HANK, CARLOS GONZALEZ (MEXICO)

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06794095
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: May 16, 2019
• Case Number: F-2018-01761
• Publication Date: April 29, 1994

Approved for Release: 2019/04/19 C06794095
MEXICO
Carlos HANK Gonzalez
HANK
Secretary of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources (since 1990)
Wealthy businessman and political power broker Carlos Hank is one of a few from the
traditionalist, old-guard wing of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)
in President Carlos Salinas's generally young, technocratic Cabinet.
he was selected for his post because his considerable influence within the PRI
and his wide-ranging business contacts provided leverage to implement controversial
agricultural reforms, which have been a critical part of Salinas's economic modernization
program. PRI officials continue to look to Hank as someone who can deliver support
from PRI traditionalists: he is among those who have recently been courted by PRI
presidential candidate Ernesto Zedillo Included in recent
arty appointments by Zedillo are two officials who have strong ties to Hank,
and are his proteges: PRI secretary general and Zedillo campaign coordinator
gnacio Pichardo and PRI secretary of electoral action Humberto Lira. The ambitious,
aggressive Hank has himself long aspired to high political office, according to press
reports, but he is constitutionally prohibited from running for the presidency until
the year 2000 because his father was German born.
leaving Hank to ensure that
key PRI and government leaders support the administration's agricultural line. Hank
has been most active on irrigation and water-rights issues, particularly in the arid
northwestern states, and has met with key officials in US border states to discuss
these questions. He has also actively promoted greater private-sector participation
in agriculture.
Career and Personal Data
Approved for Release: 2019/04/19 C06794095
Approved for Release: 2019/04/19 C06794095
Hank was born on 28 August 1927. After graduating from the Normal School of Toluca
in Mexico State, he taught primary and secondary education for several years. He
later went into business and acquired several enterprises, including trucking and
heavy equipment manufacturing plants and real estate. He has served as mayor of Toluca
(1955-57), federal deputy from Mexico State (1958-61), and assistant manager of sales
(1961-64) and director (1964-65) of CONASUPO, a government agency controlling the
price and distribution of basic commodities. He was Governor of Mexico State (1969-
75), his political power base, before being named mayor of Mexico City in 1976. He
returned to the private sector in 1982, where he worked until his appointment as Secretary
of Tourism in December 1988. He held that post until assuming his current duties.
Hank does not speak English.
Married to the former
Maria Guadeloupe Rohn, he has six children.
LDA M 94-12442
04/29/1994
Approved for Release: 2019/04/19 C06794095