Beatriz Paredes Rangel
Beatriz Elena Paredes Rangel is a Mexican politician who served as president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. She was the first woman to serve as Governor of Tlaxcala and the second woman to serve as a state governor in Mexican history.
Paredes Rangel studied Sociology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico but never graduated. She began her political career at the age of 21 as a Tlaxcala state deputy and then served as advisor for the Governor of Tlaxcala. In 1982 she was appointed Undersecretary for Agrarian Reform and from 1987 to 1992 she served as Governor of Tlaxcala. She has also served in the Chamber of Deputies, in the Senate and President Carlos Salinas appointed her Ambassador to Cuba in 1993. She was the President of the Chamber of Deputies in 2001-2002.
In the 2006 Federal District election she ran for Head of Government of Mexico City, representing an alliance of the PRI and the PVEM; she lost the election against Marcelo Ebrard.
Paredes has occupied different positions in the PRI, mostly representing the rural and indigenous wings of the party. She served as general secretary of the PRI and ran for the presidency of her party but lost to Roberto Madrazo. In 2007, she ran again for the party's presidency and won by a large margin. Paredes has also expressed her support for the recognition of same-sex unions in Mexico in 2010 after Mexico City legalized same sex marriage.
On 5 October 2009 she publicly acknowledged her interest in running for President of Mexico in 2012 and her pro-choice stand on abortion issues. She is currently the ambassador of Mexico in Brazil. She is also a member of Washington D.C. based think tank the Inter-American Dialogue.
