Luis Echeverría
| Luis Echeverría | |
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 50th President of Mexico |
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In office 1 December 1970 – 30 November 1976 |
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| Preceded by | Gustavo Díaz Ordaz |
| Succeeded by | José López Portillo |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Luis Echeverría Álvarez 17 January 1922 Mexico City |
| Nationality | Mexican |
| Political party | Institutional Revolutionary Party |
| Spouse(s) | María Esther Zuno Arce (m. 1945–1999, her death) |
| Children | 8 |
| Alma mater | National Autonomous University of Mexico |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Luis Echeverría Álvarez (Spanish pronunciation: [lwis etʃeβeˈri.a ˈalβaɾes]; born 17 January 1922) was the president of Mexico from 1970 to 1976. At 95, he is currently the oldest living former Mexican president.
He was born in Mexico City to Rodolfo Echeverría and Catalina Álvarez. Echeverría joined the faculty of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1947 and taught political theory. He rose in the hierarchy of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and eventually became the private secretary of the party president, Rodolfo Sánchez Taboada.
Echeverría served as Interior Secretary under President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz from 1964 to 1970. He maintained a hard line against student protesters throughout 1968. Clashes between the government and protesters culminated in the Tlatelolco massacre in October 1968, a few days before the 1968 Summer Olympics were held in Mexico City. In a separate incident, he ordered the transfer of 15% of the Mexican military to the state of Guerrero to counter guerrilla groups that were operating there.
At one point during his campaign for the presidency, Echeverría called for a moment of silence to remember the victims of the Tlatelolco massacre, an act that enraged President Díaz Ordaz and almost prompted him to call for Echeverría's resignation. Once Echeverría became president, he embarked on a massive program of populist political and economic reform, nationalizing the mining and electrical industries, redistributing private land in the states of Sinaloa and Sonora to peasants, imposing limits on foreign investment, and extending Mexico's patrimonial waters to 370 kilometres (230 mi). State spending on health, housing construction, education, and food subsidies was also significantly increased, and the percentage of the population covered by the social security system was doubled.
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