The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Ifigenia Martínez, died yesterday at the age of 94, reported the President, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo. The head of the Legislative Branch was born in 1930, 24 years before women in Mexico could vote, and she was in charge of delivering the presidential sash.
Despite her health problems, she used a wheelchair and oxygen, Martínez attended the Sheinbaum inauguration last Tuesday, October 1, where the outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador first gave her the presidential sash, which he passed on to her. and placed Sheinbaum.
“On June 2 I voted for Ifigenia Martínez, a woman of consistency and convictions. On October 1, I received the presidential sash from your hands. Today he left us. I send all my love and solidarity to his family, colleagues and friends. Goodbye, dear teacher Ifigenia,” Sheinbaum noted in a farewell message on social networks.
“It was fair that it was up to her (Ifigenia Martínez) to place the presidential sash on him, which was also giving her recognition. It is a great loss for the nation, and obviously for the women’s movement in Mexico,” commented José Luis Sánchez, federal deputy and leader of the Labor Party (PT) in Jalisco.
Juan Barajas, director of the Morena Jalisco Political Training and Education Institute, assured that teacher Ifigenia’s career demonstrates a great commitment to political transformation in the country. “The fact that he gave the presidential sash to Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum was very significant because they are two generations that have been fighting together,” he commented.
Among her countless achievements are being the first Mexican to obtain a master’s degree in economics from Harvard University, the first woman to direct the UNAM Faculty of Economics and being a firm defender of university autonomy in 1968, in addition to serving as an ambassador before the UN.
She was also co-founder of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and won the national economics award.
In addition, on October 5, 2021, the Mexican Senate approved awarding the Belisario Domínguez medal to Martínez “for his relevant and significant career,” according to Dante Delgado, coordinator in the Citizen Movement Senate.
Martínez was the seventh woman to receive the highest civil distinction granted by the Senate since the establishment of this recognition in 1954.
Who will be left in his place?
The plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies must convene a session to elect the new leader of the Board of Directors, a position that will remain vacant until the corresponding election to fulfill the period for which it was elected.
The election of a new member of the Board of Directors will be carried out by a vote of two-thirds of the plenary session, as stated in article 17 of the Organic Law of the General Congress.
Goodbye to Ifigenia Martínez, historic political leader
Ifigenia Martha Martínez y Hernández, died yesterday at the age of 94, after she was present at the inauguration of Claudia Sheinbaum as President of Mexico and gave her the presidential sash, to close in a “poetic” way, as she Several politicians posted, a life dedicated to public service.
After several weeks in intensive care and fighting in the Chamber of Deputies with the issue of reform, he managed to leave the hospital for the investiture ceremony.
Yesterday politicians and those close to the public service dedicated messages on their social networks to say goodbye to her.
Ifigenia was a pioneer in the left-wing struggle in Mexico, she was one of the first women to stand out in the economic and political sphere of our country.
She was a Representative and Senator for the PRD and Morena in various periods. Fighter in the student movement of 1968, when she was the first director of the National School of Economics (1967). She was imprisoned by the Mexico City Police.
Close to President Claudia
When Andrés Manuel López Obrador left the PRD to start the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party, Ifigenia Martínez joined the so-called Fourth Transformation, where she met Claudia Sheinbaum and began closer work in the movement to promote women.
The President has said of Iphigenia that she is a woman who paved the way for many.
In the presidential election, Sheinbaum revealed that he symbolically voted for Martínez as a way to recognize his influence and legacy.
For his part, Martínez celebrated Sheinbaum’s triumph as the first woman to hold the position of head of the Executive Branch. “In 1988 I had to be the first woman precursor of the democratic movement and now having Claudia Sheinbaum as President is a great privilege,” she indicated.
He led the investiture ceremony
Upon being elected as president of the Chamber of Deputies for the first regular period of sessions of the LXVI Legislature, the economist and academic was the one who placed the presidential sash on Sheinbaum.
“We women are finally taking the places that belonged to us a long time ago, but that we did not have,” she said in a statement, when it was announced that she would be the one to impose the presidential sash on him.
On October 1, Martínez received Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Claudia Sheinbaum in the Congress rostrum. Due to her illness, Ifigenia Martínez was at the ceremony with auxiliary oxygen and received help for the protocol in which she should put the sash on the new President.
PUBLICATIONS
Featured works
- “Some effects of the crisis on income distribution in Mexico, edited by UNAM, in 1989.
- “Economy and democracy: an alternative proposal”, edited by Grijalbo, in 1995.
- “Globality, crisis and monetary reform”, edited by UNAM, in 1999.
- “The new power of Congress in Mexico”, edited by Porrúa, in 2001.
- “Mexico: development and strengthening of the strategic electric energy sector”, edited by Porrúa, in 2003.
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Awards and recognitions
- “Benito Juárez” Medal (October 2009), awarded by the Society of Geography and Statistics founded in 1833.
- In March 2019, she was the first to be awarded the “Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz” Medal, awarded by the Chamber of Deputies to eminent women.
- Belisario Domínguez Medal awarded on October 7, 2021 in the Senate.
REACTIONS
“He bravely resisted and fought against authoritarianism in 1968, and, 20 years later, joined the democratic insurgency. “His life was marked by social justice.”
Clara Brugada, Head of Government of CDMX.
“Brilliant woman, who made life the foundation on which many of the conditions of equality and freedom in which we live today are based.”
Olga Sánchez Cordero, Senator for Morena.
