Marco Antonio Mena Rodríguez (born 1969) is a Mexican politician from the

Institutional Revolutionary Party The Institutional Revolutionary Party (, , PRI) is a List of political parties in Mexico, political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 as the National Revolutionary Party (, PNR), then as the Party of the Mexican Revolution (, PRM) and fin ...

Governor of Tlaxcala The governor of Tlaxcala is the position representing the complete executive power of the government of the Mexico, Mexican state of Tlaxcala, per the Political Constitution of the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala. The governor is elected fo ...

from January 2017 to August 2021. He won the 2016 gubernatorial elections after previously serving in several administrative positions as well as being a deputy to the state congress.

Life

Mena Rodríguez was born in Tlaxcala to two primary school teachers. He received his undergraduate degree in administration from the Colegio de México, as well as a master's degree in public policy from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

; he was the first Mexican to be admitted to the latter program and received a Fulbright-García Robles scholarship to study there. His first position in civil service was with the

SEDESOL The Secretariat of Welfare ( Spanish: ''Secretaría de Bienestar'') is the government department in charge of social development efforts in Mexico. The Secretary of Welfare is a member of the Executive Cabinet, and is appointed at the discretion ...

, where he championed technical collaboration agreements with various states; during this time, he also was a national delegate from Mexico to the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...

on two occasions in 2001. He later served as the coordinator of advisers to the president of the

Federal Electoral Institute The Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE) (Spanish for ''National Electoral Institute'') (formerly Federal Electoral Institute) (, IFE) is an autonomous, public agency responsible for organizing federal elections in Mexico, that is, those relat ...

, during which time he observed presidential elections in Ecuador and made a presentation on the Mexican elections of 2006 to the

Venice Commission The Venice Commission, officially European Commission for Democracy through Law, is an advisory body of the Council of Europe, composed of independent experts in the field of constitutional law. It was created in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin ...

; worked for the IMSS as a liaison with social and business organizations; and as the state secretary of tourism. In 2013, voters in the first local district of Tlaxcala, which included the capital city, elected Mena Rodríguez to the state congress. In his term as a state deputy, he promoted initiatives that brought state law into harmony with new federal educational and political reforms, including the reduction of the Tlaxcala state congress from 32 to 25 deputies. From January 25 to December 1, 2015, he served as president of the PRI in the state, replacing Ricardo García Portilla, who successfully pursued a seat in the federal Chamber of Deputies.

Gubernatorial elections

On January 6, 2016, the PRI unanimously selected Mena to be its gubernatorial candidate in Tlaxcala. His campaign was joined by the PVEM, Nueva Alianza and the Socialist Party in Tlaxcala. With 189,499 votes (13,000 more than the PRD candidate), Tlaxcala voters elected Mena governor on June 5.

Personal life

Marco is married to Sandra Chávez Ruelas, and has two twins, Constanza and Claudio Antonio.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mena Rodriguez, Marco Antonio Living people 1969 births 21st-century Mexican politicians Institutional Revolutionary Party politicians Governors of Tlaxcala El Colegio de México alumni University of Chicago alumni Politicians from Tlaxcala 20th-century Mexican educators 21st-century Mexican educators