Natividad González Parás
Encyclopedia
José Natividad González Parás (b. March 30, 1949 in Monterrey
Monterrey
Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the...

) is a Mexican
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....

 politician affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party
Institutional Revolutionary Party
The Institutional Revolutionary Party is a Mexican political party that held power in the country—under a succession of names—for more than 70 years. The PRI is a member of the Socialist International, as is the rival Party of the Democratic Revolution , making Mexico one of the few...

. He is a former federal deputy and former governor of Nuevo León
Nuevo León
Nuevo León It is located in Northeastern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north and east, San Luis Potosí to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León has a 15 kilometer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S...

 (2003–2009) He is also married to Cristina Maiz

González Parás is the son of José Natividad González González and María Cristina Parás Barocio and a direct descendant of José María Parás, governor of the state (1825–1827 and 1848–1850). He received a bachelor's degree in law from the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, a master's degree in public administration from the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 Public Administration International Institute (nowadays École nationale d'administration
École nationale d'administration
The École Nationale d'Administration , one of the most prestigious of French graduate schools , was created in 1945 by Charles de Gaulle to democratise access to the senior civil service. It is now entrusted with the selection and initial training of senior French officials...

, 1973) and a doctorate in political sciences from the University of Paris I
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...

 (Panthéon-Sorbonne).

He joined the Institutional Revolutionary Party
Institutional Revolutionary Party
The Institutional Revolutionary Party is a Mexican political party that held power in the country—under a succession of names—for more than 70 years. The PRI is a member of the Socialist International, as is the rival Party of the Democratic Revolution , making Mexico one of the few...

 in 1967 and has taught several courses at El Colegio de México
El Colegio de México
El Colegio de México, A.C. is a prestigious Mexican institute of higher education, specializing in teaching and research in the social sciences and the humanities...

, at the National Autonomous University of Mexico
National Autonomous University of Mexico
The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México is a university in Mexico. UNAM was founded on 22 September 1910 by Justo Sierra as a liberal alternative to the Roman Catholic-sponsored Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) (National Autonomous...

 and at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León. From 1985 until 1991 he served as the state secretary general of Nuevo León and for a few years he served as undersecretary of political development at the Mexican Secretariat of the Interior
Secretary of the Interior (Mexico)
The Mexican Secretary of the Interior is the head of the Secretariat of the Interior, concerned with the country's internal affairs, the presentation of the president's bills to Congress, their publication and certain issues of national security. The country's main intelligence agency, CISEN,...

 during the Ernesto Zedillo
Ernesto Zedillo
Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León is a Mexican economist and politician. He served as President of Mexico from December 1, 1994 to November 30, 2000, as the last of the uninterrupted seventy year line of Mexican presidents from the Institutional Revolutionary Party...

 administration.

In 1997 he ran for governor and lost against Fernando Canales Clariond
Fernando Canales Clariond
Fernando de Jesús Canales Clariond is a Mexican politician and businessman affiliated to the National Action Party . He succeeded his cousin, Benjamín Clariond as governor of Nuevo León in 1997...

, a wealthy businessman of the conservative National Action Party
National Action Party (Mexico)
The National Action Party , is one of the three main political parties in Mexico. The party's political platform is generally considered Centre-Right in the Mexican political spectrum. Since 2000, the President of Mexico has been a member of this party; both houses have PAN pluralities, but the...

. Six years later he reattempted it and won by a clear margin over his closest opponent, Mauricio Fernández Garza
Mauricio Fernández Garza
Mauricio Fernández Garza is a Mexican politician and businessman directly related to the Fernández Ruiloba wealthy and prominent family; owners of PYOSA . He is currently mayor of San Pedro Garza García, former senator and current member of the board of Grupo Alfa, a Monterrey-based chemical, food...

.

Governor of Nuevo León

Following Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

's example, the Governor sought and gained for Monterrey the responsibility of hosting the 2007 Universal Forum of Cultures
2007 Universal Forum of Cultures
The Universal Forum of Cultures Monterrey 2007 was an international civil-society event that took place in the city of Monterrey, Mexico, starting on September and ending in December of mentioned year...

, an event that the city of Barcelona had used to renew its own infrastructure before. As parts of the works for the Forum, the Governor ordered an expansion of the metropolitan subway system
Monterrey Metro
The Monterrey Metro is a fully grade-separated light rail, or metro, system in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. It is the newest of Mexico's metro systems, with operation beginning in 1991. As of October 2008, the system operated 40 high-floor electric trains along 31 km of routes...

, the remodeling of the city's main square
Macroplaza
The Macroplaza or La Gran Plaza is a town square or plaza located in the heart of the city of Monterrey, Mexico.The Macroplaza was built in the early 1980s during the governorship of Alfonso Martínez Domínguez...

, numerous infrastructure works, and other investments. The cost of these was financed by creating new debt mechanisms. Among them, the Transit Control Administration (Instituto de Control Vehicular), in charge of licensing plates and licensing drivers in the State, was made autonomous so that its income could be given as an insurance to bonds. The Monterrey - Cadereyta toll highway was turned into the "Nuevo León State Highway Network" (Red Estatal de Carreteras) so that its income and its assets be used to back more bonds. The State Government has argued, however, that the liabilities of decentralized organisms cannot be considered debt, and therefore the State's debt has been reduced. This argument is done despite the fact the decentralized organisms that have assumed debt where decentralized during this administration, and the opposition has accused the government of descentralizing with the sole purpose of acquiring debt. In fact, the issue sparked a controversy that had to be resolved by Mexico's Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation
The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation is the highest federal court in the United Mexican States. It consists of a President of the Supreme Court and ten Ministers who are confirmed by the Senate from a list proposed by the President of the Republic.Justices of the SCJN serve for fifteen...

. The financing through debt incurred by the State has risen so much that Nuevo León, the third richest state in the country, became the 4th most leveraged State in Mexico.

Additionally, the rising climate of insecurity, and drug-related assassinations in Mexico have made investors cautious about financial risk in Nuevo León as in other states. On April 2007, the US Department of State issued a warning for its citizens travelling to several states in Mexico including Nuevo León, which had accumulated 50 drug related assassinations in 2007.

In the presidential election of 2006
Mexican general election, 2006
A general election was held in Mexico on Sunday, July 2, 2006. Voters went to the polls to elect, on the federal level:*A new President of the Republic to serve a six-year term, replacing then Mexican President Vicente Fox .*500 members to serve for a...

, the PAN candidate won in all of the Northern states and the PRD candidate won in most of the central, south and southeastern states. The opposition PAN
National Action Party (Mexico)
The National Action Party , is one of the three main political parties in Mexico. The party's political platform is generally considered Centre-Right in the Mexican political spectrum. Since 2000, the President of Mexico has been a member of this party; both houses have PAN pluralities, but the...

 won the State Congress
Congress of Nuevo León
The Congress of the State of Nuevo León is the legislative branch of the government of the Mexican state of Nuevo León. The congress is the governmental deliberative body of Nuevo León, which is equal to, and independent of, the executive...

, marking the first time that the State Legislature will be ruled by an opposition party to the State Executive. Most of the municipalities in the State
Municipalities of Nuevo León
The Mexican state of Nuevo León is divided into 51 municipalities, which take their names from their municipal seats. The most populous one is Monterrey, which also serves as the capital of the state...

 were also won by the opposition.

González has fostered the creation of 40 research centers in the state in his first four years as governor. González is currently negotiating the construction of an underground suburban train in the Monterrey area.

Under the González administration Nuevo León is the fourth state in property tax revenue in the country and is the second in GDP (after the Federal District) with 7.3% of the national GDP. The state has had a GDP growth of no less than 4.1% each year since González took office in 2003.

A civil court found him guilty of corruption and misuse of public funds.

External links

Government of Nuevo León: Curriculum vitae of the governor
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