Jorge Castañeda
Encyclopedia
Jorge Castañeda Gutman is a Mexican
politician and academic who served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs
(2000 – 2003).
Castañeda was born in Mexico City
. He received the French Baccalauréat
from the Lycée Franco-Mexicain
in Mexico City. Then after receiving his B.A.
from Princeton University
and a Ph.D.
in Economic History from the University of Paris
(Panthéon-La Sorbonne) he worked as a professor at several universities, including the National Autonomous University of Mexico
, the University of California, Berkeley
, Princeton University
, New York University
, and the University of Cambridge
. He was a Bernard Schwartz fellow at The New America Foundation
. He also authored more than a dozen books, including a biography of Che Guevara
, and he regularly contributes to newspapers such as Reforma
(Mexico), El País (Spain), Los Angeles Times
(USA) and Newsweek
magazine.
His father was Jorge Castañeda y Álvarez de la Rosa
who served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs (1979 – 1982), during the administration of José López Portillo
. He was married to Miriam Morales (a Chile
an citizen) and he has one son, Jorge Andrés.
to broad-based new social movements
, from armed revolutions to elections. Another well known work of his is Companero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara, which offers a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the Argentine Marxist revolutionary.
Castañeda's political career began as a member of the Mexican Communist Party
but he has since moved to the political center. He served as an advisor to Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas
during his (failed) presidential campaign in 1988 and advised Vicente Fox
during his (successful) presidential campaign in 2000. After winning the election, Fox appointed Castañeda as his Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Following a number of disagreements with other cabinet members he left the post in January 2003 and began traveling around the country, giving lectures and promoting his ideas.
Castañeda presented himself as an independent "citizens' candidate", a move which was contrary to Mexico's electoral law that gives registered parties alone the right to nominate candidates for election.
ruled against Castañeda's appeal. The ruling essentially put an end to Castañeda's bid to run as an independent candidate, however soon after this ruling he took his case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
in order to defend his political rights; as of 2008, the case is pending before the IACHR.
. In 2009, he published a theory about the 2009 dismissals by Raúl Castro. He has an article in the Sep/Oct 2010 issue of Foreign Affairs
entitled "Not Ready for Prime Time".
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
politician and academic who served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs
Secretary of Foreign Affairs (Mexico)
In Mexico, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs is a member of the federal executive cabinet with responsibility for implementing the country's foreign policy. The secretary is appointed by the President of the Republic and heads the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs ...
(2000 – 2003).
Castañeda was born in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
. He received the French Baccalauréat
Baccalauréat
The baccalauréat , often known in France colloquially as le bac, is an academic qualification which French and international students take at the end of the lycée . It was introduced by Napoleon I in 1808. It is the main diploma required to pursue university studies...
from the Lycée Franco-Mexicain
Lycée Franco-Mexicain
The Lycée Franco-Mexicain is a private French school located in Mexico City's Polanco district. It is one of the largest French Lycées in the world with over 3000 students in two campuses, Polanco in northern Mexico City and Coyoacán in the South, there is also another dependency located in the...
in Mexico City. Then after receiving his B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
and a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Economic History from the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
(Panthéon-La Sorbonne) he worked as a professor at several universities, including the National Autonomous University of Mexico
National Autonomous University of Mexico
The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México is a university in Mexico. UNAM was founded on 22 September 1910 by Justo Sierra as a liberal alternative to the Roman Catholic-sponsored Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) (National Autonomous...
, the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, and the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. He was a Bernard Schwartz fellow at The New America Foundation
New America Foundation
The New America Foundation is a non-profit public policy institute and think tank with offices in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento, CA. It was founded in 1999 by Ted Halstead, Sherle Schwenninger, Michael Lind and Walter Russell Mead....
. He also authored more than a dozen books, including a biography of Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
, and he regularly contributes to newspapers such as Reforma
Reforma
Reforma is a Mexican newspaper based in Mexico City. It has 276,700 readers in Mexico City. The paper shares content with other papers in parent newsgroup Grupo Reforma. The cumulative readership of the newsgroup is above 400,000...
(Mexico), El País (Spain), Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
(USA) and Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine.
His father was Jorge Castañeda y Álvarez de la Rosa
Jorge Castañeda y Álvarez de la Rosa
Jorge Castañeda y Álvarez de la Rosa was a Mexican diplomat. He served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs from April 1979 to 30 November 1982, during the administration of José López Portillo....
who served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs (1979 – 1982), during the administration of José López Portillo
José López Portillo
José López Portillo y Pacheco was the President of Mexico from 1976 to 1982.Born in Mexico City, López Portillo studied Law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico before beginning his political career with the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1959.He held several positions in the...
. He was married to Miriam Morales (a Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an citizen) and he has one son, Jorge Andrés.
Academic books
Among his books is a highly readable assessment of leftist politics, Utopia Unarmed: The Latin American Left After the Cold War (Vintage Books, 1993). The book has had a wide readership in Latin America and elsewhere for its intelligent, sometimes controversial, overview of leftist politics in Latin America, after the fall of the Soviet Union; see History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991). The book provides a reliable historical account of leftist movements in Latin America, often spiked with lively anecdotes. The main theme is a shift from politics based on the Cuban RevolutionCuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
to broad-based new social movements
New social movements
The term new social movements is a theory of social movements that attempts to explain the plethora of new movements that have come up in various western societies roughly since the mid-1960s which are claimed to depart significantly from the conventional social movement paradigm.There are two...
, from armed revolutions to elections. Another well known work of his is Companero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara, which offers a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the Argentine Marxist revolutionary.
Political career
Mexican Communist Party
The Mexican Communist Party was a communist party in Mexico. It was founded in 1911 as the Socialist Workers' Party by Manabendra Nath Roy, a left-wing Indian intellectual. The PSO changed its name to the Mexican Communist Party in November 1919 following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia...
but he has since moved to the political center. He served as an advisor to Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano is a prominent Mexican politician. He was a former Head of Government of the Federal District and a founder of the Party of the Democratic Revolution .-Biography:...
during his (failed) presidential campaign in 1988 and advised Vicente Fox
Vicente Fox
Vicente Fox Quesada is a Mexican former politician who served as President of Mexico from 1 December 2000 to 30 November 2006 and currently serves as co-President of the Centrist Democrat International, an international organization of Christian democratic political parties.Fox was elected...
during his (successful) presidential campaign in 2000. After winning the election, Fox appointed Castañeda as his Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Following a number of disagreements with other cabinet members he left the post in January 2003 and began traveling around the country, giving lectures and promoting his ideas.
Presidential candidacy
On March 25, 2004, Castañeda officially announced his presidential campaign by means of a prime-time campaign advertisement carried in all major Mexican television stations.Castañeda presented himself as an independent "citizens' candidate", a move which was contrary to Mexico's electoral law that gives registered parties alone the right to nominate candidates for election.
Castañeda's Court appeal
In 2004 Castañeda started to seek Court authorization to run in the country's 2006 presidential election without the endorsement of any of the registered political parties. In August 2005 the Supreme CourtSupreme Court of Justice of the Nation
The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation is the highest federal court in the United Mexican States. It consists of a President of the Supreme Court and ten Ministers who are confirmed by the Senate from a list proposed by the President of the Republic.Justices of the SCJN serve for fifteen...
ruled against Castañeda's appeal. The ruling essentially put an end to Castañeda's bid to run as an independent candidate, however soon after this ruling he took his case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Inter-American Court of Human Rights
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is an autonomous judicial institution based in the city of San José, Costa Rica. Together with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, it makes up the human rights protection system of the Organization of American States , which serves to uphold and...
in order to defend his political rights; as of 2008, the case is pending before the IACHR.
Articles
He has published articles in NewsweekNewsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
. In 2009, he published a theory about the 2009 dismissals by Raúl Castro. He has an article in the Sep/Oct 2010 issue of Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...
entitled "Not Ready for Prime Time".
External links
- NYU: Voices of Latin American Leaders
- Profile at The New America FoundationNew America FoundationThe New America Foundation is a non-profit public policy institute and think tank with offices in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento, CA. It was founded in 1999 by Ted Halstead, Sherle Schwenninger, Michael Lind and Walter Russell Mead....
- The Right Deal on Cuba by Jorge Castañeda, The Wall Street Journal, April 20 2009
- How Fidel Snookered Everyone by Jorge Castañeda, Newsweek, May 4 2009 issue
- Adios, Monroe Doctrine: When the Yanquis Go Home by Jorge G. Castañeda, The New RepublicThe New RepublicThe magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, December 28, 2009 - Video: Does Che Guevara Still Matter? interview with biographer Jorge Castañeda
- Castañeda on the Drug War, Legalization, Immigration and Free Trade - video interview by Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...