page_title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco
section_title: Governor of Morelos (2018–present)
hierarchical_section_title: Cuauhtémoc Blanco / Political career / Governor of Morelos (2018–present)
caption_attribution_description: Español: El presidente de México, Enrique Peña Nieto (derecha), y el gobernador de Morelos, Cuauhtemoc Blanco (izquierda), en la entrega de la Autopista Siglo XXI.
context_page_description: Cuauhtémoc Blanco Bravo is a Mexican politician and former professional footballer who is the current Governor of Morelos under the coalition Juntos Haremos Historia. He formerly served as the municipal president of Cuernavaca, Morelos. As a footballer, Blanco was known for his attacking ability and played most of his career as a deep-lying forward and his last years as an attacking midfielder. Blanco is considered to be one of the greatest Mexican footballers of all time, as well as one of the best penalty takers of all time.
  Blanco started his career with América in 1992, where he won various awards, both team-based and individual, and had various loan stints with Necaxa, Spanish club Real Valladolid, and Veracruz. In 2007, he joined the Chicago Fire, with a loan stint with Santos Laguna for the 2008 Apertura championship. In 2010, he returned to Mexico to trek throughout various teams, joining Veracruz again, Irapuato, Dorados, and Puebla-based teams BUAP and Puebla, where he retired with the latter in 2015. The following year, he came out of retirement to officially end his career with América.
  Blanco represented the Mexico national football team from 1995 to 2010.
context_section_description: For the 2018 general elections, the National Regeneration Movement proposed having Senator Rabindranath Salazar Solorio as the candidate under the coalition Juntos Haremos Historia for the Governor of Morelos but PES, also part of the coalition, argued Blanco was the better choice for the coalition's candidate. In December 2015, it was determined there would be an internal election to see who would become the candidate for the coalition.
  On 28 January 2018, Juntos Haremos Historia presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced Blanco would be the coalition's candidate after winning the nominee process against Senator Rabindranath Salazar Solorio. On 11 March 2018 he formally registered to become candidate for Governor of Morelos and on 2 April 2018, he was separated from his post as municipal president of Cuernavaca, succeeded by Denisse Arizmendi Villegas, in order to formally participate in the gubernatorial elections. Polls indicated he was in the lead.
  On 1 July 2018, he won the 2018 gubernatorial elections by a landslide, becoming the first former footballer to win a state governor election in Mexico. He began his term as Governor on 1 October 2018. His greatest challenges as governor are finding adequate funding for the state university (UAEM) and resolving the high incidence of crime in the state. Only three months into his term, he was already faced with marches denouncing his administration. On 13 February 2019 Blanco formally charged his predecessor, Graco Ramirez, with organized crime, operations with resources of illicit origin, and tax fraud.
  One year into his job as governor, people have begun to doubt Blanco's administration. Politically, he has had disputes with Morena and PT, partners in Juntos Haremos Historia that got him elected. He has been promoting PES, which has been dissolved on a national level but remains strong locally. Crime in on the rise, with an increase of 41% in murder, kidnapping 375%, and extorsion 680%. 80 women have been killed, 22 of which have been classified as femicide. On top of that, a tax debt of MXN $302,230 (USD $15,800) from his time as a footballer was pardoned by the federal Tax Administration Service. Roberto Soto Pastor, a former collaborator of Graco Ramirezs, has sued Blanco for hiring several members of his family and friends, including: his half-brother Ulises Bravo, sister-in-law Liu León Luna, uncles Carlos Juárez López, Jaime Juárez López, and Armando Shajid Bravo López, and a close friend named Baltazar Jonathan Alegría Mejía. All receive salaries that range from MXN $45,000 to $60,000 (USD $2,300 to $3,100) per month. The suit says their hiring is a violation of Código Penal de Morelos, Artículo 276 (Morelos penal code, Article 276) which prohibits nepotism. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador personally bawled Blanco out for nepotism in a meeting on October 11. The governor denies allegations of nepotism.
  On January 8, 2020, Arias Consultores released a poll that describes the best and worst governors. Sinaloa governor Quirino Ordaz Coppel is chosen best, while Puebla governor L. Miguel Barbosa Huerta wss declared the worst. Cuauhtemoc Blanco was second-to-last at No. 31.
caption: Blanco shaking hands with Enrique Peña Nieto, December 2018
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