Maximato
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The Maximato was a transitional period in the
There were two solutions to the crisis. Firstly, an interim president was to be appointed, followed by new elections. Secondly, Calles created an enduring political institution, the Partido Nacional Revolucionario (PNR), which held presidential power from 1929 to 2000.
The interim presidency of Emilio Portes Gil lasted from 1 December 1928 to 4 February 1930. He was passed over as candidate for the newly formed PNR in favor of a political unknown, Pascual Ortiz Rubio, who resigned in September 1932 in protest at Calles's continued wielding of the real power. The successor was Abelardo L. Rodríguez, who served out the rest of the term that ended in 1934. As President, Rodríguez exerted more independence from Calles than had Ortiz Rubio. That year's election was won by the former revolutionary general Lázaro Cárdenas, who had been chosen as the candidate for the PNR. Following the election, Calles attempted to exert control over Cárdenas, but with strategic allies Cárdenas outmaneuvered Calles politically and expelled him and his major allies from the country in 1936.
The Maximato was a transitional period of personal power for ex-President Calles, but the institutionalization of political power in the party structure was a major achievement in Mexican history.
Background
Enshrined in the ideologies of those that carried out the
Creating the PNR
Since Calles could not succeed himself in the presidency but wished to retain power, he sought a political solution. The long-term solution he conceived was momentous for Mexican politics. In his final informe or report to congress on 1 September 1928, a little more than a month after Obregón's assassination, he declared that "There is no personality of indisputable stature, with a firm hold on public opinion and enough personal and political force to merit general confidence through is mere name and prestige." He went on to call for "the peaceful evolutionary development of Mexico as an institutional country, in which men may become, as they should be, mere accidents with no real importance beside the perpetual and august serenity of institutions and laws."[2]
Calles had already called on thirty prominent generals, who might have vied for power in the wake of Obregón's assassination, to agree to a civilian as interim president until new elections could take place. Emilio Portes Gil became interim president, taking office on 1 December 1928 and serving until 5 February 1930. Calles retained power, despite his having said that "never, for any motivation and in no circumstances will the current president of the Republic of Mexico come to occupy that position again."[3] That declaration was a repudiation of the constitutional change that had allowed re-election of previous president and forestalled any president in the future from seeking re-election.
Not all the generals were on board with the new political arrangement. General José Gonzalo Escobar led a rebellion in March 1929 against the interim Portes Gil government. The U.S. backed the interim government and Escobar was unable to obtain arms, so the revolt failed. Although short-lived, it highlighted the necessity of finding a better mechanism for the transfer of the presidency as well as to bring to an end the Cristero War. Calles himself took command of government troops to suppress the months' long Escobar Rebellion.[4]
Calles took the lead in founding the Partido Nacional Revolucionario or PNR, the predecessor of today's Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI). It was the institutionalized way for Calles's faction to control presidential succession. It succeeded as a party by bringing in a number of different elements, including regional and local political organizations, organized labor, organized peasants, and professionals such as government bureaucrats and teachers. The party gained secure revenue and organizational strength by requiring members of constituent organizations be dues-paying members of the party. It became a national party, designed to exist as an institution rather than a coalition that came into being only during elections, and was successful in elections for local, state, and national offices.[5]
Officially, after 1929, Calles served as minister of war, as he continued to suppress the rebellion of the Cristero War; however, a few months later, following the intervention of the United States ambassador Dwight Morrow, the Mexican government and the Cristeros signed a peace treaty.
Presidency of Pascual Ortiz Rubio
The PNR candidate chosen for the 1929 was a political unknown, Pascual Ortiz Rubio, who had no independent power base. During the two years that Ortiz Rubio was titular president of Mexico, Calles was the power behind the presidency.
Ortiz Rubio won the controversial 1929 election, in which he defeated the philosopher José Vasconcelos of the National Antireelectionist Party (PNA), whose campaign was supported mainly by university students, and Pedro Rodríguez Triana of the Mexican Communist Party (PCM). The election was marred by violence and fraud, and Vasconcelos refused to accept the result. Dozens of anti-reelectionists were killed, and Vasconcelos left the country.
Once the conflict-ridden 1929 election was over, Ortiz Rubio was inaugurated on 5 February 1930, but not without lingering acrimony. During his inauguration ceremony, Ortiz Rubio was wounded in an assassination attempt by an antireelectionist student, Daniel Flores, who was tried and received the
During the Maximato, Calles became increasingly authoritarian.
Presidency of Abelardo L. Rodríguez, 1932-1934
Ortiz Rubio was succeeded by General Abelardo L. Rodríguez, who was an ally and protégé of Calles. Since Ortiz Rubio had resigned having served a sufficient length of time as president not to trigger a new election, Rodríguez was appointed substitute president by congress. Although Calles remained influential during Rodríguez's term of office, he was not as involved politically due to his own ill health and the illness and then death of his young second wife in 1932. Rodríguez established clear boundaries around Calles's actions and made it clear that he, Rodríguez, was president of Mexico, due all the honor and power of the office.
Rodríguez was known for his progressive reforms. Under his presidency social legislation promised by the Mexican constitution of 1917 was introduced for the first time, including a minimum wage and the 8-hour working day. During Rodríguez's presidency the constitutional amendment that allowed for re-election was repealed and the presidential term was extended to six years.
Rodríguez's secretary of education
End
In 1934, the PNR selected revolutionary general
Cárdenas started to isolate Calles politically by removing the callistas from political posts and exiling his most powerful allies:
References
- ^ Enrique Krauze, Mexico: Biography of Power, New York: Harper Collins 1997, p. 426.
- ^ Calles quoted in Krauze, Biography of Power, p. 427.
- ^ Krauze, Biography of Power, p. 426
- ^ Buchenau, Plutarco Elías Calles, p. 152
- ^ Camp,Roderic Ai, "National Revolutionary Party/Partido Nacional Revolucionario-PNR" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, vol.4, pp. 30-31. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996.
- ISBN 1-85728-595-6p.342
- ^ Calles, Plutarco Elías Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05 Archived May 16, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Meyer, Michael C. and William L. Sherman, The Course of Mexican History (5th E. Oxford Univ. Press 1995)
- ^ Krauze, Enrique. Mexico: Biography of Power. A History of Modern Mexico, 1810-1996. HarperCollins Publishers Inc. New York, 1997, p. 436
- ^ Larralde, Carlos "Roberto Galvan: A Latino Leader of the 1940s". The Journal of San Diego History 52.3/4 (Summer/Fall 2006) p. 160.
Further reading
- Buchenau, Jürgen. Plutarco Elías Calles and the Mexican Revolution. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield 2007. ISBN 978-0-7425-3749-1
- Dulles, John F. W. Yesterday in Mexico: A Chronicle of the Revolution, 1919-1936. Austin: University of Texas Press 1961.
- Knight, Alan. "The rise and fall of Cardenismo, c. 1930-1946" in Mexico Since Independence, Leslie Bethell, ed. New York: Cambridge University Press 1991, pp. 241–320.
- Krauze, Enrique. Mexico: Biography of Power. New York: HarperCollins 1997.
- Meyer, Jean. "Revolution and reconstruction in the 1920s" in Mexico Since Independence, Leslie Bethell, ed. New York: Cambridge University Press 1991, pp. 201–240.
- Padgett, Vincent. The Mexican Political System. 1966.
- Scott, Robert E. Mexican Government in Transition, rev. ed. 1964.