Background
José López Portillo was born in Mexico on 16 June 1920.
government official politician president
José López Portillo was born in Mexico on 16 June 1920.
He graduated from a public primary school and in 1937 from the National Preparatory School. He received a law degree from the University of Santiago, Chile, in 1945, and a second one from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1946, where he immediately became a part-time professor of law until 1958.
López Portillo launched his career in government as administrative assistant to the executive administrator of the Ministry of National Properties in 1959. He became assistant minister of the presidency during 1968-1970, then assistant director of government properties during 1970-1972, and finally director general of the Federal Electric Commission during 1972-1973. President Luis Echeverría appointed him minister of finance and public credit in 1973. The two had been close friends since the sixth grade in primary school.
After leaving the presidency, López Portillo traveled abroad, living in luxury in Europe and avoiding news interviews completely.
He was one of the founders of the Ph.D. program in public administration at the university in 1950.
During his presidential term López Portillo’s administration developed a National Development Plan that divided Mexico into 11 zones, in an attempt to decentralize industry. Under the plan, tax credits were given to investors who opened plants away from the three largest metro areas of the republic. During his administration Mexico became the world’s fourth largest exporter of petroleum.
Just before leaving office, López Portillo expropriated all private banks in Mexico and drastically devalued the peso. Post-auditing of the petroleum operations by President Miguel de la Madrid’s attorney general in early 1983 brought charges of vast embezzlement of government income by López Portillo’s close associate, Jorge Diaz Serrano, his director general of Pemex, the government oil firm. López Portillo himself entered the presidency as a professional man moderately well off; his conspicuous wealth after leaving office could not be explained in terms of his presidential salary and his known assets in 1976.
