Lazaro Cardenas

Lázaro Cárdenas was a military leader who served as a general in the Constitutionalist Army during the Mexican Revolution. From 1934 to 1940, he was the president of Mexico. He is widely recognised for his policies that led to the nationalisation of the oil industry in 1938 and the establishment of Pemex, the state-owned oil company. He also implemented large-scale land reform programs, distributing millions of hectares of land to peasants and creating communal farms called ejidos. He supported the rights of workers and peasants, and organised them into powerful confederations. He also promoted education, culture, and social welfare, creating institutions such as the National Polytechnic Institute and El Colegio de México. He was a supporter of democracy and anti-imperialism, and gave asylum to refugees from the Spanish Civil War and other conflicts. He is considered one of the most popular and influential presidents of Mexico, and a symbol of the Mexican Revolution.