Víctor Manzanilla Schaffer

Víctor Manzanilla Schaffer (13 November 1924 – 7 April 2019) was a Mexican politician and diplomat who served as governor of the state of Yucatán. He was a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Early life and education Manzanilla Schaffer was born on 13 November 1924 in Mexico City. His was the son of Rosa Schaffer Acevedo and Víctor Manzanilla Jiménez, the latter of whom was a revolutionary politician in Yucatán, the founder of the Anti-Reelection Party and a congressman. Manzanilla Jiménez was originally from Cansahcab, Yucatán, while Schaffer Acevedo was from Progreso, Yucatán.

Career He served as a legal assistant in the United Nations division of narcotics, as Mexico's ambassador to China and its first to North Korea, and for two terms as a member of the Senate and two as a member of the Chamber of Deputies for Yucatán's second district. He exerted unusual independence as a congressman, on one occasion voting against President José López Portillo's amendment of Article 27 of the Constitution. He succeeded Víctor Cervera Pacheco. He served as the governor of Yucatán from 1 February 1988 to 14 February 1991. Manzanilla Schaffer was succeeded on an interim basis by Dulce María Sauri Riancho, the state's first female governor.

Personal life In 1948, Manzanilla Schaffer was sent by the government to the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City to legislate on drugs. There, he met the Egyptian Roby Naim, whose parents were Arabic-speakers from Egypt and Tunisia of French origin. They married, and had six children. One daughter, Linda Manzanilla Naim, became an archeologist. Manzanilla Schaffer died on 7 April 2019, at the age of 94, in Irapuato, Guanajuato.

Honours Among other honours Manzanilla Schaffer was awarded the Medalla al Mérito Legislativo, the Knight Commander's Cross of the Grand Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Jesús Reyes Heroles prize of the Agrupación Nacional de Egresados del Instituto de Capacitación Política of the PRI.