Gustavo Díaz Ordaz
Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Bolaños (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡusˈtaβo ˈði.as oɾˈðas]; 12 March 1911 – 15 July 1979) was a Mexican politician and member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He served as the President of Mexico from 1964 to 1970. Previously, he served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies for Puebla's 1st district, a senator of the Congress of the Union for Puebla, and Secretary of the Interior.
For the municipality, see Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Tamaulipas.
Gustavo Díaz Ordaz
Luis Echeverría
Noé Lecona Soto
Luis C. Manjarrez
Blas Chumacero
15 July 1979 (aged 68)
Mexico City, Mexico
Panteón Jardín, Mexico City, Mexico
3
Chespirito (first cousin once removed)
Politician
Díaz Ordaz was born in San Andrés Chalchicomula, and obtained a law degree from the University of Puebla in 1937 where he later became its vice-rector. He represented Puebla's 1st district in the Chamber of Deputies from 1943 to 1946. Subsequently, he represented the same state in the Chamber of Senators from 1946 to 1952 becoming closely acquainted with then-senator Adolfo López Mateos. Díaz Ordaz was a CIA asset, known by the cryptonym, LITEMPO-2.[2]
Díaz Ordaz joined the campaign of Adolfo Ruiz Cortines for the 1952 election and subsequently worked for the Secretariat of the Interior under Ángel Carvajal Bernal. He became the secretary following López Mateos' victory in the 1958 election, and exercised de facto executive power during the absences of the president, particularly during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1963, the PRI announced him as the presidential candidate for the 1964 election, he received 88.81% of the popular vote.
His administration is mostly remembered for the student protests that took place in 1968, and their subsequent repression by the Army and State forces during the Tlatelolco massacre, in which hundreds of unarmed protesters were killed.[3][4][5] His presidency also took place during a period of high economic growth known as the Mexican Miracle.
After passing on presidency to his own Secretary of the Interior (Luis Echeverría), Díaz Ordaz retired from public life. He was briefly the Ambassador to Spain in 1977, a position he resigned after strong protests and criticism by the media. He died of colorectal cancer on 15 July 1979 at the age of 68.[6]
Despite high economic growth during his presidency, Díaz Ordaz is considered one of the most unpopular and controversial modern Mexican presidents,[7] largely for the Tlatelolco massacre and other repressive acts,[8] which would continue into the presidencies of his successors.
Early life and education[edit]
Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Bolaños was born in San Andrés Chalchicomula (now Ciudad Serdán, Puebla. His family was of mixed Spanish and Indigenous ancestry.[9] He had two older siblings, Ramón (born 1905) and María (born 1908), and two younger siblings, Ernesto and Guadalupe.[10] In his later years his father, Ramón Díaz Ordaz Redonet, worked as an accountant. However, for a decade he served in the political machine of President Porfirio Díaz, becoming the jefe político and police administrator of San Andrés Chilchicomula. When Díaz was ousted by revolutionary forces in May 1911 at the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution, he lost his bureaucratic post in the regime change. Subsequently, the family's financial situation was insecure, and Díaz Ordaz's father took a number of jobs and the family frequently moved.[11] He claimed ancestry with conqueror-chronicler Bernal Díaz del Castillo.[12] Gustavo's mother, Sabina Bolaños Cacho de Díaz Ordaz, was a school teacher, described as "stern and pious". Gustavo, as well as his elder brother Rámon, had a weak chin and large protruding teeth and was skinny. "His mother would freely say to anyone, 'But what an ugly son I have!'"[13] His lack of good looks became a way to mock him when he became president of Mexico.
The comedian Chespirito (real name Roberto Gómez Bolaños) was his first cousin once removed.[14][15]
When the family lived for a time in Oaxaca, the young Díaz Ordaz attended the Institute of Arts and Sciences,[16] whose alumni included Benito Juárez and Porfirio Díaz. He was a serious student, but due to his family's financial circumstances, he could not always buy the textbooks he needed. At one point, the family lived as a charity case with a maternal uncle in Oaxaca, who was a Oaxaca state official. The family had to absent themselves when powerful visitors came to the residence. While Gustavo attended the institute, his elder brother Ramón taught there after studies in Spain, teaching Latin. A student mocked Professor Ramón Díaz Ordaz's ugliness, and Gustavo defended his brother with physical force.[17] Díaz Ordaz graduated from the University of Puebla on 8 February 1937 with a law degree. He became a professor at the university and served as vice-rector from 1940 to 1941.