The University of North Florida will host this semester’s final Distinguished Voices lecture on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Adam W. Herbert University Center, where former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo will give his perspective on Latin American and Mexican relations. 

Zedillo served as president of Mexico from 1994 to 2000 and has been an economics professor at Yale since 2002. The former Mexican politician is a member of The Elders, a board of global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela. 

The Distinguished Voices Lecture Series is part of a partnership between UNF and the World Affairs Council of Jacksonville. WAC President and CEO Trina Medarev said the partnership began in 2004. These events are free for UNF students and faculty. 

“The 2023-2024 Distinguished Voices/Global Issues Evening season has been informative and engaging, indeed,” said Medarev. 

In 2011, Zedillo was accused of involvement in the 1997 Acteal massacre, where 45 unarmed townspeople were killed in Chiapas, Mexico.

Survivors and successors of those killed in the massacre filed a civil lawsuit against Zedillo in September 2011, accusing him of crimes against humanity. They claimed that although the killings occurred in Mexico, the Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victim Protection Act, among others, give the American federal court jurisdiction to decide the case.

The case was dropped in 2014 after Zedillo claimed immunity as a former president of a sovereign country.

Medarev did not agree to an interview, and according to her, Zedillo does not participate in media interviews.

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