Carlos Jonguitud Barrios

Who was Carlos Jonguitud Barrios?

Carlos Jongitud Barrios was a controversial Mexican union leader and governor of San Luis Potosí. For decades he was generally portrayed by the Mexican press as a gangsterish, de facto leader of the national teachers' union.

Jongitud Barrios was born at Coxcatlán, San Luis Potosí, the son of Atanasio Jongitud Álvarez, a farmer, and María Guadalupe Rodea García, an elementary school teacher. He graduated as an elementary school teacher from the Escuela Normal in Ozuluama, Veracruz, and received a bachelor's degree in law from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Jongitud joined the Revolutionary Institutional Party in 1942, representing it twice in the Senate and once in the Chamber of Deputies. He also served as general director of the Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers from 1976 until 1979.