Gustavo Diaz Ordaz

Gustavo Díaz Ordaz was a renowned Mexican politician , who was president of the Republic between 1964 and 1970. His participation as president and his government is currently remembered and with greater importance the massacre that took place in the city of Tlatelolco , through of a military deployment by the government to silence the different protests caused by the students that resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries on October 2, 1968.

What did

He was a man who worked for Mexican politics from different positions, going through secretary, senator and member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party better known as PRI. He had very good relations with the President of the United States , which helped both countries. He made an effort to maintain adequate relationships with foreign investors to obtain the best benefits, he established that Mexican banking should be managed by Mexicans and not by foreign representatives.

Biography of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz

He was born on March 12, 1911 in San Andrés Chalchicomula in the state of Puebla . He managed to occupy different political positions, among them, as Political Chief of the Chalchicomula district, but with the outbreak and triumph of the Mexican Revolution , the Porfirian bureaucratic structure was eliminated and left his family in serious economic problems. After going to Jalisco they returned to Oaxaca where Gustavo Díaz Ordaz completed his basic studies and entered the Institute of Sciences and Arts of Oaxaca to attend high school., but the lack of economic income led the family to permanently emigrate to the city of Puebla de Zaragoza .

In this place he entered the State College from where he graduated at the age of 26 as a lawyer . He held various public positions in his native administrative division , was president of the Federal Board of Conciliation and Arbitration and a magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice of the State of Puebla where he was promoted in his political career.

In 1943 Gustavo Díaz Ordaz was nominated and elected federal deputy to the XXXIX Legislature representing Puebla and in 1946 he became Senator. On December 1, 1952, he was appointed General Legal Director of the Ministry of the Interior and worked in the Mayor’s Office of the same agency. On December 1, 1958, Adolfo López Mateos assumed the Presidency of Mexico, who appointed him head of the Ministry of the Interior and, on the instructions of the president, was nominated as a PRI candidate for President of Mexico on November 15, 1963 .

Death

At the end of 1978, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz began to get sick and his son commented in an interview that his father had started to feel severe pains in his stomach, which is why they had contacted a family-friendly gastroenterologist to check him. He was taken to the hospital where they managed to stabilize him, however, on December 25 he began to present pain again. He was diagnosed with colon cancer for which he had to undergo emergency surgery but doctors discovered that the cancer had spread affecting the liver . On July 16, 1979 , Gustavo Díaz Ordaz died as a result of cardiac arrest., He died in his room located in Pedregal accompanied by his children. His remains were buried with his wife in the Jardin pantheon in Mexico City.

Presidency

He only fulfilled a period of government in his country that included the years 1964 and 1970. His government was characterized mainly by defending the Mexican territory and the development of the economy of his nation. During his presidency, there were also various and numerous manifestations of violence to show the discontent of Mexican citizens due to the inequalities that existed between society . The guilds and unions they organized demonstrations and numerous articles full of criticism against the administration of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz were also published.

One of the elements that he had to fight during his presidential term were the guerrillas . In some places it was possible to calm the situation but in Guerrero it was impossible to calm the anger of the inhabitants, which is why the government created the “ Great Rastrilleo operation ” . On October 2, 1968, a strong repression was carried out against students of the organized movement in Tlatelolco known as the ” massacre in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas de Tlaltelolco . ” The student movement advocated for greater civil and democratic liberties, and the resignation of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.. The number of deceased, missing and even injured people was never known. The figures are so imprecise that it is estimated that between 200 and 1500 people died.

Contributions of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz

His government reformed the income tax, making this tax the lowest in all of Latin America . The income tax was characterized by encompassing the income of legal and natural persons . A deduction regime was determined and the budgets of agencies that were decentralized were joined together.

Gustavo Díaz Ordaz affirmed that the development of the nation focused on the use of natural resources and made the Mexican domestic market stronger. It established the credit s and the investment participation of other countries as an additional element to complete its support action .

He managed to increase mining and several important institutions were created such as the Mexican Copper Company , the Mexican Petroleum Institute and the Peña Colorada Mining Consortium . More than 200 petrochemical plants were developed and 8 new refining plants were created . Electric service plants were also created .

It made a significant increase in public investment without increasing external debt . He founded a station to generate communication with satellites and built more than 14,000 square kilometers in the network of roads as well inaugurating the first subway line in the capital of the nation. Regarding public works, his government was the one that gave the largest amount of contributions to the country.

Also it began to be part of the International Monetary Fund and urged the Association Latin American Free Trade . He signed the Treaty of Tlaltelolco , through which nuclear weapons were prohibited in that area. Finally, it managed to develop Mexican agriculture and maintained a trade surplus by increasing export growth.

Thought of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz

His thinking was focused on increasing the economic capacities that his country had both internally and externally, but within his thinking he did not care about his country. He based his thinking on the idea of suppressing any type of protest that might occur against him. He was willing to kill in order to get his desired welfare from the republic .

Personality

Many consider that the thought of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz was cold and punctual , firm when it came to state policies. He cared more about the country’s economy than about its own inhabitants. Totally tough, tyrant , authoritarian and had precarious ideas regarding the reality that his country was experiencing. He was a serious , methodical, arrogant man , extremely obsessive with order and very good for memory.

Fathers

He was the son of Ramón Díaz Ordaz Redonet and Sabina Bolaños Cacho.

Relations

Gustavo Díaz Ordaz married Guadalupe Borja , and with her he had three children. Apart from his wife, Irma Serra, who was one of the most famous actresses that existed at that time, claimed to have had an affair with Díaz.

Children

Three children were born from their marriage , Gustavo, Guadalupe and Alfredo .

Importance

The importance of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz lies mainly in the economic aspect that he managed to develop in the Mexican country. He managed to Mexicanize the bank , avoided inflationary pressures , expanded and built hydraulic infrastructures , began the work of the metro in Mexico City, gave the vote to young people when they turned 18 and also promulgated a new Labor Law that provided greater protection to Workers.

Quotes by Gustavo Díaz Ordaz

Some of his most remembered phrases were:

• We are not willing to give in to pressure on anything that is illegal or inconvenient , whatever the consequences may be .
• It has come to debauchery in the use of all means of expression and diffusion ; They have enjoyed very wide freedoms and guarantees to make demonstrations.
• It has its limits and we cannot allow it to continue breaking the legal order , as in the eyes of the whole world it has been happening, we have the inescapable obligation to prevent the destruction of the essential formulas .
• I take full ethical, social, legal, political and historical responsibility for the government’s decisions in relation to the events of the past year.

Acknowledgments

In his honor, plaques with the name of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz were placed in the Mexico City subway and in the Magdalena Mixhuca Weapons Room . These plates were removed by the head of government of Mexico City, José Ramón Amieva Gálvez.

Curiosities

During the government of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, several student strikes took place and some ended in bloody clashes. The bloodiest was in Tlatelolco in 1968 .

It is said that they received orders from the CIA for the 1968 massacre. Several Mexican analysts insist that the president was an agent in the United States’ nomic agency.

Gustavo Díaz Ordaz’s henchman was Winston Scott , who was described as one of the best US intelligence agents .