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Carlos Salinas de Gortari

"Carlos Salinas" redirects here. For the Peruvian footballer, see Carlos Salinas (footballer).

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Salinas and the second or maternal family name is de Gortari.
Carlos Salinas de Gortari
Official portrait, 1988
60th President of Mexico
In office
1 December 1988 – 30 November 1994
Preceded byMiguel de la Madrid
Succeeded byErnesto Zedillo
Secretary of Programming and Budget of Mexico
In office
1 December 1982 – 5 October 1987
PresidentMiguel de la Madrid
Preceded byRamón Aguirre Velázquez
Succeeded byPedro Aspe
Personal details
Born (1948-04-03) 3 April 1948 (age 76)
Mexico City, Mexico
Citizenship
  • Mexico
  • Spain (since 2021)[1]
Political partyInstitutional Revolutionary Party
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1972; div. 1995)​
Ana Paula Gerard
​
(m. 1995)​
RelationsRaúl Salinas de Gortari
(brother)
José Francisco Ruiz Massieu
(brother-in-law, deceased)
Elí de Gortari[2]
(uncle, deceased)
Children6, including Emiliano[3]
Parent(s)Raúl Salinas Lozano
Margarita de Gortari Carvajal[2]
EducationNational Autonomous University of Mexico (BA)
Harvard University (MPA, MA, PhD)
Signature

Carlos Salinas de Gortari (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkaɾlos saˈlinas ðe ɣoɾˈtaɾi]; born 3 April 1948) is a Mexican economist and former politician who served as the 60th president of Mexico from 1988 to 1994. Affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), earlier in his career he worked in the Secretariat of Programming and Budget, eventually becoming Secretary. He secured the party's nomination for the 1988 general election and was elected amid widespread accusations of electoral fraud.[4][5]

An economist, Salinas de Gortari was the first Mexican president since 1946 who was not a law graduate.[a] His presidency was characterized by the entrenchment of the neoliberal, free trade economic policies initiated by his predecessor Miguel de la Madrid in observance of the Washington Consensus, mass privatizations of state-run companies and the reprivatization of the banks[b], Mexico's entry into NAFTA,[6] negotiations with the right-wing opposition party PAN to recognize their victories in state and local elections in exchange for supporting Salinas' policies,[7] normalization of relations with the Catholic clergy,[8] and the adoption of a new currency. From the beginning of his administration, Salinas de Gortari was criticized by the Mexican left, who considered him an illegitimate president whose neoliberal policies led to higher unemployment and were perceived as giving away the wealth of the nation to foreign ownership, whereas he was praised by the right wing and the international community, who considered him a leading figure of globalization and credited him with modernizing the country.[9] Salinas was also backed by the United States government in his bid for Director-General of the newly created World Trade Organization (WTO).[10]

After years of economic recovery during his presidency, a series of mismanagement and corruption scandals during his last year in office crumbled his public image domestically and internationally. These events included the Zapatista uprising and the assassinations of Luis Donaldo Colosio (Salinas's hand-picked successor and PRI candidate for the 1994 presidential election) and José Francisco Ruiz Massieu (Salinas's brother-in-law and PRI Secretary-General).[11] This surge of political violence led to economic uncertainty. Facing pressures to devalue the peso, Salinas refused, opting for a strategy he believed would help his candidacy to be the inaugural president of the WTO.[12] As a consequence, less than a month after Salinas left office, his successor Ernesto Zedillo was forced to devalue the peso and Mexico entered into one of the worst economic crises of its history.[13][14] Shortly after, his brother Raúl Salinas de Gortari was arrested for ordering the assassination of Ruiz Massieu[15] and was subsequently indicted on charges of drug trafficking. Salinas then left the country, returning in 1999.

Salinas is often referred to as the most unpopular former president of Mexico. A 2005 nationwide poll conducted by Parametría found that 73% of the respondents had a negative image of him, while only 9% stated that they had a positive image of the former president.[16] He has been regarded as the most influential and controversial Mexican politician since the 1990s.[17]

  1. ^ Martín, María (30 October 2022). "El expresidente mexicano Carlos Salinas de Gortari obtiene la nacionalidad española". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  2. ^ a b Camp, Roderic Ai (1995). Mexican Political Biographies, 1935–1993 (3 ed.). University of Texas Press. p. 641. ISBN 978-0-292-71181-5. Retrieved 13 November 2009.
  3. ^ Del Collado, Fernando (29 November 2012). "El árbol genealógico de los herederos de Los Pinos" (in Spanish). Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  4. ^ Thompson, Ginger (9 March 2004). "Ex-President in Mexico Casts New Light on Rigged 1988 Election". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  5. ^ Robberson, Tod (4 December 1993). "Fraud charges again haunt Mexico". The Washington Post. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  6. ^ "El Universal - - TLCAN, ni panacea ni apocalipsis". Archived from the original on 1 January 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Coerver 2004 460 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Vargas, Jorge (1 May 1998). "Freedom of Religion and Public Worship in Mexico: A Legal Commentary on the 1992 Federal Act on Religious Matters". BYU Law Review. 1998 (2): 421–481.
  9. ^ Smith, Wesley. "Salinas Prepares Mexican Agriculture for Free Trade". The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  10. ^ Farah, Douglas (13 March 1995). "Former President Salinas Departs Mexico". Washington Post. Washington Post Foreign Service. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  11. ^ Rivera Ayala, Clara (2008). Historia de México II. Cengage Learning Editores. p. 389.
  12. ^ Robberson, Tod (8 January 1995). "Mexico's Meltdown". Washington Post.
  13. ^ "The peso crisis, ten years on: Tequila slammer". The Economist. 29 December 2004. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  14. ^ "The Tequila crisis in 1994". Rabobank. 19 September 2013. Archived from the original on 10 April 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
  15. ^ Salinas's Brother Charged in Mexican Assassination New York Times 1 March 1995 [1]
  16. ^ "Carlos Salinas de Gortari". PARAMETRIA. Parametría. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  17. ^ Castañeda, Jorge G. Perpetuating Power: How Mexican Presidents Were Chosen. New York: The New Press 2000, p. 206


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