Ortiz Mena, Antonio (1907–2007)

Antonio Ortiz Mena, was a Mexican and international financial figure. As secretary of the treasury under two consecutive administrations (1958–1970), Ortiz Mena presided over the longest period of consistently high rates of economic growth in Mexico. He is regarded as the architect of the economic model, known as "stabilizing growth," that Mexico adopted during this period; leftist intellectuals see him as the true organizer of the new bourgeoisie. In 1963 and again in 1969 he was considered a possible candidate for the official Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) nomination for president.

Born on April 16, 1907, in Parral, Chihuahua, Ortiz Mena was a member of a third generation of important political figures, his grandfathers having been active in politics and his father treasurer of the Federal District. Ortiz Mena was the political disciple of President Adolfo Ruiz Cortines (1952–1958) and the uncle of President Carlos Salinas (1988–1994). He attended the National Preparatory School and the National School of Law, where, along with future president Miguel Alemán (1946–1952), he was a member of the distinguished Generation of 1925–1928. Early in his career he was associated with the Guanajuato political group, led by José Aguilar y Maya. Aided by his mentor in the 1930s, he held a number of minor positions in the federal bureaucracy before joining Ruiz Cortines's cabinet as director general of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (1952–1958). After leaving the treasury secretariat in 1970, he headed the Inter-American Development Bank from 1971 through 1988. In 1988 Salinas appointed him director general of Banamex, one of Mexico's largest banks, where he served until 1990. Ortiz Mena died in Mexico City on March 12, 2007.

See alsoEconomic Development; Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); Mexico: Since 1910; Ruiz Cortines, Adolfo; Salinas de Gortari, Carlos.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Raymond Vernon, The Dilemma of Mexico's Development (1963).

Roger D. Hansen, The Politics of Mexican Development (1971); Excélsior, 3 June 1984, 16.

Additional Bibliography

Ortiz Mena, Antonio. Development in Latin America, a View from the IDB: Addresses and Documents, 1971–75. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, 1975.

Ortiz Mena, Antonio. Development in Latin America, a View from the IDB: Addresses and Documents, 1976–80. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, 1985.

Ortiz Mena, Antonio. El desarrollo estabilizador: Reflexiones sobre una época. Mexico: Colegio de México, Fideicomiso Historia de las Américas, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1998.

                                           Roderic Ai Camp