Enrique Peña Nieto
Enrique Peña Nieto is the current president of Mexico. He was born July 20, 1966, in Atlacomulco, Mexico. The 50-year-old politician was elected president in 2012, having previously served as Mexico’s governor from 2005-2011.
The son of an engineer father and a school teacher mother, he grew up as the oldest of four children. He holds a law degree from Mexico City’s Universidad Panamericana. He earned his M.B.A. from Monterrey Technological Institute.
Pena Nieto is a former college professor who joined Mexico’s political party, PRI or Institutional Revolutionary Party.
He began his career in politics working for his father’s cousin, Alfredo del Mazo González –who at the time served as governor of the State of Mexico. Peña Nieto worked various lower-level positions. Beginning in the late ’90s and into the early 2000s, Peña Nieto assumed higher profile political appointments, allowing him to forge important relationships with important leaders.
He then went onto become secretary of administration (2000–02) and state congressman (2003–04).
In the race for governor for the State of Mexico, he attracted voters with an agenda that was built around his more than 600 promises he pledged to execute, from building highways to creating better water systems. Voters supported him and on February 12, 2005, he was sworn in as governor.
His time as governor are credited as successful which would later help him to become a national figure.
The Mexican leader ran for office in 2012, on a vow to end drug wars and revitalize the economy. He took office on December 1, 2012. Despite his many promises, his administration has been highly criticized due to corruption scandals, continued violence and weak economic growth.
Whether Pena Nieto is a good or bad president, is up for debate; but what also has kept him in the eye of the media is his personal life. He has been married twice and is the father of four children.
Wives
In 1994, Peña Nieto married Monica Pena Nieto. The couple had three children together and remained married until her death in 2007 from an epileptic episode.
Monica Pretelini Saenz was born November 29, 1962. She died January 11, 2007. She and Pena Nieto met at a restaurant. At the time he was treasurer of the party’s financial committee and she was president of the Colonos association of the Tecamachalco.
They dated for about eight months and were married on February 12, 1994. According to Mexican outlets Monica was a strong character woman who always supported her husband’s political career.
In January 2012, Peña Nieto revealed that he had fathered two children out of wedlock during his marriage to Monica, cheating on her not once but twice.
He fathered a son with Maritza Díaz Hernández (pictured above). His other child from an illegitimate relationship allegedly died as an infant.
In 2010 he married Angélica Rivera, a famous soap actress on Televisa, Mexico’s largest TV network.
Angelica Rivera Hurtado was born August 2, 1969. The current fist lady of Mexico gained national fame as a singer, actress and model.
Rivera’s work includes some of the most iconic soap operas in Mexican history. The Mexican native has been married twice.
She is the mother of three children from her marriage to Mexican producer, Jose Alberto Castro. The former couple welcomed three daughters: Angelica sofia, Fernanda and Regina. She and Castro married in 1994 and divorced in 2008.
She and Pena Nieto were married in 2010, at the time he was the city’s governor. Shortly after their marriage, Rivera announced her retirement from the artistic world to ‘focus on her home and children.’
She and Pena Nieto do not have any children of their own.
Children
Paulina, Alejandro and Nicole are the children Pena Nieto has from his marriage to late first wife, Monica Pretelini.
Diego Pena Diaz, is the son he and Maritza Diaz Hernandez produced from their forbidden relationship.
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