José Rafael Ojeda Durán (born 3 February 1954) is the Mexican Secretary of the Navy in the

Cabinet of Andrés Manuel López Obrador Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Fil ...

. He has worked in the Mexican Navy in various positions for 50 years. He is a member of the Mexican Legion of Honor.

Biography

José Rafael Ojeda Durán was born on 3 February 1954. Joining the Heroica Escuela Naval Militar (where he later served as a professor) in 1969, he later graduated as a

Guardiamarina In France, under the Ancien Régime, the Gardes de la Marine (Guards of the Navy), or Gardes-Marine were young gentlemen undergoing training to be naval officers. The training program was established by Cardinal Richelieu in 1670 and lasted until Ad ...

(Midshipman) in 1974. In the time after his graduation, he served in the Navy for 50 years on a variety of vessels, commands, and assorted offices. Among these: he led the Eighth Naval Region, Fourteenth Naval Region, Sixth Flotilla, Pacific Naval Force, Chief of Naval Operations, and was a Senior Naval Admiral. Durán was appointed to Secretariat of the Navy under the

presidential cabinet A cabinet is a body of high-ranking state officials, typically consisting of the executive branch's top leaders. Members of a cabinet are usually called cabinet ministers or secretaries. The function of a cabinet varies: in some countrie ...

of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, having prior served as a Inspector and General Comptroller of the Navy. He was appointed on 30 November 2018.

Controversy

Durán was criticized for not investigating the

Iguala mass kidnapping On September 26, 2014, forty-three male students disappeared from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College after being forcibly abducted in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. They were allegedly taken into custody by local police officers from Iguala a ...

when it was theorized that the 43 victims were incinerated by sailors operating in the Eighth Naval Region, which he had control over at the time.

Tropical Storm Hernan

In 2020, he announced a so-called 'Naval Plan' to help aid those affected by Tropical Storm Hernan. This program consisted of rescue operations, cleanup, and evacuations, conducted by 450 units of the Mexican Navy.

References

1954 births Living people Morena (political party) politicians 21st-century Mexican politicians Secretaries of the Navy (Mexico) Cabinet of Andrés Manuel López Obrador {{Mexico-politician-NationalRegeneration-stub