Head of Government of the Federal District

The Head of Government ( _es. Jefe de Gobierno) wields executive power in the Mexican Federal District. The Head of Government serves a six-year term, running concurrently with that of the President of the Republic.The federal district, or D.F., is the seat of national executive, legislative, and judicial power, and is largely contiguous with the core of the sprawling Mexico City conurbation.

According to Article 122 of the Constitution, "the Head of Government of the Federal District shall be responsible for executive power and public administration in the district and shall be represented by a single individual, elected by universal, free, direct, and secret suffrage."

The title is commonly rendered in English as "Mayor of Mexico City" or (less frequently) as "Governor of the Federal District" (as the position was known in the early post-Revolution years), but in reality the position does not correspond exactly to either the mayor of a municipality "(presidente municipal)" or the governor of a state "(gobernador)" as they are understood in Mexican law.

For the greater part of the 20th century, the D.F. was administered directly by the President of the Republic, who delegated his authority to an appointed Head of the Federal District Department, known more commonly (and tersely) as the "Regente" ("Regent" in English). This non-democratic imposition was a source of constant and often bitter resentment among the inhabitants of Mexico City. Under the reforms of the state introduced by presidents Carlos Salinas and Ernesto Zedillo, the Regent was replaced by the first directly elected Head of Government in 1997.

On 6 July, 1997, with a 47.7% share of the vote in an eight-horse race, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas won the first direct Head of Government election (this first term was to last only three years, to bring the office into line with the presidential succession). Cárdenas, a former presidential candidate who was, according to many, cheated out of victory in the closely fought 1988 presidential election, later resigned to compete in the 2000 presidential campaign and left in his place Rosario Robles, who served out the remainder of his term as the first woman to govern Mexico City.

The Head of Government elected for the 2000–2006 term was Andrés Manuel López Obrador, elected with 39% of the popular vote in the same election that saw Vicente Fox of the PAN win the presidency. López Obrador was temporarily removed from office by the federal Congress on 7 April, 2005 and was replaced, on an interim basis for a period of slightly over two weeks, by his secretary of government, Alejandro Encinas. See desafuero of AMLO.

All the Heads of Government to date have come from the ranks of the left-of-centre Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) (or from PRD-led coalitions of parties); all the Heads of the Federal District Department were members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Governors of the Federal District

* Francisco Mariel, 1915
* César López de Lara, 1915
* Amador Salazar, 1915
* Gildardo Magaña, 1915
* César López de Lara, 1915 to 1917
* Gonzalo G. de la Mata, 1917
* César López de Lara, 1917 to 1918
* Alfredo Breceda, 1918
* Arnulfo González, 1918 to 1919
* Alfredo Breceda, 1919
* Benito Flores, 1919 to 1920
* Manuel Rueda Magro, 1920
* Manuel Gómez Noriega, 1920
* Celestino Gasca, 1920 to 1923
* Ramón Ross, 1923
* Abel S. Rodríguez, 1923 to 1924
* Ramón Ross, 1924 to 1926
* Francisco R. Serrano, 1926 to 1927
* Primo Villa Michel, 1927 to 1928

Heads of the Federal District Department

* José Manuel Puig Casauranc, 1929 to 1930
* Crisóforo Ibáñez, 1930
* Lamberto Hernández, 1930 to 1931
* Enrique Romero Courtade, 1931
* Lorenzo Hernández, 1931 to 1932
* Vicente Estrada Cajigal, 1932
* Manuel Padilla, 1932
* Juan G. Cabral, 1932
* Aarón Sáenz Garza, 1932 to 1935
* Cosme Hinojosa, 1935 to 1938
* José Siurob Ramírez, 1938 to 1940
* Javier Rojo Gómez, 1940 to 1946
* Fernando Casas Alemán, 1946 to 1952
* Ernesto P. Uruchurtu, 1952 to 1956
* Alfonso Corona del Rosal, 1966 to 1970
* Alfonso Martínez Domínguez, 1970 to 1971
* Octavio Sentíes Gómez, 1971 to 1976
* Carlos Hank González, 1976 to 1982
* Ramón Aguirre Velázquez, 1982 to 1988
* Manuel Camacho Solís, 1988 to 1993
* Manuel Aguilera Gómez, 1993 to 1994
* Óscar Espinosa Villarreal, 1994 to 1997

Heads of Government of the Federal District

*Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano 1997-1999, PRD; resigned to pursue the presidency.
*Rosario Robles Berlanga, 1999-2000 (interim), PRD.
*Andrés Manuel López Obrador, 2000 to April 7, 2005, PRD; removed from office after his executive immunity was lifted by Congress.
* Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez April 8 2005 to April 25, 2005 (interim).
* Andrés Manuel López Obrador, from April 25 to July 29, 2005; reinstated; subsequently resigned to pursue the presidency.
*Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez, July 30, 2005 to December 4, 2006 (interim).
*Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, incumbent starting on December 5, 2006.

ee also

*List of Mexican state governors
*2006 Mexican Federal District election

External links

* [http://www.df.gob.mx Official website of Mexican Federal District]