Carlos Ignacio Pesquera-Morales (born August 17, 1956) is a Puerto Rican

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

. He ran in the 2016 New Progressive Party primary to be Puerto Rico's Resident Commissioner as

Pedro Pierluisi Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia (born April 26, 1959) is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer currently serving as governor of Puerto Rico. He has previously served as Secretary of Justice, Resident Commissioner, acting Secretary of State, i ...

's ballot running mate, but lost by over 70% of the vote to state representative Jenniffer Gonzalez. He is married to Irasema Rivera, an agronomist, and has one son and one daughter. He currently resides in

Guaynabo, Puerto Rico Guaynabo (, ) is a city, suburb of San Juan and municipality in the northern part of Puerto Rico, located in the northern coast of the island, north of Aguas Buenas, south of Cataño, east of Bayamón, and west of San Juan. Guaynabo is sprea ...

Education

Carlos Ignacio Pesquera Morales graduated from High School while attending Nuestra Señora de Belén. Dr. Pesquera attended the

University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez The University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus (UPRM) or Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez (RUM) in Spanish (also referred to as Colegio and CAAM in allusion to its former name), is a public land-grant university in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. UPRM ...

, where he graduated with high honors as an engineer. He was awarded the Etienne Totti Award for Best Student of the Civil Engineering Class, 1978. Later, Pesquera continued his graduate studies at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

, where he obtained an M.S. and Ph.D. in Structural Engineering. At Cornell, Pesquera specialized in the application of Computer-Aided-Design tools in the design of steel framed structures. He then worked at 3D/Eye where he was in charge of developing Steel-3D, one of the first fully integrated structural design tools based on computer graphics. Afterwards, he taught civil engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.

Political career

Pesquera was the Secretary of the

Department of Transportation and Public Works of Puerto Rico The Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP; es, Departamento de Transportación y Obras Públicas)— is the Executive Department of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico that regulates transportation and public works in Puerto Ri ...

under

Pedro Rosselló Pedro Juan Rosselló González, (; born April 5, 1944) is a Puerto Rican physician and politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 2001. He was President of the New Progressive Party from 1991 to 1999 and 2003 to 2008, a ...

's first and second terms as Governor (1993–1999). As Secretary of Transportation, he is credited as the driving force behind the $2 billion ''

Tren Urbano The ''Tren Urbano'' (English: Urban Train) is a fully-automated rapid transit system that serves the municipalities of San Juan, Guaynabo, and Bayamón, in Puerto Rico. The Tren Urbano consists of 16 stations operating on of track along ...

'' (Urban Train), the Superaqueduct that has resolved metropolitan San Juan's water rationing problems, numerous road construction projects and the construction of the

José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum The Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot (English: ''José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum of Puerto Rico'') is the biggest indoor arena in Puerto Rico dedicated to entertainment. It is located at the Golden Mile of San Juan, the island capital ...

in San Juan. He ran for

Governor of Puerto Rico The governor of Puerto Rico ( es, gobernador de Puerto Rico) is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and commander-in-chief of the Puerto Rico National Guard. The governor has a duty to enforce local laws, to co ...

as a candidate of the pro-statehood

New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico The New Progressive Party ( es, Partido Nuevo Progresista, PNP) is a political party in Puerto Rico that advocates statehood. The PNP is one of the two major parties in Puerto Rico with significant political strength and currently holds both t ...

in the 2000 elections but was defeated by

Sila María Calderón Sila María Calderón Serra (born September 23, 1942) is a Puerto Rican politician, businesswoman, and philanthropist who was the governor of Puerto Rico from 2001 to 2005. She is the first woman elected to that office. Prior to her term as gove ...

of the Popular Democratic Party. The results of that election showed: Sila Calderón ( PDP) with 978,860 votes (48.6%); Carlos Pesquera ( NPP) 919,194 votes (45.7%);

Ruben Berrios Reuben or Reuven is a Biblical male first name from Hebrew רְאוּבֵן (Re'uven), meaning "behold, a son". In the Bible, Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob. Variants include Rúben in European Portuguese; Rubens in Brazilian Portugu ...

( PIP) 104,705 (5.2%), while other candidates had about 2700 votes (under 0.5%). Afterwards, he reorganized his followers and remained the head of the NPP until the year 2003. That same year Pedro Rosselló returned from retirement and Pesquera ran for his party's candidacy for Governor but was soundly defeated in a primary election by Rosselló. Pesquera then retired from public life and is currently teaching at several Puerto Rican universities. In January 2007, Governor

Aníbal Acevedo Vilá Aníbal Salvador Acevedo Vilá (born 13 February 1962) is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer. He served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2005 to 2009. He is a Harvard University alumnus ( LL.M. 1987) and a graduate of the University of Pu ...

nominated him to be part of the Board of Regents of the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and ...

External links

Puerto Rico Herald: Profile: Carlos Pesquera

General Elections Results 2000
, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Pesquera, Carlos 1956 births Puerto Rican civil engineers Cornell University College of Engineering alumni Kidnapped politicians Living people New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico) politicians Presidents of the New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico) Secretaries of Transportation and Public Works of Puerto Rico University of Puerto Rico alumni University of Puerto Rico faculty