Deceased Mexican billionaire Alberto Bailleres. Photo: Google

By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

After mining mogul Alberto Bailleres, Mexico’s fourth richest man, died Thursday, Feb. 2, at age 90 of natural causes, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) paid an unexpected homage to the billionaire on Friday, Feb. 3, saying that “while we did not always see eye-to-eye” with Bailleres, the two had maintained a 29-year “relationship of mutual respect.”

Since taking office in December 2018, AMLO had repeatedly bumped heads with  Bailleres, claiming he had benefited “immorally” from the privatization of formerly state-owned industries in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which the president has repeatedly tried to reclaim as government entities.

AMLO had also accused Bailleres of being “greedy” and “unethical.”

But during his daily press conference on Friday, López Obrador praised Bailleres for “his dedication to Mexico” and his efforts to help rebuilt the economy after the covid-19 pandemic.

A graduate of the Culver Military Academy in Indiana, Bailleres chaired Industrias Penoles, one of the world’s largest silver mining ventures, and led Mexico’s premiere department store chain Palacio de Hierro, as well as insurance company Grupo Nacional Provincial and the Grupo Profuturo pension fund.

At the time of his death, Bailleres was believed to have a net worth of $8.6 billion, according to Forbes magazine.