Felipe Calderon

Who he is: Felipe de Jesus Calderon Hinojosa is the President of Mexico. Calderon assumed office 1 December 2006 after being elected to a six-year term in a highly controversial election. Felipe Calderon is a member of the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) party.

Calderon was appointed director of a state-owned development bank, Banobras, shortly after Vicente Fox became president; he later was appointed Secretary of Energy but resigned in May 2004 after Fox publicly criticized Felipe's presidential ambitions, supporting an opponent.

Felipe Calderon defeated Vicente Fox's Secretary of the Interior to become the PAN Party candidate and then campaigned against Lopez Obrador for the presidency, defeating him in the contentious 2006 election. Voting results were initially declared too close to call by the Federal Electoral Institute, which refused to release the results of exit polling and asked both candidates to not announce themselves as winners. Both did so, nonetheless. With an official vote count released two days later, Calderon was pronounced the winner. Disputed by Obrador, the Federal Election Tribunal voted unanimously to authorize a recount of only nine percent of polling stations and then officially determined Calderon had won, by only 0.58 percent.

Even Calderon's inauguration was difficult; members of Congress became involved in a brawl when insults escalated to physical fisticuffs immediately before he was to take the oath of office office. Nationally televised, Calderon entered the chamber through the back door, took the oath, and after the national anthem finished the two sides continued yelling at each other. During the debacle a protest in the Zocalo was taking place as Obrador led his supporters toward the inauguration until heavy Federal Police presence ended the march.

Although Calderon was prevented from taking the oath in the Chamber of Deputies as required by the country's constitution, in a televised ceremony President Fox handed over the presidential band to Calderon who then gave a speech calling for national unity.

Background: Felipe de Jesus Calderon Hinojosa was born 18 August 1962 in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico, the youngest of five sons born to Luis Calderon Vega and Carmen Hinojosa Calderon. Felipe's father cofounded the National Action Party and held positions with the state and one with the federal government, as a deputy. Felipe worked within politics, especially active in his father's campaigns, throughout his life.

Calderon is married to Margarita Zavala, a former federal deputy to Congress, who he met while working with the National Action Party. Felipe and Margarita have two sons and a daughter.

Calderon attained a Bachelor's degree in law from the Escuela Lebre de Derecho and two masters degrees, a Master of Public Administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 2000 and a Master's in Economics from the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico.