Gustavo Díaz Ordaz

Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Bolaños (; 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.

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.

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. His presidency also took place during a period of high economic growth known as the Mexican Miracle, as well as hosting both the 1968 Summer Olympics and 1970 FIFA World Cup, the first country to have organized both showpiece events two years apart.

After passing on the 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 from after strong protests and criticism by the media. He died of colorectal cancer on 15 July 1979 at the age of 68.

Despite high economic growth during his presidency, Díaz Ordaz is considered one of the most unpopular and controversial modern Mexican presidents, largely for the Tlatelolco massacre and other repressive acts, which would continue into the presidencies of his successors.

Early life and education

Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Bolaños was born on 12 March 1911 in San Andrés Chalchicomula (now Ciudad Serdán), Puebla. His family was of mixed Spanish and Indigenous ancestry. He had two older siblings, Ramón (born 1905) and María (born 1908), and two younger siblings, Ernesto and Guadalupe. 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. He claimed ancestry with conqueror-chronicler Bernal Díaz del Castillo. 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!'" 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.

When the family lived for a time in Oaxaca, the young Díaz Ordaz attended the Institute of Arts and Sciences, 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. 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.

Early political career

thumb|left|A young Díaz Ordaz in 1938, behind President [[Lázaro Cárdenas (front row, center), and future presidents Manuel Ávila Camacho (front row, farthest to the left), and Miguel Alemán (front row immediately left of center).]]

His political career had a modest start. He had not fought in the Revolution and his father had been part of Porfirio Díaz's regime, so his political rise was not straightforward. He served in the government of Puebla from 1932 to 1943. In the latter year he became a federal politician, serving in the Chamber of Deputies for the 1st federal electoral district of Puebla, and he served as a senator for the same state from 1946 to 1952. He came to national prominence in the cabinet of President President Adolfo López Mateos from 1958 to 1964, as Minister of the Interior (Gobernación). On 18 November 1963, he became the presidential candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Despite facing only token opposition, Díaz Ordaz campaigned as if he were the underdog. He won the presidential election on 5 July 1964, with 88.8% of the popular vote, while his main opponent, José González Torres of the National Action Party garnered only 10.9%.

Presidency (1964–1970)

Inauguration

150px|thumb|right|A painting of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz as President

Díaz Ordaz assumed the presidency on 1 December 1964 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. There, he took the oath before the Congress of the Union presided over by Alfonso Martínez Domínguez. Former president Adolfo López Mateos turned over the presidential sash, and Díaz Ordaz delivered his inaugural address. The address lasted almost an hour, which was long for an inauguration speech in Mexico at the time. In his address, he promised to defend Mexico's constitution, submit to the will of Mexico's people, to prioritize the needs of Mexico's farmers, and (in response to criticism of the government's heavy involvement in business) that the government would not compete or supplant private investment. On foreign policy, he stated that Mexico would not break off relations with Fidel Castro's Cuba, and that foreign investment was always welcome in Mexico as long as laws were followed. He announced the members of his cabinet, retaining four ministers from López Mateos.

His authoritarian style of governing produced resistance such as the emergence of a guerrilla movement in the state of Guerrero. Economically, the era of Díaz Ordaz was a time of growth. He established the Mexican Institute of Petroleum in 1965, an important step, for oil has been one of Mexico's most productive industries.

Economy

160px|thumb|right|Portrait of President Díaz Ordaz, 1964–1969

The government of Díaz Ordaz promoted the economic development of Mexico, continuing the model of the “stabilizing development”. National GDP maintained growth between 6 and 8%, and inflation remained at low levels at 2.7%, which would contrast with that of his successor, Luis Echeverría Álvarez, averaging 15%. Despite said economic growth, income inequality between the country's social classes and urban and rural environments, as well as levels of unemployment, were not contained.

During the presidency of Díaz Ordaz, petrochemicals and electrical service were expanded. The Mexican Petroleum Institute was created, along with eight refinery plants, dams, and communications towers in various parts of the country, eight airports, and a major highway network.

Construction of Mexico City Metro Line 1 was also completed. Díaz Ordaz inaugurated the line on 4 September 1969 with Alfonso Corona del Rosal, the Head of the Department of the Federal District. That morning, Díaz Ordaz became the first passenger of the Mexico City Metro.

Role in the 1968 Movement in Mexico

thumb|left|200px|Díaz Ordaz at the [[1968 Summer Olympics|1968 Olympic Games in Mexico.]]

Overview

During his mandate, he ordered the repression of social movements, especially student protests such as the 1968 Movement in Mexico.

A later investigation by the Mexican prosecutor's office determined that during the government of Díaz Ordaz there were illegal detentions, mistreatment, torture, persecution, forced disappearances, espionage, criminalization, homicides, and extrajudicial executions with the aim of extinguishing the social movement present in Mexico City and some states of the republic. Díaz Ordaz based his actions on the hypothesis of a connection between the student movement and international communism, and that from that sector acts of sabotage against the Olympic Games would be carried out. Díaz provided false information to the Embassy of the United States in Mexico and to that country's Central Intelligence Agency, of which he was an informant. According to this apocryphal version, the movement would lead to a revolution of communist ideology supported by the Soviet Union, Cuba, and China. This version appears in police reports from the Department of the Federal District and the Federal Security Directorate after the clashes of 26 and 27 July 1968, which triggered strong repression against the most visible local communist organizations: the Mexican Communist Party and the Central Nacional de Estudiantes Democráticos, whose offices were raided and whose members were arbitrarily detained on 27 July itself. The government of Mexico, with the complicity of the United States, implemented a media campaign to reinforce the idea of the “communist conspiracy” among the population, tending to justify large-scale repression that would then eliminate a movement characterized as a risk to national security and sovereignty. “The youth disorders that have occurred in the world have frequently coincided with the celebration of an important event in the city where they occur; in Punta del Este, Uruguay, before the announcement of the meeting of the presidents of the Americas, student youth were used to provoke serious conflicts.” Therefore, he announced that he would not tolerate any effort to diminish the “splendor” of the Olympic Games. He argued that external causes influenced student actions in the country, since there was a “copying of the slogans used in other countries, the same banners, identical legends, sometimes in simple literal translation, other times in absurd parody”.

The final order given by Díaz Ordaz culminated in the implementation of the military operation called Operation Galeana, which culminated in the massacre at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas (Tlatelolco, Mexico City) on 2 October 1968, thus making him intellectually responsible, together with his Secretaries of the Interior (Luis Echeverría Álvarez) and National Defense (Marcelino García Barragán), for the murder, detention, and disappearance of several hundred students. The operation involved the Secretariat of the Interior, the Mexican Army, the Secret Police, and a paramilitary body formed specifically for the repression of this movement called the Olympia Battalion.

Attempt to democratize the PRI

Díaz Ordaz's authoritarian manner of rule also prevented any attempt to democratize the PRI. The president of the PRI, Carlos Madrazo, made such an attempt by proposing inner-party elections in order to strengthen the party's base. After his attempt failed, Madrazo resigned.

Foreign policy

United States

thumb|President Díaz Ordaz and President [[Lyndon Johnson in November 1964.]]

During the administration of Díaz Ordaz, relations with the US were largely harmonic, and several bilateral treaties were formed. On 8 September 1969, Díaz Ordaz and President Richard Nixon inaugurated the Amistad Dam in Texas. In Díaz Ordaz's honor, President Nixon hosted the first White House state dinner to be held outside Washington, D.C., at San Diego's Hotel del Coronado on 3 September 1970.

thumb|Díaz Ordaz with [[Richard Nixon at Lake Amistad, August 9, 1969.]]

However, there also were some points of conflict with the US. One was the antidrug Operation Intercept, conducted by the U.S.; between September and October 1969, all vehicles entering the US from Mexico were inspected. Mexico also embraced the doctrine of nonintervention, and Díaz Ordaz condemned the US invasion of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.

Official international trips

This is a list of official trips abroad made by Díaz Ordaz during his presidency.

According to Article 88 of the Constitution of Mexico, the president may leave the country for up to seven days by informing the Senate or, where applicable, the Permanent Commission in advance of the reasons for the absence, as well as of the results of the measures carried out. For absences longer than seven days, permission from the Senate or the Permanent Commission is required.

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{| class="wikitable" width="90%"

! style="text-align:center; background:lightsteelblue;" | Date

! style="text-align:center; background:lightsteelblue;" | Destination

! style="text-align:center; background:lightsteelblue;" | Main purpose

| colspan="3" style="text-align:center; background:steelblue;" | 1964

| colspan="3" style="text-align:center;" | No official foreign visits

| colspan="3" style="text-align:center; background:steelblue;" | 1965

| colspan="3" style="text-align:center;" | No official foreign visits

| colspan="3" style="text-align:center; background:steelblue;" | 1966

| style="text-align:center;" | 10–12 January || style="text-align:center;" | Guatemala City () || State visit.

| style="text-align:center;" | 12–14 January || style="text-align:center;" | San Salvador () || State visit.

| style="text-align:center;" | 14–16 January || style="text-align:center;" | Tegucigalpa () || State visit.

| style="text-align:center;" | 16–18 January || style="text-align:center;" | Managua () || State visit.

| style="text-align:center;" | 18–20 January || style="text-align:center;" | San José () || State visit.

| style="text-align:center;" | 20–22 January || style="text-align:center;" | Panama City and the Panama Canal Zone () || State visit.

| colspan="3" style="text-align:center; background:steelblue;" | 1967

| style="text-align:center;" | 11–14 April || style="text-align:center;" | Montevideo and Punta del Este () || State visit and participation in the Summit of the Organization of American States Heads of State and Government.

| style="text-align:center;" | 26–28 October || style="text-align:center;" | Washington, D.C. and El Paso () || State visit and speech before the House of Representatives.

| colspan="3" style="text-align:center; background:steelblue;" | 1968

| style="text-align:center;" | 13 December || style="text-align:center;" | El Paso () || Official visit for the opening of the López Mateos Channel of the Rio Grande. He also considered Antonio Rocha Cordero, governor of the state of San Luis Potosí and former Attorney General, who was eliminated owing to his age (58), and Jesús Reyes Heroles, who was disqualified because a parent had been born outside Mexico, in this case Spain, which was prohibited by Article 82 of the Constitution. In the assessment of political scientist Jorge G. Castañeda, Echeverría was Díaz Ordaz's pick by elimination, not choice.

Later life

right|thumb|250 px|President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz (left) riding a presidential motorcade in San Diego, with [[US President Richard Nixon]]

After his term expired, Díaz Ordaz and his family vanished completely from the public eye; he was occasionally mentioned in newspapers (usually in a derogatory manner), he seldom gave interviews, and he was usually spotted only when voting in elections.

In 1977, a break from that obscurity came as he was appointed as the first Mexican Ambassador to Spain in 38 years, relations between the two countries having previously been broken by the triumph of Falangism in the Spanish Civil War. During his brief stint as Ambassador, he met with hostility from both the Spanish media and the Mexican media, as he was persistently asked questions about his actions as president. He resigned within several months because of that and his health problems. Popular discontent led to a catchphrase: "Al pueblo de España no le manden esa araña" ("To the people of Spain, do not send that spider").

Díaz Ordaz became a critic of Luis Echeverría's presidency, particularly his use of populist policies. Díaz Ordaz once referred to Echeverría as someone who was, "out of control. [Echeverría] talks about anything. He doesn't know what he is saying. He insists he's going to make changes, but he doesn't say to what end."

Death

He died on 15 July 1979, aged 68 of colorectal cancer, at home in his bed in Mexico City, with his physician and children Gustavo, Guadalupe, and Ramón all present.

Legacy and public opinion

thumb|200px|Effigy of Díaz Ordaz at an anti-government protest in 2009. The sign reads "I killed students whom I accused of being communists and terrorists. My friend [[Felipe Calderón|Calderón, you're following my example very well!" (a reference to the controversial Drug War launched by Calderón's administration).]]

Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport in Puerto Vallarta is named after him.

Public opinion on the Díaz Ordaz administration and its legacy continues to be mostly negative, being associated with the Tlatelolco massacre and a general hardening of authoritarianism that would prevail during successive PRI administrations. Even during his lifetime, his appointment as Ambassador to Spain in 1977 was met with such rejection and protests that he had to resign shortly after.

In a national survey conducted in 2012, 27% of the respondents considered that the Díaz Ordaz administration was "very good" or "good", 20% responded that it was an "average" administration, and 45% responded that it was a "very bad" or "bad" administration.