Calles, Plutarco Elías
Calles, Plutarco Elías
(plo͞otär`kō ālē`äs kä`yās), 1877–1945, Mexican statesman, president (1924–28). In 1913 he left schoolteaching to fight with Álvaro ObregónObregón, Álvaro, 1880–1928, Mexican general and president (1920–24). A planter in Sonora, he supported Francisco I. Madero in the revolution against Porfirio Díaz.
..... Click the link for more information. and Venustiano CarranzaCarranza, Venustiano
, 1859–1920, Mexican political leader. While senator from Coahuila, he joined (1910) Francisco I. Madero in the revolution against Porfirio Díaz.
..... Click the link for more information. against Victoriano HuertaHuerta, Victoriano
, 1854–1916, Mexican general and president (1913–14). He served under Porfirio Díaz. After the revolution of Francisco I. Madero (1911) he aided the new president, who, reluctantly, made him (1912) commander of the federal forces.
..... Click the link for more information. . In 1920 he joined Obregón and Adolfo de la HuertaHuerta, Adolfo de la
, c.1882–1955, Mexican revolutionist and president (May–Dec., 1920). As governor of Sonora, he broke with President Carranza and declared the secession of the state (1920).
..... Click the link for more information. in the rebellion against Carranza. After Obregón's term as president, Calles, who had been a cabinet member, became the presidential nominee. Adolfo de la Huerta, claiming election fraud, revolted (Dec., 1923), but Obregón and Calles established their supremacy by force (1924); Calles became president.
Calles's administration was noted for its revolutionary zeal, which often precipitated violence. At the outset agrarian reform was pursued vigorously but recklessly. Many rural schools were built, although teachers were still scarce and underpaid. Material improvements were given special attention; vast road-building and irrigation projects were undertaken. The struggle between church and state reached a new level of bitterness. In 1926 the enforcement of anticlerical legislation provoked violence; in 1926–29 the Cristeros, largely peasant rebels whose slogan was "Viva Cristo Rey" [long live Christ the King] took up arms in the states of Colima, Jalisco, and Michoacán. Military chieftains reciprocated by victimizing innocent Roman Catholics, and government officials used the strife to political advantage. At the same time legislation over land and petroleum rights brought about a serious dispute with the United States; relations between the two countries improved when Dwight W. MorrowMorrow, Dwight Whitney,
1873–1931, American banker and diplomat, b. Huntington, W.Va. He practiced law in New York City and entered (1914) the banking house of J. P. Morgan & Company.
..... Click the link for more information. was appointed (1927) ambassador, and the oil question was temporarily settled.
Calles created and directed a powerful national army and dissolved the private militia that threatened internal peace. He unified the government and molded the National Revolutionary party into the dominant force in Mexican politics. Calles rapidly lost his radicalism when he gained power and became a landowner and financier; he moved toward dictatorship. Already in control of the labor movement, he made himself the force behind the Callistas, a circle of financiers and industrialists who dominated the country's economy and politics. Thus he became undisputed Jefe Máximo, or political chieftain, of Mexico.
When Obregón was assassinated (1928) after his reelection to the presidency, Calles appointed Emilio Portes Gil. In 1930 he declared the agrarian reform program a failure. In the same year he engineered the election of Pascual Ortiz Rubio. Two years later he removed him to appoint Gen. Abelardo Luján Rodríguez. The mighty labor union, CROM (see Lombardo Toledano, VicenteLombardo Toledano, Vicente
, 1894–1968, Mexican labor leader. A successful lawyer, he became (1920) governor of the state of Puebla. In 1921 he joined the Mexican Regional Confederation of Workers (CROM).
..... Click the link for more information. ), was smashed. The conflict with the church, temporarily subdued (1929) by Morrow, was resumed; priests were openly persecuted. Communist unions, previously used by Calles in his campaign against the CROM, were ruthlessly suppressed, and a Callista-backed fascist organization, the Gold Shirts, harassed minority groups. As the new champion of conservatism, Calles in 1935 openly opposed the policies of his former protégé, Lázaro CárdenasCárdenas, Lázaro
, 1895–1970, president of Mexico (1934–40). He joined the revolutionary forces in 1913 and rose to become a general. He was governor (1928–32) of his native state, Michoacán, and held other political posts before he was,
..... Click the link for more information. , but was defeated in the contest; in 1936 he was exiled. He was allowed to return under an amnesty in 1941.
Calles, Plutarco Elias
Born Sept. 25, 1877, in Guay-mas, Sonora; died Oct. 19, 1945, in Mexico City. Mexican statesman and political figure. Teacher by profession.
Calles was one of the participants in the Revolution of 1910— 17, and in 1914 he became a general. From 1918 to 1923 he occupied important ministerial posts. He was president from 1924 to 1928. At first he pursued a policy aimed at strengthening the national sovereignty of the country, defending Mexico’s right to its own natural resources against the encroachments of American monopolies and supporting Nicaragua in its national liberation struggle against US imperialism. However, he eventually capitulated totally to native reaction and American capital, supporting a policy of concessions to US oil monopolies and suppressing democratic forces within the country. In 1930, under his immediate influence, Mexico severed diplomatic relations with the USSR. From 1933 to 1935 he was minister of finance. In 1936 he was expelled from the country for his antinational reactionary activity and interference in the affairs of the progressive government led by L. Cárdenas y del Rio. Returning to Mexico in 1941, he abandoned politics.