What is Enrique Peña Nieto's Net Worth and Salary?
Enrique Peña Nieto is a Mexican politician who has a net worth of $20 million. According to his 2014 wealth disclosure, Enrique listed a total net worth of 45 million pesos and an income of 3.4 million pesos. At the time those values were worth the same as $3.3 million USD and $180,000, respectively. His main assets included four houses, an apartment, land, art coins, and jewelry.
Enrique Pena Nieto was elected the 64th President of Mexico in 2012. He succeeded Felipe Calderón, who succeeded Vicente Fox. He served through 2018. Pena Nieto is a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party and was the governor of the State of Mexico from 2005 to 2011. He was declared president-elect in 2012 amidst accusations of electoral fraud. He gained 38% of the votes and did not hold a legislative majority. Tens of thousands of people across Mexico marched against Pena Nieto. He pledged to fight against organized crime and the drug trade and promised that his government would be democratic, modern, and open to criticism.
Enrique married Monica Pretelini in 1993, and the couple had three children together. Tragically, Pretelini passed away during Pena Nieto's second year in office. He has been married to former model/TV presenter Angelica Rivera since 2010.
$7 Million Mansion
In 2014, Angelica made headlines when it was revealed that a Mexican business tycoon named Juan Armando Hinojosa Cantu, who earned his fortune off government contracts, had given the actress a $7 million mansion located in one of Mexico City's most expensive neighborhoods. The tycoon reportedly received $3.5 billion worth of government contracts, many of which were given without competitor bids. Angelica would later claim it was not a gift but a loan that would be paid back with her own acting earnings.
A Mexican financial outlet investigated how much the typical soap actress earned at Angelica's former employer and concluded the highest-paid stars earned 5 – 8 million pesos per year. That's the same as around $265,000 – $500,000 per year. Actors are also typically signed on for five-year exclusive contracts. The implication here is that it would be extremely hard to understand how Angelica could have enough personal wealth to afford a $7 million mansion. In response, Angelica claimed she had received $10 million USD as a severance payment from the network Televisa in recognition of her 25 years of service.
Angelica ultimately sold off her interest in the mansion to clear up any possibility of conflict of interest.
Alleged $100 Million Bribe
During the January 2019 trial of drug lord El Chapo Guzman, one of Chapo's former associates claimed that the Sinaloa cartel paid Enrique Peña Nieto a $100 million bribe. Actually, the allegation was even worse. According to the testimony, Enrique is the one who approached the cartel soon after his 2012 election, reportedly demanding a $250 million bribe to call off a nationwide manhunt for the drug lord. Chapo negotiated the bribe down to $100 million. The witness also claimed that the cartel's biggest rival paid Enrique's predecessor, Felipe Calderon, a similar bribe while he was in office.
Early Life
Nieto was born on July 20, 1966, in Altacomulco, Mexico. He was born to parents Gilberto Enrique Peña del Mazo, who worked as an electrical engineer, and Maria del Perpetuo Socorro Ofelia Nieto Sanchez, a school teacher. He grew up with his three younger siblings. He had uncles on both his mother's and father's side who had served as governors of the State of Mexico. Nieto attended school in Mexico but spent his junior year of high school at Denis Hall School in Alfred, Maine, in order to learn English. When he was 18, he moved to Mexico City and enrolled at Panamerican University. There, he earned a bachelor's degree in Legal Studies. He then obtained an MBA degree at the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.
Career
Nieto was exposed to politics from a young age through his family and joined the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 1984 at the age of 18. He formally started his political career under the mentorship of Montiel Rojas and became the Secretary of the Citizen Movement of Zone I of the State Directive Committee of the National Confederation of Popular Organizations. From 1993 to 1998, he served as chief of staff and personal secretary to Rojas, who at the time was serving as the Secretary of Economic Development of the State of Mexico. Throughout the 2000s, Nieto rose in the ranks to hold progressively qualified offices.
In 2003, Nieto was elected to a local deputy position in his hometown of Atlacomulco. Two years later, he ran for the governorship of the State of Mexico. While he was not poised to win, he beat out the other candidates and was sworn in on September 15, 2005. During his governorship, he carried out many promised projects, including building highways and hospitals and improving water systems to provide fresh water throughout the state. Notably, he was instrumental in developing the Suburban Railway of the Valley of Mexico Metropolitan Area, which provided a much more extensive connection for commuters to and from Mexico City. His focus on improving healthcare infrastructure also resulted in a reduction in deaths caused by respiratory diseases, dysentery, and cervical cancer.
His successful governorship compelled him to run in the 2012 Mexican presidential elections as the PRI party candidate. He ultimately won the election and was sown in as President of Mexico on December 1, 2012. As president, Nieto instated the multilateral Pact for Mexico, which was created to quell inter-party fighting within the country and resulted in increased legislation during his administration. During his initial years in office, he focused on breaking up monopolies, reforming public education, modernizing financial regulation, and liberalizing Mexico's energy sector.
Getty Images
However, despite his efforts, political gridlock meant that Nieto was unable to accomplish some of his major political goals. In fact, corruption in the government, crime, and the drug trade gradually worsened in Mexico throughout Nieto's time in office. Additionally, the global drops in oil prices restricted the success of his economic reforms. A number of controversial events occurred during his presidency as well. The drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman escaped from Altiplano prison in 2015 and later claimed to have bribed Nieto during his criminal trial. The Iguala mass kidnapping also happened during his time in office.
Nieto ended his presidency on December 1, 2018, and was succeeded by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Historical evaluations of Nieto's presidency show that approval ratings from the public of his administration are mostly negative. He began his term with an approval rate of 50% and it bottomed out at 12% in January of 2017. When he left office with an approval rating of only 18% and 77% disapproval. He is seen as one of the most controversial and least popular presidents in the history of Mexico. The lack of popularity of his government is also thought to have contributed to the monumental defeat suffered by the PRI party in the 2018 Mexican general election, where the party received the lowest vote percentage in its history.
Part of the reason Nieto is remembered so poorly is for the corruption allegations that plagued the final years of his presidency. In December 2017, "The New York Times" published accusations that Nieto's government was blocking investigations against public corruption. Twenty-two ex-governors, all members of the PRI party, were subsequently investigated for corruption, and five of them were jailed. Nieto has also been accused of benefiting from illegal campaign funds provided by the Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht.
Salary
When he was President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto earned a monthly salary of 208,000 pesos. At the time that was worth around $11,000 USD per month.
Personal Life
In 1993, Nieto married his first wife, Monica Pretelini. The couple had three children together – Paulina, Alejandro, and Nicole. While married to Pretelini, Nieto had two children outside of marriage. He had a son with Maritza Diaz Hernandez and another child with an undisclosed woman who died as an infant. Pretelini died on January 11, 2007, as a result of an epileptic episode.
In 2008, Nieto began dating Televisa soap opera actress Angelica Rivera. He had hired her to help publicize his political campaign in Mexico. After dating for a few years, the couple married in November of 2011. After Nieto's presidency ended, Rivera announced that the couple would be divorcing in February of 2019.
Real Estate
In their 2014 wealth disclosure, Enrique and Angelica revealed that she owned an oceanfront condo in Key Biscayne, Florida, that was purchased in 2005 for $1.775 million and was worth $3.3 million at that point. She bought the condo with a 30-year mortgage and paid it off in full in 2011, just 46 days after marrying Enrique.
