[3] Ángel Aguirre Rivero took a degree in economics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where he also served as professor in the same faculty.
On 12 March 1996, Governor of Guerrero Rubén Figueroa Alcocer resigned on account of the Aguas Blancas massacre, where peasants were murdered by agents of the state police at the ford of Aguas Blancas in the municipality of Coyuca de Benítez; the same day, the Congress of Guerrero appointed Aguirre as interim governor, where he served until the end of Figueroa's term on 31 March 1999.
In the 2003 mid-terms he was returned to the Chamber of Deputies to represent Guerrero's 8th district during the 59th Congress[5] and, in the 2006 general election, he successfully ran for one of Guerrero's seats in the Senate, both times on the PRI ticket.
[2][6] On 25 August 2010, Aguirre announced that he was resigning his membership in the PRI and intended to pursue the PRD's candidacy for governor of Guerrero.
[a] He resigned the governorship in October 2014 in the aftermath of the Iguala mass kidnapping of 26 September 2014.