Salinas de Gortari, Carlos (1948– )

Mexican politician, president 1988–94, a member of the dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). During his presidency he promoted economic reform, including privatization, and signed a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the USA and Canada in December 1992. However, he was also confronted with problems of drug trafficking and violent crime, including the murder of his nominated successor, Luis Donaldo Colosio, in 1994. He went into exile in 1995 after his brother Raúl was implicated in the assassination of another high-ranking PRI official and held in jail. It was later revealed that his brother had amassed more than $84 million in a Swiss bank account.

Educated in Mexico and the USA, where he received a doctorate in political economy at Harvard University, he was a university lecturer before joining the government in 1971. He thereafter held a number of posts, mostly in the economic sphere, including financial planning and budget 1982–87 under President Miguel De La Madrid Hurtado. He narrowly won the 1988 presidential election, despite allegations of fraud.