- Carlos Pesquera
Carlos Ignacio Pesquera Morales
Ph.D. (born1956 ) is a Puerto Ricancivil engineer and former politician. He was an unsuccessful candidate forGovernor of Puerto Rico in the elections of2000 . He is married to Irasema Rivera, an agronomist, and has one son and one daughter. He currently resides inGuaynabo, Puerto Rico .Education
Dr. Pesquera attended the
University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez , where he graduated with high honors as an engineer. Later, Pesquera continued his graduate studies atCornell University , where he obtained an M.A. and Ph.D. in Structural Engineering. Afterwards, he taught civil engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.Political career
Pesquera was the Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Public Works of Puerto Rico under
Pedro Rosselló 's first and second terms as Governor (1993-1999). As Secretary of Transportation, he is credited as the driving force behind the $2 billion "Tren Urbano " (Urban Train), the Superaqueduct that has resolved metropolitan San Juan's water rationing problems, numerous road construction projects and the construction of theJose Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan. He ran forGovernor of Puerto Rico as a candidate of the pro-statehoodNew Progressive Party of Puerto Rico in the 2000 elections but was defeated bySila María Calderón of the Popular Democratic Party. The results of that election showed: Sila Calderon (PDP) with 978,860 votes (48.6%); Carlos Pesquera (NPP) 919,194 votes (45.7%);Ruben Berrios (PIP) 104,705 (5.2%), while other candidates had about 2700 votes (under 0.5%). Afterwards, he reorganized his followers and remained the head of the NPP until the year 2003. That same year Pedro Rosselló returned from retirement and Pesquera ran for his party's candidacy for Governor but was soundly defeated in a primary election by Rosselló.Pesquera then retired from public life and is currently teaching at several Puerto Rican universities. On January 2007, Governor
Anibal Acevedo Vila nominated him to be part of the Board of Regents of theUniversity of Puerto Rico .External links
* [http://www.puertorico-herald.org/issues/vol4n40/ProfilePesquera-en.shtml Puerto Rico Herald: Profile: Carlos Pesquera]
*es icon [http://electionspuertorico.org/cgi-bin/eventos.cgi?evento=2000&voto=g General Elections Results 2000]
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