Enrique Peña Nieto (born 20 July 1966) was President of Mexico from 1 December 2012 to 30 November 2018, succeeding Felipe Calderon and preceding Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. A PRI politician, he previously served as Governor of the State of Mexico from 16 September 2005 to 16 September 2011, succeeding Arturo Montiel Rojas and preceding Eruviel Avila Villegas. Peña Nieto was one of the most unpopular presidents in Mexican history, and the PRI's brief resurgence - which had led to his election - quickly came to an end as the corruption of the Peña Nieto administration once again destroyed the party's credibility.
Biography[]
Enrique Peña Nieto was born in Atlacomulco, State of Mexico, Mexico in 1966, and he was raised in Toluca and worked as a public notary before rising in the ranks of the local Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He served as Secretary of Administration of the State of Mexico from 2000 to 2002, as a local deputy from 2003 to 2005, and then as Governor of the State of Mexico from 2005 to 2011, pledging to deliver 608 promises to his constituency to varying levels of success.
Rise to power[]
Peña Nieto campaigning with Sinaloa governor Mario Lopez Valdez
Peña Nieto presided over a rising murder rate amid the Mexican Drug War, as well as various public health issues, but his marriage to popular telenovela actress Angelica Rivera boosted his public image and allowed him to run for President in 2012. He campaigned on economic competitiveness and open government, and he was aided by PRI powerbrokers Conrado Higuera Sol, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and Claudia Ruiz Massieu. He faced PRD candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and the nonentity PAN candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota, and Higuera Sol and Ruiz Massieu managed to convince incumbent PAN President Felipe Calderon to aid Peña Nieto's campaign by removing the restrictions on campaign expenditures, blocking any investigations of vote buying allegations, having every local PAN party headquarters instruct its voters to support Peña Nieto, giving out gift cards to union members who could present photographic evidence of their vote for Peña Nieto, scaling down governmental attempts to capture the Sinaloa Cartel boss El Chapo, and attributing the Sinaloa Cartel's distribution of care packages to poor communities to Peña Nieto. At the same time, the Sinaloa Cartel's sicarios watched over polling stations and reminded voters that El Chapo would know who they voted for, and that, if Peña Nieto lost, the community would suffer the consequences. Ultimately, Peña Nieto won the election with 38.14% of the vote, and his election was met with several protests over the next several months.
Presidency[]
Peña Nieto in February 2014
During his first four years, Peña Nieto oversaw an extensive breakup of monopolies, liberalized Mexico's energy sector, reformed public education, and modernized the country's financial regulation. However, global drops in oil prices and the Great Recession of the 2010s moderated his economic successes, and his PRI party was criticized for controlling a biased media, Espionage of Journalists Critical of his Goverment,worsening corruption, rising crime, and the resurgence of Mexico's drug cartels. The 2014 mass kidnapping and disappearance of 43 anti-government student activists in Iguala, Guerrero by the Mexican Army, Mexican Federal Police, and the local drug traffickers, as well as El Chapo's 2015 escape from Altiplano prison, sparked international criticism, and Peña Nieto's approval ratings plummeted. While he succeeded in making the Mexican economy more competitive and increased political bipartisanship through his "Pact for Mexico", he left office with a 17% approval rating and a 77% disapproval rating, and he was one of the least popular presidents in Mexican history.