Please find attached a list of the names of the governors of Mexico by state, indicating their period of governance and their party affiliation. According to information provided by the Embassy of Mexico during an 8 October 2003 telephone interview, there is no official or government Website that lists all state governors with the requested information. The attached list was produced by a Mexican student and is available on his personal Website; it has been reviewed by the Embassy and is considered reliable and up-to-date (Embassy of Mexico 8 Oct. 2003). However, the newly elected governor of Sonora is not yet listed in the attachment: Jose Eduardo Robinson Bourse of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) is scheduled to take office soon (Embassy of Mexico 8 Oct. 2003).

What follows is additional or corroborating information obtained from other sources within time constraints.

Gubernatorial elections were held on 6 July 2003 in Campeche, Colima, Nuevo Leon, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi and Sonora (Embassy of Mexico 8 Oct. 2003; Latinamerica Press 16 July 2003). In these elections, the PRI won the governorship of Nuevo Leon, Campeche, Colima and Sonora (ibid.).

The new governor of Nuevo Leon, Jose Natividad Gonzalez Paras, took office on 4 October 2003 (Mexico 4 Oct. 2003). Jorge Carlos Hurtado Valdez is the governor of Campeche (Campeche 8 Oct. 2003), while Fernando Moreno Peña is the governor of Colima (Colima n.d.). The governor of Quintana Roo is Joaquin Ernesto Hendricks Diaz, also of the PRI (Quintana Roo 8 July 2003).

Representatives of the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) currently govern the following states of Mexico (the names of the governors are in brackets):

Aguascalientes (Felipe Gonzalez Gonzalez)

Baja California (Eugenio Elorduy Walter)

Chiapas (Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia, coalition governor; see explanation below)

Guanajuato (Juan Carlos Romero Hicks)

Jalisco (Francisco Ramirez Acuña)

Morelos (Sergio Estrada Cajigal)

Nayarit (Antonio Echevarria Dominguez)

San Luis Potosi (Marcelo de los Santos Fraga)

Queretaro (Francisco Garrido Patron), and

Yucatan (Patricio Patron Laviada) (PAN 2003).

Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia was elected governor of Chiapas in 2000 by representing a coalition of eight political parties: Partido del Trabajo, PRD, PAN, Partido Verde Ecologista Mexicano, Partido del Centro Democrático, Convergencia Democrática, Partido de Alianza Social and Partido de la Sociedad Nacionalista (Chiapas 2003).

The following are states currently governed by representatives of the Partido de la Revolucion Democratica (PRD):

Baja California Sur (Leonel Cota Montaño)

Chiapas (Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia, coalition governor)

Federal District (Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador)

Michoacan (Lazaro Cardenas Batel)

Tlaxcala (Alfonso Sanchez Anaya)

Zacatecas (Ricardo Monreal Avila) (PRD 2003)

A single registry showing the names and political affiliations of all the mayors (presidentes municipales) of Mexico could not be found among the sources consulted.

For a statistical overview of the political affiliation of the mayors who were in office as of 18 June 2002 in each state of Mexico, please refer to the attached table taken from a report published by the National Institute for Federalism and Municipal Development (INAFED) of Mexico (7 Oct. 2003). The table does not provide an individual breakdown of all 2,430 municipalities of Mexico; however, the complete report (not attached) does contain references to specific municipalities of Mexico being led by a mayor representing a political coalition, with a brief description of the composition of each coalition (ibid.). However, these do not include any of the requested cities.

Also attached, please find a calendar of municipal elections for each state of Mexico (ibid. June 2002). Although the document is in Spanish, the names of states (estado), number of municipalities (número de municipios) and dates of the beginning and end of the mayoral periods for each state (periodos de gobierno) are indicated in numbers along columns. Please note that San Luis Potosi had municipal elections scheduled for 25 September 2003, Queretaro for 30 September 2003, Morelos for 31 October 2003 and Jalisco for 31 December 2003 (ibid.); thus, the information requested for cities in those states would not necessarily remain current for long.

Current mayors (presidentes municipales) and/or their party affiliation of the cities requested are:

Guadalajara, Jalisco: PAN (Mexico 4 Apr. 2003)

Puebla, Puebla: PAN (ibid.)

Chihuahua, Chihuahua: PRI (ibid.)

Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua: Jesus Alfredo Delgado Muñoz , PAN (Ciudad Juarez 7 Oct. 2003; Mexico 4 Apr. 2003)

Cuernavaca, Morelos: Adrian Rivera Perez, PAN (IEE Morelos 16 July 2003)

Leon, Guanajuato: PAN (Mexico 4 Apr. 2003)

Merida, Yucatan: Coalition, PAN-PRD (ibid.; ibid. 7 Oct. 2003)

Monterrey, Nuevo Leon: PAN (ibid. 4 Apr. 2003)

Morelia, Michoacan: Fausto Vallejo Figueroa (Morelia 1 Oct. 2003)

Oaxaca de Juarez, Oaxaca: Gabino Cue Monteagudo, CDPPN (expansion not available) (Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México 2002; Oaxaca n.d.)

Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco: Pedro Ruiz Higuera, PAN (RIM Jalisco n.d.)

Queretaro, Queretaro: Rolando Garcia Ortiz (Queretaro 2003).

San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas: Enoc Hernandez Cruz (Chiapas 8 Oct. 2003a)

San Luis Potosi, San Luis Potosi: PAN (Mexico 4 Apr. 2003)

Tijuana, Baja California: Coalition (ibid.)

Toluca, Mexico: PAN (ibid.)

Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas: Victoria Isabel Rincon Carrillo (Chiapas 8 Oct. 2003b)

Zacatecas, Zacatecas: Miguel Alejandro Alonso Reyes, PRD (PRD n.d.).

There is no municipality of Cancun: Cancun is part of the municipality of Benito Juarez, in the state of Quintana Roo (Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México 2001). The mayor of Benito Juarez is Juan Ignacio Garcia Zalvidea (Quintana Roo 2003).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

References

Chiapas State Government, Tuxtla Gutierrez. 8 October 2003a. Directorio de Funcionarios Públicos. "San Cristobal de las Casas." http://www.chiapas.gob.mx/funcionarios/entidad.asp?Id=e06162242200207 [Accessed 8 Oct. 2003]

_____. 8 October 2003b. Directorio de Funcionarios Públicos. "Tuxtla Gutierrez." http://www.chiapas.gob.mx/funcionarios/ entidad.asp?Id=e06162230200244 [Accessed 8 Oct. 2003]

_____. 2003. "Gobirno-Biografía." http://www.chiapas.gob.mx/gobierno/gobernador/ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2003]

Ciudad Juarez, City of, Chihuahua. 7 October 2003. "Agenda." http://www.juarez.gob.mx/agenda_alcalde/agenda.asp [Accessed 7 Oct. 2003]

Campeche State Government. 8 October 2003. "Campeche." http://www.campeche.gob.mx/ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2003]

Colima State Government. n.d. "Gobierno del Estado de Colima." http://www.colima-estado.gob.mx/ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2003]

Embassy of Mexico, Ottawa. 8 October 2003. Telephone interview with representative.

Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México. 2002. "Estado de Oaxaca." Mexico City: Instituto Nacional para el Federalismo yel Desarrollo Municipal (INAFED) http://www.e-local.gob.mx/enciclo/oaxaca/municipios/20067a.htm [Accessed 7 Oct. 2003]

_____. 2001. "Estado de Quintana Roo: Benito Juárez." Mexico City: INAFED. http://www.e-local.gob.mx/enciclo/qroo/index.html [Accessed 7 Oct. 2003]

Instituto Electoral del Estado (IEE), Morelos. 16 July 2003. Proceso Electoral: Integración de Ayuntamientos. http://www.ieemorelos.org.mx/Paginaweb/res2003/int_ayu_03.pdf

Latinamerica Press [Lima]. 16 July 2003. Vol. 35, No. 14. "Mexico: PRI Gains Ground." http://www.latinamericapress.org/main.esp [Accessed 16 July 2003]

Mexico. 7 October 2003. Instituto Nacional para el Federalismo y el Desarrollo Municipal (INAFED), Mexico, DF. "Resumen Nacional de la Filiación Política de los Presidentes Municipales de México." http://www.inafed.gob.mx/numeros/filiacion.htm [Accessed 7 Oct. 2003]

_____. 4 October 2003. Sistema Internet de la Presidencia. "El Jefe del Ejecutivo felicitó al Gobernador Electo de Nuevo León." http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/?P=2&Orden=Leer&Tipo=PP&Art=6490 [Accessed 7 Oct. 2003]

_____. 4 April 2003. INAFED. Los Municipios en Cifras. "Los Municipios con Mayor y Menor Población." http://www.inafed.gob.mx/numeros/maspobla.htm [Accessed 7 Oct. 2003]

_____. June 2002. INAFED. Los Municipios en Cifras. "Período de Gobierno Municipal." http://www.inafed.gob.mx/numeros/periodos.htm [Accessed 7 Oct. 2003]

Morelia, City of, Michoacan. 1 October 2003. "Honorable Cabildo." http://www.morelia.gob.mx/Html/Index.htm [Accessed 8 Oct. 2003]

Oaxaca State Government. n.d. "Total de Municipios en el Estado de Oaxaca." http://200.36.39.134/municipios2.php [Accessed 7 Oct. 2003]

Partido Accion Nacional (PAN), Mexico City. 2003. "Gobiernos Panistas." http://www.pan.org.mx/?P=54 [Accessed 7 Oct. 2003]

Partido de la Revolucion Democratica (PRD), Mexico City. 2003. "El PRD gobierna a 23'961,318 de mexicanos."http://www.prd.org.mx/?dobj=nuestros.php# [Accessed 8 Oct. 2003]

_____. n.d. "Nuestros Gobiernos: Zacatecas." http://www.prd.org.mx/nuestros_pop.php?e=Zacatecas [Accessed 8 Oct. 2003]

Queretaro State Government. 2003. "Directorio Telefónico." http://www.queretaro.gob.mx/servicios/directorio/pmunicipal.htm (Google cache) [Accessed 8 Oct. 2003]

Quintana Roo State Government. 8 July 2003. "Gobierno de Quintana Roo." http://www.quintanaroo.gob.mx/ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2003]

_____. 2003. "Presidentes Municipales." http://www.quintanaroo.gob.mx/bienvenida/directorio.htm [Accessed 8 Oct. 2003]

Red de Informacion Municipal de Jalisco (RIM Jalisco). n.d. "Directorio Municipal 2001-2003." http://ineser.cucea.udg.mx/rimjalisco/LinSecundaria/DirecMunic2.htm [Accessed 8 Oct. 2003]

Attachments

Garcia Gomez, Alain. 4 October 2003. "Constitutional Governors" [original title: "Gobernadores Constitucionales"]. Translated from Spanish to English by the Multilingual Translation Directorate, Translation Bureau, Public Works and Government Services Canada. http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/7345/conozca/gobernadores.htm [Accessed 8 Oct. 2003], 7 pp.