Adolfo Lopez Mateos

Adolfo López Mateos was a Mexican politician who served as President of Mexico from 1958 to 1964. He was a lawyer, teacher, and librarian who began his public career as a campaign aide of José Vasconcelos. He joined the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 1941 and became a senator for the State of Mexico in 1946. He was appointed Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare by President Adolfo Ruiz Cortines in 1952 and secured the party's presidential nomination in 1958. He won the election with 90% of the vote and declared his political philosophy to be "left within the Constitution". He pursued a policy of social and economic development, expanding industrialization, agrarian reform, education, health, and social security. He also promoted a non-interventionist foreign policy, settling the Chamizal dispute with the United States and establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba, China, and the Soviet Union. He nationalized the electric industry in 1960 and created the National Commission for Free Textbooks and the National Museum of Anthropology. He faced some criticism for his repression of labor and peasant leaders, such as Demetrio Vallejo, Valentín Campa, and Rubén Jaramillo. He suffered a brain aneurysm in 1964 and remained in a coma until his death in 1969. He is widely regarded as one of the most popular and progressive presidents in Mexican history.