Mexican finance minister who told Washington and the IMF in August 1982 that Mexico could not pay
The son of the economic historian Jesús Silva Herzog, he was born in Mexico City and studied economics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and Yale. After heading the workers' housing institute INFONAVIT, serving as a director-general at the Bank of Mexico and as undersecretary of finance, he became Secretary of Finance in March 1982. That August he told the US Federal Reserve chairman, the Treasury secretary and the IMF managing director that Mexico could not meet its debt payments, and he led the negotiations with the creditors and the IMF. In 1986, when the cabinet rejected an IMF agreement demanding further austerity, he resigned. He was later Secretary of Tourism and ambassador to Spain and the United States.
Also known as: Jesús Silva-Herzog Flores · Jesus Silva Herzog
Activities and affiliations
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1972–1982
Mexico state institutionsINFONAVIT director, Bank of Mexico director-general, undersecretary of finance
Economy, finance and planning -
1982–1986
Mexico state institutionsSecretary of Finance and Public CreditMain
Economy, finance and planning -
1991–1997
Mexico state institutionsAmbassador to Spain and the United States
Diplomacy and international organization -
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, Mexico)
Economy, finance and planning
Career Timeline
- 1972–1976Director-general of INFONAVIT
- 1977–1978Director-general at the Bank of Mexico
- 1979–1982Undersecretary of Finance
- 1982.03–1986.06Secretary of Finance and Public Credit
- 1991–1994Ambassador to Spain
- 1994Secretary of Tourism
- 1995–1997Ambassador to the United States