Who is Mexico's new president Enrique Pena Nieto?

2 Jul 2012, 5:19 pm   -   Source: AFP
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A lawyer with an MBA degree, Pena Nieto was elected to state congress in 2003, and in 2005 became governor of the state of Mexico. (AAP)

A lawyer with an MBA degree, Pena Nieto was elected to state congress in 2003, and in 2005 became governor of the state of Mexico. (AAP)

Enrique Pena Nieto, the man who claimed victory in Mexico's presidential election, is a former state governor married to a TV star.

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Enrique Pena Nieto, the man who claimed victory in Mexico's presidential election, is a former state governor married to a TV star who was mentored by old-guard members of his powerful party.
  
The dapper Pena Nieto is the fresh new face of Institutional Revolutionary Parth (PRI), the party that ran Mexico for 71 years through a blend of patronage, repression and corruption.
  
Born in Atlacomulco, a town just west of Mexico City, the 45 year-old Pena Nieto "represents a new generation of PRI loyalists -- he is fresh, very attractive, and with new ideas on governing," PRI national party president Pedro Joaquin told AFP.
  
Gone is the PRI of the "dinosaurs," the tough old bosses that imposed their will through a vast, well-oiled party machine -- at least that's the image Pena Nieto has successfully projected.
  
His detractors are not convinced, linking him to the Grupo Atlacomulco, an informal group of powerful PRI politicos from the populous state of Mexico, just west of the capital.
  
A lawyer with an MBA degree, Pena Nieto worked in state-level PRI administrations, was elected to the state congress in 2003, and then in 2005 was elected governor of the state of Mexico.
  
The young politician benefited mightily from links to people like Arturo Montiel and Rodolfo del Mazo, powerful old-guard PRI politicos.
  
Early in his career he also learned the benefits of working with the media -- especially television, and if necessary paying for good coverage.
  
Biographer Jenaro Villamil derides Pena Nieto as "the candidate of Televisa," the largest broadcast company in the Spanish-speaking world. Together with TV Azteca, they make up Mexico's television duopoly.
  
Pena Nieto often paid Televisa soap star actresses to join him in inaugurating public works, part of his relentless effort to promote himself and his administration. Villamil and others have documented that Pena Nieto paid for some of the glowing TV news coverage, though Televisa says his information is incorrect.
  
Pena Nieto's name spread to entertainment segments when he began dating, and later married, Angelica Rivera, star of the hit telenovela "Distilled Love."
  
Rivera was more popular than he was when they began dating. They met because she was one of the Televisa stars hired to promote the governor's good works.
  
She is still best known as "La Gaviota" (seagull), the name of the humble, pure-hearted girl Rivera played in the popular soap opera.
  
"This was about transforming a governor and his work into a reality show, perfectly produced, calculated to the most minimum details, mixing his public and private life, creating a ... continuous spectacle," wrote biographer Jenaro Villamil in his book "If I Were President."
  
Pena Nieto ran a model presidential campaign with tightly-staged photo ops and slick ads, but he also benefited from weak performances from rivals Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and Josefina Vazquez Mota from the ruling National Action Party (PAN).
  
The former came across as an aging, cranky ideologue and sore loser, while the latter was inarticulate and lacked bold ideas. Neither shined as candidates.
  
On TV, "the message is that a handsome man and a famous actress are building their love, and us citizens should cooperate so that they reach Los Pinos and be happy," playrwright Sabina Berman told Villamil, referring to the president's office.
  
Opponents have attacked his record as governor, especially over police actions during a 2006 battle with local farmers in San Salvador Atenco over a plan for a new airport in Mexico City, which has since been scrapped.
  
Pena Nieto struggled when he went off-script. In one memorable gaffe, a reporter asked him to name three books that influenced him -- and the candidate struggled for nearly five minutes to come up with an answer.
  
Pena Nieto has three children from his first marriage that dates back to 1993. He was widowed 13 years after his wife died under murky circumstances, but the death was eventually attributed to an epileptic seizure.
  
Pena Nieto later admitted fathering two other children with different women, one of whom died of cancer.
  
In 2010, Pena Nieto married Rivera in a lavish ceremony. The wedding at the Toluca town cathedral may have been private, but camera crews -- and crowds of onlookers -- were held behind portable fences as they jostled to get a glimpse of the couple and their guests before and after the ceremony.
  
The lucky ones got a seat on the bleachers set up in front of the cathedral entrance.

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Your Comments

A little one-sided, don't you think?

Shelley Chapman - from Mexico City, 11 months ago

He certainly seems like the perfect man! Your report downplays the truth of Peña Nieto, who is, to be precise, President-elect until December 1st. He might be fresh-faced, but his links to the "old PRI" via his uncle Montiel whom he succeeded as governor of Mexico State, his infidelity and inability to recall what his wife died of, nor three books he has read, his dealings with PRI governors of states run by drug gangs and his harsh dealing with Atenco, make him much more dangerous than you say.

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