Yunes graduated from the Universidad Veracruzana with a law degree in 1974; during his studies, he worked as a legal advisor in his hometown of Soledad de Doblado.

He was an official in the Chamber of Deputies between 1982 and 1985, and he served as a national coordinator of state federations within the PRI's Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Populares (CNOP).

Between 1985 and 1987, Yunes was the director deputy general of the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation's Department of Airports and Auxiliary Services (ASA).

[1][2] In 1988, the PRI ran Yunes as a candidate for federal deputy; while he did not win, he instead worked in the Secretariat of Urban Development and Ecology (SEDUE), and he also picked up a diploma in political analysis from the Universidad Iberoamericana in 1990.

[2] When he left the Chamber in 2005, he was officially an independent, though he had been dropped from all of his commissions; he was replaced by his alternate, another Veracruz native representing Campeche, Aníbal Peralta Galicia.

[3] In 2010, Yunes resigned from the ISSSTE and made his first run for governor, backed by a coalition of the PAN and Nueva Alianza.

[1] In 2016, Yunes ran again for governor, this time under the joint banner of the PAN and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).