Cardiologist Américo Villarreal did not imagine that the political blood that runs through the veins of his family I would call on him to turn his office in Ciudad Victoria into a house for legislative management.
His father, Governor Américo Villarreal was one of the last well-known politicians in Tamaulipas. Avenues, neighborhoods and sports cars bear his name, the one that today will be the campaign flag…
The government of the PRI politician whose administration coincided with that of the Tabasco president, Leandro Rovirosawhom President Andrés Manuel López considered one of the greatest promoters of his political career.
The friendship between the Tabascan and the Tamaulipas was something that the current President had in mind when in 2016, during a visit to the state, he sent for the doctor Américo Villareal to talk about his father, ask him for help in his presidential campaign and, incidentally, offer him to be a senator. This is how the route was traced that led him to be the Morena-Verde-PT candidate for the governorship of Tamaulipas.
Your profile, first it led him to win the seat in 2018 and four years later to win the morenista candidacy among more than 10 applicants.
In his first message, after registering with the Electoral Institute, Américo Villarreal spoke of honesty, unity and hope. He made little mention of the politics that have been tainted in Tamaulipas by the imprisonment of two former governors, the death of a candidate, and a governor subjected to impeachment. Neither of the divisions that prevail in Morena due to the dispute over positions in the party.
Américo Villarreal spoke with MILLENNIUM about a troubled state, with problems of violence and organized crime, but also fed up with politics and the bad reputation of some who have left the image of Tamaulipas in a bad light.
—How is it that you decide to leave your profession as a cardiologist to get fully involved in politics?—
—In 2016, the President found out about my presence in Tamaulipas, he met my father 30 years before in conjunction in that they had a common boss, the engineer Leandro Rovirosa who, at that time, was governor of Tabasco and it was the situation in which they coincided in a political time.
He found out that there was an Américo Villarreal in Tamaulipas and they told him it was me and that I was a doctor, so he sent a message that he would be glad to meet me because he had met my father. I gladly and rightly accepted.
After that we kept in touch and I became interested in his postulates. At the end of 2016 we decided to join Morena. Then we heard about my father’s background, being an engineer, developer of dams, He also had his political stage, so we decided to participate as a senator.
—Tamaulipas has already been governed by the PRI and by the PAN, how do you see Morena’s possibilities, more because of the closeness she has with President López Obrador?—
-Tamaulipas had been a PRI state until this administration that due to the history of not having behaved correctly, the citizens thought of an alternative and thought it could be the National Action, but unfortunately it was not, the results are not at all favorable in the perception of the citizens and I am not saying this, I share it, but it is the feeling of what we see in the polls, in the great acceptance of the humanist model of Morena and that the President leads and that in the state it has an acceptance of 83 percent, while the local government has an acceptance of 33 percent and that is what gives the great opportunity for a change of direction and a new alternation. This already happened in 2021 in a preliminary stage where the main municipalities are now morenistas, there you can see the gradual change.
—When you decide to take the step towards politics in 2016, the state was experiencing very high levels of violence, also with two governors in jail, you saw that your state was a red flag in politics and security, was that a factor for you, being doctor, decided to seek the governorship of his state?—
—I believe that we have had these situations and this is due to a background of economic potential that our state has and all its benefits have not been conducted with adequate inertia to be able to translate it into the development of the entity.
For me it is the best state in the Republic, with the best geographical location. yesWe are the gateway for commercial exchange with the United States, but these circumstances have given rise to exchanges of interests such as drugs and weapons and not having governments attentive to administering a state with these characteristics has led to these situations and therefore to insecurity, but we want that to be what changes.
—What do you have to offer the citizens of Tamaulipas?—
—Politics is nothing but medicine on a grand scale, just as the doctor attends to a person and sees and interrogates him to find out by saying what problems he has, establish a diagnosis of the disease and establish the appropriate treatment. It is the same problem of society. You have to see and listen to society. We have many diagnoses that give us a vision of the problems that they have and we have to go check with people to prioritize them.
-How to do it?-
—I see that Tamaulipas have the will to move forward and make a change in the way we are living and that this situation of hope is what is going to give us the opportunity in the future with a government that has leadership and trust, that is honest and attentive to what it has to do as a government, neatly, without corruption and with austerity.
It is part of what they have been inducing us to think that the future is uncertain, that the future is unpredictable and that we do not know what is going to happen. If we want to have a growing society, with work and development opportunities, this is what we have to work on today. If we want more security we have to build peace.