Álvaro Obregón | |
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39th President of Mexico |
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In office December 1, 1920 – November 30, 1924 |
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Preceded by | Adolfo de la Huerta |
Succeeded by | Plutarco Elías Calles |
Personal details | |
Born |
Álvaro Obregón Salido February 19, 1880 Siquisiva, Navojoa, Sonora |
Died | July 17, 1928 San Ángel, Mexico City |
(aged 48)
Nationality | Mexican |
Political party | Laborist Party (PL) |
Spouse(s) | María Tapia (1888-1971) |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Mexico |
Service/branch | Mexican Army |
Rank | General |
Battles/wars | Mexican Revolution |
Álvaro Obregón Salido (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈalβaɾo oβɾeˈɣon]; February 19, 1880 – July 17, 1928) was a general in the Mexican Revolution, who became President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. He supported Sonora's decision to follow Governor of Coahuila Venustiano Carranza as leader of a revolution against the Huerta regime. Carranza appointed Obregón commander of the revolutionary forces in northwestern Mexico and in 1915 appointed him as his minister of war. In 1920, Obregón launched a revolt against Carranza, in which Carranza was assassinated; he won the subsequent election with overwhelming support.
Obregón's presidency was the first stable presidency since the Revolution began in 1910. He oversaw massive educational reform (with Mexican muralism flourishing), moderate land reform, and labor laws sponsored by the increasingly powerful Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers. In August 1923, he signed the Bucareli Treaty that clarified the rights of the Mexican government and U.S. oil interests and brought U.S. diplomatic recognition to his government. In 1923–24, Obregón's finance minister, Adolfo de la Huerta, launched a rebellion in part protesting the Bucareli Treaty; Obregón returned to the battlefield to crush the rebellion. In his victory, he was aided by the United States with arms and 17 U.S. planes that bombed de la Huerta's supporters.
In 1924, Obregón's fellow Northern revolutionary general and hand-picked successor, Plutarco Elías Calles, was elected president, and although Obregón ostensibly retired to Sonora, he remained influential under Calles. Having pushed through constitutional reform to once again make reelection possible, Obregón won the 1928 election, but was assassinated by José de León Toral, a Mexican offended by the government's anti-religious laws, before he could begin his second term. Toral's subsequent trial ultimately led to his execution by firing squad, and it also involved a Capuchin nun named Madre Conchita, who was thought to be the mastermind behind Obregón's murder.