Carlos Ignacio Pesquera-Morales (born August 17, 1956) is a Puerto Rican

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

who served as the

Secretary of Transportation and Public Works of Puerto Rico The secretary of transportation and public works of Puerto Rico () leads the Department of Transportation and Public Works of Puerto Rico and leads all efforts related to transportation and public works in Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), ...

from 1993 to 1999. He ran in the 2016 New Progressive Party primary to be Puerto Rico's Resident Commissioner as

Pedro Pierluisi Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia (born April 26, 1959) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the Governor of Puerto Rico from 2021 to 2025, having previously been the de facto governor from August 2–7, 2019. A member of New P ...

's ballot running mate, but lost by over 70% of the vote to state representative Jenniffer Gonzalez. He is married to Irasema Rivera, an agronomist, and has one son and one daughter. He currently resides in

Guaynabo, Puerto Rico Guaynabo (, ) is a Guaynabo barrio-pueblo, city and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the northeastern coastal plain of Puerto Rico. Located west of the capital San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan, east of Bayamón, Puerto Rico, Bayam� ...

Education

Carlos Ignacio Pesquera Morales graduated from High School while attending Nuestra Señora de Belén. Dr. Pesquera attended the

University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez The University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus (UPRM) or Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez (RUM) in Spanish (also referred to as Colegio and CAAM in allusion to its former name), is a Public university, public land-grant university in Mayagüez ...

, where he graduated with high honors as an engineer. He was awarded the Etienne Totti Award for Best Student of the Civil Engineering Class, 1978. Later, Pesquera continued his graduate studies at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, where he obtained an M.S. and Ph.D. in Structural Engineering. At Cornell, Pesquera specialized in the application of Computer-Aided-Design tools in the design of steel framed structures. He then worked at 3D/Eye where he was in charge of developing Steel-3D, one of the first fully integrated structural design tools based on computer graphics. Afterwards, he taught civil engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.

Political career

Pesquera was the Secretary of the

Department of Transportation and Public Works of Puerto Rico The Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP; ) is the Executive Department of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico that regulates transportation and public works in Puerto Rico.Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) Fiscal Years 2010- ...

under

Pedro Rosselló Pedro Juan Rosselló González (; born April 5, 1944) is a Puerto Rican physician and politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 2001. He was President of the New Progressive Party from 1991 to 1999 and 2003 to 2008, an ...

's first and second terms as Governor (1993–1999). As Secretary of Transportation, he is credited as the driving force behind the $2 billion ''

Tren Urbano The ''Tren Urbano'' (English language, English: Urban Train) is a List of automated urban metro subway systems, automated rapid transit system serving the San Juan–Bayamón–Caguas metropolitan area, main metropolitan area of Puerto Rico ...

'' (Urban Train), the Superaqueduct that has resolved metropolitan San Juan's water rationing problems, numerous road construction projects and the construction of the

José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum The ''Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot'' ( English: José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum of Puerto Rico) is the largest indoor entertainment and sports arena in Puerto Rico since its inauguration in 2004. Located in the Hato Rey business ce ...

in San Juan. He ran for

Governor of Puerto Rico The governor of Puerto Rico () is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. Elected to a 4 year-term through popular vote by the residents of the archipelago and island, ...

as a candidate of the pro-statehood

New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico The New Progressive Party (, PNP) is a political party in Puerto Rico that advocates for statehood.Sila María Calderón Sila María Calderón Serra (born September 23, 1942) is a Puerto Rican politician, businesswoman, and philanthropist who was the governor of Puerto Rico from 2001 to 2005, becoming the first female to be elected and serve as governor in Puerto ...

of the Popular Democratic Party. The results of that election showed: Sila Calderón (

PDP PDP may refer to: Computing and technology * Packet Data Protocol in wireless GPRS/HSDPA networks * Parallel distributed processing in Connectionism#Parallel distributed processing, connectionism * Plasma display panel * Policy Decision Point in t ...

) with 978,860 votes (48.6%); Carlos Pesquera ( NPP) 919,194 votes (45.7%); Ruben Berrios ( PIP) 104,705 (5.2%), while other candidates had about 2700 votes (under 0.5%). Afterwards, he reorganized his followers and remained the head of the NPP until the year 2003. That same year Pedro Rosselló returned from retirement and Pesquera ran for his party's candidacy for Governor but was soundly defeated in a primary election by Rosselló. Pesquera then retired from public life and is currently teaching at several Puerto Rican universities. In January 2007, Governor

Aníbal Acevedo Vilá Aníbal Salvador Acevedo Vilá (born 13 February 1962) is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2005 to 2009. He is a Harvard University alumnus ( LL.M. 1987) and a graduate of the University of ...

nominated him to be part of the Board of Regents of the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...

External links

Puerto Rico Herald: Profile: Carlos Pesquera

General Elections Results 2000
, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Pesquera, Carlos 1956 births Puerto Rican civil engineers Cornell University College of Engineering alumni Kidnapped politicians Living people New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico) politicians Presidents of the New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico) Secretaries of Transportation and Public Works of Puerto Rico University of Puerto Rico alumni University of Puerto Rico faculty