31 Facts About Ernesto Zedillo

Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon is a Mexican economist and politician.

Ernesto Zedillo was the 61st president of Mexico from 1 December 1994 to 30 November 2000, as the last of the uninterrupted 71-year line of Mexican presidents from the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Ernesto Zedillo is currently Director of the Center for the Study of Globalization at Yale University and is on the board of directors at the Inter-American Dialogue and Citigroup.

Ernesto Zedillo was born on 27 December 1951 in Mexico City.

Ernesto Zedillo's parents were Rodolfo Zedillo Castillo, a mechanic, and Martha Alicia Ponce de Leon.

Ernesto Zedillo graduated as an economist in 1972 and began lecturing.

Ernesto Zedillo began working in the Bank of Mexico as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, where he supported the adoption of macroeconomic policies for the country's improvement.

In 1994, after Colosio's assassination, Ernesto Zedillo became one of the few PRI members eligible under Mexican law to take his place, since he had not occupied public office for some time.

The choice of Ernesto Zedillo was interpreted as Salinas' way of bypassing the strong Mexican political tradition of non-reelection and retaining real power, since Ernesto Zedillo was not really a politician, but an economist, who clearly lacked the president's political talent and influence.

Ernesto Zedillo ran against Diego Fernandez de Cevallos of the National Action Party and second-timer Cuauhtemoc Cardenas of the Party of the Democratic Revolution.

At age 43, Ernesto Zedillo assumed the presidency on 1 December 1994 at the Legislative Palace of San Lazaro, taking oath before the Congress of the Union presided by the deputy president Carlota Vargas Garza.

Ernesto Zedillo's cabinet needed to have members who could deal with crises.

Ernesto Zedillo had been an accidental presidential candidate who was vaulted to prominence with the assassination of Colosio.

In office, Ernesto Zedillo was perceived as a puppet-president with Salinas following the model of Plutarco Elias Calles in the wake of the 1928 assassination of president-elect Alvaro Obregon.

On 28 February 1995 Ernesto Zedillo ordered the arrest of the ex-president's older brother Raul Salinas for the September 1994 murder of PRI General Secretary Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu.

The presidential candidate Colosio of the PRI was assassinated in March 1994, and his campaign manager Ernesto Zedillo then became the candidate a few days later.

Ernesto Zedillo inherited the rebellion in Chiapas, but it was up to his administration to handle it.

Ernesto Zedillo created the poverty alleviation program Progresa, which subsidized the poorest families in Mexico, provided that their children went to school.

Carlos Salinas had negotiated Mexico's place in NAFTA, which took effect in January 1994, so Ernesto Zedillo was the first president to oversee it for his entire term.

Ernesto Zedillo saw electoral reform as a key issue for his administration.

In January 1995, Ernesto Zedillo initiated multiparty talks about electoral reform, which resulted in an agreement on how to frame political reform.

Ernesto Zedillo was a strong advocate of federalism as a counterbalance to a centralized system.

Ernesto Zedillo sought to forge new ties overseas, including ones with China.

Ernesto Zedillo made a rhetorical gesture to Africa, but without real effect.

Ernesto Zedillo successfully concluded negotiations with the European Union for a Free Trade Agreement, which entered into force in July 2000.

Ernesto Zedillo went on national television when the polls closed, declaring that Vicente Fox had won.

Since leaving office, Ernesto Zedillo has held many jobs as an economic consultant in many international companies and organizations.

Ernesto Zedillo currently is on the faculty at Yale University, where he teaches economics and heads the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.

In 2009, Ernesto Zedillo headed an external review of the World Bank Group's governance.

In 2016, Zedillo co-signed a letter calling for an end to the War on Drugs, along with people like Mary J Blige, Jesse Jackson and George Soros.

The United States Department of State recommended that President Ernesto Zedillo be granted immunity from prosecution due to the actions occurring as part of his official capacity as head of state.