Manuel Bartlett

Manuel Bartlett
Bartlett in 2024
Director of the Federal Electricity Commission
In office
1 December 2018 – 30 September 2024
PresidentAndrés Manuel López Obrador
Preceded byJaime Hernández Martínez
Succeeded byEmilia Esther Calleja Alor
Governor of Puebla
In office
1 February 1993 – 31 January 1999
Preceded byMariano Piña Olaya
Succeeded byMelquíades Morales
Secretary of the Interior of Mexico
In office
1 December 1982 – 30 November 1988
PresidentMiguel de la Madrid Hurtado
Preceded byEnrique Olivares Santana
Succeeded byFernando Gutiérrez Barrios
Personal details
Born (1936-02-23) 23 February 1936
Puebla de Zaragoza, Puebla
PartyInstitutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Labor Party (PT)
Parent(s)Manuel Bartlett Bautista
Isabel Díaz Castilla
ProfessionLawyer, politician

Manuel Bartlett Díaz[a] (born 23 February 1936) is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and later with the Labor Party (PT). He has served as director of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), as governor of Puebla, and as secretary of the interior.[1][2]

Life and political career

Manuel Bartlett Díaz was born in the city of Puebla in 1936. He joined the PRI in 1964 and served as the secretary of the interior under President Miguel de la Madrid in 1982–1988, in which capacity he oversaw the disputed 1988 presidential election.[3][4] He was later secretary of public education in 1988–1992 and governor of Puebla in 1993–1999.[3]

In the 2000 general election, Bartlett was elected to the Senate of the Republic for the 2000–2006 term, where he became known as one of the most staunch defenders of state ownership of electric utilities. On 27 May 2006, in view of the low possibility of Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Roberto Madrazo winning the presidency, Bartlett declared that he would vote for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the candidate of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), to avoid a right-wing victory. Madrazo and the national leader of the PRI, Mariano Palacios, both condemned these declarations, and announced the possible expulsion of Bartlett from the party. Bartlett responded by continuing to speak out against both leaders.

After the 2006 general election, Bartlett aligned himself with López Obrador and his Coalition for the Good of All. In 2012 he reentered national politics and was elected a senator for the left-wing Labor Party (PT), in coalition with López Obrador's PRD.[5] After López Obrador's election as president in 2018, he appointed Bartlett to become the director-general of the Federal Electricity Commission (Comisión Federal de Electricidad, CFE), the state-owned electricity utility and the country's second most powerful state-owned company after Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX). He left the CFE at the end of López Obrador's presidency in September 2024.[6]

Bartlett has been described as a corrupt politician.[7][2]

Camarena case

In a three-part article series, investigative journalist Charles Bowden offers eyewitness accounts of Bartlett's involvement (along with other senior Mexican political, law enforcement, security and military officials) in the decision to order the kidnap, torture and murder of American DEA officer Enrique S. "Kiki" Camarena in 1985 in order to shut down his successful campaign against the Guadalajara Cartel. In these accounts, cartel figures repeatedly state they expect Bartlett Díaz to one day become president, with the implication that they will prosper as a result.[8] Earlier accounts claimed that DEA suspicions about Bartlett Díaz's involvement in the murder led to the ruling PRI's refusal to consider him as a presidential candidate, leading to the selection of Carlos Salinas de Gortari in Bartlett's stead.[9]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ In this Mexican name, the surname is Bartlett and the second or maternal family name is Díaz.

References

  1. ↑ "Mexican election fraud claimed". Lawrence Journal-World. AP. 7 July 1988. p. 2A. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
  2. 1 2 "La sombra de la corrupción amenaza al director de la empresa pública mexicana de electricidad". El País. 24 September 2019. p. 2A. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  3. 1 2 "Perfil: Sen. Manuel Bartlett Díaz, LXIII Legislatura". Sistema de Información Legislativa (SIL). SEGOB. Retrieved 29 August 2026.
  4. ↑ Castro Sánchez, Aída (1 August 2018). "El día en que "se cayó el sistema" y ganó Salinas". El Universal.
  5. ↑ "Mexico's Congress presents the 'unpresentable ones'". Washington Post. 13 July 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  6. ↑ García Zubía, Karol (30 September 2024). "Manuel Bartlett se despide de la CFE". El Economista.
  7. ↑ "Bartlett y corrupción". rendiciondecuentas.org.mx (in Spanish). 23 December 2019. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  8. ↑ "Bowden: How the CIA may have tortured one of America's own | Blood on the Corn".
  9. ↑ Bowden, Charles (2002). Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family. Simon and Schuster. p. 146. ISBN 9780684853437.
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