José López Portillo

For other uses, see José López Portillo y Rojas.

José López Portillo
51st President of Mexico
In office December 1, 1976 – November 30, 1982
Preceded by	Luis Echeverría
Succeeded by	Miguel de la Madrid
Personal details
Born	José Guillermo Abel López Portillo y Pacheco (1920-06-16)June 16, 1920 Mexico City, Mexico
Died	February 17, 2004(2004-02-17) (aged 83) Mexico City, Mexico
Nationality	Mexican
Political party	Institutional Revolutionary Party
Spouse(s)	1.Carmen Romano 2. Aleksandra Aćimović Popović (Sasha Montenegro)
Religion	Roman Catholic

José Guillermo Abel López Portillo y Pacheco (June 16, 1920 – February 17, 2004) was the 51st President of Mexico from 1976 to 1982.

Career

Born in Mexico City, to his father José López Portillo y Weber (1888–1974) as a engineer, historian, researcher, academic Mexico and his mother Refugio Pacheco y Villa-Gordoa. López Portillo studied Law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) before beginning his political career with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 1959. He is also the grandson of José López Portillo y Rojas, a lawyer, politician, and man-of-letters. He held several positions in the administrations of his two predecessors before being appointed to serve as finance minister under Luis Echeverría, a close friend from the childhood, from 1973 to 1975.

López Portillo undertook an ambitious program to promote Mexico's economic development with revenues stemming from the discovery of new petroleum reserves in the states of Veracruz and Tabasco by Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the country's publicly owned oil company.

López Portillo undertook actions which were highly controversial with respect to the international banking establishment. One of his last actions as president, announced during his annual State of the Nation address on September 1, 1982, was to order the nationalization of the country's banking system.

López Portillo was the last nationalist president to emerge from the ranks of the PRI. Subsequent presidents have all been advocates of free trade (librecambismo).

His opponents internationally and domestically accused López Portillo of "rampant corruption", "excessive overseas borrowing", galloping inflation—which continued with his successor—and responsibility for devaluations of the peso.

His obituary in the New York Times referred to his well publicized generosity toward his one time mistress, Rosa Luz Alegría as "a symbol of the era's political decadence". He bought her a US$2 million mansion in Acapulco.

Presidential succession

In the year leading to the end of his term as president, December 1, 1982, López Portillo personally chose two candidates as possibilities to replace himself, following the succession ritual established by the PRI party. One, Javier García Paniagua, would be the appointed one if a man of greater political skill were needed, and the other, ultimately his successor Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado was chosen for his financial and administrative skills, deemed much more necessary after the devaluation of the peso in February 1982 and the subsequent economic crisis.

Personal

José López Portillo and U.S. President Jimmy Carter at the National Palace (Mexico) presidential office(1979).

In 1995 López Portillo married his longtime mistress, the Yugoslavian-born actress Sasha Montenegro. They had two children (Nabila and Alejandro) but separated years later. Legal battles erupted between Montenegro and the children from his first marriage, to Carmen Romano. As of 2005 legal battles over the fortune of the ex-president continue. It is claimed that López Portillo and Sasha Montenegro were lovers when he was President, and that her relationship with the President gave her considerable support in building her career farther into the 1980s.^{[citation needed]}

He was the brother of late Mexican novelist Margarita López Portillo, who died on May 8, 2006, of natural causes. She was the Director of all Film and Radio as well as Television under her brother and fairly responsible for the corruption of the time in many areas of the entertainment industry, which included the protection of Sasha Montenegro from the press and her future in-laws.

He was the great-great-great grandson of José María Narváez (1768–1840), a Spanish explorer who was the first to enter Strait of Georgia in present-day British Columbia and the first to view the site now occupied by the city of Vancouver.^{[citation needed]}

Economic confidence in Mexico saw its peak during Portillo's presidency following the discovery of new oil reserves in the early 1970s in the Mexican states of Campeche, Chiapas, and Tabasco and the 1979 energy crisis. As "expectations ran wild" regarding Mexico's oil reserves—with some saying that it was second only to Saudi Arabia, with 200 billion barrels in proven reserves—Portillo began acting like a "president of a wealthy country" and the "idea of undreamt-of Mexican wealth took hold in people's imaginations". Indeed, in 1980 Mexico joined Venezuela in the Pact of San José, a foreign aid project that would sell oil at preferential rates to countries in Central America and the Caribbean. This economic confidence that Portillo fostered did lead to a short-term boost in economic growth, but by the time he left office in 1982 the economy was headed downhill.

Works

• Génesis y teoría del Estado moderno (1965).
• Quetzalcóatl (1965).
• Don Q (1975, reimpresiones en 1976 y 1987).
• Ellos vienen... La conquista de México (1987).
• Mis tiempos (2 tomos, 1988).
• Umbrales (1997).
• El súper PRI (2002).

Quotations

¡Defenderé el peso como un perro! – "I will defend the peso like a dog!" It earned him the nickname 'El perro' (The dog) and having people barking at him. 1981.

Ya nos saquearon. México no se ha acabado. ¡No nos volverán a saquear! – "We have already been ransacked. Mexico is not finished. They will not ransack us again!" September 1, 1982.

¡Mi hijo es el orgullo de mi nepotismo! – "My son is the pride of my nepotism."

En el mundo de la economía los paises se dividen en dos: los que tienen petróleo y los que no lo tienen. ¡Y nosotros lo tenemos! – "In the world of economics, there are two groups of countries: those that have oil and those that don't. And we have it!"

¡Vamos a administrar la abundancia! – "We are going to manage abundance!"

Awards

Sweden, Knight of the Order of Seraphim 1980-05-05

External links

• KANDELL, J. José López Portillo, Ex-President of Mexico, Dies at 83 (subscription needed), New York Times February 19, 2004 – article by same author reproduced here [1]
• Mexico's ex-president Lopez Portillo dies, CNN.com, February 18, 2004.
• GUNSON, P. José López Portillo: Mexico's most reviled president, The Guardian, February 20, 2004.
• ILIFF, L. Few mourn ex-Mexican leader, Dallas Morning News, February 18, 2004 reproduced here [2]
• DOYLE, Kate (ed.). Prelude to Disaster: José López Portillo and the Crash of 1976, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 115.

Political offices
Preceded by Luis Echeverría	President of Mexico 1976–1982	Succeeded by Miguel de la Madrid