Felipe Calderón

Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa (; born 18 August 1962) is a Mexican politician who served as the 63rd president of Mexico from 2006 to 2012 and Secretary of Energy during the presidency of Vicente Fox between 2003 and 2004. He was a member of the National Action Party (''Partido Acción Nacional'', PAN) for 30 years before quitting the party in November 2018.

Calderón held positions as National President of the PAN, Federal Deputy, and Secretary of Energy in Vicente Fox's administration. He served in the previous administration's cabinet before resigning to run for president and receiving his party's candidacy. In the 2006 presidential election, he was the PAN candidate. After a contentious campaign and a controversial electoral procedure, the Federal Electoral Institute's official results gave Calderón the lead (0.6% of total votes). above PRD candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador. While López Obrador and the PRD disputed the results and called for a complete recount of the votes, Calderón's victory was confirmed months later by the Federal Electoral Tribunal.

His presidency was marked by his declaration of war against the country's drug cartels only ten days after taking office; this was considered by most observers as a strategy to gain popular legitimacy after the convoluted elections. The first significant federal force deployment against drug gangs was made possible by Calderón's approval of Operation Michoacán. 60,000 people had been officially killed in the drug war by the time of his rule in office. The beginning of the drug war coincided with an increase in homicides during his presidency; these peaked in 2010 and then began to decline during his final two years in office. In 2019, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán's Sinaloa Cartel was allegedly linked to Genaro García Luna, the Secretary of Public Security under Calderón. This led to García Luna's arrest in the United States. On 21 February 2023, he was declared guilty on all charges pressed, including drug trafficking. After García Luna's conviction, General Tomás Ángeles Dauahare, Calderón's sub-secretary of National Defense, declared that Calderón knew about García Luna's ties with the cartel. That same month, it was revealed in a poll, that 84% of participants stated that they would also like to see an investigation on Calderón.

Calderón's term was also marked by the Great Recession. As a result of a countercyclical package passed in 2009, the national debt increased from 22.2% to 35% of GDP by December 2012. The poverty rate increased from 43 to 46%. Other significant events during Calderón's presidency include the 2007 establishment of ProMéxico, a public trust fund that promotes Mexico's interests in international trade and investment, the 2008 passing of criminal justice reforms (fully implemented in 2016), the 2009 swine flu pandemic, the 2010 establishment of the Agencia Espacial Mexicana, the 2011 founding of the Pacific Alliance and the achievement of universal healthcare through Seguro Popular (passed under the Fox administration) in 2012. Under the Calderón administration sixteen new Protected Natural Areas were created. He began a one-year fellowship at John F. Kennedy School of Government in January 2013, and returned to Mexico following the end of his tenure. Provided by Wikipedia