Secretary of the Interior (Mexico)

The Mexican Secretary of the Interior ("Secretario de Gobernación") is the head of the Secretariat of the Interior, concerned with the country's internal affairs, the presentation of the president's bills to Congress, their publication and certain issues of national security. The country's main intelligence agency, CISEN, depends directly from this branch. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet and the most important cabinet secretary.

From the SEGOB's website::"Since its creation, the Secretary of the Interior has been entrusted with the suitable conduction of the internal policy of the country that allows through programs, actions and strategies the development of a more and more participative society in the actions of the Government to satisfy its demands; allowing with it a growth in the economic, political and social scope of the country."

History

In 1821, with the integration of the Junta Provisional Gubernativa ("Provisional Government Junta"), and an urge to organize the country, the regulation that would determine the functions of the so-called "Secretariat of Internal and External Relations" was published. This newly created organism had the functions of the General Government and its first holder was José Manuel de Herrera (1821-1823).

With the pass of time, it was necessary to specify the nature of actions of the existing institutions and in 1836 the Ministry of the Interior was established, in 1841 it was changed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Government, which changed in 1843 to the Ministry of the Interior and Police. Finally in 1853, the functions were separated and the Secretariat of the Interior was created.

The Secretariat of the Interior as a dependency of the Executive Branch, concerned with internal policy and national governability has its most remote origin in article 222 of the Political Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy, promulgated on March 19, 1812, which established among the secretaries of State, those of "Government of the Kingdom for the Peninsula and adyacent Islands" and "Government of the Kingdom for the Overseas"On October 22, 1814, the Constitutional Declaration for the Liberty of the Mexican Americas, known as the Constitution of Apatzingán, anticipated in its article 134, the establishment of a republican government, with an Executive Branch known as the Supreme Government which would have a Secretariat of Government among others.

Antechamber to the Presidency

This position was for long regarded as the antechamber to the office of president, because several secretaries of the interior were chosen as presidential candidates for the following term by the incumbent president, including:

* Plutarco Elías Calles
* Emilio Portes Gil
* Lázaro Cárdenas
* Miguel Alemán Valdés
* Adolfo Ruiz Cortines
* Gustavo Díaz Ordaz
* Luis Echeverría

Francisco Labastida Ochoa, Secretary of the Interior during the latter part of Ernesto Zedillo's administration, was regarded as the president's candidate during the Institutional Revolutionary Party's primaries (the first ones the party had ever held) and during his unsuccessful campaign against former President Vicente Fox.

Fox's Secretary of the Interior, Santiago Creel, participated in the National Action Party's primaries but was defeated by current President Felipe Calderón.

List of Secretaries of the Interior

External links

* [http://www.gobernacion.gob.mx Official site]