55 Facts About Pena Nieto

1.

Enrique Pena Nieto, commonly referred to by his initials EPN, is a Mexican politician who served as the 64th president of Mexico from 1 December 2012 to 30 November 2018.

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2.

Pena Nieto's tenure was marked by low-to-moderate approval of his handling of a rising murder rate, the San Salvador Atenco civil unrest, and various public health issues.

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3.

Pena Nieto launched his 2012 presidential campaign on a platform of economic competitiveness and open government.

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4.

Pena Nieto's handling of the Iguala mass kidnapping in 2014 and the escape of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman from Altiplano prison in 2015 sparked international criticism.

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5.

Pena Nieto is seen as one of the most controversial and least popular presidents in the history of Mexico.

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6.

Enrique Pena Nieto was born on 20 July 1966 in Atlacomulco, State of Mexico, a city 55 miles northwest of Mexico City.

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7.

Pena Nieto is the oldest of four siblings; his father, Gilberto Enrique Pena del Mazo, was an electrical engineer; his mother, Maria del Perpetuo Socorro Ofelia Nieto Sanchez, a schoolteacher.

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8.

Pena Nieto is the nephew of two former governors of the State of Mexico: on his mother's side, Arturo Montiel; on his father's, Alfredo del Mazo Gonzalez.

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9.

Pena Nieto attended Denis Hall School in Alfred, Maine, during one year of junior high school in 1979 to learn English.

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10.

In 1984 at the age of 18, Pena Nieto traveled to Mexico City and enrolled in the Panamerican University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in legal studies.

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11.

Pena Nieto sought a master's degree in Business Administration at the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, based in the State of Mexico.

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12.

Pena Nieto joined the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1984, and with a law degree nearly completed, he began earning his own money.

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13.

Pena Nieto formally started his political career under the mentorship of Montiel Rojas, becoming the Secretary of the Citizen Movement of Zone I of the State Directive Committee of the National Confederation of Popular Organizations, one of the three sectors of the PRI.

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14.

For three consecutive years, Pena Nieto participated as a delegate to the Organization and Citizen Front in different municipalities of the State of Mexico.

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15.

Pena Nieto served from 1999 to 2000 as the sub-secretary of government, and as financial sub-coordinator of the political campaign of Montiel Rojas.

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16.

Under the wing of Montiel Rojas, Pena Nieto formed a group known as the "Golden Boys of Atlacomulco" with other members of the PRI.

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17.

Pena Nieto was elected to a local deputy position in his hometown of Atlacomulco, State of Mexico, in 2003.

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18.

Pena Nieto was among the crowd, but was not poised as one of the favorites.

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19.

Nonetheless, in 2005, Pena Nieto was the last man standing, succeeding Montiel Rojas as governor of the State of Mexico.

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20.

On 15 September 2005, Pena Nieto was sworn as governor of the State of Mexico at the Morelos theater in Toluca.

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21.

The centerpiece of Pena Nieto's governorship was his claim that he was to deliver his compromisos – 608 promises he signed in front of a notary to convince voters that he would deliver results and be an effective leader.

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22.

The 608 projects Pena Nieto proposed consisted of creating highways, building hospitals, and creating adequate water systems to provide fresh water throughout the state.

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23.

Pena Nieto claimed that he halved the murder rate in the State of Mexico during his time as governor, but retracted this claim after The Economist showed that the murder rate did not diminish and was being measured in a different way.

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24.

Pena Nieto stated in an interview that he does not justify the actions of the state and municipal forces, but mentioned that they were not gladly received by the citizens of San Salvador Atenco upon their arrival.

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25.

Pena Nieto dedicated the book to his wife Angelica Rivera and to governor Eruviel Avila Villegas and his family.

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26.

Pena Nieto said that the return of the PRI marks a new era in Mexico, and that his book served as a starting point to take Mexico "to better horizons".

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27.

On 27 November 2011, a few days after the book fair, Pena Nieto was the PRI's last standing nominee for the 2012 Mexican presidential elections.

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28.

Later, Pena Nieto was interviewed by El Pais and admitted that he did not know the price of tortillas.

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29.

When he was criticized as being out of touch, Pena Nieto insisted that he was not "the woman of the household" and thus would not know the price.

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30.

Pena Nieto's campaign was supported by the Commitment to Mexico alliance.

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31.

Pena Nieto was sworn in as President of Mexico on 1 December 2012 at the federal congress and later flew to a military parade to formally take control of the armed forces.

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32.

The day after his inauguration, Pena Nieto announced the Pact for Mexico, an agreement that he had struck with the leaders of the two other major parties at the time, Jesus Zambrano Grijalva of the Party of the Democratic Revolution and Gustavo Madero Munoz of the National Action Party, about the government's goals for the next few years.

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33.

On 1 December 2018, Enrique Pena Nieto left office and was succeeded by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

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34.

Pena Nieto enacted a public education reform that aimed to curb the powerful teachers' union, Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educacion, improve standards, centralize the process for hiring, evaluating, promoting and retaining teachers, and crack down on corruption – such as wages for non-existent "ghost teachers".

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35.

Beyond that, Pena Nieto promised that no other measures will be taken by the States in Mexico.

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36.

Security policy of Pena Nieto prioritized the reduction of violence rather than attacking Mexico's drug-trafficking organizations head-on, marking a departure from the strategy of the previous six years during Felipe Calderon's administration.

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37.

Pena Nieto proposed centralizing the sub-federal police forces under one command.

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38.

Pena Nieto indicated interest in an economic agreement with Petrobras, Brazil's oil company.

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39.

Eric Martin of Bloomberg News stated that if Pena Nieto wants to invite investment, he will have to face the challenges of union leaders and local officials who have benefited from the oil company's bonanza.

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40.

Pena Nieto declared while campaigning that overhauling Pemex will be the PRI's and his "signature issue", and that he will encourage private companies to invest in exploration and development activities.

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41.

Pena Nieto invited U S Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to visit on 31 August 2016, and appeared with him in a press conference.

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42.

December 2017 article of The New York Times, reported Enrique Pena Nieto spending about 2 billion dollars on publicity, during his first five years as president, the largest publicity budget ever spent by a Mexican President.

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43.

In 2016, Aristegui revealed in a special report arguing that Enrique Pena Nieto had committed plagiarism on his law thesis, at least a third of it, with 197 out of 682 paragraphs being unsourced or wrongly sourced works.

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44.

In December 2017, The New York Times published accusations that Pena Nieto's government was blocking investigations against public corruption, with a commissioner saying the government was preventing the establishment of an impartial leader in FEPADE.

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45.

Pena Nieto is the first Mexican president to invoke either right.

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46.

Loret de Mola said Pena Nieto was already in contact with his successor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, to declare his version of the events.

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47.

Loret de Mola said that Pena Nieto was "going to get lost within his own lies", during the trial.

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48.

Alex Cifuentes, who described himself as Guzman's "right-hand man", later testified that Pena Nieto originally asked for $250 million before settling on $100 million.

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49.

Pena Nieto has had occasional lapses in memory or gaffes during public events or interviews.

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50.

Lack of popularity and credibility of Pena Nieto's government is perceived to have caused the PRI to suffer monumental defeat in the 2018 Mexican general election, where the party received the lowest vote percentage in their history.

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51.

In 2020, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Pena Nieto's successor, asked Mexicans if they would like to see former presidents face trial for allegations of corruption.

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52.

In 1993, Pena Nieto married his first wife, Monica Pretelini and the couple had three children: Paulina, Alejandro and Nicole.

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53.

Pena Nieto had two children outside his first marriage; a son with Maritza Diaz Hernandez, and another child, with an undisclosed woman, who died as an infant.

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54.

In 2008, Pena Nieto began a relationship with Televisa soap opera actress Angelica Rivera, whom he had hired to help publicize his political campaign for the State of Mexico.

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55.

Pena Nieto is the cousin of Alfredo del Mazo Maza, the current governor of the State of Mexico, of which his grandfather, father, distant uncle Arturo Montiel, as well as Pena Nieto himself, have previously been governors.

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