Augusto Rodin No. 498, Insurgentes Mixcoac, Benito Juárez, 03920 Del. Benito Juárez, CDMX, Mexico
The main Mixcoac campus of the Panamerican University where Enrique Peña Nieto received a Bachelor of Arts in legal studies in 1989.
Career
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2012
Moneda S/N, Santiago, Región Metropolitana, Chile
Enrique Peña Nieto with Chilean president Sebastian Piñera at Palacio de La Moneda in Santiago, Chile. Photo by Ignacio Iribarren/LatinContent.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2012
First St SE, Washington, DC 20004, United States
Enrique Peña Nieto (2nd left) shares a laugh with members of Congress (from left to right) Ruben Hinojosa, Xavier Becerra and Henry Cuellar in the Rayburn Room at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Photo by Chip Somodevilla.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2012
Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto as presidential candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) waves during his final campaign rally in Monterrey City in Mexico's state of Nuevo Leon. Photo by Daniel Aguilar.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2012
Atlacomulco, State of Mexico, Mexico
Peña Nieto with family in Atlacomulco on the election day.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2014
Plaza de la Constitución S/N, Centro Histórico de la Cdad. de México, Centro, Cuauhtémoc, 06066 Ciudad de México, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto gives a speech to announce new security strategy plans at Palacio Nacional in Mexico City, Mexico. Photo by Miguel Tovar/LatinContent.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2014
Toluca, Mexico
(From left to right) Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Enrique Peña Nieto and the 44th President of the United States Barack Obama during the North American Leaders Meeting at Cosmovitral. Photo by Miguel Tovar/LatinContent.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2014
Calle de Bailén, s/n, 28071 Madrid, Spain
(From left to right) Enrique Peña Nieto, his wife Angelica Rivera, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Prince Felipe of Spain and Princess Letizia of Spain attend a Gala Dinner in honour of Peña Nieto at The Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain. Photo by Abraham Carralero/Pool.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2014
Apostolic Palace, Vatican City, 00120 Vatican
Pope Francis meets Enrique Peña Nieto, first lady Angelica Rivera and their delegation at the Pontiff's private library in the Apostolic Palace. Photo by Vatican Pool.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2014
Plaza de la Constitución S/N, Centro Histórico de la Cdad. de México, Centro, Cuauhtémoc, 06066 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto and Miguel Herrera, coach of Mexico, during a Mexico National Team Farewell Ceremony at Palacio Nacional de la Ciudad de Mexico. Photo by Edgar Negrete/Clasos/LatinContent.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2015
Plaza de la Constitución S/N, Centro Histórico de la Cdad. de México, Centro, Cuauhtémoc, 06066 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto with then President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff at Palacio Nacional in Mexico City. Photo by Manuel Velasquez/LatinContent.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2015
Westminster, London SW1A 1AA, United Kingdom
Enrique Peña Nieto with Britain's Prince Andrew, Duke of York (left) during a business breakfast meeting at Buckingham Palace in London. Photo by Matt Dunham - WPA Pool.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2015
Westminster, London SW1A 1AA, United Kingdom
Enrique Peña Nieto and Queen Elizabeth II make a toast during a state banquet at Buckingham Palace in London, England. Photo by Dominic Lipinski - WPA Pool.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2015
Plaza de la Constitución S/N, Centro Histórico de la Cdad. de México, Centro, Cuauhtémoc, 06066 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, at Palacio Nacional for a meeting during an official visit of Erdogan to Mexico. Photo by Hector Vivas/LatinContent.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2015
Downing Street, London, United Kingdom
Then Prime Minister David Cameron (left) meets Enrique Peña Nieto at Downing Street, London. Photo by Peter Macdiarmid.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2015
Westminster, London SW1A 1AA, United Kingdom
Enrique Peña Nieto (right) and British Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats party Nick Clegg pose for the media at the start of their bilateral meeting at Buckingham Palace in London. Photo by Matt Dunham - WPA Pool.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2015
55 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, 75008 Paris, France
Enrique Peña Nieto with then French President François Hollande prior to a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris. Photo by Chesnot.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2016
Helsingor, Denmark
Danish Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Crown Princess Mary of Denmark greet Enrique Peña Nieto and his wife Angelica Rivera during a visit from the United Mexican States in Helsingor, Denmark. Photo by Luca Teuchmann/WireImage.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2016
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
Enrique Peña Nieto arrives at the White House for a meeting with then United States President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C. Photo by Mark Wilson.
Enrique Peña Nieto with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the West Lake State Guest House in Hangzhou, China. Photo by Wang Zhou - Pool.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2016
Av. Parque Lira S/N, Bosque de Chapultepec I Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11850 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto greets United States Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a meeting at Los Pinos in Mexico City. Photo by Hector Vivas/LatinContent.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2017
Calle de Tacuba 17, Centro Histórico de la Cdad. de México, Centro, Cuauhtémoc, 06000 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a meeting at an official visit of Merkel to Mexico at MIDE (Interactive Economic Museum). Photo by Miguel Tovar/LatinContent.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2017
Av. Parque Lira S/N, Bosque de Chapultepec I Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11850 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto gives a speech during a meeting as part of the official visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Mexico City at Residencia Oficial de Los Pinos in Mexico City. Photo by Hector Vivas.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2018
Carretera del Pardo, s/n, 28071 Madrid, Spain
Enrique Peña Nieto and his wife Angelica Rivera (far left) with King Felipe of Spain (2nd right) and Queen Letizia of Spain (far right) at Zarzuela Palace in Madrid. Photo by Europa Press/Europa Press.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2018
Plaza de la Constitución S/N, Centro Histórico de la Cdad. de México, Centro, Cuauhtémoc, 06010 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto waves a Mexican flag during the Mexico Independence Day Celebrations at Zocalo. Photo by Hector Vivas.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2018
Electrificación 2, Ampliación Daniel Garza, Bosque de Chapultepec I Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11840 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto after voting in polling station at Escuela Primaria El Pipila during the 2018 Presidential Elections in Mexico City. Photo by Alfredo Martinez.
Gallery of Enrique Nieto
2018
New York, NY 10017, United States
Enrique Peña Nieto addresses the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York City. Photo by Spencer Platt.
Achievements
Membership
Awards
Order of Isabella the Catholic
The Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, which Enrique Peña Nieto was awarded by King Juan Carlos I of Spain on June 6, 2014.
Order of the Sun of Peru
The Order of the Sun of Peru which Enrique Peña Nieto received from Ollanta Humala on July 17, 2014.
Order of the Quetzal
Enrique Peña Nieto was awarded the Grand Collar of the Order of the Quetzal by Otto Pérez Molina on March 13, 2015. Photo from the collection of German Federal Archives.
Order of the Southern Cross
Enrique Peña Nieto received the Grand Collar of the Order of the Southern Cross on May 26, 2015 from Dilma Rousseff.
Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Charles III
Enrique Peña Nieto received the Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Charles III on June 20, 2015, from King Felipe VI of Spain.
Collar of the Order of King Abdulaziz
Enrique Peña Nieto was awarded the Collar of the Order of King Abdulaziz by King Salman of Saudi Arabia on January 17, 2016.
Military Order of Saint James of the Sword
Enrique Peña Nieto was awarded the Grand Collar of the Military Order of Saint James of the Sword by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on July 17, 2017.
Collar of the Order of the Aztec Eagle
Enrique Peña Nieto received the Collar of the Order of the Aztec Eagle on December 1, 2012.
Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
The Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic which Enrique Peña Nieto received on June 21, 2016.
Most Honourable Order of the Bath
The Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath which Enrique Peña Nieto received in 2015.
Enrique Peña Nieto (2nd left) shares a laugh with members of Congress (from left to right) Ruben Hinojosa, Xavier Becerra and Henry Cuellar in the Rayburn Room at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Photo by Chip Somodevilla.
Enrique Peña Nieto as presidential candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) waves during his final campaign rally in Monterrey City in Mexico's state of Nuevo Leon. Photo by Daniel Aguilar.
Plaza de la Constitución S/N, Centro Histórico de la Cdad. de México, Centro, Cuauhtémoc, 06066 Ciudad de México, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto gives a speech to announce new security strategy plans at Palacio Nacional in Mexico City, Mexico. Photo by Miguel Tovar/LatinContent.
(From left to right) Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Enrique Peña Nieto and the 44th President of the United States Barack Obama during the North American Leaders Meeting at Cosmovitral. Photo by Miguel Tovar/LatinContent.
(From left to right) Enrique Peña Nieto, his wife Angelica Rivera, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Prince Felipe of Spain and Princess Letizia of Spain attend a Gala Dinner in honour of Peña Nieto at The Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain. Photo by Abraham Carralero/Pool.
Pope Francis meets Enrique Peña Nieto, first lady Angelica Rivera and their delegation at the Pontiff's private library in the Apostolic Palace. Photo by Vatican Pool.
Plaza de la Constitución S/N, Centro Histórico de la Cdad. de México, Centro, Cuauhtémoc, 06066 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto and Miguel Herrera, coach of Mexico, during a Mexico National Team Farewell Ceremony at Palacio Nacional de la Ciudad de Mexico. Photo by Edgar Negrete/Clasos/LatinContent.
Enrique Peña Nieto with Britain's Prince Andrew, Duke of York (left) during a business breakfast meeting at Buckingham Palace in London. Photo by Matt Dunham - WPA Pool.
Enrique Peña Nieto and Queen Elizabeth II make a toast during a state banquet at Buckingham Palace in London, England. Photo by Dominic Lipinski - WPA Pool.
Plaza de la Constitución S/N, Centro Histórico de la Cdad. de México, Centro, Cuauhtémoc, 06066 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, at Palacio Nacional for a meeting during an official visit of Erdogan to Mexico. Photo by Hector Vivas/LatinContent.
Enrique Peña Nieto (right) and British Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats party Nick Clegg pose for the media at the start of their bilateral meeting at Buckingham Palace in London. Photo by Matt Dunham - WPA Pool.
Danish Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Crown Princess Mary of Denmark greet Enrique Peña Nieto and his wife Angelica Rivera during a visit from the United Mexican States in Helsingor, Denmark. Photo by Luca Teuchmann/WireImage.
Av. Parque Lira S/N, Bosque de Chapultepec I Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11850 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto greets United States Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a meeting at Los Pinos in Mexico City. Photo by Hector Vivas/LatinContent.
Calle de Tacuba 17, Centro Histórico de la Cdad. de México, Centro, Cuauhtémoc, 06000 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a meeting at an official visit of Merkel to Mexico at MIDE (Interactive Economic Museum). Photo by Miguel Tovar/LatinContent.
Av. Parque Lira S/N, Bosque de Chapultepec I Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11850 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto gives a speech during a meeting as part of the official visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Mexico City at Residencia Oficial de Los Pinos in Mexico City. Photo by Hector Vivas.
Enrique Peña Nieto and his wife Angelica Rivera (far left) with King Felipe of Spain (2nd right) and Queen Letizia of Spain (far right) at Zarzuela Palace in Madrid. Photo by Europa Press/Europa Press.
Electrificación 2, Ampliación Daniel Garza, Bosque de Chapultepec I Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11840 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Enrique Peña Nieto after voting in polling station at Escuela Primaria El Pipila during the 2018 Presidential Elections in Mexico City. Photo by Alfredo Martinez.
Enrique Peña Nieto was awarded the Grand Collar of the Order of the Quetzal by Otto Pérez Molina on March 13, 2015. Photo from the collection of German Federal Archives.
Enrique Peña Nieto, sometimes referred to as EPN, is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Before serving as the 57th President of Mexico, from 2012 to 2018, he was Secretary of Administration and State Governor of the State of Mexico, and local deputy of the Congress of the State of Mexico.
Background
Enrique Peña Nieto was born on July 20, 1966, in Atlacomulco, State of Mexico, Mexico. He is the eldest child of four kids in a family of Gilberto Enrique Peña del Mazo, who served as an engineer with the national electric company, and María del Perpetuo Socorro Ofelia Nieto Sánchez, a schoolteacher. Mexican politicians Arturo Montiel and Alfredo del Mazo González, both former governors of the State of México, are his uncles.
Education
Enrique Peña Nieto first personally encountered the Mexican politics at the campaign rallies of the State of Mexico's governor, Jorge Jiménez Cantú, in 1975, where he was often taken by his father. Two years later, the family relocated to the city of Toluca, and in 1979, Peña Nieto was sent for one year to Denis Hall School in Alfred, Maine, United States, to study English.
Peña Nieto developed interest in politics from his childhood, and while at school, he already had a dream to become Governor of the State of Mexico one day. In 1981, the fifteen-year-old boy took part in the election campaign of his uncle, Alfredo del Mazo González, by spreading campaign literature to help him.
Three years later, Peña Nieto entered the Panamerican University in Mexico City from which he graduated in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in legal studies. In 1991, he earned a master's degree in Business Administration at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education), located in the State of Mexico.
Enrique Peña Nieto's first involvement in the political processes of his country, though circumstantial and partial, can be counted from his service in offices of his family's close friend, Jorge Jiménez Cantú, and then of his uncle Alfredo del Mazo González, during their governorship tenures of the State of Mexico.
Peña Nieto became a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 1984. From 1988 to 1990, he taught at a university. He quickly advanced within the Party and became active in politics of the State of Mexico. A variety of lower-level positions he occupied in the early 1990s, like a delegate to the Organization and Citizen Front and chief of staff for the nation's secretary of economic development, was followed by higher profile political appointments later in the decade and in the early 2000s, including the posts of secretary of administration (2000 - 2002) and state congressman (2003 - 2005). In 2005, Peña Nieto had success in the race for the post of governor of the State of Mexico and held it for the next six years.
Although Peña Nieto's political rivals doubted his ability to fulfill all the campaign promises, his six-year governorship received mainly positive appraisal. Benefiting from such popularity, Peña Nieto got involved into the presidential campaign of 2012. His promises of improving the country's economy and of the subsequent combat with drug-related criminals were endorsed by voters. He won the presidential race and was inaugurated on December 1, 2012.
Shortly after taking office, Peña Nieto initiated the Pact for Mexico which supposed the collaboration between the PRI, the PAN, and the PRD political parties under the program of a promised policy reform. The agreement led to congressional approval for a series of major initiatives affecting fiscal policy, public education, and the energy and telecommunications sectors. During the first two years of Peña Nieto's presidency, the automobile sector of the country was given more than $19 billion investment aimed to make the industry more accessible and attractive for such well known car giants as Audi, Kia and BMW.
As to the battle with the widespread drug cartels, special units that worked exclusively on missing persons cases were created at first. Despite this one and other measures taken to reinforce the country's security forces, the drug problem continued to undermine the inland stability. The disappearance of 43 Mexican students from a rural teachers college in Ayotzinapa after they had been seized by police and then turned over to a local drug gang, as well as the killing of 22 citizens by Mexican soldiers in 2013 were direct proofs. The events marked the beginning of the most-severe political crisis yet to confront the Peña Nieto administration.
The support for the ruling PRI dropped from 37 percent in 2009 to about 29 percent in the June 2015 election. However, the Party managed to keep the majority in the Chamber of Deputies due to its ally, the Mexican Green Ecologist Party (Partido Verde Ecologista de México, or PVEM). The ruined reputation of the President was restored for a while when head of the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, was captured by the Mexican marines in February 2014. Guzmán's escape from the maximum-security Altiplano prison near Toluca on the night of July 11 the next year blew Peña Nieto's administration again. Though the criminal was recaptured on January 8, 2016, by mid-year Peña Nieto's approval rating had dropped to levels not experienced by a Mexican President since the 1990s.
The shrinking ratings were aggravated by a series of other controversies. In August 2016, Enrique Peña Nieto was accused in alleged plagiarism found in his 1991 undergraduate law thesis, "Mexican Presidentialism and Alvaro Obregon," and in his 2012 book Mexico, La gran Esperanza (Mexico, the Great Hope). The controversial meeting with United States Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump who spoke about Mexican immigrants in a derogatory way and promised to build a wall at Mexico's expense to defend the Americans from them, added fuel to the political crisis of Peña Nieto.
The presidential elections in 2018 ended by the win of Peña Nieto's political opponent, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the National Regeneration Party. Peña Nieto's candidate from the governing party, José Antonio Meade Kuribreña, received only 15 percent of the vote.
(A Spanish edition of the book English title of which soun...)
2012
Politics
Enrique Peña Nieto joined the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1984.
Peña Nieto used the strategy of so called compromisos, public commitments or pledges, in both his governor and presidential campaigns. Building highways and creating better water systems were among his presidential pledges.
Peña Nieto's electoral victory in 2012 was largely questioned by his political rivals, including Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who charged the winner for general irregularities and vote buying. Unsatisfied with the recount of the votes which upheld Peña Nieto's victory, Obrador lodged a formal complaint calling for the election results to be invalidated because of the vote-buying allegations and alleged campaign spending violations by Peña Nieto and the PRI.
The politician summarized his views on the situation in Mexico in his 2012 book Mexico, La gran Esperanza (Mexico, the Great Hope). He has stated that the country should broaden its economic sector that would lead to the increase in jobs. He has also expressed his confidence in that the promotion of Pemex, Mexico's state-owned oil company, to the private sector would positively impact the wealth distribution in the country. As the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) stated, the number of jobs created in Mexico from December 2012 to June 2016 has reached more than two million. 86% of them were long-term and 14% were temporary.
As to one of the acute problems facing the country, drug-trafficking, Peña Nieto made emphasis on reduction of crimes, kidnappings, and extortions in contrast with the strategy of his predecessor, Felipe Calderón, aimed to eliminating of the country's most wanted drug dealers.
His plan on the reformation of public education approved at the beginning of his presidential term was aimed at bringing order to Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE), reexamining standards, centralizing the process for hiring, evaluating, promoting and motivating teachers, and eliminating corruption in the area.
The absence of Peña Nieto's public reactions on the offensive comments on the Mexican immigrants from United States presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016 caused a wave of discontent among the majority of Mexican citizens.
Personality
Enrique Peña Nieto has often been in awkward situations during public events. Forgetting Benito Juárez's year of birth, calling Hillary Clinton "La señora Hillary Trump" (Mrs. Hillary Trump) were among such kind of incidents, many of which have been largely discussed in social media.
Enrique Peña Nieto has been in frequent association with celebrities that served to increase his regular appearance in various media, not only in political context. One of Time Magazine's covers which positioned the politician as the author of social, political, and economic reforms extremely good for the country received strong criticism from the Mexican citizens.
Fluent in English, Enrique Peña Nieto has preferred to use Spanish in formal settings.
Connections
In 1994, Peña Nieto married Monica Pretelini Saenz. The couple had three children together and remained married until Saenz's death in 2007 from an epileptic episode. In January 2012, Peña Nieto revealed that he had fathered two extramarital children during his wedlock to his first wife, a son with Maritza Díaz Hernández, and a child who didn't survive infancy, with another woman.
In 2008, Peña Nieto hired an actress Angélica Rivera, famous for her performances in Televisa soap operas, to help him in the promotion of his political campaign for the State of Mexico. He started an affair with her, and they married four years later. The media had doubts about the validity of the wedlock as of 2015 supposing that it could be just a publicity stunt. Peña Nieto and Rivera divorced in 2019.
Peña Nieto had a political issue during the 2012 presidential election related to his support of the son he gave birth to with Hernández. The politician was accused by his opponent Josefina Vazquez Mota of not providing support for the child when Peña Nieto himself reassured otherwise.
Father:
Gilberto Enrique Peña del Mazo
Mother:
María del Perpetuo Socorro Ofelia Nieto Sánchez
late wife:
Mónica Pretelini Sáenz
ex wife:
Angélica Rivera
Uncle:
Arturo Montiel
Uncle:
Alfredo del Mazo González
Daughter:
Paulina Peña
Son:
Alejandro Peña
Daughter:
Nicole Peña
Son:
Diego Peña
References
Mexico in the Path of Development
Enrique de la Madrid examines Mexico's comparative advantages, its growth potential and the challenges of the internal reforms promoted by President Enrique Peña Nieto.