Zedillo Ponce de León, << say DEE yoh PAWN say day lay OHN, >> Ernesto (1951-…), was president of Mexico from 1994 to 2000. A member of the powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), he succeeded Carlos Salinas de Gortari.
Shortly after Zedillo became president, Mexico faced a severe economic crisis. In response, Zedillo’s administration adopted an emergency economic plan that included a reduction in government spending and an increase in taxes. These measures, combined with an international aid package, helped the economy recover.
Zedillo also took a number of steps to reform Mexico’s political system. In 1999, for example, he ordered that a primary be held to select the PRI presidential candidate. It was the first time voters, rather than the current president, chose the candidate. Zedillo’s reforms helped make possible the presidential victory in 2000 of opposition candidate Vicente Fox Quesada. This victory ended the PRI’s 71-year rule of Mexico.
Zedillo was born on Dec. 27, 1951, in Mexico City. He graduated in 1972 from Mexico’s National Polytechnic Institute. He earned a Ph.D. degree in economics at Yale University in 1981. Upon returning to Mexico, he became an economist for Mexico’s central bank.
Zedillo was secretary of planning and budget from 1988 to 1992 and then became secretary of public education. He resigned that post in late 1993 to manage the campaign of Luis Donaldo Colosio, the PRI presidential candidate. Colosio was assassinated in March 1994, and Zedillo was named the new candidate.
