Jaime Bonilla Valdez
Jaime Bonilla Valdez (Born June 9, 1950) is a Mexican politician and entrepreneur from Baja California. He is a member of the National Regeneration Movement party. He has been a Federal Congressman and a Senator of the Republic. Since November 15, 2019, he is the Governor of Baja California for the 2019-2021 term.
Bonilla was born in Tijuana, Baja California[1] and obtained his degree in business administration from the UNAM in 1983. He worked in a variety of companies, including Electrol de México, CONESA, and COVIMEX de México.[2] Between 1982 and 1985, he directed the Potros de Tijuana baseball club, which played in the Liga Mexicana del Pacífico.[3] In 1984, he became the director general and a columnist of the Diario de Baja California newspaper, which began a career in media ownership for Bonilla. Through his company PSN (originally an acronym for Pacific Spanish Network, now Primer Sistema de Noticias), he directly operates XESS-AM 620 and XESDD-AM 1030 in Tijuana. He also owned XHENB-TV channel 29 in Ensenada, now a cable-only outlet, and his company Media Sports de México holds the concessions for two radio stations operated under brokerage agreements by American programmers, XEPE-AM 1700 and XHPRS-FM 105.7. Bonilla also acquired cable systems in Ensenada and Tecate. Bonilla also owned radio station KURS 1040 in San Diego through his company Quetzal Bilingual Communications; the station was sold in 2016 for $900,000.[4]
In 2000, Bonilla, then a dual citizen of Mexico and the United States, joined the board of the Otay Water District in Otay Mesa, California. While in the US, he lived in Chula Vista, California, and was a donor to Republican causes and even was on the California finance committee for John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.[5] In March 2012, he announced his resignation from the water board in order to run for federal deputy and simultaneously join the 2012 presidential campaign of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.[6] At the same time, he renounced his dual citizenship,[3] a move necessary to meet the constitutional requirements to run for office.[7] He became a proportional representation deputy on the PT list, during which time he served as the president of the Northern Border Matters Commission and was the state campaign coordinator for the PT in the 2013 Baja California state elections.[2] Bonilla left the post in 2014 in order to become the state party director for the then-new Morena party.[3] His relationship with López Obrador remained close; in 2016, Bonilla invited him to his Petco Park suite for the 2016 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.[3] Party members and leaders say that in Bonilla’s media holdings, López Obrador saw a “gold mine” to gain media exposure in Baja California.[3]
On 31 January 2018, López Obrador announced that Bonilla would be the primary Senate candidate in Baja California for the Juntos Haremos Historia coalition, forming a ticket with Alejandra León Gastélum.[8] The Juntos Haremos Historia ticket took first place in the election, securing both candidates seats in the Senate. However, Bonilla has stated that he will only remain in office three months and will then become the state development coordinator in Baja California.
