Manuel Velasco Suárez

Manuel Velasco Suárez (San Cristóbal de las Casas 28 December 1914 – Ciudad de México 2 December 2001) was a Mexican doctor neurologist, neurosurgeon, scientist and humanist.

Manuel Velasco Suárez
Governor of Chiapas
In office 1 December 1970 – 30 November 1976
Preceded by	José Castillo Tielemans
Succeeded by	Jorge de la Vega Domínguez
Personal details
Born	(1914-12-28)28 December 1914 San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
Died	2 December 2001(2001-12-02) (aged 87) Mexico City
Political party	PRI
Spouse(s)	Elvira Siles
Profession	Neurosurgeon

Recognized by the medical scientific community as a pioneer of neurology and neurosurgery in Mexico. He founded in 1964 the National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery (INNN) that today bears his name and of which he was its first director. As of 1977, he was appointed director emeritus and honorary member of the Governing Board of the Institute until his death in December 2001.

Creator of the general direction of neurology, mental health and rehabilitation of the then Ministry of Health and Public Assistance 1958.

He created the chair of neurology and neurosurgery at the Faculty of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and in 1989 that university named him Emeritus Professor and distinguished him with the Academic Merit Medal for having taught classes for more than 60 years.

He participated in the founding of the National Bioethics Commission in 1992 and the Mexican National Academy of Bioethics .

He promoted the closure of inhuman asylums, introduced neurosychiatry, and in 1948 promoted services for mentally ill patients of the brain and nervous system at the Hospital Juárez de México (Formerly known as Hospital de San Pablo) and later in the creation of seven regional hospitals .

He was a scientist, humanist and pacifist and creator of institutions . As a humanist, he participated in the struggles against the proliferation of nuclear and chemical weapons and within these efforts he was the Hispanic American leader of the international movement of doctors for the prevention of nuclear war, an association that in 1985 received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party who acted as Governor of Chiapas from 1970 to 1976.[1][2]

He is grandfather of incumbent Governor of Chiapas, Manuel Velasco Coello.