In March of this year, Leonel Cota Montaño left his position at Mexican Food Security (Segalmex) to join the team of Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, at that time Morena’s presidential candidate.
In the video in which he announced his resignation, Cota thanked President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and all the workers of Liconsa, Diconsa and Segalmex.
At that time, Sheinbaum Pardo chose Cota to lead her team in Jalisco.
Montaño took over the reins of Segalmex in April 2022, when the agency was already under investigation for corruption cases.
Cota was born in Santiago, Baja California Sur. He holds a degree in Political Science and Public Administration from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and a postgraduate degree in Cooperativism from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN).
Before being appointed Director General of Mexican Food Security (Segalmex), he was Executive Secretary of the National Public Security System and Undersecretary of Planning, Prevention, Civil Protection and Peacebuilding, both in the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection of the Government of Mexico.
He was also governor of his state from 1999 to 2005 and municipal president of the City Council of La Paz, Baja California Sur from 1996 to 1999. He was also elected federal deputy in the Congress of the Union for the First District of Baja California Sur from 1994 to 1996.
At the beginning of his extensive career, he worked as a full-time professor of Scientific Research Techniques at the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur.
