Plutarco Elías Calles (born Francisco Plutarco Elías Campuzano; 25 September 1877 – 19 October 1945) was a Mexican politician and military officer who served as the 47th president of Mexico from 1924 to 1928. After the assassination of Álvaro Obregón, Calles founded the Institutional Revolutionary Party and held unofficial power as Mexico's de facto leader from 1929 to 1934, a period known as the Maximato. Previously, he served as a general in the Constitutional Army, as Governor of Sonora, Secretary of War, and Secretary of the Interior. During the Maximato, he served as Secretariat of Public Education, Secretary of War again, and Secretary of the Economy. During his presidency, he implemented many left-wing populist and anticlerical reforms, opposition to which sparked the Cristero War.
Born on 25 September 1877 in Sonora, Calles fought in Venustiano Carranza's Constitutional Army during the Mexican Revolution, which allowed him to rise in politics, joining the cabinets of Presidents Carranza, Adolfo de la Huerta, and Álvaro Obregón. Obregón selected him as the Laborist Party's candidate in the 1924 election. His campaign was the first populist presidential campaign in Mexico's history, as he called for land redistribution and promised equal justice, further labor rights, and democratic governance. He won the election and expanded education, implemented infrastructure projects, and improved public health. After this populist phase (1924–1926) he began to persecute the Catholic Church in Mexico (1926–1928), passing several anticlerical laws that resulted in the Cristero War. He allowed CROM's Luis N. Morones to consolidate unions under the Laborist Party, and launched a failed attempt to cancel the Bucareli Treaty. Obregón still held significant political sway and was Calles's main base of support.
Obregón won the 1928 election but was assassinated as president-elect. Calles prevented political instability by founding the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1929. During the presidencies of Emilio Portes Gil, Pascual Ortiz Rubio, and Abelardo Rodríguez, Calles served as the kingmaker of Mexican politics, with only Rodríguez able to assert much true influence. During this period, Calles became more ideologically conservative. In 1934, Calles supported Lázaro Cárdenas for president, but Cárdenas exiled him and many of his allies to implement more socialist reforms. Calles was allowed to return to Mexico in 1941, where he died in 1945. His remains are buried in the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City.
Calles is a controversial figure in Mexican history. Supporters have praised his reforms in areas such as health, infrastructure, and public education, as well as his attempts to separate church and state and to prevent political instability in the wake of Obregón's assassination. Detractors have criticized the escalation of the Cristero War, his crackdowns on labor unions, and for continuing to hold onto power after his presidency. The party he founded, including its two subsequent incarnations, established what Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa would describe as "the perfect dictatorship" and ruled Mexico without democratic opposition for much of the twentieth century through a combination of corruption, repression, and electoral fraud.Khan, M. A. & Lara-Garcia, A., (2021) "A "Perfect Dictatorship": The PRI, Corruption, and Autocracy in Mexico", Arizona Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 7, 26-45.
Early life and career
Born Francisco Plutarco Elías Campuzano, he was one of two natural children of his bureaucrat father, Plutarco Elías Lucero, and his mother, María Jesús Campuzano Noriega. He adopted the Calles surname from his uncle, Juan Bautista Calles, husband of his maternal aunt, María Josefa Campuzano. They raised Plutarco after the death of his mother.Krauze, Enrique. Mexico: Biography of Power. New York: HarperCollins 1997, pp. 404–405. His uncle was from a family of school teachers but was himself a small-scale dealer in groceries and alcoholic beverages.Krauze, Mexico, p. 405. Plutarco's uncle was an atheist, and he instilled in his nephew a strong commitment to secular education and an attitude of disdain toward the Roman Catholic Church, which was separated from the state during this time. This was later reflected in his social agenda, which included the expansion of public education and the removal of church influence from education, politics, and unions.Gonzales, Michael J. The Mexican Revolution, 1910–1940, p. 203-204, UNM Press, 2002.
Plutarco's father's family was descended from a prominent family in the Provincias Internas, most often recorded as Elías González. The first of this line to settle in Mexico was Francisco Elías González (1707–1790), who emigrated from La Rioja, Spain, to Zacatecas, Mexico in 1729. Eventually, Francisco Elías González moved north to Chihuahua, where, as commander of the presidio of Terrenate, he played a role in the wars against the Yaqui and Apache. Plutarco Elías Calles's father, Plutarco Elías Lucero, lost his own father, José Juan Elías Pérez, in 1865 to battle wounds sustained during the resistance to the French Intervention, leaving his widow with eight children, of which Plutarco was the oldest.Krauze, Mexico, p. 404. The family's fortunes declined precipitously; it lost or sold much of its land, some of it to the Cananea Copper Company, whose labor practices resulted in a major strike at the turn of the twentieth century.
Scholars review that his hardships in his upbringing; like his social status as a natural or "illegitimate" child, being an orphan, and financial and familial troubles; have all influenced his path, and made him hardworking and determined to overcome such challenges as the eldest to care for his family. "To society at large, Plutarco Elías Calles was illegitimate because his parents never married, but he was even more so in the eyes of religion. Denying the authority of religion would at least in part be an attempt to negate his own illegitimacy."Krauze, Mexico: Biography of Power, p. 406, citing Macías Richard, Gerardo. Vida y temperamento de Plutarco Elías Calles 1877–1920. Mexico 1995, pp. 71–72.
As a young man, Calles worked in many different jobs, from bartender to schoolteacher, and always had an affinity for political opportunities.Gonzales, Michael J. The Mexican Revolution, 1910–1940. University of New Mexico Press. Albuquerque, 2002. Page 203.
Before the presidency
Participation in the Mexican Revolution, 1910–1917
Calles was a supporter of Francisco I. Madero, under whom he became a police commissioner, and his ability to align himself with the Constitutionalists led by Venustiano Carranza (the political winners of the Mexican Revolution) allowed him to move up the ranks quickly, allowing him to attain the rank of general by 1915. He led the Constitutional Army in his home state of Sonora from this point on. In 1915 his forces repelled the Conventionalist faction in Sonora under José María Maytorena and Pancho Villa in the Battle of Agua Prieta.Stacy, Lee. Mexico and the United States. Marshall Cavendish Corporation. Tarrytown, New York, 2002. Page 124.
Governor of Sonora Calles became governor of his home state of Sonora in 1915, building a pragmatic reformist political record, which was to promote the rapid growth of the Mexican national economy, the infrastructure of which he helped to establish. In particular, he attempted to make Sonora a dry state (a state in which alcohol is heavily regulated), promoted education, legislation giving social security and collective bargaining to workers; organized an economic ground for Mexico.
Service in the Carranza administration In 1919, Calles travelled to Mexico City to take up the post of Secretary of Industry, Commerce, and Labor in the government of President Venustiano Carranza, the leader of the Constitutionalist faction that had won the Mexican Revolution. Calles's position put him in charge of the Mexican economy, which had been devastated by the fighting during the Civil War. The two main sources of production, mining, and agriculture, had been severely affected by the fighting. The key infrastructure of Mexican railways, which had linked many cities and production sites in Mexico to the national market and the United States, had been damaged. The national currency in Mexico had been replaced by paper money issued by revolutionary factions without backing by specie. In response to this, many people used the more stable U.S. paper dollars. The lack of currency meant that in agriculture there was no incentive to produce for the market, which led to food shortages. In addition, malnourished populations are more vulnerable to disease, and Mexico suffered from the Spanish flu pandemic. Calles gained political experience in his months serving in Carranza's government, and his attempt to settle a labor dispute in Orizaba gained him the support of workers there.Buchanau, Jürgen, Plutarco Elías Calles and the Mexican Revolution. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc.2007,
Revolt of the Sonoran generals, 1920 In 1920, he aligned himself with fellow Sonoran revolutionary generals Adolfo de la Huerta and Álvaro Obregón to overthrow Carranza under the Plan of Agua Prieta. Carranza had attempted to choose an unknown civilian, Ignacio Bonillas, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S. as his successor. Carranza was forced out of power and died escaping, leaving De la Huerta as interim president. De la Huerta then named Calles to the important post of minister of war.John Womack, Jr. "The Mexican Revolution" in Mexico Since Independence, Leslie Bethell, ed. New York: Cambridge University Press 1991, p. 195-96.
Obregón administration, De la Huerta revolt, election of 1924 Obregón was elected president in 1920 and he named Calles as Secretary of the Interior.Womack, "The Mexican Revolution", p. 200 During the Obregón presidency (1920–24), Calles aligned himself with organized labor, particularly the Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers (CROM), headed by Luis N. Morones and the Laborist Party, as well as agraristas, radical agrarians.
The serious military conflict was resolved in favor of Obregón when the U.S. threw its support to him. Obregón's government had acceded to concessions to U.S. business interests, particularly oil, in the August 1923 Bucareli Treaty. Obregón pushed through ratification in the Mexican Congress, and the U.S. then moved decisively. President Calvin Coolidge sent naval ships to blockade the Gulf Coast to both prevent the rebels from obtaining arms and deliver arms to Obregón's government. Obregón went to war once again and won a decisive victory against his former comrades-in-arms, 14 of whom were summarily executed.
Calles's candidacy was supported by labor and peasant unions. The Laborist Party which supported his government in reality functioned as the political-electoral branch of the powerful Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers (CROM), led by Luis N. Morones. Morones had a national reputation as a labor leader and had allied with Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor, a moderate craft union organization. In 1916 Gompers and Morones put pressure on the Mexican and U.S. governments, which were heading toward war. In Mexico, Morones was credited with aiding the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Mexico sent by U.S. president Woodrow Wilson. CROM's support for Calles was important for his election.Buford, Nick. "A Biography of Luis N. Morones", PhD dissertation, Louisiana State University 1971, p. 20 Although the labor movement in Mexico was factionalized, CROM was a staunch supporter of Obregón and Calles.