Person
Bermejo Hernández, Manuel (1936-2009)
Plasencia (Cáceres, España) 1936 - Madrid (España) 2009
Spanish agriculturist and politician. He took the studies of Agricultural Engineering at the Special School of Madrid, obtaining a PhD in Engineering. In 1963, Bermejo was appointed Engineer of the Field Phytopathology and Plagues Services in Cáceres, and later on, he joined the National Service of Cultivation and Fermentation of Tobacco and worked as a Head Provincial Engineer of Cáceres, Head of Fields and Drying Shed Sections, and Under Director of Technique and Organization, which lately was headed by him. Bermejo worked as well as the president of the company 3S-Agroindustria, in charge of the tobacco industry, president of the company Agroexpansión (from the international Dimon) between 1988 and 2004, and director of the General Company of Tobacco of Philippines. Bermejo was president of the companies Agroexpansión and World Wide Tobacco España, which currently has acquired the American multinational company Alliance One International. Bermejo's political career started in 1977 when he joined Popular Democratic Party, whose Extremaduran section was headed by him. In the 1977 general elections, he ran as deputy of UCD, obtaining a seat for Cáceres at the Congress of Deputies and joinig the Parliamentarian Group of UCD. He was parliamentarian adviser of the Minister of Agriculture. After the Autonomous Government of Extremadura was set up, Bermejo worked as Minister of Agriculture, and then as the Economic Vice-President from 1978, becoming the president of this Government from 1980 to 1982. He also headed the commission which passed the Autonomous Statute of Extremadura.
As a writer, Bermejo wrote some novels. He received the Recognition of the Civil Order of Agricultural Merit, the Golden Medal to the Tobacco of Jaraíz de la Vera (Cáceres), the Grand Order of Ciudad de Mérida (Venezuela), and the Civil Order of Constitutional Merit. On 8th September 1997, Bermejo received the Golden Medal of Extremadura, and the Council of Talayuela (Cáceres) dedicated him a street. He died in Madrid on 22th September 2009.
Date of the event: 1977-07-13 - 1979-01-02