Joaquín Jesús Díaz Mena (born 16 August 1974), nicknamed Huacho, is a Mexican politician currently from the

National Regeneration Movement The National Regeneration Movement (), commonly referred to by its syllabic abbreviation Morena (), is a major left-wing political party in Mexico, often described as oscillating between social democracy and populism. As of 2023, it is the la ...

(Morena). He was a

federal deputy A legislator, or lawmaker, is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people, but they can be appointed, or hereditary. Legislatures may be supra-national ...

during the 63rd session of

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

, representing

Yucatán Yucatán, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate municipalities, and its capital city is Mérida. ...

from the third electoral region. He is the current

Governor of Yucatán The governor of the State of Yucatan is the head of the executive branch of the Mexican state of Yucatán, elected to a six-year-term and not eligible for reelection. The figure of the governor is established on the Constitution of the State of Y ...

, in which office he has served since 1 October 2024.

Life

Díaz Mena obtained a degree in Tourism Business Administration-Hotels and Restaurants from the Instituto Tecnológico de Mérida in 1994; he managed the Mesón Hacienda restaurant, and the Hotel Club Las Velas in

Cancún Cancún is the most populous city in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, located in southeast Mexico on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. It is a significant tourist destination in Mexico and the seat of the municipality of Benito J ...

. Additionally, he was a teacher; in 1997, he began a four-year stint as a

Telesecundaria "Telesecundaria+" is a system of distance education programs for secondary education, secondary and high school students created by the Federal government of the United Mexican States, government of Mexico and available in rural areas of Mexico, t ...

teacher, spending two of those years at the Colegio de Bachilleres de Yucatán. In the late 1990s he also began ranching; he got involved with the Ganadería San Joaquín, and with the Asociación Ganadera de San Felipe, Yucatán, the local cattle ranchers' association. In 2001, Díaz Mena began his political career when he became the municipal president of San Felipe; in the following year he joined the National Action Party (PAN). In 2004, he was sent as a deputy to the LVII Legislature of Yucatán, where he presided over the Education, Science, Art and Technology Commission; during his two years in the state legislature, he briefly served as the Yucatán state PAN's finance secretary and began studying to obtain his master's degrees, one in public administration from the Universidad del Mayab and the other from the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...

(UNAM) in urban and regional economics. In 2006, voters in the First federal electoral district of Yucatán, with seat on

Valladolid Valladolid ( ; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and ''de facto'' capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the pr ...

, sent Díaz Mena to the federal

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

for the first time. In the 60th Congress, he was a secretary on the Fishing Commission and also sat on those dealing with Indigenous Matters and Special for Regional Development Projects in Southern and Southeastern Mexico. After leaving the Chamber of Deputies, he became a national-level PAN instructor, a national councilor, and from 2010 to 2011, the local secretary of training for the PAN in San Felipe, and a delegate and teacher for the

Secretariat of Public Education In Mexico, the Secretariat of Public Education ( in Spanish ''Secretaría de Educación Pública'', ''SEP'') is a federal government authority with cabinet representation and the responsibility for overseeing the development and implementation o ...

(SEP). In 2013, Díaz Mena was said to have temporarily disappeared after a controversy erupted over his being given a high-level educational position without having applied for it. Díaz Mena mounted a bid for

governor of Yucatán The governor of the State of Yucatan is the head of the executive branch of the Mexican state of Yucatán, elected to a six-year-term and not eligible for reelection. The figure of the governor is established on the Constitution of the State of Y ...

as the PAN candidate in 2012, but ultimately lost to the PRI candidate,

Rolando Zapata Bello Rolando Rodrigo Zapata Bello (born 11 August 1968) is a Mexican politician and lawyer affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as governor of Yucatán from 2012 to 2018. He previously served as a federal deputy in ...

. In 2015, Díaz Mena returned to

San Lázaro San Lázaro is a town in the Concepción department of Paraguay. Located 660 km from Asunción and 190 km from departmental capital Concepción, its population was 9060 in 2002. Located at the confluence of rivers Paraguay and Apa. Th ...

, this time as a proportional representation deputy from the third region. He was the secretary of the Indigenous Matters and South/Southeastern Border Matters Commissions and also served on the Public Education and Educational Services Commission. He briefly left the Chamber of Deputies in February 2016 after coming down with type A influenza, though he initially had feared he had contracted the zika virus.

Party switch to Morena and gubernatorial candidacies

On 5 March 2018, Díaz Mena announced his resignation from the PAN and that he would become a member of

(Morena), declaring that the state party had become a "rich kids' club" and calling out party leaders for leading the "decomposition" of the institution, saying that if the party's founders came back to life, they would be disappointed at its current state. Twelve days later, Morena and the other parties in the

Juntos Haremos Historia Juntos Haremos Historia () was a Mexican political coalition encompassing the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), Labor Party (Mexico), Labor Party (PT), and Social Encounter Party (PES), the latter of which was consequently absorbed into th ...

coalition nominated Díaz Mena as their gubernatorial candidate. On election day, Díaz Mena pulled 20.45 percent of the vote, placing third behind PRI candidate Mauricio Sahuí Rivero and the winner, PAN candidate

Mauricio Vila Dosal Mauricio Vila Dosal (born March 30, 1980, in Merida, México) is a Mexican politician who served as Governor of Yucatán from 2018 to 2024. Prior to this, he was the Mayor of Mérida. Biography He is a law graduate of the Universidad Mar ...

. Díaz Mena contended again for the governorship of Yucatán in the 2 June 2024 election, representing the Morena-led ''

Sigamos Haciendo Historia Sigamos Haciendo Historia () is a centre-left to left-wing, catch-all Mexican electoral coalition formed by the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), the Labor Party (PT), and the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM) for the 2024 Mexica ...

'' coalition. This time he won.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diaz Mena, Joaquin 1974 births Living people Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Mexico) for Yucatán Deputies of the LX Legislature of Mexico Deputies of the LXIII Legislature of Mexico Members of the Congress of Yucatán Municipal presidents in Yucatán (state) Morena (political party) politicians Instituto Tecnológico de Mérida alumni Anahuac Mayab University alumni National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni Governors of Yucatán (state)