Manuel Ávila Camacho

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Manuel Ávila Camacho ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; 24 April 1897 – 13 October 1955) was a Mexican politician and military leader who served as the president of Mexico from 1940 to 1946. Despite participating in the Mexican Revolution and achieving a high rank, he came to the presidency of Mexico because of his direct connection to General Lázaro Cárdenas and served him as the Chief of his General Staff during the Mexican Revolution and afterwards.<ref>Krauze, Enrique. Mexico: Biography of Power. New York: Harper Collins 1997, p. 494.</ref> He was called affectionately by Mexicans "The Gentleman President" ("El Presidente Caballero").<ref>Krauze, Mexico: Biography of Power, chapter title, 491.</ref> As president, he pursued "national policies of unity, adjustment, and moderation."<ref>Howard F. Cline Mexico: Revolution to Evolution: 1940-1960. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1963, p. 153.</ref> His administration completed the transition from military to civilian leadership, ended confrontational anticlericalism, reversed the push for socialist education, and restored a working relationship with the US during World War II.<ref>Roderic Ai Camp, "Manuel Avila Camacho" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, vol. 1, p. 244. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996.</ref>

Early life

Manuel Ávila was born in Teziutlán, a small but economically important town in Puebla, to middle-class parents, Manuel Ávila Castillo and Eufrosina Camacho Bello.<ref>LaFrance, David G. "Manuel Ávila Camacho" in Encyclopedia of Mexico, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, p. 116.</ref> His older brother, Maximino Ávila Camacho, was a more dominant personality. There were several other siblings, among them a sister, María Jovita Ávila Camacho, and several brothers. Two of his brothers, Maximino Ávila Camacho and Rafael Ávila Camacho, served as governors of Puebla.

Manuel Ávila Camacho did not receive a university degree although he studied at the National Preparatory School.

Early career

He joined the revolutionary army in 1914 as a second lieutenant and reached the rank of colonel by 1920. The same year, he served as the chief of staff of the state of Michoacán under Lázaro Cárdenas and became his close friend. He opposed the 1923 rebellion of former revolutionary general Adolfo de la Huerta.<ref>Camp, "Manuel Avila Camacho", p. 244.</ref> In 1929, he fought under General Cárdenas against the Escobar Rebellion, the last serious military rebellion of disgruntled revolutionary generals, and the same year, he achieved the rank of brigadier general.

He was married to Soledad Orozco García (1904–1996), who was born in Zapopan, Jalisco, and was a member of a prominent family in Jalisco.

After his military service, Ávila Camacho entered the public arena in 1933 as the executive officer of the Secretariat of National Defense and became Secretary of National Defense in 1937. In 1940, he was elected president of Mexico after he had been nominated to represent the party that later became the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Camacho won the controversial presidential election over right-wing candidate and revolutionary-era General Juan Andreu Almazán.

Presidency

End of conflict between church and state

Ávila Camacho, a professed Catholic, said, "I am a believer." Since the revolution, all presidents had been anticlerical.<ref>Tuck, Jim. "Mexico's marxist guru: Vicente Lombardo Toledano (1894–1968)". Mexconnect. 9 October 2008.</ref> During Ávila's term, the conflict between the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico and the Mexican government largely ended.

Domestic policy

He protected the working class by creating the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) in 1943. He worked to reduce illiteracy, continued land reform, and declared a rent freeze to benefit low-income citizens.

He promoted election reform and passed a new electoral law in 1946 to make it difficult for opposition parties of the far right and the far left to operate legally. The law established the following criteria that had to be fulfilled by any political organization to be recognized as a political party:

have at least 10,000 active members in 10 states;
exist for at least three years before elections;
agree with the principles established in the constitution;
not form alliances or be subordinated to international organizations or foreign political parties.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

On 18 January 1946, he had the Party of the Mexican Revolution (PRM) renamed to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), its current name. The Mexican army had been a sector of the PRM, but it was eliminated from the organization of the PRI.<ref>Cline, Howard F. Mexico, 1940-1960: Revolution to Evolution. New York: Oxford University Press 1963, p. 153.</ref>

Economically, he pursued the country's industrialization, which benefited only a small group, and income inequality increased.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> World War II stimulated Mexican industry, which grew by approximately 10% annually between 1940 and 1945, and Mexican raw materials fueled the US war industry.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In agriculture, his administration invited the Rockefeller Foundation to introduce Green Revolution technology to bolster Mexico's agricultural productivity.<ref>Cotter, Joseph. Troubled Harvest: Agronomy and Revolution in Mexico 1880-2002. Westport CT: Prager 2003.</ref>

In education, Ávila reversed Lázaro Cárdenas's policy of socialist education in Mexico and had the constitutional amendments that mandated it repealed.<ref>Camp, "Manuel Avila Camacho," p. 244.</ref>

Foreign policy

The first *braceros* arriving in Los Angeles, California by train in 1942. Photograph by Dorothea Lange.

During his term, Ávila Camacho faced the difficulty of governing during World War II. After two of Mexico's ships (Potrero del Llano and Faja de Oro) carrying oil were destroyed by German submarines in the Gulf of Mexico,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Ávila declared war against the Axis powers on 22 May 1942. Mexican participation in World War II was mainly limited to an airborne squadron, the 201st (Escuadrón 201), to fight the Japanese in the Pacific. The squadron consisted of 300 men, and after receiving training in Texas, it was sent to the Philippines on 27 March 1945. On 7 June 1945, its missions started, and the squadron participated in the Battle of Luzon. By the end of the war, 5 Mexican soldiers had lost their lives in combat. Despite its short participation in the war, Mexico belonged to the victorious nations and had thus gained the right to participate in the postwar international conferences.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Mexico's joining the conflict on the side of the Allies improved relations with the United States. Mexico provided both raw material for the conflict and also 300,000 guest workers under the Bracero program to replace some of the Americans who had left to fight in the war. Mexico also resumed diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, which had been broken off during the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas.Template:Citation needed In 1945, Mexico signed the United Nations Charter, and in 1946, it became the headquarters of the Inter-American Conference about War and Peace.Template:Citation needed

Conflicts with the United States, which had existed in the decades before his presidency, were resolved. Especially in the early years of World War II, Mexican-American relations were excellent. The United States provided Mexico with financial aid for improvements on the railway system and the construction of the Pan American Highway. Moreover, the Mexican foreign debt was reduced.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Later life

When his term ended in 1946, Ávila retired to work on his farm.<ref>Camp, "Manel Avila Camacho", p. 244.</ref>

In 1951, President Miguel Alemán Valdés, nearing the end of his six-year term, expressed his desire to have the Constitution amended to allow him to be re-elected. Ávila Camacho and Cárdenas had former president Abelardo L. Rodríguez give a statement that they didn't "think extension of the presidential term or re-election is convenient for the country." This allowed for the transfer of power to President Adolfo Ruiz Cortines in 1952.<ref>Template:Cite book p. 78</ref>

Ávila Camacho died at his farm of a heart ailment on 13 October 1955, aged 58.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

Awards

1945, Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon<ref name="chinahandbook">Template:Cite book</ref> from the Republic of China
Poland (in exile): Order of the White Eagle

References

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Bibliography

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External links

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Manuel Ávila Camacho

Contents

Early life

Early career

Presidency

End of conflict between church and state

Domestic policy

Foreign policy

Later life

Awards

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

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Manuel Ávila Camacho

Early life

Early career

Presidency

End of conflict between church and state

Domestic policy

Foreign policy

Later life

Awards

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