Abelardo L. Rodriguez
Abelardo Rodríguez Luján (Guaymas, Sonora, May 12, 1889-La Jolla, California, February 13, 1967), known as Abelardo L. Rodríguez, He was a Mexican military man, businessman, and politician who served as President of Mexico from September 4, 1932 to November 30, 1934. He was the last non-popularly elected president to serve.
He participated in the Constitutionalist Army during the Mexican Revolution. He was Governor of the Northern Territory of Baja California from 1923 to 1930, Secretary of War and Navy in 1932 and Secretary of Industry, Commerce and Labor in 1932. With the resignation of Pascual Ortiz Rubio, he was appointed by the Congress of the Union to complete the six-year term 1928-1934. He subsequently served as Governor of Sonora from 1943 to 1948.
Early Years
Abelardo Rodríguez came from a poor family in Sonora. He was one of the 10 children of the merchant and later soldier Nicolás Rodríguez and Petra Luján. His family moved to Nogales, the city where he completed his primary studies, which he did not finish. He worked in Cananea as an operator in the copper mine. He moved to Durango with his father's relatives; he worked together with his brother Fernando de él as a merchant in the hardware industry. His favorite sport was baseball.
While at the border, he saw the opportunity to move to the United States of America where he lived for a few years. There she got to know and experience the American way of life where she studied singing, and carried out various activities. His stay in this country motivated him to think, act, and adopt certain American forms, such as bearing his last name, for which reason he has used Abelardo L. Rodríguez ever since. He returned in 1909 at the age of 20, as a garrotero's apprentice in Navojoa. He rose to Railway Inspector.
Military and political life
Military
He joined as a police commander in Nogales. He found the country in full revolutionary struggle. He fought from March 1, 1913, when he enlisted in the forces of Álvaro Obregón in the Constitutionalist Army, which was fighting President Victoriano Huerta, accusing him of usurping the presidency and assassinating Francisco I. Madero.
Rodriguez rose quickly. He participated in various battles, such as the taking of Culiacán; he was in the Bajío campaign; he suppressed a Yaqui uprising in Sonora and fought the Zapatista army.
He participated in the campaign with Benjamin Hill to Mexico City where in 1916 he was promoted to colonel. In 1920 he seconded the Plan of Agua Prieta, with Rafael M. Pedrajo himself who removed President Venustiano Carranza. On May 21, 1920, he was promoted to Brigadier General and commissioned to control Esteban Cantú, who did not accept the newly appointed interim president Adolfo de la Huerta (June to November 1920). In 1921 he was appointed military chief of the territory of Baja California.
Politics
Governor of Baja California (1923-1930)
After 3 years of political instability before the departure of Esteban Cantú in 1920, who had governed for 5 years, in 1923 he was appointed by President Álvaro Obregón, his former commander in the Constitutionalist army, as Governor General of the Territory of Baja California.
He developed a policy of recovery of public finances, affected by the rebellion of Huerta, which he fought. He also promoted education, highway construction, agriculture, industry, agrarian reform, the construction of roads and irrigation canals, unionism, and demanded that companies hire Mexican labor. This policy would also be carried out during his presidency.
When Plutarco Elías Calles assumed office as the Mexican presidency on December 1, 1924, he was ratified in office by his old friend and his bonds grew constantly.
Aeronautics. In order to connect the isolated Baja California with the rest of the country, and promote economic development, he promoted aviation and wanted to use that means already available for this purpose. In 1927 he established the first aircraft manufacturing company in Baja California. In 1928 the first ship called BC-1 (Baja California No. 1) was produced, which made its first flight from Mexicali to Mazatlán. The BC-2 flew non-stop to Mexico City in almost 15 flight hours, with Roberto Fierro Villalobos as pilot and Plutarco Elías Calles welcoming him. The company lasted only a few years.
Rodríguez's stay in Baja California gave continuity to what was established by Esteban Cantú, being very favorable for the development of the state and its population. Negotiations with Chinese, Americans, and vice entrepreneurs forged his career and he was used for the economic and social development of the state, thus achieving remarkable stability, which increased when compared to the subsequent instability since in the following 7 years there were 10 state leaders. And he was one of the biggest mobsters in Mexico when he served as governor of BCN, using funds from the public treasury to build the Agua Caliente casino, the best in the world in terms of architecture and luxury, and whose inauguration was attended by great Hollywood figures, becoming, over time, the mecca of fun for adults.
Secretary of the Federal Government
In 1929, the government of Emilio Portes Gil sent him abroad to study the aviation and industry techniques that were at the forefront at that time, and which were his greatest hobbies.
On January 20, 1932, he was appointed in the cabinet of Pascual Ortiz Rubio as Minister of Industry, Commerce and Labor. On August 2 of the same year, he was Minister of War and Navy.
Presidency (1932-1934)
Appointment
On September 2, 1932, the day after his second presidential report, President Pascual Ortiz Rubio submitted his resignation on the charge that some people did not allow him to exercise his constitutional powers as Chief Executive Officer.According to the Article 86 of the Constitution, the Congress of the Union must approve the resignation of the president, and the same afternoon that it was presented, Congress accepted the resignation of Ortiz Rubio. Pascual Ortiz Rubio's resignation proceeded, and in terms of article 84 constitutional, the resignation of Ortiz Rubio occurs within the first two years of government; therefore, Congress became an electoral college to appoint an interim president by secret ballot and by an absolute majority of votes.
According to the Organic Law of the Congress of the United Mexican States, the proposal of the substitute president is made by the parliamentary group of the party in which the president to be replaced was active, in this case the National Revolutionary Party, who proposed to the following individuals: Alberto J. Pani, Secretary of the Treasury, Joaquín Amaro Domínguez, Juan José Ríos, Secretary of the Interior, and Abelardo L. Rodríguez, who was elected. When his name was heard in the shortlist of the PNR, he received an ovation, with which it was understood that he would be unanimously elected.
Constitutional Substitute President
Abelardo Rodríguez served as substitute President from September 4, 1932 until November 30, 1934. During his presidency
- It promulgated anti-reelecist reform to the Constitution, which avoided the immediate re-election of all popular election charges, established from 29 April 1933.
- He reformed the Law on Ejidal Heritage.
- It granted, by decree of May 2, 1933, complete control of changes to the Bank of Mexico.
- He created the Mortgage and Public Works Bank today National Bank of Public Works and Services (Banobras) one of the few parastatal banks, which began to operate in February 1933.
- He founded National Financial.
- Also, the Private Benefit Act established that private bodies of altruism were regulated by the Ministry of the Interior, and since 2004 this function would belong to the Secretariat of Public Service. He also sent to Congress the initiative of the Organic Law of the National Autonomous University of Mexico
- It pushed a law against monopolies.
- Since June 1933, Calles had expressed the desirability of developing a thorough programme of action that should be implemented in the next presidential period. The Cardenist group succeeded in making the Sexennial Plan a transformation program, aimed at thoroughly vindicating the principles of the Revolution, with many of which Calles had already shown that he was not in agreement.
- He created the Department of Labor.
- Established on 5 January 1934 the minimum wage,
- On 10 October of the same year, article 3 of the Constitution was amended to establish socialist education.
- He demanded that the church be subject to the law, and he had serious political clashes with the clergy in Veracruz, Tabasco and Jalisco.
- He formed the Oil Company of Mexico (Petromex), predecessor of Pemex.
- He negotiated the payment of external debt.
- The Foreign Service Act was enacted.
- It opened on September 29, 1934, the Palace of Fine Arts, which had been started to be built in 1904.
His term ended on November 30, 1934, when he was succeeded by Lázaro Cárdenas del Río.
In 1942 at the time of World War II, the then president Manuel Ávila Camacho summoned all the living ex-presidents where he participated in a national unity march at the National Palace. All the former presidents who ruled the country since 1920 attended, with the exception of Álvaro Obregón (assassinated on July 17, 1928), not counting Pedro Lascuráin and Roque González Garza.
Governor of Sonora (1943-1948)
In 1943 he was elected governor of Sonora, a position he took office on September 13. There he devoted special attention to education;
- He founded the University of Sonora.
- announced in 1948 his resignation from the government of Sonora due to health problems.
Business Life
Since he learned about business with his brother in the hardware store and his stay in the United States, he became interested in business, the same in which he ventured since he founded some, associated in others and promoted some more from the government; He was a shareholder in several of them, until he participated in about 70 companies, throughout his life both in Baja California, as in the presidency and in the Government of Sonora, and later, harvesting cotton and olive trees, transportation companies, shrimp fishing, a shipyard, an industrial supplier, laboratories, wine cutting companies, aeronautical packing companies, insurance companies and others. In this regard, she stated in his autobiographical book:
“As my purposes were to constantly raise the standard of living of my people and a people cannot progress without resources and sources of work, and much less in a country of ractical economy, I considered it necessary to start creating sources of work, in order to help as far as possible, to raise the national economy and, at the same time, to give many Mexicans a chance to work”
Being an entrepreneur was a matter that he treated and knew how to handle with caution due to his management as a politician, both in national and foreign interests, a matter that since Governor of Baja California he had learned to negotiate and be an intermediary, based on the principle of winning- win.
- Fundó el Banco Mexicano, el Banco Mexicano de Occidente y el Banco de Crédito Mexicano,
- Established the Pacific Pesqueras, Atún Mexicano and Astilleros Rodríguez in Ensenada Baja California.
- In 1961, he was appointed president of the Consultative Fisheries Council.
- He collaborated with other partners in Mexican cinema, with the Mexican Film Credit Company (DF), a minority shareholder in the company Spain-Mexico-Argentina and Tepeyac Studies as well as 12 other cinematographic companies plus and 3 theatrical, 2 radiocommunication, 2 printing, one of photography.
By 1940 he had become one of Mexico's prosperous businessmen.
Private life
Abelardo was married three times. In 1917 he married Luisa Montijo (from Guaymas), with whom they procreated Abelardo Luis. He separated 4 years later and married in Calexico Ca. Eathyl Vera Meier (of Chicago) who died in 1922 after losing her prematurely born daughter. On February 6, 1924, he married in Mexicali B.C. for the third time with Aída Sullivan Coya, (from Puebla) with whom they were the parents of three children: Juan Abelardo, Fernando Julio, Abelardo.
Rodríguez Spouse Foundation
On February 6, 1946, he established the Esposos Rodríguez Foundation, in Hermosillo, Sonora, where they support young students with scholarships.
He wrote his biography at age 74 (1962) and another book called "Notes from my trip to Russia" (1938).
Death
At the end of 1966 his health deteriorated, for which he had to be admitted to a hospital in San Diego. Former president Lázaro Cárdenas found out about the seriousness of General Rodríguez from the newspapers and decided to fly to Tijuana on February 9, 1967, and wait for news in El Sauzal, without entering the United States because Cárdenas was not pleasant to the government of the country. neighbor because at that time he supported the ideas of Fidel Castro and was part of the Bertrand Russell International Tribunal that judged war crimes committed in Vietnam. Abelardo Rodríguez died on February 13, 1967 at Scripps Memorial Hospital, in La Jolla, California, United States of America. President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz attended his funeral.
The remains of Abelardo L. Rodríguez were buried on his farm in El Sauzal de Rodríguez, 16 km north of Ensenada, Baja California.
Acknowledgments
The "Abelardo L. Rodríguez" It was built and inaugurated in his hometown when he was governor of Sonora (1945) and it is where the Ostioneros de Guaymas played, and won 5 championships.
He declared himself a "meritorious son of Sonora" on September 15, 1949.
The Abelardo L. Rodríguez International Airport operates in the city of Tijuana. The Hermosillo dam bears his name, as well as various roads and public facilities.
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