) is a Spanish politician and teacher. A member of the Canarian Coalition

Canarian Coalition

The Canarian Coalition , abbreviated to CC, is a Canarian nationalist and liberal political party in the Canary Islands of Spain. The party aim is for greater autonomy for the islands, but short of independence. The party has governed the Canary Islands since 1993...

, he is the current President of the autonomous community

Autonomous communities of Spain

An autonomous community In other languages of Spain:*Catalan/Valencian .*Galician .*Basque . The second article of the constitution recognizes the rights of "nationalities and regions" to self-government and declares the "indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation".Political power in Spain is...

 of the Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

.

Biography

Prior to his career in politics, Rivero was a primary school teacher

Primary education

A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...

; he received his diploma from the University of La Laguna

University of La Laguna

The University of San Fernando de La Laguna, also known as the ULL is situated in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, on the island of Tenerife. It is the oldest university in the Canary Islands, and has the highest student population of any university in these islands. It is also considered the most...

. In the 1979 regional elections, the first such elections under the Spanish Constitution of 1978

Spanish Constitution of 1978

-Structure of the State:The Constitution recognizes the existence of nationalities and regions . Preliminary Title As a result, Spain is now composed entirely of 17 Autonomous Communities and two autonomous cities with varying degrees of autonomy, to the extent that, even though the Constitution...

, Rivero was elected as the mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of El Sauzal, a position he held until 1997. Rivero initially represented the Union of the Democratic Centre, but in 1983 he switched to the Agrupación Tinerfeña de Independientes, a group that eventually formed part of the Canarian Coalition.

Rivero was also a member of the Cabildo de Tenerife

Cabildo de Tenerife

Cabildo de Tenerife is the governing body of the island of Tenerife , Spain. It was established on 16 March 1913 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in a session held by the City Council, it was at that time, the first corporation...

 before moving into national politics in 1996. At the 1996 general election

Spanish general election, 1996

General elections were held in Spain on March 3, 1996. The Prime Minister Felipe González of Spanish Socialist Workers' Party lost the elections to Partido Popular and their leader José María Aznar....

, Rivero was elected to the Congress of Deputies as the representative of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife electoral district

Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

Santa Cruz de Tenerife is one of the 52 electoral districts used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. It was first contested in modern times in the 1977 General Election and covers the western part of the Canary Islands...

 - he was subsequently re-elected at the 2000

Spanish general election, 2000

Legislative elections were held in Spain on 12 March 2000. The incumbent People's Party of Prime Minister José María Aznar was elected to a second term in office, converting its plurality of seats in the Congress of Deputies into a majority, and increasing its lead over the opposition Spanish...

 and 2004 general elections. He chaired the parliamentary committee investigating the 2004 Madrid train bombings.

In February 2007, Rivero was selected as the Canarian Coalition's candidate for President of the Canary Islands at the 2007 regional elections

Spanish regional elections, 2007

A number of elections were held in Spain on 27 May 2007:* municipal elections;* local elections of various types like the elections to the Cabildo on the Canary Islands;* elections to the Assembly of Ceuta and Melilla; and...

. The coalition received the third-highest share of the vote, 23.36%, but received the second highest number of delegates with 19. Rivero's party formed a coalition with the third-place People's Party

People's Party (Spain)

The People's Party is a conservative political party in Spain.The People's Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People's Alliance , a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco's dictatorship...

, which allowed him to be installed as President on 13 July 2007.