Plutarco Elias Calles

Plutarco Elías Calles was a Mexican soldier and politician who served as President of Mexico from 1924 to 1928. He was the founder of the National Revolutionary Party, which became the major Mexican political party and ruled for over seven decades. He began his career as an elementary schoolteacher but joined the struggle of Francisco Madero against the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz in 1910. He rose to the rank of general and fought against Victoriano Huerta and Pancho Villa. He became governor of Sonora in 1917 and held various cabinet positions under Presidents Carranza, de la Huerta, and Obregón. He was elected president in 1924 and implemented many populist and secularist reforms, such as expanding education, public health, and infrastructure, as well as limiting the influence of the Catholic Church and the military. He also faced the Cristero War, a rebellion of Catholic peasants against his anticlerical policies. He supported the candidacy of Álvaro Obregón for the 1928 election, but Obregón was assassinated before taking office. Calles then founded the Institutional Revolutionary Party to unify the factions of the revolution and prevent political instability. He became the de facto leader of Mexico for the next six years, a period known as the Maximato, during which he controlled the presidents Emilio Portes Gil, Pascual Ortiz Rubio, and Abelardo Rodríguez. He also served as secretary of public education, war, and economy. He promoted a socialist education system, nationalized the railways, and supported the expropriation of foreign oil companies. He also faced opposition from the National Revolutionary Army, a paramilitary group that opposed his socialist policies. In 1934, he supported the election of Lázaro Cárdenas, who turned against him and exiled him to the United States in 1936. He returned to Mexico in 1941 and lived in retirement until his death in 1945. He is regarded as one of the most influential and controversial figures of the Mexican Revolution.