Arturo Montiel | |
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Governor of the State of Mexico | |
In office September 16, 1999 – September 15, 2005 |
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Preceded by | César Camacho Quiroz |
Succeeded by | Enrique Peña Nieto |
Personal details | |
Born |
Arturo Montiel Rojas October 15, 1943 Atlacomulco, Mexico |
Nationality | Mexican |
Spouse(s) |
Paula Yáñez (divorced) Maude Versini Lancry (2002-2007) |
Children | Arturo Montiel Yáñez, Juan Pablo Montiel Yáñez, Sofía, Adrián, Alexi |
Occupation | Politician |
Paula Yáñez (divorced)
Arturo Montiel Rojas (born October 15, 1943 in Atlacomulco, State of México) is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He is a former governor of the State of México and a former federal deputy.
Montiel is the son of Gregorio Montiel Monroy and Delia Rojas García. He received bachelor's degrees in public administration and accountancy from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1970. He married Maude Versini Lancry in 2002, a French journalist 31 years younger than he was. They divorced in September 2007.
As a politician, he has been the mayor of Naucalpan and director of civil protection at the federal Ministry of the Interior. At the state level he has been secretary of economic development and has presided twice over the local branch of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
In 1999, during his gubernatorial campaign for the State of Mexico, he portrayed himself as a tough-on-crime candidate, using a series of radio spots in which he implied that criminals did not deserve human rights protection, saying "human rights are for humans, not for rats" ("rat" being common slang for "thief"). He won the election by simple majority and served from 1999 until 2005.
On August 4, 2005, he was elected as candidate of Unidad Democrática, a political group challenging former PRI leader Roberto Madrazo for the party's candidacy for the 2006 presidential election. However, in a press conference held on October 20, he announced that he would no longer seek his party's nomination because of accusations leveled against his family in the media, including his ownership of several luxury apartments and mansions in Mexico and France.