Raymond Caballero (born February 6, 1942) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 47th

mayor of El Paso The following is a list of people who have served as mayors of the city of El Paso in the U.S state of Texas. List of Mayors of El Paso References {{Reflist, 33em El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, ...

from 2001 to 2003. He was elected in May 2001, defeating former mayor Larry Francis in a runoff election with 62.5% of the vote. He was the fourth Latino mayor of El Paso, following

Raymond Telles Raymond L. Telles Jr. (September 5, 1915 – March 8, 2013) was the first Mexican Americans, Mexican-American Mayor of a major American city, El Paso, Texas. He was also the first Hispanic appointed as a U.S. ambassador. Telles was born and ...

(first elected 1957),

Ray Salazar Reynaldo "Ray" Salazar (August 25, 1931 – April 28, 2016) was an American accountant, politician and veteran of the United States Navy, who served as the Mayor of El Paso, Texas, from 1977 until 1979. Salazar was El Paso's second Hispanic mayor, ...

(1977) and Carlos Ramirez (1997).San Antonio News-Express, June 5, 2001
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Policies

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, Caballero ran for mayor on a progressive platform in favor of expanding

public transportation Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

and

municipal park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...

lands and bringing renewal to long-neglected areas in the central city. Caballero became controversial for his criticism of local industries and home developers for alleged practices such as

urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...

and pollution. Initially, Caballero had wide support, however over time voters increasingly questioned his stand, as El Paso is a relatively poor and economically disadvantaged city, and many felt the industries that Caballero opposed brought needed

jobs Jobs may refer to: * Job, an activity that people do for regular income gain People * Steve Jobs (1955–2011), co-founder and former CEO of Apple Inc ** Steve Jobs (disambiguation) * Laurene Powell Jobs (born 1963), widow of Steve Jobs * Lisa ...

. In

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

Caballero was defeated by

Joe Wardy Joseph D. Wardy (born 1953) is the former mayor of El Paso, Texas. He was elected mayor in 2003, when he unseated incumbent mayor Raymond Caballero. Wardy was defeated by John Cook in the 2005 mayoral election. Wardy, a businessman in the truc ...

, a businessman, after one term in office. Caballero's supporters continue to form a strong

faction Faction or factionalism may refer to: Politics * Political faction, a group of people with a common political purpose * Free and Independent Faction, a Romanian political party * Faction (''Planescape''), a political faction in the game ''Planes ...

within city politics.

References

1942 births Living people Mayors of El Paso, Texas Hispanic and Latino American mayors in Texas {{Texas-mayor-stub