Antonio Ortiz Mena, 99; treasury secretary for 2 Mexican leaders
Antonio Ortiz Mena, 99, former Mexican treasury secretary under two presidents and a recognized financial wizard who oversaw a period of stable economic growth and industrialization, died Monday at a hospital in Mexico City, Mexican news media reported.
Ortiz Mena served under Presidents Adolfo Lopez Mateos from 1958 to ’64 and Gustavo Diaz Ordaz from 1964 to ’70. He maintained good relations with the private business community while overseeing a state-dominated economy, according to Mexican historian Enrique Krauze in his book, “Mexico, Biography of Power.”
Ortiz Mena, a native of Parral in the northern state of Chihuahua, was a founding governor and the second president of Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank, serving in the latter role from 1971 to 1988.
A member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, Ortiz Mena was a presidential hopeful during the time when the long-ruling party still hand-picked the nation’s presidents. But then-President Diaz Ordaz supported Luis Echeverria instead.
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