Óscar Mario Beteta

Óscar Mario Beteta Vallejo was a Mexican economist, stockbroker and radio journalist whose morning voice shaped news listening habits across Mexico for three decades. Born in Mexico City on 13 January 1956, he died in the same city on 9 September 2026 at the age of 70, after cancer treatment at Hospital ABC Santa Fe.

Beteta grew up in a family woven into twentieth-century Mexican public life. His grandfather Ignacio Beteta headed the Presidential General Staff and later education under President Lázaro Cárdenas; his great-uncle Ramón Beteta served as finance secretary under Miguel Alemán; and his uncle Mario Ramón Beteta held the finance portfolio under Luis Echeverría and later governed the State of Mexico. That political household did not push him into office. Instead he trained as an economist at Universidad Anáhuac, completed journalism and public-relations study at Ohio State University, and earned a master's in finance and investments at the University of Exeter in England.

Before broadcasting full time he worked as a stockbroker and area director at Multibanco Comermex, Banco Nacional de México and Banca Serfin. He entered television on Canal 11 with what reporters later called Mexico's first stock-market newscast, then hosted the interview programme Visión 40 on Canal 40. In 1993 Rogerio and Jaime Azcárraga invited him to Radio Fórmula for an economics and finance show that soon absorbed political analysis. From 1994 until February 2024 he anchored En los tiempos de la radio, a weekday morning strip broadcast nationwide and into the southern United States. Colleagues counted nearly 8,000 editions; audience surveys regularly placed it among Mexico's top three radio programmes.

In February 2024 he closed that cycle on X, writing that some cycles finish and others begin after three decades of a four-and-a-half-hour informative programme. He then launched an afternoon news show on El Heraldo Radio. As a print columnist he wrote En Petit Comité for El Universal and Cúpula Empresarial for Milenio, and contributed to El Financiero. Awards included three National Journalism Prizes from Mexico's Club of Journalists, the José Pagés Llergo presea, and the Calendario de Oro for best news radio host.

In March 2024 he married entrepreneur Araceli Peraza after a four-year relationship. Peers and politicians including Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard and former Mexico City mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera publicly mourned him. For listeners who started their day with his mix of markets, politics and interviews, Beteta remained one of Mexican radio's most durable and recognisable voices.