Victor Lichtinger, 43, is Mexico’s new Environment and Natural Resources Secretary. He was named by Vicente Fox, who on Dec. 1 took office as Mexico’s president, ending 71 years of single-party rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Lichtinger’s previous public posts include economic advisor to Mexico’s UN delegation and executive director of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), the tri-national agency created in conjunction with the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta). The CEC’s first executive director, Lichtinger was forced to resign in February 1998 amid an administrative tussle over the handling of information in the citizen-complaint process. But in his four years with the agency he had drawn praise for addressing important questions ranging from the environmental effects of Nafta to groundwater shortages in migratory bird habitat along the U.S.-Mexican border. EcoAméricas correspondent Simeon Tegel interviewed Lichtinger in Mexico City. [Log in to read more]

Would you like to Subscribe?