Joel Molina Ramírez (1 November 194224 October 2020) was a Mexican politician and senator representing the state of

Tlaxcala Tlaxcala (; , ; from nah, Tlaxcallān ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tlaxcala), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 60 municipaliti ...

from the

National Regeneration Movement MORENA () is a major Mexican left-wing political party. It is described as an anti-neoliberal and populist party. It is the ruling party of Mexico since 2018. The name is an acronym for the Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (National Regener ...

(MORENA) party. He served in the

LXIV Legislature of the Mexican Congress The LXIV Legislature of the Mexican Congress was the meeting of the Mexican Congress of the Union that convened on 1 September 2018 and ended on 31 August 2021. It is composed of the 500 federal deputies and 128 senators elected in the 2018 Me ...

from February 2019 until his death in office from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico The COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was confirmed to have reached Mexico in February 2020. Howe ...

in October 2020, seven days short from his 78th birthday.

Life

Molina was born 1 November 1942, in Ixtacuixtla and graduated from the Evening Normal School. Previously the chief of finances, then the local leader, of the

Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación The National Educational Workers Union (, SNTE) is a trade union which represents teachers in Mexico. Its current Secretary-General and President is Alfonso Cepeda Salas. With over 1.4 million members, it is currently the largest teachers' un ...

teachers' union in the late 1970s, Molina—then a member of the

Institutional Revolutionary Party The Institutional Revolutionary Party ( es, Partido Revolucionario Institucional, ; abbr. PRI) is a political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 and held uninterrupted power in the country for 71 years, from 1929 to 2000, first as the Nati ...

—was elected to the Congress of Tlaxcala in 1980, serving a three-year term; he then became the municipal president of Ixtacuixtla between 1986 and 1988. He worked in several state government positions and served as the president of the Tlaxcala Electoral Institute between 1994 and 1996. Molina was named secretary of education in the Tlaxcala state government in 1997, during the administration of

José Antonio Álvarez Lima José Antonio Álvarez Lima (born May 3, 1942) is a Mexican politician and Senate of the Republic (Mexico), senator representing the state of Tlaxcala in the LXIV Legislature of the Mexican Congress. A member of the National Regeneration Movemen ...

. After decades in the PRI, he switched and became a founding member of MORENA; in 2016, he served as a coordinator for

Martha Palafox Gutiérrez Martha Palafox Gutiérrez (23 February 1949 – 17 March 2022) was a Mexican politician affiliated with the Labor Party. She served as Senator of the LXII Legislature of the Mexican Congress representing Tlaxcala. She also served as deputy of t ...

's gubernatorial campaign. By 2020, he was serving as the interim director of the MORENA party in Tlaxcala.

Senate

Molina was elected as the alternate senator to Álvarez Lima in 2018. However, Álvarez Lima was immediately appointed by President

Andrés Manuel López Obrador Andrés Manuel López Obrador (; born 13 November 1953), also known by his initials AMLO, is a Mexican politician who has been serving as the 65th president of Mexico since 1 December 2018. He previously served as Head of Government of Mexico ...

to head public television station

Canal Once Once (Eleven; formerly Once TV México and Canal Once) is a Mexican educational broadcast television network owned by National Polytechnic Institute. The network's flagship station is XEIPN-TDT channel 11 in Mexico City. It broadcasts across ...

. On 28 February 2019, Molina was sworn in. He was a contender for the Morena nomination in the 2021 Tlaxcala gubernatorial election, despite his advanced age and having undergone previous surgeries. In October 2020, Molina contracted COVID-19 and was admitted to an

ISSSTE The Mexican Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers or Civil Service Social Security and Services Institute ( es, Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales de los Trabajadores del Estado, or ISSSTE) is a federal governmen ...

hospital in Tlaxcala. He died on 24 October, making him the first senator to die of the disease. It was revealed before his death that he had been in the chamber as late as 20 October, for a 12-hour session to vote on the dissolution of various government trusts, during which senators passed around microphones. His death prompted Álvarez Lima to announce that he would resign from Canal Once and return to the Senate in the second half of November, after a new director for the television channel was appointed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Molina Ramirez, Jose Members of the Senate of the Republic (Mexico) for Tlaxcala Politicians from Tlaxcala 21st-century Mexican politicians People from Tlaxcala 1942 births 2020 deaths Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico Morena (political party) politicians Members of the Congress of Tlaxcala 20th-century Mexican politicians Senators of the LXIV and LXV Legislatures of Mexico