Twenty-seven PRI members have governed the state of Hidalgo since April 1, 1929, when Bartolomé Vargas Lugo took office as the fifteenth constitutional governor, up to Omar Fayad Meneses, who is the thirty-third as of September 5, 2016.
Of the 27, 19 have been constitutional governors, three interim, two substitutes, two substitutes and one provisional.
Fayad could be the last of Hidalgo’s PRI leaders if the candidate for Morena wins the governorship in the election to be held on June 5 of next year. If the PRI and the parties that accompany it in that electoral process do not nominate a candidate who is capable of obtaining the majority of the votes, it is almost certain that a Morenista will take over the government on September 5.
And it will not be easy for this candidate to emerge from the previously invincible and monopoly political party if one takes into account that both Fayad and the national president of the PRI, Alejandro Moreno, intend to impose their favorites without seeming to care much about what the PRI Hidalgo say.
On the one hand, there is the one that Alito Moreno wants to impose: Carolina Viggiano Austria, 59, who in addition to being the wife of the former governor of Coahuila and current coordinator of the PRI federal deputies, Rubén Moreira Valdés, has developed a broad career inside and outside of Hidalgo. She has been a federal deputy three times and a local one. She was general director of the National Council for Educational Development and in her state she was twice secretary of Planning and Regional Development, secretary of Social Development and president of the Superior Court of Justice. Today in the PRI she is the general secretary of the CEN and previously she was the general secretary of the PRI of Hidalgo, general coordinator of the campaign for governor of Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, general coordinator with the Civil Society of the presidential campaign of Enrique Peña Nieto and Legal Secretary and Transparency of the CEN.
On the other side is the one that Fayad Menses wants to impose: Israel Félix Soto, 40, who since December 2020 is the municipal president of Mineral de la Reforma, the second most populated municipality in the state after Pachuca. Before, he was the private secretary of Fayad when he was municipal president of Pachuca, federal deputy and senator. Then, from 2016 to 2019 he was secretary of Public Policy of the state government.
In case Moreno or Fayad do not agree, in Pachuca there are those who mention that the candidate for unity could be Cesáreo Márquez Alvarado, 64, who is, for the second time, municipal president of Tulancingo, the third most populated municipality of the state. Before he was a federal deputy, he held various positions in the PRI and in the government of Hidalgo. He founded the Grupo Mayol yarn company in 1989 and chaired it until 2015 to dedicate himself fully to political activities.
The decision made by the PRI will depend on whether its candidate for governor of Hidalgo wins what from now on is seen as a very difficult competition. Fayad and Moreno must decide how best suits their party and forget about their personal preferences. I don’t think they want the PRI to lose power after 93 years.
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