Porfirio Díaz

José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori (Spanish: [poɾˈfiɾjo ˈði.as]; baptized 15 September 1830 – 2 July 1915), commonly known as Porfirio Díaz, was a Mexican army general and politician who was the leader of Mexico from 1876, and the actual dictator after 1886 until his overthrow in 1911. Seizing power in a military coup, he served on three occasions as president of Mexico, a total of over thirty years, the longest of any Mexican ruler. This period is known as the Porfiriato and has been called a de facto dictatorship.

Díaz was born to a Oaxacan family of modest means. He initially studied to become a priest but eventually switched his studies to law, and among his mentors was the future President of Mexico, Benito Juárez. Díaz increasingly became active in Liberal Party politics fighting with the Liberals to overthrow Santa Anna in the Plan of Ayutla, and also fighting on their side against the Conservative Party in the Reform War.

During the second French intervention in Mexico, Díaz fought in the Battle of Puebla in 1862, which temporarily repulsed the invaders, but was captured when the French besieged the city with reinforcements a year later. He escaped captivity and made his way to Oaxaca de Juárez, becoming political and military commander over all of Southern Mexico, and successfully resisting French efforts to advance upon the region, until Oaxaca City fell before a French siege in 1865. Díaz once more escaped captivity seven months later and rejoined the army of the Mexican Republic as the Second Mexican Empire disintegrated in the wake of the French departure. As Emperor Maximilian made a last stand in Querétaro, Díaz was in command of the forces that took back Mexico City in June 1867.

During the era of the Restored Republic, he subsequently revolted against presidents Benito Juárez and Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada on the principle of no re-election. Díaz succeeded in seizing power, ousting Lerdo in a coup in 1876, with the help of his political supporters, and was elected in 1877. In 1880, he stepped down and his political ally Manuel González was elected president, serving from 1880 to 1884. In 1884, Díaz abandoned the idea of no re-election and held office continuously until 1911.