Óscar Almaraz Smer

Óscar de Jesús Almaraz Smer (13 March 1968 – 18 September 2025) was a Mexican politician and businessman. He served as Secretary of Finance of Tamaulipas from 2004 to 2010, as a local deputy in the state congress from 2011 to 2013, and as municipal president of Ciudad Victoria from 2016 to 2018. Originally a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, he later joined the National Action Party and was elected federal deputy for Tamaulipas's 5th district in the LXV Legislature (2021–2024).

Early life and education Almaraz was born in Ciudad Victoria on 13 March 1968. He studied public accounting at the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas.

Career Almaraz served as Secretary of Finance in the administration of Governor Eugenio Hernández Flores from 2004 to 2010, and from 2011 to 2013 was a local deputy for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He was elected municipal president of Ciudad Victoria for the PRI, serving from 2016 to 2018.

Almaraz resigned from the party in 2021. That same year, he ran as the National Action Party (PAN) candidate for federal deputy for Tamaulipas's 5th district and was elected to the LXV Legislature, which sat until 2024. He also presented a bill to reform the Federal Penal Code so that violent deaths of women would be presumed feminicide and investigated as such from the outset.

In the 2024 municipal election, Almaraz contested the mayoralty under the PAN banner, but was defeated by the Morena candidate Eduardo Gattás.

In 2025, Almaraz dedicated himself to his restaurant business, operating a venue called La Corte.

Death On 18 September 2025, Almaraz died of a heart attack at the age of 57, in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas.