José Angel Córdova Villalobos, Mexico
Who is he? Córdova is Mexico's health minister
Why watch him? Córdova is leading the government's response to the outbreak of the AH1N1 virus (swine flu) which triggered a Level 5 influenza pandemic warning from the World Health Organisation (WHO). The scale runs to Level 6. The WHO had never previously moved beyond a Level 3 warning.
Date of Birth: 19 August 1953, León, Guanajuato
Education: Córdova qualified as a surgeon from the University of Guanajuato (1970-1975). He also has a Master's in Public Administration from the University of Guanajuato (1998-2000). He has also worked on nutrition issues and is an experienced university administrator.
Public Life: President of the Guanajuato electoral commission from 1997 to 2002. Córdova was a federal deputy from 2003 to 2006 and chaired the lower chamber's health committee. His record in congress prompted President Felipe Calderón to select him as his health minister when he took office in 2006.
Time Line:
1990-1997: Director of the Medicine Faculty of the University of Guanajuato.
1992 to 1997: Editor of the Revista Mexicana de Educación Médica.
1994: Adviser on the state elections committee (IEEG) in Guanajuato.
1995-1996: President of the Undergraduate Surgical Education Commission of the Mexican Association of General Surgery.
1998 to 2000: Director of the Academy of Professors and Students of Medicine.
1997 to 2002: President of the state elections commission (IEEG) in Guanajuato.
2002 to 2006: Head of the Medical Education Division of the Hospital Ángeles and full-time professor at the Medicine Faculty of the University of Guanajuato.
2003 to 2006: Federal deputy for the ruling Partido Acción Nacional (PAN).
Strengths: Córdova has been effective in bringing the outbreak of the AH1N1 virus under some sort of control. His decisions to emphasise the wearing of face masks, and to close schools in Mexico City immediately the outbreak was confirmed, were bold. So also were his requests that football matches be played for TV audiences only and that most public events be cancelled. He also mandated the closure of bars and restaurants and discouraged gatherings of over 40 people.
Popularising face masks, which probably have only limited effectiveness against the virus, was an imaginative move, especially in a developing country with low standards of public hygiene. The concomitant appeal to people to also wash their hands more often was probably more effective than the masks, though the masks provided visual evidence that the government was doing something to curb the outbreak and allowed the government to retain the initiative. The closure of schools on 23 April in Mexico City was another equally dramatic gesture.
Córdova's professorial manner and scrupulous approach to the statistics has allowed the government to gain the benefit of the doubt over its strategy for combating the virus. He has been measured in what he has said to the press and did not forget to visit the sick in hospital.
Weaknesses: There is some evidence that the government was slow in providing anti-viral medicines, but this caution was probably justified. The government had to be sure about the disease it was fighting before providing drugs.
Prospects: Córdova's future political career largely depends on what happens to the current outbreak. In early May the death toll and infection rate appeared to be stabilising. The health minister refused to panic and worked immensely long hours, reassuring the public and liaising with national and international health officials to bring the outbreak under some sort of control. The danger is that pandemics come in waves, each bigger than the last, as the virus mutates.
However, Córdova impressively coordinated response demonstrated to the US in particular that Mexico is not a failed state.
This success will boost his political standing at home and may mean that he could become a candidate to succeed President Calderón in 2012. The ruling PAN is distinctly lacking a candidate to succeed Calderón, who cannot run again in 2012 under Mexico's one-term limit. Moreover, Córdova's origins in Guanajuato, the home state of the former president Vicente Fox (2000-2006), mean that he is potentially well placed to reunify the fractured PAN, which is riven by open feuding between supporters of Fox and Calderón.