Mario Lopez Valdez (born 18 January 1957) was the PAN Governor of Sinaloa from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2016, succeeding Jesus Aguilar Padilla and preceding Quirino Ordaz Coppel.
Biography[]
Mario Lopez Valdez was born in Cubiri de la Loma, Sinaloa, Mexico on 18 January 1957, and he founded a hardware store chain in 1984 before becoming the municipal president of Ahome in 2002 as a member of PRI. In 2005, Governor Jesus Aguilar Padilla appointed him head of planning and development in the state, and he ran for Senate a year later. In 2010, he switched parties to PAN and defeated Ismael Zambada Garcia's PRI associate Jesus Vizcarra Calderon to win the governorship in 2011. However, Lopez was just as corrupt as his opponent; in 2012, El Chapo paid Lopez to help him take over Los Mochis from the Beltran Leyva Cartel, and Lopez warned him to avoid Guasave, where the Mexican Navy planned to ambush him. In 2014, he supported a bill that barred journalists from covering crime and public safety stories. However, he pledged to repeal the law just days after its unanimous approval by the state legislature, and his popularity collapsed. He left office in 2016.
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