Beatriz Paredes Rangel

Beatriz Elena Paredes Rangel (b. August 18, 1953 in Tlaxcala) is a Mexican politician affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who was the first woman to serve as Governor of Tlaxcala and the second woman state governor in Mexican history.Fact|date=March 2007

She is the current President of the PRI.

Education and political career

Paredes Rangel studied sociology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Political career

She began her political career at the age of 21 when she became a Tlaxcala state deputy (1974-1977), Paredes then served as advisor for the Governor of Tlaxcala (1978-1980). In 1982 she was appointed under-secretary for agrarian reform and from 1987 to 1992 she served as Governor of Tlaxcala. She has also served in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate. President Carlos Salinas de Gortari appointed her Ambassador to Cuba in 1993.

In the 2006 Federal District election she ran for Head of Government ("Mayor of Mexico City"), representing an alliance of the PRI and the PVEM; she lost the election against Marcelo Ebrard.

Paredes Rangel has occupied different positions in the PRI, mostly representing the rural and indigenous wings of the party. She served as general secretary of the PRI and ran for the presidency of her party but lost to Roberto Madrazo Pintado. In 2007, she ran again for the party's presidency and won by a large margin.