, Gustavo Cárdenas Monroy, Jaime Vázquez Castillo, Eduardo Bernal Martínez, Fernando Alberto García Cuevas, Cuauhtémoc García Ortega, Isidro Pastor Medrano, Enrique Jacob Rocha, Héctor Luna de la Vega and Carlos Hank Rhon. These pre-candidates took part in conferences, seminars, round tables, and tours, whittling the original list to only six candidates participating in the official nomination process. On January 14, 2005 Peña Nieto was the last man standing. On February 12, 2005, with 15,000 sympathizers in attendance, he was sworn in as candidate for the PRI. [5]

The PRI and the Mexican Green Party (Partido Verde Ecologista de México, PVEM) established an alliance in order to defend mutual policies of sustainable development, ecology, employment and support for youth. This alliance would nominate just one candidate. This coalition, dubbed “Alliance for Mexico” (PRI-PVEM), was approved by the Electoral Institute of the State of Mexico in March. On April 2, in Cuautitlán Izcalli, Peña Nieto was sworn in as candidate for the PVEM. On the 15th the general council of the Electoral Institute of the State of Mexico (IFE) approved his registration as candidate. [6]

During this time other political parties announced the names of their respective candidates. National Action Party and Convergence for democracy (Convergencia Democrática, CD) (PAN) -Convergencia united behind candidate Rubén Mendoza Ayala. The Democratic Revolution Party PRD and the Labor Party PT formed their own coalition “United to win” (Unidos para ganar) and nominated Yeidckol Polevnsky. All the candidates constructed their platform around the struggle against poverty since, according to the social development secretary; the State of Mexico was among the poorest entities of the Mexican Republic.

The 2005 campaign and elections

During the first months of 2005 Peña Nieto held an intensive campaign with engagements and stumps in different municipalities of the State of Mexico. His political team stressed the electorate’s demands of concrete commitments. This is the reason why his campaign was based on efficiency and achievements in different community sectors. He assumed his promise to fulfill the people´s demands in a straightforward and practical approach. During the entire campaign Peña Nieto travelled to all 125 municipalities in the state. During his tours he established mandate commitments in all areas of government. He offered a list of 617 actions in the regional (118), municipal (474) and state fields (16). Peña Nieto affirmed his absolute commitment to accomplish these actions through a notarized oath signed in Toluca on June 28th 2005. This ceremony took place during his campaign´s closing event which took place in Ecatepec. The campaign, according to Enrique Peña Nieto, resulted in 1,040,266 directly contacted people, 400,688 handshakes, 13,078 traveled km and 130 massive events with different social sectors. [7]

In the election’s eve, the State of Mexico had a strange environment due to a supposed interference of the federal government and President Vicente Fox in the process as well as his supposed interest to favor the PAN candidate. In an important declaration Peña Nieto considered that all political actors during the competition should have been subject to a political lawsuit by the electoral authority (Federal Electoral Institute|IFE) and to respect the citizen’s verdict.

Election day, Sunday July 3, 2005 went off without big setbacks. Exit polls indicated a large margin in favor of Peña Nieto and these tendencies were confirmed by the Preliminary Electoral Result Program (Programa de Resultados Electorales Preliminares, PREP) that same evening. The next day the PREP officially announced he had received 45.7% of votes.

Four days later the IIEM confirmed Peña Nieto’s victory the period for the Electoral Tribunal of the State of Mexico (Tribunal Electoral del Estado de México TEEM) to resolve electoral process disputes began. This process would last until July 31. During this period the candidate’s family suffered a big loss. On July 25 Peña Nieto´s father, Enrique Peña del Mazo, died of a chronic heart condition at the age of 68. [8]

Two weeks later, on August 12, Peña Nieto received the certificate which accredited him as the elected governor of the State of Mexico. The final count was 49% for the PRI, 25.11% the PRD and 25.6% the PAN.

The first year of government

On September 15th 2005, Peña Nieto was sworn in as constitutional governor of the State of Mexico at the Morelos theater in Toluca in front of a 5 thousand people audience, which included all the members of Parliament of the LV local Legislature. In an official announcement to all the sectors of the state he proposed to work in a unity pact to reconstruct the entity based on three pillars: economic, social and public security. He made public a 120 day plan to meet the most urgent problems. [9]

The activities of his first year as a governor are reviewed in his First Government Inform presented on September the 6th 2006. [10] In the context of the questioned federal elections which lead the candidate of the PAN, supported by Peña Nieto,Felipe Calderón to the victory, he invited to a national dialogue. He reported positive advances on the economic indicators of the state and the achievement of the acquired agreements during his campaign regarding education, housing and agricultural support.

On May 3rd 2006 the public forces intervened in Atenco to stop a group of flower traders to from being installed in one of the main streets. After a few hours a clash between the federal, state, municipal police and the habitants of the region was produced. As worst outcome was the death of a young 14 year old boy. At the next day the state police got in to take over the situation and arrested 211 persons. [11]


The second year of government

Two terrible events on Enrique Peña Nieto´s family stressed his second year of government. The first one was the decease of his wife Monica Pretelini on the evening of January 11th 2007. The neurologist, Paul Shkurovich, who had treated her for two years due to a convulsion crisis, affirms that her patient suffered an epileptic crisis which produced arrhythmia. This led her to have a respiratory arrest and to her death at the ABC hospital after treating her at the emergency room of the Centro Medico de Toluca. [12][13]

The second terrible event was produced on the May 11th 2007 in Veracruz. Nicole, Alejandro and Paulina Peña Pretelini, the governor’s children, were having holidays in the company of their maternal family members: their aunt Claudia Pretelini and their grandparents Hugo and Olga Pretelini. The group was traveling on a van through the Boulevard Manuel Ávila Camacho of the city, and was escorted by a group of agents of the Public Security Direction of State of Mexico. At around 23:45 four vans reached them and a command of henchmen opened fire against the bodyguards Fermín Esquivel Almanza, Erick Lopez Sosa, Roberto Delgado Nabor and Guillermo Ortega Serrano died. [14] The authorities of Veracruz and Enrique Peña Nieto (who was on tour in Chalco) assured that it was a confusion between organized crime groups. [15]

It was precisely this hard topic, insecurity, one of the most important subjects raised by Peña Nieto during his Second Government Inform. That was presented on September 5th 2007 at the House of Representatives with an unprecedented format as he permitted twelve representatives to pose questions and make interventions. In this activity report he presented his advances in security and infrastructure (the growth of a road network and the suburban train system, in coordination with the government of the D.F.) and he recognized the effort of the army to stop the clandestine cut down of trees. To this date he assured that his administration had achieved 200 of the 608 actions proposed at the beginning. [16]

His working team, which had been changing during the last two years, was composed, in its latest version, by:

• Victor Humberto Benítez Treviño: Government General secretary
• Maria Elena Barrera Tapia: Health secretary
• José Adán Ignacio Rubí Salazar: Work and Social prevision secretary
• Guadalupe Monter Flores: Education secretary
• Ernesto Nemer Álvarez: Social Development secretary
• David Korenfeld Federman: Water and Public Works for the development secretary
• Marcela Velasco Gonzalez: Urban development secretary
• Arturo Osornio Sanchez: Agricultural development secretary
• Enrique Jacob Rocha: Economic development secretary
• Alfonso Navarrete Prida: Metropolitan development secretary
• Luis Videgaray Caso: Finances secretary
• Marco Antonio Abaid Kado: Controllership secretary
• Gerardo Ruiz Esparza: Communication secretary
• Fernando Maldonado Hernandez: Transport secretary
• Guillermo Velasco Rodriguez: Environment secretary
• Alberto Bazbaz Sacal: General Justice Attorney
• Alfredo del Mazo Maza: Tourism secretary.

Presidential Ambitions

During the following months after giving his Second Government Inform, the work of Peña Nieto stood out because of his collaboration with the Mexico City government, aimed at solving problems of significance for both entities politically separated but without a solution of urban continuity. Along several working sessions with Marcelo Ebrad, Head of Government of Mexico City, an extensive working agenda was planned which included issues such as security, environment, employment and transport. Peña Nieto stood as supporter for the energy reform, proposed a national agreement to encourage the development of the country and to accelerate the education reform and established a plan of eleven points to fight against insecurity in Mexico. [17] According to reports in the magazine “Tierra de Encuentro”, Peña Nieto had accomplished by August 2008 more than half of the commitments promised during his campaign and had been able to refinance the state debt of his entity. [18] Several polls, as the National Survey of the Strategic Communication Office, maintained that at four years to the presidential elections he was ahead of his possible constantans: Marcelo Ebrard, Santiago Creel and Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The survey from Consulta Mitofsky with the title “Who is governing us? Profiles of our governors” showed that Peña Nieto is the most popular governor between the Mexicans (68.4% of the surveyed people). [19]

References

  1. ^ González, Jesús Isaac (Octubre), "Entrevista a Enrique Peña Nieto", Líderes Mexicanos, vol. 124 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  2. ^ Biografía de Enrique Peña Nieto en [1]
  3. ^ Enrique Peña Nieto en http://www.eleccionesestadodemexico.com.mx
  4. ^ Comité Directivo Estatal del Partido Revolucionario Institucional del Estado de México, Enrique Peña Nieto, Memoria de Campaña para Gobernador Constitucional del Estado de México (2005-2011), 2005.
  5. ^ Rinde protesta el candidato del PRI a la gubernatura del estado de México El Universal, 13 de febrero del 2005.
  6. ^ Comité Directivo Estatal del Partido Revolucionario Institucional del Estado de México, Enrique Peña Nieto, Memoria de Campaña para Gobernador Constitucional del Estado de México (2005-2011), 2005.
  7. ^ Comité Directivo Estatal del Partido Revolucionario Institucional del Estado de México, Enrique Peña Nieto, Memoria de Campaña para Gobernador Constitucional del Estado de México (2005-2011), 2005.
  8. ^ Fallece el padre de Peña Nieto La Jornada, 25 de julio de 2005
  9. ^ Huerta, Ivan (Octubre), "Enrique Peña Nieto asume gubernatura de Edomex", Gente Sur, vol. 112 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  10. ^ Gobierno del Estado de México, Primer informe de gobierno de Enrique Peña Nieto, gobernador constitucional del Estado de México, 2006.
  11. ^ Recomendación 038/2006 CNDH, 16 de octubre de 2006
  12. ^ Fallece la esposa de Enrique Peña Nieto La Jornada, 12 de enero de 2007
  13. ^ Declaran muerte cerebral a Mónica Pretelini El Universal, 11 de enero de 2007
  14. ^ Ejecutan en Veracruz a 4 escoltas de Peña Nieto La Crónica de Hoy, 12 de mayo de 2007
  15. ^ “«Por confusión el asesinato de los cuatro escoltas» dice Peña Nieto” La Crónica de Hoy, 12 de mayo de 2007
  16. ^ Gobierno del Estado de México, Segundo informe de gobierno de Enrique Peña Nieto, gobernador constitucional del Estado de México, 2007.
  17. ^ “Enrique Peña Nieto presentó 11 medidas para combatir la corrupción en el Estado de México”. http://www.estadodemexico.com.mx/portal/noticias/article.php?storyid=1345
  18. ^ “Por algo es Tierra de encuentro”.
  19. ^ “¿Quiénes nos gobiernan? Perfil de Nuestros Gobernadores” en http://www.consulta.com.mx/interiores/99_pdfs/12_mexicanos_pdf/20080528_NA_ConociendoGobernadores.pdf

See also

Template:Incumbent succession box
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Enrique_Peña_Nieto&oldid=277677191"