MADRID (HURTADO), MIGUEL DE LA

born Dec. 12, 1934, Colima, Mex. president of Mexico from 1982 to 1988. De la Madrid received a degree in law from the Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico (UNAM) in Mexico City in 1957 and a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University in 1965. He worked for the National Bank of Foreign Commerce and the Bank of Mexico, and, until 1968, he taught law at the UNAM. A member of Mexico's ruling party, Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), from 1963, de la Madrid first entered government service in the Treasury (1965). From 1970 to 1972 he worked for Petrleos Mexicanos, but he returned to government service thereafter, taking a number of economic bureaucratic posts until becoming minister of planning and budget in President Jos Lpez Portillo's administration (197682). He was the principal author of an economic-development plan that was inspired by the revenues from vast new discoveries of Mexican petroleum. A political conservative and friend of the business community, de la Madrid sought, as president, to combat corruption in government, in government-run industries, and in labour unions. He continued to pursue foreign policies that reflected the prevailing spirit of a more independent, worldly Mexico.