This is the level of education of Manuel Espino, the former president of the PAN who returns to Congress with Morena

Espino Barrientos has been a member of the PAN, the Citizen Movement and now of Morena. (X/@ManuelEspino)

On the afternoon of August 25, Manuel Espino Barrientos made his return to the political sphere official by registering as a federal deputy for the National Regeneration Movement (Morena).

Espino Barrientos, originally from Durango, obtained his seat in the Chamber of Deputies thanks to the multi-member lists of the ruling party and will be the representative of the Fifth District, which includes Querétaro, Michoacán, the State of Mexico and Colima.

“Thank you to the people of Mexico for the opportunity to serve them from the Congress of the Union. Today I registered as a federal deputy and thereby ratify my will to legislate with the right intention for the general interest of the nation so that the Fourth Transformation advances,” wrote the next legislator on his X account.

His first position in the political sphere was as general secretary of the National Action Party (PAN) in Ciudad Juárez, between 1989 and 1991. From 1996 to 1998, he was state leader of said political force in Sonora and, later, he was promoted to national general secretary (2002-2004).

Before being embraced by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s organization, Espino served as president of the PAN between 2005 and 2007. It was under his leadership that the elections that brought Felipe Calderón Hinojosa to the Federal Executive were held.

AMLO welcomed Manuel Espino to Morena almost a decade after accusing him of alleged electoral fraud. (X/@ManuelEspino)

At that time, Espino was accused by AMLO of allegedly having participated in a conspiracy to steal the presidential election from him. Then, in 2011, he resigned from the PAN and focused on founding the organization called Ruta 5.

Movimiento Ciudadano offered Espino a seat as a federal deputy in 2015, but the political link was broken two years later due to disagreements “between our projects and our agendas.”

In May 2018, López Obrador welcomed Manuel Espino to Morena and named him coordinator of social and civil organizations for his presidential campaign.

In February 2020, Espino Barrientos was appointed commissioner of the Federal Protection Service. He obtained his next high-profile position on December 13, 2022, when he was appointed general director of the National College of Professional Technical Education (Conalep), which he resigned from in March 2024 to join Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo’s campaign team.

Regarding his educational level, Manuel Espino has a degree in Business Administration from the Universidad del Noroeste and a Master’s degree in Security and Strategic Intelligence, as well as diplomas in Criminology from the Universidad La Salle in Mexico City.

In his X profile, Espino also presents himself as a doctor in Education, but there are no official public records that accredit his qualification at this postgraduate level.