Miguel Ángel Yunes Márquez (born 4 May 1976) is a Mexican politician. In the 2024 general election he was elected to the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

for the state of

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

. Formerly affiliated with the National Action Party (PAN), he was expelled on 11 September 2024 for voting against the party line in a crucial Senate vote for the 2024 Mexican judicial reform, with the PAN accusing him of "betraying the country".

Political career

Yunes Márquez was born in Xalapa, Veracruz, in 1976. He studied business management at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

in the United States. He was elected to the Congress of Veracruz for the 2004–2007 session and served two terms (2008–2010 and 2014–2017) as

municipal president A ''presidente municipal'' ( English: "municipal president") is the chief of government of municipios in Mexico. This title was also used in the Philippines during the Spanish and American colonial periods; it is comparable to a mayor of the tow ...

of Boca del Río, Veracruz. In 2018 he ran for governor of Veracruz for a PAN-led coalition but was defeated by Cuitláhuac García of 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). In 2021 he filed to contend for the municipal presidency of

but his candidacy was ruled invalid for failing to meet the three-year residency requirement. He ran for the

in the 2024 election as the lead candidate of the ''

Fuerza y Corazón por México Fuerza y Corazón por México (), previously called the Broad Front for Mexico (), was a big tent political coalition formed by three Mexican political parties: the conservative National Action Party (PAN), the catch-all Institutional Revolutio ...

'' coalition (PAN, PRI and PRD) and was elected as Veracruz's third ("first minority") senator for the 66th and 67th sessions 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 ...

(2024–2030). On 10 September 2024, as the Senate was preparing to discuss the controversial 2024 judicial reform bill, Yunes Márquez requested temporary leave from his seat on health grounds. His alternate, his father Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares, was sworn in for the duration of his absence. Later the same day, however, Yunes Márquez returned to his seat and announced that he would break with his party and vote for the reform package. In response, both father and son were expelled from the PAN the following day "for betraying the country with their vote". Before the vote, he was investigated of the alleged crimes of using false documents, falsehood before the authorities, and procedural fraud during the 2021 local elections. He had an arrest warrant in Mexico, and the Mexican Attorney General requested an extradition order to the United States. The arrest warrant was canceled the day before the vote following an urgent hearing. At the end of September 2024, he was appointed head of the Energy Commission of the Senate of the Republic. He was named President of the Finance Committee in the Senate in February 2025. He joined Morena the next week.

Personal life

Yunes Márquez is the son of Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares, who was governor of Veracruz from 2016 to 2018. In 2007 he married , with whom he has three children and who replaced him in his thwarted 2021 bid for the municipal presidency of Veracruz and ultimately won the election. His brother, Fernando Yunes Márquez, has been a senator and the municipal president of Veracruz. His cousin José Francisco Yunes Zorrilla was also a candidate in the 2018 gubernatorial election.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yunes Marquez, Miguel Angel 1976 births Living people Politicians from Xalapa Members of the Senate of the Republic (Mexico) for Veracruz Members of the Congress of Veracruz Municipal presidents in Veracruz University of Miami alumni Morena (political party) politicians