Porfirio Díaz
onwards)
}} José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori (September 15, 1830 – 2 July 1915) was a Mexican politician who would later become the President of Mexico from 1876 to 1880 and from 1884 to 1911, and one of the most controversial figures of the country.
The term Porfiriato refers to the years when Díaz ruled Mexico.
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Early years
Porfirio Díaz was born on September 15, 1830, in Oaxaca, Mexico. With an Indian mother and a European father, Diaz was born into great poverty as an illiterate Mestizo child.[1] His father, José Faustino de la Cruz Díaz was a modest innkeeper and passed away when his son was just an infant.
Diaz began training for the priesthood at the age of fifteen when his mother, Petrona Mori Cortes, sent him to the Seminario Conciliar. In 1850, inspired by Liberal Benito Juárez, Diaz entered the Instituto de Ciencias and spent some time studying law.[1] Diaz’s life took an unexpected turn, however, when he decided to join the armed forces upon the outbreak of war with the United States in 1846.[1] Having dabbled in many different professions, Diaz discovered his vocation in 1855 and joined a band of liberal guerrillas who were fighting a resurgent Antonio López de Santa Anna. Thus, his life as a military man began.
Life as a military man and path to the presidency
When Juárez became the president of Mexico in 1858 and began to restore peace, Diaz resigned his military command and went home to Oaxaca. However, it did not take long before the energetic Diaz became unhappy with the Juarez administration.
Diaz’s military career is most noted for his service in the War of the Reform and the struggle against the French. By the time of the Battle of Puebla (May 5, 1862), General Díaz had become the brigade general in charge of an infantry brigade.[1]
During the Battle of Puebla, his brigade was placed in the center between the forts of Loreto and Guadalupe. From there, he repelled a French infantry attack that was sent as a diversion to distract the Mexican commanders' attention from the forts that were the main target of the French army. In violation of the orders of General Ignacio Zaragoza, General Díaz and his unit fought off a larger French force and then chased after them. Despite Diaz’s inability to share control, General Zaragoza commended the actions of General Díaz during the battle as "brave and notable".
In 1863, Díaz was captured by the French Army. He escaped and was offered by President Benito Juárez the positions of secretary of defense or army commander in chief. He declined both but took an appointment as commander of the Central Army. That same year he was promoted to the position of Division General.
In 1864, the conservatives supporting Emperor Maximilian asked him to join the imperial cause. Díaz declined the offer. In 1865, he was captured by the Imperial forces in Oaxaca. He escaped and fought the battles of Tehuitzingo, Piaxtla, Tulcingo and Comitlipa.
In 1866, Díaz formally declared his loyalty to Juárez. That same year he earned victories in Nochixtlan, Miahuatlan, and la Carbonera, and once again captured Oaxaca. He was then promoted to general. Also in 1866, Marshal Bazaine, commander of the Imperial forces, offered to surrender Mexico City to Diaz if he withdrew support of Juárez. Diaz declined the offer. In 1867, Emperor Maximilian offered Díaz the command of the army and the imperial rendition to the liberal cause. Díaz refused both. Finally, on April 2, 1867, he went on to win the final battle for Puebla.
In 1871, Diaz attempted to lead a revolt against the reelection of Juarez. In March 1872 Diaz’s forces were defeated in the battle of La Bufa in Zacatecas. Following Juárez's death on July 9 of that year, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada assumed the presidency and then offered amnesty to the rebels. Díaz accepted in October and "retired" to the Hacienda de la Candelaria in Tlacotalpan, Veracruz. However, he remained wildly popular among the people of Mexico well after the defeat of the French and the death of Juárez in 1872.
In 1874 he was elected to Congress from Veracruz. That year Lerdo de Tejada's government faced civil and military unrest, and offered Díaz the position of ambassador to Germany, which he refused. In 1875 Díaz traveled to New Orleans and Brownsville, Texas to plan a rebellion, which was launched in Ojitlan, Oaxaca on January 10, 1876, as the "Plan de Tuxtepec".
Diaz continued to be an outspoken citizen and led a second revolt against President Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada in 1876. In yet another failed attempt to gain true political power, Diaz fled to the United States of America.[1] His fight, however, was far from over.
Several months later, in November of 1876, Diaz returned to his home country and fought the Battle of Tecoac, where he defeated the government forces once and for all. Finally, in May 1877, Diaz became the formally elected president of Mexico for the first time.[1] His campaign of "no-reelection", however, came to define his control over the state for more than thirty years.
The campaign of "no-reelection"
In 1870, Díaz ran as presidential candidate against President Juárez and Vice President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada. In 1871 he made claims of fraud in the July elections won by Juárez, who was confirmed as president by the Congress in October. In response, Díaz launched the Plan de la Noria on November 8, supported by a number of rebellions across the nation.
After appointing himself president on November 28, 1876, he served only one term—having staunchly stood against Lerdo's reelection policy. During his first term in office, Díaz initiated a lengthy process of tightening the consolidation of power. In doing so, Díaz constructed a powerful political machine that held immense power of the people of Mexico.[1] He maintained control through manipulation of votes, but also through simple violence and assassination of his opponents, who consequently were few in number. His administration became famous for their suppression of civil society and public revolts. Instead of running for a second term, he handpicked his successor, Manuel González, one of his trustworthy companions.[1] This sneaky side-step maneuver, however, did not mean that Díaz was stepping down from his powerful throne.
The four-year period that followed was marked by corruption and official incompetence, so that when Díaz stepped up in the election of 1884, he was welcomed by his people with open arms.[1] More importantly, very few people remembered his "No Re-election" slogan that defined his previous campaign. During this period the Mexican underground political newspapers spread the new ironic slogan for the Porfirian times, based on the slogan "Sufragio Efectivo, No Reelección" and changed it to "Sufragio Efectivo No, Reelección”. In any case Díaz had the constitution amended, first to allow two terms in office, and then to remove all restrictions on re-election.
Political career
Having created a band of military brothers, Diaz went on to construct a broad coalition (Skidmore 260). He was a cunning politician and knew very well how to manipulate people to his advantage. A phrase used to describe the order of his rule was "Pan, o palo" ("bread, or the stick"), meaning that one could either accept what was given willingly (often a position of political power), or face harsh consequences (often death). Either way, rising opposition to Diaz’ administration was immediately quelled (Crow 670).
Over the next 26 years as president, Diaz created a systematic and methodical regime with a staunch military mindset (Britannica 70). His first goal was to establish peace throughout Mexico. According to Crow, Diaz “set out to establish a good strong paz porfiriana, or Porfirian peace, of such scope and firmness that it would redeem the country in the eyes of the world for its sixty-five years of revolution and anarchy” (Crow 668). His second goal was outlined in his motto—“no politics and plenty of administration” (Crow 667).
In reality, however, his fight for profits, control, and progress kept his people in a constant state of uncertainty. Diaz managed to dissolve all local authorities and aspects of federalism that once existed. Not long after he became president, the leaders of Mexico were answering directly to him (Britannica 70). Those who held high positions of power, such as the legislature, were composed almost entirely of his closest and most loyal friends. In his quest for even more political control, Diaz even suppressed the media and controlled the court system (Britannica 70).
In order to secure his power, Diaz engaged in various forms of co-optation and coercion. He played his people like a board game—catering to the private desires of different interest groups and playing off one interest against another (Britannica 70). In order to satisfy any competing forces, such as the Mestizos, he gave them political positions of power that they could not deny. He did the same thing with the elite Creole society by not interfering with their wealth and haciendas. When in came to the Roman Catholic Church, Diaz proved to be a different kind of Liberal than those of the past. He neither assaulted the Church (like most liberals) nor protected the Church (Skidmore 261). In regard to the dominant Indian population, they were almost entirely ignored. In giving different groups of potential power a taste of what they wanted, Diaz created the illusion of democracy and quelled almost all competing forces.
Diaz knew that it was crucial for him to wield power over the countryside, where the majority of Mexican citizens inhabited. Diaz depended on the guardias rurales, (police of the countryside) to aid him in this matter. In essence, Diaz worked to enhance the control of the government in places that it truly mattered—in military and police power (Skidmore 260).
From 1892 onwards Díaz's perennial opponent was the eccentric Nicolás Zúñiga y Miranda, who lost every election but always claimed fraud and considered himself to be the legitimately elected president of Mexico.
Economic development under Diaz
Diaz believed that by being president, he was granting Mexico the greatest gift of political stability. Even at the cost of freedom, political stability, he believed, was the key to economic growth.[2] From the moment Diaz became president, the Mexican economy was a problem. In hopes of building up Mexico as fast as possible, Diaz welcomed foreign investors with open arms.[3] Diaz immediately encouraged foreign investment because the country was in serious debt and had minimal savings left over from the previous administration.[1] Because Diaz made the conditions for investors so favorable, local businesses and individual workers greatly suffered.
When it came to the economy, Diaz largely stuck to familiar liberal principles.[2] For example, he decided that a previous 1850s ban on corporate land holding should also be enacted for Indian villages. This freed land for private exploitation and for purchase by his loyal political followers and friends.[2] The crucial source of new money, however, came from outside Mexico’s borders.[2] The growing influence of U.S. businessmen over the Mexican economy was a constant dilemma for Díaz.
Diaz's two top advisors, Matias Romero and Jose Y. Limantour, were held responsible for the sudden influx of international investments.[1] With the development of nation-wide infrastructure, Mexico began to experience a great deal of new wealth. The problem, however, was not the growth in revenues, but the way it was distributed. The money was not used to improve the lives of the people of Mexico. Rather, the profits ended up the hands of a wealthy few or went overseas.[1] Despite its labor surplus, the wage rates remained very low and the majority of the Mexican population faced devastating poverty.[4] As Crow states, "Mexicans had no money and the doors were thrown open to those who had."[3] Also, economic progress varied drastically from region to region. The north was defined by mining and ranching while the central valley became the home of large-scale farms for wheat and grain.[5]
His modernization program was also at odds with the owners of the large plantations (haciendas) that had spread across much of Mexico. These rich plantation owners wanted to maintain their existing feudal system (peonage), and were reluctant to transform into the capitalist economy Díaz was pushing towards because it meant competing in a global market and contending with the monetary influence of businessmen from the United States. Though he wished to modernize the country, Díaz by no means opposed the existence of the haciendas, and in fact supported them strongly throughout his rule. He appointed sympathetic governors and allowed the plantation owners to proceed with a slow campaign of encroachment, using the Ley Lerdo, onto collectively owned village land, and enforced such seizure through his well-equipped rural police (rurales).
While Díaz claimed to have realized the positivist governance of "order and progress," perfection was far from reality.[5] Before the celebrations began for the independence centennial of 1910, the economy that once seemed to have a bright future for Mexico looked out upon a dismal horizon. Due to shrinking national revenues, the Mexican government was forced to borrow money from abroad.[1] As wages on the home front were steadily decreasing, strikes in the streets were common and often difficult to cover up by the administration. With the extremely apparent dept of the farmers, Mexico's economic troubles were undeniable.[1] Despite the fact that the concept of economic progress was dwindling, Díaz maintained the appearance of prosperity.[6] The magnificent Mexico City became a showcase for the country's apparent progress.
Because Díaz had created such an effective centralized government, he was able to concentrate decision-making and maintain control over the economic instability.[5] Under Díaz, personal wealth and political power were one and the same.
Collapse of the regime
On February 17, 1908, in an interview with the U.S. journalist James Creelman of Pearson's Magazine, Díaz stated that Mexico was ready for democracy and elections and that he would retire and allow other candidates to compete for the presidency.[1] Without hesitation, several opposition and pro-government groups united to find suitable candidates who would represent them in the upcoming presidential elections. Many liberals formed clubs supporting the governor of Nuevo León, Bernardo Reyes as a candidate for the presidency. Despite the fact that Reyes never formally announced his candidacy, Díaz continued to perceive him as a threat and sent him on a mission to Europe, so that he was not in the country for the elections.
According to John A. Crow, "A cautious but new breath entered the prostrate Mexican underground. Dark undercurrents rose to the top."[7] As groups began to settle on their presidential candidate, Diaz decided that he was not going to retire but rather, allow Francisco Madero, an aristocratic but democratically leaning reformer, to run against him. Although the landowner was very similar to Díaz in his ideology, he hoped for other elites in Mexico to rule alongside the president. Díaz, however, did not approve of Madero and had him jailed during the election in 1910. Despite his former spoken ideas of democracy and change, sameness seemed to be the only reality.
Despite this, the election went ahead. Madero had gathered much popular support, but when the government announced the official results, Díaz was proclaimed to have been re-elected almost unanimously, with Madero gathering only a minuscule number of votes. This case of massive electoral fraud aroused widespread anger throughout the Mexican citizenry.[1] Madero called for revolt against Díaz, and the Mexican Revolution began. Díaz was forced from office and fled the country for France in 1911.
On July 2, 1915, after two marriages and three children, Díaz died in exile in Paris. He is buried there in the Cimetière du Montparnasse.