Luis Manuel Irizarry Pabón (b. Ponce, Puerto Rico; 12 November 1958) is the current
mayor of the municipality of
Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Biography
Luis Manuel Irizarry Pabón was born on 12 November 1958 in Ponce, Puerto Rico. His parents were Félix Irizarry and Carmen Lydia Pabón. A graduate of the
University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, Irizarry Pabón was an
internal medicine physician prior to becoming Ponce's mayor-elect in November 2020. He was also a municipal legislator in the Ponce Municipal Legislature for 12 years (2009 to 2021), and minority leader in said legislative body. Winning by a
landslide
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...
against
Partido Nuevo Progresista incumbent mayor
María Meléndez
María Eloisa Meléndez Altieri (born December 26, 1951) also known as Mayita, is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the mayor of the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, from 2009 to 2021. Meléndez Altieri was elected during the Puerto Rican gen ...
, Irizarry Pabón was scheduled to take office on 11 January 2021; He was sworn on 13 January 2021. He is a graduate of the School of Medicine of the
Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Ciencias Medicas.
Political victory
Upon completion of the 2020 Ponce municipal election vote count Irizarry Pabón had received 28,728 votes (62%) to incumbent mayor María Meléndez Altieri's 12,314 votes (26.6%). The rest of the votes cast were for
MVC and
PIP. Irizarry Pabón is the first mayoral candidate in the modern history of Ponce to win with more than 60% of votes cast. His 16,414 vote margin was also historic being the largest since 1996, when then-mayor
Rafael Cordero Santiago had a lead of over 19,000 votes versus
José Dapena Thompson
José Joaquin Dapena Thompson (born c. 1938), known as Josito, was a Puerto Rican politician and Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico from 22 February 1984 to 1988.
Schooling
Dapena graduated from the University of Salamanca, Spain, in 1965. He practi ...
. Irizarry Pabón recovered the Ponce mayoral office for his
PPD party after 12 years under the control of the
Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP).
Family and personal
As of 11 November 2020, Irizarry Pabón was 62 years old. He has four children: Alma, Luis Manuel, María Isabel, and Yaniel.
''Alcalde electo de Ponce resalta su orgullo por el caserío.''
Sandra Torres Guzmán. Primera Hora. 4 November 2020. Accessed 11 November 2020
Archived.
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Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Irizarry Pabon, Luis
1958 births
Popular Democratic Party (Puerto Rico) politicians
Living people
University of Puerto Rico alumni
Physicians from Ponce
Mayors of Ponce, Puerto Rico