Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon

Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, President of Mexico (1994-2000).

The last of the uninterrupted 70 years line of P.R.I's Mexican presidents, Zedillo is one of the so-called technocrats, the Mexican term for a politician who has never been elected by popular vote in his political career, advancing instead from bureacratic changes from administration to administration. Before becoming President, he was Secretary of the Economy for the previous President, Carlos Salinas and then announced as Chief of Campaign of Luis Donaldo Colosio[?] when he was chosen as P.R.I's presidential candidate. After Colosio's murder, Zedillo was one of the few P.R.I members who was allowed under Mexican law to take his place, since he hadn't been in public office for some time.

Colosio's murder was blamed by many on Salinas, and Zedillo's choosing interpreted as Salinas' way to bypass the strong political tradition of non reelection, since Zedillo wasn't really a politician, but an economist (just like Salinas) but it clearly lacked Salinas' political talent.

After winning the election in 1994 (the clearest process in years) he was thought by many as a puppet-president, but after December's Mistake, which occurred during his administration although it was blamed on Salinas he governed with relatively ease, backing on P.R.I's tradition of loyalty to the current President.

In 2000 Zedillo recognized the electoral victory of opposing candidate Vicente Fox in midnight after the election, paving the way for what seemed an unlikely change of power. For this reason some P.R.I. members consider him a traitor, claiming the election was too close to express defeat so soon.

After leaving charge, Zedillo held many jobs as consultant on many international companies and organizations as an economist. As a president, he had a quiet profile with little scandal or accusations of corruption, though his role in December's Mistake is still questioned.

His political motto was Bienestar para tu familia (Welfare to your family), which is still the butt of jokes and irony because of the deep economical crisis caused by December's Mistake. His lasting act of government was the creation of Progresa, a poverty-fighting program based on subsidizing the poorest families provided their children go to school, later elogiated by next President Fox, who nicknamed it Contigo (With You)..

At one public meeting of the World Economic Forum he coined the term Globaliphobic to refer to globalization detractors. The term became widely used in Mexico, and was quickly countered by Globaliphiliac.

See also: History of Mexico, Mexico