Eugenio Baeza recounts supporting Cesar Duarte’s successful gubernatorial campaign, his initial reluctance to hold office, and accepting a role as substitute mayor to ensure specific public works (bridges, airport, historic center) were completed. He describes being notified Dec 3 and taking the oath Dec 4, then rapidly restructuring the municipal government: reducing the number of secretaries/directors (about 30 originally; he removed 7 in 15 days and later 15 people after a budget analysis), auditing assets (finding patrol cars ~30 years old), and leasing 500 patrol cars to restore operations.
Questions this video answers
December 3 (year not specified).
December 4 (year not specified).
About 30 ("like 30").
Seven (he left seven in 15 days).
Fifteen people (removed following the budget analysis).
Chapters
I participated supporting the governorship of Cesar Duarte. So I supported him in that governorship and he won. And my only thing with Cesar Duarte is the list of bridges to rescue the center, the airport, a list of things that I wanted to happen in Chihuahu. And I told him, I support you if you do that. And then he came in and I was really committed to making sure he did it. And I kept doing it. Ah, those first three years I was doing all that. In the third year, he invited me to his house. I was riding a mountain bike for four hours on a Saturday. And he talked to me and said, hey, I want to talk to you, come to my house. And then he said, hey, I want you to be a candidate for mayor. I said, no, I don't want to be a politician. I want things to happen in Chihuahua, but I don't want to be a politician. Well, then you don't want to be governor, right? I told him you weren't mayor to be governor. So why do you want me to be mayor? But I don't want to be governor either. Well, there he is, tough. And go ahead. No, don't be a candidate, be a substitute and help me get Garfio out, right? And then I told him, well, as long as you build Chihuahua, this bridge, this bypass, this rescue of the historic center, you create a trust. The whole list, right? Well, go ahead, sign it. And I had barely told him that. And I spoke to the newspapers and my wife was already saying to me, dad, what are you doing? Are you crazy? Well, I ran a campaign and I was a substitute. And as a substitute, I only got involved in making sure all these works and all these changes happened. I didn't get involved in the administration or how it was administered or anything. Suddenly the decision came for him to change the government. It starts because. Well, it had also happened that I had a good relationship with Pena and before with Calderon. And so I was already playing there in those areas. Why didn't I just run for office? I think the move was, let's get Garfio to run as a candidate, ask for permission, and then the law as a substitute, unless you are incapacitated, which was difficult to show, you have to take this thing. And that's what happened. They notified me on December 3rd, and on December 4th I was taking the oath of office, no, imagine with the end of the year, but now I was signing. So I got on board and brought in, you know, all the internal auditors. I brought in the planning area, I reviewed the entire structure and started making decisions. Well, with an impossible number of secretaries and directors to manage. Impossible? Uh, I think there were like 30. Something like that. Well, in 15 days I left seven. But I structured and merged and put together something that worked. Right after that, I did an analysis of the entire budget while they were extracting the audit data. And in that analysis, I removed 15 people. And then there were patrol cars that were 30 years old and were in the workshop permanently, and a helicopter. And then I gave all the patrol cars a floor and leased 500 patrol cars.
