Marcelo Ebrard

Marcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubón (Mexico City, October 10, 1959) is a Mexican politician and internationalist. He is a member of the Morena party. He was Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico from December 1, 2018 until his resignation on June 12, 2023 during the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

He was Head of Government of the Federal District from December 5, 2006 to December 4, 2012, the first elected president of Mexico City to complete his six-year term, nominated by the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and was affiliated with this political institute until 2015, when he resigned. He was considered the best mayor in the world in 2010, in a survey carried out by the London foundation City Mayors. He was also president of the UN Global Network of Safer Cities from September 3, 2012 to February 3, 2014.

In July 2013 he founded an expression within the PRD which he called the Progressive Movement. In February 2014, Movimiento Progresista AC was established as a civil association, in order to open itself to citizens who do not belong to the PRD.

After various investigations against him, the suspension of a candidacy for an elective position by the Citizen Movement party and the controversy aroused by the suspension of operations of Line 12 of the Mexico City Metro, in 2015 Ebrard moved to France.

Biography

Marcelo Ebrard was born in Mexico City, he is of French origin, his grandparents and his family are of French descent and settled in Mexico. He is the eldest of seven siblings, one of whom died in November 2010. He studied primary and secondary school at Colegio Simón Bolívar, high school at La Salle University and a bachelor's degree in International Relations at Colegio de México, from which he graduated in 1984 with the thesis "Congress and democracy in Mexico". He also has a specialty in public administration, at ÉNA, École Nationale d'administration Paris, France.

First married to Francesca Lacy Ramos Morgan, who had been his companion as an international relations student during his time at the Colegio de México. He has three children from his first marriage. On July 8, 2006, Ebrard married for the second time with the actress, painter and sculptor, Mariagna Prats, whom he divorced on January 21, 2011. On October 7 of the same year, he now married the Honduran diplomat, Rosalinda Bueso.

On March 20, 2023, Ebrard published an autobiographical book titled "El Camino de México".

Political career

He began his political career as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). In 1981, Ebrard joined the Government of Mexico City in the Planning and Budget Secretariat. After the 1985 earthquake that devastated Mexico City (with a magnitude of 8.1 on the Richter scale) he participated in the Popular Housing Renewal Program. In 1987 he participated in the preparation and approval of the General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection. In 1989 he was General Director of the Department of the Federal District. From 1989 to 1992 he was appointed general secretary of the PRI in the Federal District. As such he was responsible for winning the elections for deputies, assembly members and senators without losing a single one of the 40 electoral districts of the Federal District.

From 1992 to 1993 he was Secretary General of the Government of the then Department of the Federal District, being responsible for political and governance affairs, where he led the following initiatives:

• Rezoning of informal street vendors.
• Reopening of important cultural spaces, such as Plaza Mexico and the National Auditorium.
• Increase of the metro network in 17 kilometers.
• Opening of three new general hospitals.
• Design of the strategy of peaceful negotiation and the implementation of the dialogue tables between the Federal Government of Mexico and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in Chiapas.

He was subsequently appointed Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1994 when Manuel Camacho Solís was Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

On October 13, 1995, Marcelo Ebrard resigned from the PRI and became an advisor to the National Council of Savers.

Federal representative

In 1997, Ebrard was elected external federal deputy for the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico, in the 57th Legislature of the Chamber of Deputies. Months later, in 1998, he resigned from a political institute to which he never belonged. From then on, he assumed himself as an independent deputy until his term ended in 2000.

During his stay in the Congress of the Union, he was one of the main advocates against Fobaproa, a financing fund whose objective was to rescue bankrupt banks, charged to the public treasury. According to him, Fobaproa was plagued by irregularities and cases of great corruption.

Creation and extinction of the PCD

Together with Manuel Camacho Solís, the former head of the Department of the Federal District, Marcelo Ebrard founded the Democratic Center Party, a centrist party that sought to expose nationalism and democracy as its main cards. The party participated in the 2000 elections with Camacho as a candidate for the presidency and Ebrard as a candidate for the government of the Federal District. Ebrard, who achieved some acceptance as a candidate, declined in March 2000 in favor of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, candidate of the PRD and the so-called Alliance for Mexico City (PRD/PT/Convergencia/PSN/PAS) in Mexico City., with which - according to Ebrard himself - there were the greatest coincidences.

AMLO government in Mexico City

From 2000 to 2002, he was part of the advisory council of the Head of Government of Mexico City, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

In 2002, he was appointed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador as Secretary of Public Security of the Federal District after the resignation of Leonel Godoy as head of this agency. During this period, crime and delinquency fell by 9.2%, reaching the lowest daily average in a decade. He launched the creation of new police groups, such as the Citizen Protection Program and the Cardholder Crime Protection Unit. During his administration, he retained the services of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as a security advisor.

On December 6, 2004, due to the violent events in Tláhuac where a mob lynched three federal police officers, Ebrard was removed from office by President Vicente Fox. He described this dismissal as a political decision taken away. by Vicente Fox.

In 2005 he was appointed Secretary of Social Development in the city by López Obrador, a position in which he responded to the needs of marginalized sectors of society, such as single mothers, the disabled and the elderly who, thanks to these new policies, they were able to have better medical care, educational opportunities and quality housing. The support that López Obrador gave to Ebrard raised opinions about the city ruler's predilection for the secretary's candidacy.

Candidate for Head of Government of the Federal District

In 2005, Ebrard received the support of part of the PRD - a party to which he had already joined - to run for the city government. He subsequently resigned from his position as Secretary of Social Development and began his pre-campaign. The other candidates for the position, Pablo Gómez, Jesús Ortega and Demetrio Sodi, criticized Ebrard's candidacy because - according to them - he did not represent the ideological principles of the party, a position to which the historical leader Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas adhered. But the reality is that by then, Ebrard was a big favorite among PRD supporters, so his opponents in the party - excluding Sodi, who resigned from the PRD - decided to unite and launch a common pre-candidacy. His detractors pointed out López Obrador's interference in his pre-candidacy. It could not be ignored that Ebrard was also the voters' favorite.

Finally, in December 2005, Ebrard won the PRD candidacy for the government of Mexico City over Jesús Ortega and was recognized as a candidate by the entire party. In his campaign he always claimed to be a follower of López Obrador's government program. In the elections of July 2, 2006, he competed against the PRI member Beatriz Paredes Rangel, against Demetrio Sodi, former PRD candidate for the PAN, against Alberto Cinta of Nueva Alianza, and against Gustavo Jiménez Pons of the Social Democratic and Peasant Alternative Party.

In his campaign he emphasized the need for López Obrador's victory at the national level to achieve greater achievements in the city. From the beginning of the race for the head of government, Ebrard was the clear favorite to triumph. The spot war between the PAN and the Coalition for the Good of All in the presidential election also carried over to the election for Head of Government of the Federal District, with a spot war between Ebrard and Demetrio Sodi.

In 2006, Marcelo Ebrard was elected Head of Government of Mexico City, with an advantage over his main opponent of more than 1 million votes.

According to the official results shown by the Electoral Institute of the Federal District, as well as the exit polls of private companies, Marcelo Ebrard was elected Head of Government of the Federal District, with 47% of the vote, above his main opponent, Demetrio Sodi, who would get 27%. Citizen participation in voting was 68%, among the highest in the country. With this victory, the Party of the Democratic Revolution remained the leading force in Mexico City for a third consecutive term.

Head of Government of Mexico City

Marcelo Ebrard assumed the Head of Government of the Federal District on December 5, 2006, before the plenary session of the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District.

Its social policy was a priority. He first continued the programs that Andrés Manuel López Obrador did at the time, but later expanded them. A new initiative was the Prepa Sí program, which is the granting of a scholarship for low-income students, with which it managed to reduce school dropouts in the city to 6% and raised the grade average. from 7.2 to 8.2.

On the other hand, it expanded alimony for older adults, so that it was a right of every resident of Mexico City who has turned 68 years of age and sent an Initiative to the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District, to elevate it to the rank of law.

Among their actions with the greatest impact on public opinion is the expropriation of properties and buildings that function as operational centers of crime, as has happened with a property in the Tepito neighborhood, supposedly a drug dealing center; a large area of the Iztapalapa delegation, notable for the sale of stolen car parts, and two more drug sales properties in Santa María la Rivera. Although a part of the business sector criticized these actions as an attack on private property - actions that received the support of the federal government - his initiative of domain forfeiture, as well as his introduction of video surveillance cameras, along with actions in favor of development social, helped reduce the crime rate in Mexico City by 11% compared to 2006. It also created a special intelligence unit against money laundering.

Marcelo Ebrard made significant changes to the Historic Center, returning it to the inhabitants of Mexico City and its visitors, by relocating street commerce since mid-2007. His action was classified among the press as a success of his government, since that informal traders had increased their numbers significantly in recent years. Some intellectual sectors criticized the decision of one of his departments to demolish historic buildings in the city's first square for the relocation of street vendors, although it had the endorsement of the National Institute of Anthropology and History. He also rehabilitated the Monument to the Revolution and the Alameda.

In the area of health, he built hospitals in Tláhuac, Iztapalapa and Ajusco Medio in Tlalpan and promoted the development of specialties that did not exist in the public health system of Mexico City.

During his mandate, he was recognized for his decisions in the fight against Climate Change, the construction of a mobility infrastructure, through the transformation of public transportation with the Ecobici system; the 350% expansion of the Metrobús system and the construction of Metro Line 12.

In 2009 he was named President of the World Council of Mayors for Climate Change and in 2010 he received the Best Mayor in the World Award from the City Mayors Foundation.

Marcelo Ebrard led the transformation of Mexico City into a City of Freedoms. He opened legal spaces to expand the representation of citizens. In addition to this effort, he recovered public space to create community, making the city safer. His conception of what a safe city should be was recognized by the United Nations. Marcelo Ebrard finished his term as Head of Government of Mexico City in December 2012 and was appointed by UN-Habitat as President of the Global Network of Safer Cities, a position he held until February 2014 after resigning to run. for the national presidency of the PRD.

In December 2009, at the international summit on climate change in Copenhagen, Marcelo Ebrard was elected President of the World Mayors Council on Climate Change. As President, he convened the Mayors Adaptation Forum [to climate change] in May 2010. On November 11, 2010, he convened the World Mayors Summit on Climate, launching the Carbon Cities Climate Registry.

In December 2010, the World Mayor Project recognized Marcelo Ebrard as the Best Mayor in the World, considering him as a liberal and pragmatist reformer who has not been afraid to challenge the orthodoxy of Mexico. He has defended women's rights and has become an internationally recognized advocate for environmental issues.

One of the initiatives of his administration was the construction of a new Mexico City Metro line. In December 2006, a few days after beginning his administration, he announced the possible construction of a new Metro line to meet the transportation demand south of Mexico City. On July 29, 2007, a survey called Green Consultation was applied, through which the population of Mexico City was asked their opinion on public transportation; water management; environment and define the route of Metro line 12. The survey proposed two possible routes: Iztapalapa-Acoxpa and Iztapalapa-Tláhuac. On August 7, 2007, the results of the survey were announced in which the Iztapalapa-Tláhuac route was chosen. On August 8, 2007, the project was officially presented to the population with the name Line 12: golden line, the Bicentennial line.

The construction of this means of transportation began on September 23, 2008, and was completed on October 30, 2012. The line was inaugurated by Ebrard and then-president Felipe Calderón in the last weeks of both of their administrations..

Marcelo Ebrard was the first head of Government of the Federal District to complete his six-year term as governor, beginning on December 5, 2006 and ending on December 5, 2012.

2012 Presidential Elections

On March 30, 2010, Marcelo Ebrard publicly announced his intention to run for his party's candidacy for the Presidency of Mexico in 2012; As a pre-campaign platform he founded his Progressive Vanguard movement. On June 11, 2011, Jesús Ortega's PRD movement Nueva Izquierda , also known as Los Chuchos , named him as his party's pre-candidate for the Presidency of Mexico. On the other hand, the National Democratic Left current, led by Dolores Padierna Luna, spoke out in favor of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

On November 15, 2011, it was announced that the method to select a candidate for the Presidency in 2012 would be a series of surveys, which gave Andrés Manuel López Obrador as the winner, so Ebrard refused to compete for the 2012 candidacy. Andrés Manuel López Obrador included him in his cabinet proposal to occupy the position of Secretary of the Interior if he won the presidential elections of that same year where Enrique Peña Nieto was elected President of Mexico for the 2012 period. -2018.

2015 federal election

After resigning from the Party of the Democratic Revolution, he was nominated as a candidate for proportional representation by the Citizen Movement Party for the 2015 federal elections, and at the beginning of May of that same year, the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation revoked his candidacy.

Secretary of Foreign Affairs

Ebrard was part of López Obrador's 2018 campaign team, responsible for engagement in the northwestern states of Mexico. After López Obrador won in the 2018 federal election, Ebrard was announced as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, replacing Héctor Vasconcelos, who instead would become senator.

On June 17, 2021, Ebrard announced Mexico's participation in Expo 2020 in Dubai, and on March 29, 2022, he visited the Mexican pavilion as part of a work tour of the Middle East region.

On June 12, 2023, he resigned from the secretariat to compete for the presidential candidacy for the Morena party, he was replaced by Alicia Bárcena Ibarra.

Controversies

Dismissal for lynchings in Tláhuac

On December 7, 2004, he was removed from his position as Secretary of Public Security of the Federal District by Vicente Fox, after the lynching of federal police in San Juan Ixtayopan, Tláhuac, southeast of Mexico City. Current legislation allowed the president of Mexico to carry out said action, notified to Vicente Fox Quesada. The action was described by Ebrard as "partial and arbitrary".

Distance to Felipe Calderón

Marcelo Ebrard is the only ruler of a Mexican federal entity that did not recognize the government of President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa as legitimate, after the controversial elections of July 2, 2006, which is why he rejected any personal meeting with the president, but never denying institutional contact between both governments.

At the beginning of 2009, the first approach took place between Calderón and Ebrard, during the Security Council meetings due to the influenza outbreak. And it was not until September 1 of the same year that the meeting took place. most ostentatious public, when Ebrard attended Calderón's third government report. However, there was no physical meeting in front of the public.

It was until 2012, when Ebrard Casaubón and Calderón Hinojosa put aside their differences, when the former invited the latter to the inauguration of Metro Line 12, held on October 30 of the same year; Calderón attended said event and together with Marcelo Ebrard, they began the activities of said public transport.

Radio and television signal

On January 9, 2007, he made public the request to be granted a television channel to Mexico City; In addition to restoring the frequency modulated radio signal, which they have had since 1967, but which since 1983 has been administered by the Mexican Radio Institute, 105.7 FM. And although the Federal District is the only entity that does not have its own signal, the legislators of the PAN and the PRI expressed their rejection, assuming that the capital government could use the signal for political promotion purposes. For its part, the Federal Telecommunications Commission reported that it is difficult to grant a permit for the Government of the Federal District to operate a television channel and a radio station.

Posture towards abortion

In March and April 2007, he was involved in criticism from the Church and some Catholic sectors for his support of the decision of the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District to decriminalize abortion up to twelve weeks of pregnancy, and his refusal to annul, as some Christian groups demanded, the law that removes punishment for women who abort in the Federal District. Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico, harshly criticized the head of government, accusing him of being a "dictator," and unleashed a rumor that Ebrard was facing an excommunication process, but later Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, Primate Archbishop of Mexico, rejected it. To this Ebrard commented "The warning of excommunication does not keep me awake", rejecting the interference of religious leaders in the secular state.

In mid-2007, the Attorney General's Office and the National Human Rights Commission promoted a constitutional controversy against the reform that legalized abortion in Mexico City. On August 28, 2008, the Supreme The Nation's Court of Justice declared the constitutionality of the law that decriminalized the interruption of pregnancy during the first 12 weeks of gestation.

New's Divine

The matter refers to the Tragedy of the New's Divine nightclub where on June 20, 2008, 12 people died – 9 young people and 3 police officers – in the midst of a failed police operation commanded by the Ministry of Public Security of the Federal District. Given the facts, the National Action Party asked him to evaluate the performance of his Secretary of Public Security, Joel Ortega Cuevas and, based on this, request President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa to remove him from office. On July 8 In 2008, Joel Ortega and the Attorney General of Justice, Rodolfo Félix Cárdenas, resigned from their positions.

Line 12 of the Mexico City Metro

In 2013, various irregularities in the construction and commissioning of metro line 12 were made public. Among what was mentioned was a probable direct award of the purchase of wagons to the CAF company, the improper construction with curves outside the norm that caused serious failures in the elevated section of the line, increasing the possibilities of derailment of the trains. Between 2013 and 2014, various emergency measures were taken to try to alleviate the situation, leading to a partial closure of the line on March 11, 2014.

On March 18, 2014, the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District created a commission to determine the causes that originated the failures. This commission was made up of 15 deputies from all political factions and was chaired by deputy Jorge Gaviño Ambriz of the Nueva Alianza party.

In the Mexican Chamber of Deputies, a Special Commission on Metro Line 12 was formed, in order to carry out its own investigations. The presentation of the report, carried out on February 1, 2015, was characterized by controversy. While Ebrard accused the PRI deputies of not letting him speak, some of these legislators and the PAN reproached Ebrard for his allegedly violent attitude. and that he arrived at the legislative precinct "without notice".

On June 1, 2015, the then PRD candidate for federal deputy for district 27 in Tláhuac, Crescencio Morales Ávila, criminally denounced Ebrard for different aspects related to line 12, among them, alleged effects on ejido lands and an alleged undue increase in the original cost of the line from 15 thousand to 25 billion pesos. The complaint was supported by 65 thousand signatures.

Marcelo Ebrard denied the accusations and attributed the line's failures to the CAF company and said that the actions against him on line 12 had "a political intention."

Ebrard's name was finally removed from the second and last report of the Special Commission for Monitoring the Exercise of Federal Resources that are or have been allocated to Metro Line 12 of the Chamber of Deputies.

Distinctions and recognitions

• Recognition as an honorary citizen of the city of Seoul for his contribution to strengthening the relationship between South Korea and Mexico.

• EarthX Latin America Awardgranted by the organization EarthX in the framework of the day of the earth, for its long career in favor of the environment and against climate change.

• Recognition as “Person of the Year” in 2022, granted by the organization Arms Control Associationfor their contribution to the fight against illicit arms trafficking and for actions that contribute to the security of Mexicans.

• Recognition as “Best Mayor of the World” in 2010, awarded by the Foundation City Mayors.

• Legion of Honor “Mariscal Andrés de Santa Cruz y Calahumana” in the Grade of Gran Cruz, granted by the Plurinational State of Bolivia, for their actions that helped preserve democracy in the country.
• International Recognition Norman E. Borlaug, granted by International Centre for Maize and Trigo Improvement, for its diplomatic management in favour of food security in the world.

• Order of Orange-Nassau of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, for “your excellent job as mayor of Mexico City.”

• Honorary doctorate granted by the National Institute of Public Administration for “being a relevant actor in the decision-making of our country whose contribution and work has strengthened our institutions.”

• Humanitarian Prize Joe Kiani awarded by Patient Safety Movement Foundation for its management to “save thousands of lives” during the covid-19 pandemic.