See also: Díaz

Jose of Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori (September 15th 1830 - July 2nd 1915) politicking and military hero, was a general who directed the Mexico of 1876 to 1911, except for one period of a few months Juan NR. Méndez (1876-1877) and of another four years Manuel González (1880-1884). There remains admired by a great number of Mexicans.

It was born in the town of Oaxaca.

The Díaz general fought at the sides of Benito Juárez at the time of the French intervention. He took part in particular in the defense of Puebla by the general Ignacio Zaragoza in 1862. He was a hero of the war against French.

He was then president of Mexico to leave 1876. He then worked for peace and progress. The two things which the country largely required since 1810 with the installation of a dictatorial mode. In this direction there were a great advance, industrialization, infrastructures railway and harbor, construction of roads, opening of the country to the rest of the world.

He is the author of the sentence always of topicality: Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States.

Porfirio Díaz with the capacity since about thirty years wanted to be again represented with the presidential election of 1910 but Francisco Madero, announced also its candidature. Díaz made imprison Madero then slackened it. The authorities declared that Díaz had gained the elections high the hand and that Madero had collected only a few hundreds of voice through all the country. Many people estimated that there had been an obvious fraud in the elections and rebelled. Thus the Mexican Civil war, also called began Mexican Révolution.

After the catch of Ciudad Juarez in 1911 by the troops of Francisco Villa, Diaz left in exile to France.

He visited then Germany or he was received with great honors by Guillaume II, Egypt and Switzerland, from which he studied the system of mobilization of the troops.

He died on July 2nd, 1915 with Paris, where he was buried with the Cimetière of Montparnasse.

Certain Mexican personalities and of the political parties require the return of the remainders of the country of this president. He was a notorious member of freemasonry.

Presidency of Porfirio Díaz

The last years of the government of Benito Juárez were very criticized by the various factions within the liberals. With died of Juarez, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada occupied the presidency and registered in the constitution the reforms promulgated for the period 1855-1856. When Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada tried to be made re-elect, the partisans of Porfirio Diaz launched an insurrection and seized the power while at the same time the presidential law should have designated Jose Maria Iglesias. Porfirio Diaz became president of Mexico in 1876, beginning of the mode known in Spanish under the name of Porfiriato and which was going to last until in 1910.

The presidency of Diaz was stopped during 4 years under the government of Manuel Gonzalez, its friend and obviously subjected to his authority. For this period the laws of reform (in particular the law Lerdo) were used as framework to support the concentration of the grounds to the hands of a minority of landowners. The peasants were constrained has a work badly remunerated in the haciendas and certain indigenous groups were shown particularly rebellious and impermeable with modernity and the changes, like the yaquis or the Maya whose most active leaders were constrained with the forced labors in places like Valle Nacional, the Valley of Rio Yaqui or Yucatan.

During the same time, Mexico opens outside. The American and European investments arrived; also, the Mexican diplomacy established relations with Asian countries like the China, the Japan and the Perse

During Porfiriato, to mitigate the lack of indigenous capital the overseas investment was favoured. Jose Yves Limantour, Mexican of French origin, was placed at the head of this economic development plan. Most of the investments of American origin, were followed by the English, French, the Germans and the Spaniards (mines, oil, railroads, textile, plantations, industry etc). The country knew one period of great prosperity and peace, but the fruits of this growth were confiscated by a minority whereas the major part of the population did not benefit from it. During famous Diaz maintenance - Creelman, the President estimated that Mexico was ready for the Démocratie. Its opponents pretended to believe it and presented themselves to the elections of 1910. These elections were gained by Francisco Madero. Diaz did not recognize the result of the elections what marked the beginning of the Mexican Révolution.

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