María del Rosario Robles Berlanga (; born 17 February 1956) is a Mexican politician who served as the

Secretary of Social Development The Secretariat of Welfare ( Spanish: ''Secretaría de Bienestar'') is the government department in charge of social development efforts in Mexico. The Secretary of Welfare is a member of the Executive Cabinet, and is appointed at the discretion ...

in the cabinet of President

Enrique Peña Nieto Enrique Peña Nieto (; born 20 July 1966), commonly referred to by his initials EPN, is a Mexican former politician and lawyer who was the 64th president of Mexico from 2012 to 2018. A member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), he p ...

. She also was substitute

Head of Government of the Federal District The head of government () wields executive power in Mexico City. The head of government serves a six-year term, running concurrently with that of the president of the Republic. Mexico City, or CDMX, is the seat of national government, and is l ...

(

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

) when

Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano (; born 1 May 1934) is a Mexicans, Mexican politician and civil engineer. A prominent Social democracy, social-democrat and the son of 51st president of Mexico Lázaro Cárdenas, he is a former List of heads of ...

resigned from the post to run in the 2000 presidential election. She was the first female mayor of Mexico City.

Career

Her term in office was highly controversial for an intensive media campaign in her government promoting her personal image, the high cost of which raised corruption concerns, and for introducing her political allies to entrepreneur

Carlos Ahumada Carlos Agustín Ahumada Kurtz (born 1964) is an entrepreneur of dual Argentine-Mexican nationality. His main areas of business are mining, construction and football. He founded the ''El Independiente'' newspaper in Mexico and was a partner and foun ...

, who videotaped himself giving large amounts of cash to the politician

René Bejarano René Juvenal Bejarano Martínez (born January 11, 1957) is a Mexican politician and ex-legislator, better known for the 2004 videoscandals. He was a political economy professor at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in 1978 and was the ...

. The scandals caused a major crisis for her party, the

Partido de la Revolución Democrática The Party of the Democratic Revolution (, , PRD) is a state-level social democracy, social democratic political party in Mexico (previously national, until 2024). The PRD originated from the Democratic Current, a political faction formed in 198 ...

(PRD). As a result, she subsequently resigned from the party. Carlos Ahumada was imprisoned, and René Bejarano is still free and active in politics via his wife Dolores Padierna. Her successor as chief executive of the Federal District was

Andrés Manuel López Obrador Andrés Manuel López Obrador (; born 13 November 1953), also known by his initials AMLO, is a Mexican former politician, political scientist, public administrator and writer who served as the 65th president of Mexico from 2018 to 2024. He se ...

, of the same party who left after inconformity with the path the party was taking, and went into forming the MORENA party. In 2005 she announced her intentions to run for the same office, although it is unclear under which party she would run, as her political image was affected by the

videoscandals The ''Videoscandals'' () were political scandals in Mexico in 2004 when videos of prominent politicians taken with hidden cameras were made public. The majority of them involved politicians in corrupt dealings with former business man Carlos Ahum ...

of that year. In the event,

the election ''The Election'' () is a political drama series produced by Hong Kong Television Network (HKTV). With a budget of HK$15 million, filming started in July 2014 and wrapped up on 28 October 2014. Popularly voted to be the inaugural drama of ...

passed by without her participation. In 2014 she announced that social help of the "Oportunidades" social program of

SEDESOL The Secretariat of Welfare ( Spanish: ''Secretaría de Bienestar'') is the government department in charge of social development efforts in Mexico. The Secretary of Welfare is a member of the Executive Cabinet, and is appointed at the discretion ...

will not be increased for mothers with more than three children, she said that the mothers have children to get more money from the program. This was criticized by left-wing parties. Rosario Robles is currently involved in one of the biggest racketeering scandals: (Master scam). The master scam is the name of a journalistic investigation conducted by the Mexican ''Animal Politico'' news service in association with the Mexican civil society organization Against Corruption and Impunity. Published on 5 September 2017, the investigation unveiled a system of 128 ghost companies through which the federal government diverted more than 400 million dollars through a network of money diversions that involved 11 state agencies, eight public universities, various private companies and more than 50 public servants of different levels of government.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robles, Rosario 1956 births Living people Heads of government of Mexico City Presidents of the Party of the Democratic Revolution Women secretaries of state of Mexico Politicians from Mexico City Mexican social democrats National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni 20th-century Mexican politicians 20th-century Mexican women politicians 21st-century Mexican politicians 21st-century Mexican women politicians