Marta Sahagún
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| Marta Sahagún de Fox | |
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| Born | April 10, 1953 Zamora, Michoacán |
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| Occupation | First Lady of Mexico |
| Predecessor | Nilda Patricia Velasco de Zedillo |
| Successor | Margarita Zavala de Calderón |
| Spouse | Vicente Fox Quesada |
Marta Sahagún de Fox (born Marta María Sahagún Jiménez) (frequently called Martita in a more familiar tone) became the First Lady of Mexico on July 2, 2001, when she married President Vicente Fox Quesada.
Sahagún was born in Zamora, Michoacán, on April 10, 1953, and for a few years worked as an English instructor at the Universidad Lasallista Benavente. Her first marriage was to Manuel Bribiesca Godoy in 1971 and they had three sons: Manuel, Jorge and Fernando. Bribiesca and Sahagún separated in 1998 and divorced in 2000; their Roman Catholic marriage was declared null and void by the Church in 2005.[citation needed]
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[edit] Politics
Since 1988, she has been an active member of the National Action Party (PAN). After losing her bid to become the mayor of Celaya, Guanajuato, she met Vicente Fox. In 1995, Sahagún became his spokesperson, first at the state government, then during his presidential campaign and finally during his first year in the presidency.[citation needed]
[edit] First Lady
On July 2, 2001, she and Fox surprised the media by marrying in a private early-morning ceremony. Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar, who was on a state visit to the country, unknowingly announced the wedding to the media by congratulating the couple (the state visit's agenda included a reference to “President Fox and his wife”). Rumours of bickering among Marta and Fox’s children (specifically his grown daughters) from his first marriage (he divorced years before being president) arose, and books about Marta and her role in her husband’s Presidency began to appear.[citation needed]
On September 24, 2001, Sahagún founded a national philanthropic organization named Vamos México (“Let’s go, Mexico!”). This was quickly criticized as a way for self-promotion and funding towards the presidency in 2006. Its first fund drive was on a historic building, Chapultepec Palace, in a dinner attended by most financial and business leaders with a performance by Elton John. Vamos Mexico’s stated purpose is to concentrate funding and channel it into the diverse private philanthropy foundations already in existence. The idea of the President’s wife managing the funds of Mexico’s philanthropic organizations was seen as undermining to the current efforts, specially since Marta never showed a previous interest in philanthropy. In fact, after marrying Fox she refused to become head of the Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (DIF), a government national institute for children and family welfare, a post traditionally offered to (and accepted by) the President’s wife.[citation needed]
On January 31, 2004, the Financial Times published an extended report questioning management practices and the lack of transparency in the organization, accusing it of spending less than 35% of its income on charity. The accusations were strongly denied by Sahagún in an open letter citing frequent audits, though some disparities in accounting arose, which were blamed on human error.[citation needed]
In 2003, Argentine journalist Olga Wornat wrote the book La Jefa (Chiefwoman) about Marta Sahagún and her rise to power. In 2003, Wornat wrote a second book about Sahagún titled Crónicas Malditas ("Cursed Chronicles") describing, among other topics, how Sahagún’s sons from her first marriage have benefited with contracts through her political influence. An excerpt from the book was published on the political magazine Proceso and Sahagún filed a lawsuit against Wornat, her publisher Random House Mondadori and Proceso’s publisher for alleged personal damages. The filing of the lawsuit resulted in house arrest of Wornat for a month, which was protested by Reporters Without Borders as unprecedented in Mexican legal history.[citation needed]
[edit] Presidential plans
During the first months of 2004, Sahagún reiterated that Mexico was “ready to have a woman as president”, refusing to say whether she was that woman or not. However, a new scandal made the headlines: it was discovered that the National Lottery, a government organism (gambling is mostly banned in Mexico), funded Transforma Mexico (Transform Mexico), a fund quickly linked to Sahagún’s Vamos Mexico. This not only created controversy and a congressional probe, but caused changes in the government: the private secretary of Vicente Fox publicly quit, stating in an open letter that he didn’t agree with the way Fox supported the political ambitions of his wife. A few days later Fox announced a new general director for the National Lottery. By the middle of July the pressure was so great that President Fox assured the press both he and Marta would go home after ending his term, and announced his wife would give a press conference about that. That press conference was delayed once, but finally, after one week, Marta Sahagún announced she would not run for the presidential office in 2006, and would go home with Vicente Fox.[citation needed]
In February 2005, her religious (Roman Catholic) marriage with Manuel Bribiesca was declared null and void by the Church. In practical terms a divorce, this means the Church found after analyzing her case (she alleged domestic violence by her husband) that her marriage never happened at all, so she can have a religious wedding (for the first time, not again). Fox’s religious marriage still stands, however.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Mexico's first lady eyes following Fox to presidency
- El Balero: Marta Sahagún de Fox
- (Spanish) Univisión: Primera dama mexicana quiere presidencia
- Presidencia de la República: Marta de Fox (official bio)
- (Spanish) Vamos Mexico response to the Financial Times
- Sahagún sues journalist and Mexican magazine
- Reporters Without Borders articles about the Sahagún family relations with Olga Wornat
| Honorary titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Nilda Patricia Velasco de Zedillo |
First Lady of Mexico 2001–2006 |
Succeeded by Margarita Zavala de Calderón |
