Díaz, (José de la Cruz) Porfirio (1830-1915)

Mexican soldier and politician, dictator-president (caudillo) of Mexico 1877-80 and 1884-1911. He seized power after losing the 1876 presidential election. He dominated the country for the next 34 years, although between 1880 and 1884 his ally, Manuel Gonzáles, was formally president. He centralized the state at the expense of the peasants and Indians, and dismantled all local and regional leadership. Despite significant economic advance, Díaz faced mounting revolutionary opposition in his final years. His retraction of a promise not to seek re-election in 1910 triggered a rebellion, led by Francisco Madero, which led to Díaz's overthrow in May 1911. Díaz fled to France, and died in exile in Paris.

He was supported by conservative landowners and foreign (especially US) capitalists, who invested in railways, mines, and the oil industry. Land, partly confiscated from American Indians, became concentrated in the hands of a few, and opposition was suppressed, partly through Díaz's rural police force, the Guardias Rurales. His advisers, known as the Científicos (‘scientists’) preached a positivist liberal philosophy of strong government to support economic development, under the slogan ‘plenty of administration and no politics’.

A mestizo (of mixed Spanish and American Indian ancestry), he was born into poverty in Oaxaca city, and was forced into work at an early age following the death of his father. He studied law with the help of a more affluent cousin, and joined the Liberal Army, becoming a successful general in the 1860s War of the Reform. He retired from the army and took up agriculture from the late 1860s, and unsuccessfully contested the presidency in 1871.