José López Portillo

Mexico state institutions 1920.6.16.–2004.2.17. ○ Pneumonia

Mexican president who borrowed against oil to "administer the abundance" and left office after the 1982 default and bank nationalisation

Born in Mexico City, López Portillo studied law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and began his political career with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 1959. He served as finance minister in 1973–1975 under his childhood friend Luis Echeverría and was elected president unopposed in 1976. He financed heavy investment in the oil industry and social spending with foreign loans against the new oil reserves, but when oil prices fell in 1981 and interest rates soared, Mexico declared a sovereign default in 1982. In his last annual address he condemned the bankers and businessmen behind the capital flight and nationalised the banks; by the end of his term Mexico had the highest external debt in the world.

Also known as: José López Portillo y Pacheco · Jose Lopez Portillo