Miguel Ángel Yunes Márquez (born 4 May 1976) is a Mexican politician. In the 2024 general election he was elected to the Senate for the state of Veracruz. Formerly affiliated with the National Action Party (PAN), he was expelled on 11 September 2024 for voting against the party line in a crucial Senate vote for the 2024 Mexican judicial reform, with PAN accusing him of having "betraying the country".
Yunes Márquez was born in Xalapa, Veracruz, in 1976. He studied business management at the University of Miami in the United States.[1]
He was elected to the for the 2004–2007 session and served two terms (2008–2010 and 2014–2017) as municipal president of Boca del Río, Veracruz.[1] In 2018 he ran for governor of Veracruz for a PAN-led coalition but was defeated by Cuitláhuac García of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena).[2] In 2021 he filed to contend for the municipal presidency of Veracruz but his candidacy was ruled invalid for failing to meet the three-year residency requirement.[3]
He ran for the Senate in the 2024 election as the lead candidate of the Fuerza y Corazón por México coalition (PAN, PRI and PRD) and was elected as Veracruz's third ("first minority") senator for the 66th and 67th sessions of Congress (2024–2030).[4] [1]
On 10 September 2024, as the Senate was preparing to discuss the controversial 2024 judicial reform bill, Yunes Márquez requested temporary leave from his seat on health grounds. His alternate, his father Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares, was sworn in for the duration of his absence.[5] Later the same day, however, Yunes Márquez returned to his seat and announced that he would break with his party and vote for the reform package.[6] In response, both father and son were expelled from the PAN the following day "for betraying the country with their vote".[7]
Yunes Márquez is the son of Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares, who was governor of Veracruz from 2016 to 2018.[8] He is married to, with whom he has three children and who replaced him in his thwarted 2021 bid for the municipal presidency of Veracruz and ultimately won the election.[9] [10] His brother, Fernando Yunes Márquez, has been a senator and the municipal president of Veracruz.[8]
His cousin José Francisco Yunes Zorrilla was also a candidate in the 2018 gubernatorial election.[10]