Francisco Javier Ramírez Acuña
Francisco Javier Ramírez Acuña (Jamay, Jalisco; April 22, 1952) is a Mexican politician, member of the National Action Party. He has been municipal president of Guadalajara (1997-2000), Governor of Jalisco from 2001 to 2006 and between December 1, 2006 and January 15, 2008, date on which he resigned from office, Secretary of the Interior in the government of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa. He was elected federal deputy for District X of Jalisco to the LXI Legislature, President of the Chamber of Deputies from 2009 to 2010 and Coordinator of the PAN faction since September 2011.
Political career
Francisco Ramírez Acuña has a law degree from the University of Guadalajara, he joined the PAN in 1969 where he has held positions as youth leader, member of the state committee and general secretary of the same, candidate for local and federal deputy and municipal president of Guadalajara. He ran for the presidency of Zapopan and remained as a Panista councilor.
On two occasions he was a deputy to the Congress of Jalisco, the first in 1973, becoming at that time the youngest deputy in the history of Jalisco, the second he became Coordinator of his faction (1979). After representing him before the electoral body, upon arriving at the Government of Jalisco, Governor Alberto Cárdenas Jiménez appointed him director of SISTECOZOME, the collective transportation corporation of the Metropolitan Zone of Guadalajara, he left the position in 1997 to be the PAN candidate for mayor. from Guadalajara, where he won and held office from 1998 to 2000, when he left it to be a candidate for governor of Jalisco.
In the 2000 elections he competed against the PRI candidate, Jorge Arana Arana, winning by a very small margin (2%), he began his government on March 1, 2001. His government work was characterized by promotion of infrastructure works, highlighting the Guadalajara-Puerto Vallarta regional highway, the southern entrances (Av. López Mateos) and the east (Revolution Node), the rescue and restoration of the Los Guachimontones archaeological zone, in Teuchitlán, was promoted and the municipalities of museums, libraries and houses of culture. The modernization of the Tepatitlán–Arandas section, and through PACE he carried out works such as sidewalks, bridges and civic squares in the municipalities. Jalisco managed to be the state of the republic that had the most projects from the 3X1 federal program in which countrymen living in the USA invested.
He had important educational works. By building a University or Technological Institute in each of the 12 regions of the state and opening its doors the Trompo Mágico Interactive Museum, the first museum in Latin America with the fourth generation category.
The Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Human Development, the Jalisciense Women's Institute and the Jalisciense Youth Institute were created. In addition, a firm defense of Lake Chapala was carried out before the federation and states of the basin, demanding compliance with the agreements and transfers that allowed it to ensure its survival.
During the entire six-year term, Jalisco continued to be a sports champion, triumphing year after year in the national children's and youth Olympics, and it also won the venue for the Guadalajara 2011 Pan American Games. Jalisco maintained leadership in the production of electronics and telecommunications, milk, eggs, fodder corn, chicken meat, pigs, jewelry and women's footwear.
The regionalization program was consolidated, allowing strategic resources, actions and works to be directed, including the construction of landfills, provision of ambulances, creation of fixed and other mobile Public Ministry agencies, as well as Comprehensive Regional Justice Centers and the construction of the Forensic Sciences building.
One year after beginning his administration, on May 4, 2002, state, federal and municipal public security forces broke into a rave that was taking place in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga in search of drugs. In the raid, nearly 1,500 young people were forced to lie on the ground at gunpoint, where they remained for three hours. The result of the search was 348 pills and 620 grams of marijuana. After the incident, 60 people filed a complaint with the State Human Rights Commission. An investigation was never opened to determine responsibilities for the violation of human rights.
During his government, the summit of heads of state and government of Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union took place in Guadalajara in May 2004, during which violent demonstrations by anti-globalization groups occurred in Guadalajara - destroying furniture urban, commercial displays, painting in the oldest colonial temples of that city and severely attacking police officers equipped with anti-riot equipment - against the summit, the public force severely repressed these demonstrations, according to various versions incurring violations of human rights, for which has been accused by Amnesty International and by the National Human Rights Commission of Mexico of being responsible, as Governor of Jalisco, for making decisions that led to unjustified arrests, injuries and cases of torture against participants in said demonstrations.. "They only took into account the statements of the globaliphobes, without listening to the reasons of the public security forces, since they warned days before that they were coming to burn down Guadalajara,", said Ramírez Acuña. The most important private initiative organizations celebrated his appointment as Secretary of the Interior, due to his reputation for being tough and strict adherence to the law. However, the FRA government did not stand out as a government that respected human rights institutions, showing its total repudiation. In a statement made by the FRA, it declared “It is better that they investigate this Human Rights Commission, which is a useless institute, that he just goes around chasing good people” .
Considered who at the time "uncovered" to Felipe Calderón as a presidential candidate, to a call for attention from President Fox for this fact, he responded with the phrase: "Only the people of Jalisco scold me." As a public official he is distinguished for being the strong man of PANism in Jalisco, his native state and the orchestrator of the resurgence of the so-called “traditional PANistas” in that place. He requested leave as governor of Jalisco three months before the end of his term to be appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa.
On January 15, 2008, he resigned from the position of Secretary of the Interior, being replaced by Juan Camilo Mouriño, until then Head of the Office of the Presidency.