Adolfo Ruiz Cortines

Adolfo Tomás Ruiz Cortines (Veracruz, December 30, 1889-ibid., December 3, 1973) was a Mexican accountant, revolutionary soldier, and politician who served as President of Mexico from December 1, 1952 to November 30, 1958.

The son of a customs agent, who died before he was born, he was raised by his mother and sister with the help of his grandfather and uncles. He owed his few years of studies to a Friendly School, to a Jesuit college and to the Instituto Veracruzano, where he learned accounting and sociology. He was an assistant accountant in a commercial company in Veracruz. In 1913, he supported the Mexican Revolution and the fight against the dictator Victoriano Huerta as a civilian. He was under the orders of Alfredo Robles Domínguez, who entrusted him with a propaganda mission among the federal troops in Mexico City. Upon the triumph of the constitutionalist revolution, in 1914 he figured as a collaborator of the governors of the Federal District Robles Domínguez and Heriberto Jara.

When Robles Domínguez was appointed governor of Guerrero, Ruiz Cortines was an order officer at the headquarters of the Southern Division. He participated in the Battle of El Ébano in San Luis Potosí against Villistas Manuel Chao and Tomás Urbina, under the orders of Jacinto B. Treviño, of whom he was private secretary, he was paymaster in the brigade of General Francisco Muriel. In 1920 he joined the Agua Prieta Plan and when the Carrancista government disappeared, he rescued and delivered the national treasure to President Adolfo de la Huerta. With the rank of major, he discharged from the Mexican Army in 1926. He was Treviño's private secretary in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. He served as an official in the Department of Statistics from 1921 to 1935, as Senior Official of the Government of the Federal District in 1935 and federal deputy in the XXXVII Legislature for Veracruz in 1937. In 1939 he was appointed treasurer of the presidential campaign of Manuel Ávila Camacho and in 1940 he held the general secretary of government of Veracruz with the then governor Miguel Alemán Valdés. From 1941 to 1944 he served as senior officer of the Ministry of the Interior of which Alemán was head. He was governor of Veracruz from 1944 to 1948, and in July of that year, he took charge of the Ministry of the Interior during the government of Miguel Aleman.

On October 14, 1951, Ruiz Cortines protested as a presidential candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Already as president, he exercised severe control of public spending, supported the construction of roads, railway networks, dams, schools and hospitals; he put into practice the plan The March to the Sea , with the purpose of taking the surplus population of the altiplano to the coastal areas and achieving a better use and development of maritime resources; the coastlines were cleaned up and malaria was eradicated; He created the Rural Social Welfare Program to improve the living conditions of the country's rural population, promoted land distribution, expropriated large estates from foreigners but respected small property. He also put into practice Agricultural Insurance, to protect farmers from natural disasters.

At the beginning of his government, President Ruiz Cortines sent a bill to amend article 34 of the Constitution, with the purpose of recognizing the right of women to vote, which occurred in 1953. In order to promote measures to resolve the need for housing, he created the National Housing Institute; he gave incentives to the industry, particularly to the medium and small ones; laid the foundations for the development of petrochemicals and boosted job creation.

In response to the technical advances achieved in the field of nuclear energy, and considering that Mexico could not remain outside of this development, it created the National Nuclear Energy Commission. Primary and secondary education were greatly boosted, and in a special way, the polytechnic and the university, since it was Ruiz Cortines who equipped the facilities of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and began the subsidies to the rest of the country's universities.

In 1954, economic problems arose due to the antitrust law and the creation of CEIMSA, because businessmen did not want to invest in Mexico, which led to capital flight and jobs could not be created. All this led the Mexican people to uncertainty, events that concluded in the devaluation of April 17, 1954 during Holy Week.

The president asked not to generalize the chaos. Although the devaluation happened, the country's economy had high growth. The wages of the workers grew at a level higher than the cost of living and he instituted the annual bonus of the Christmas bonus for public servants. On December 1, 1958, he handed over power to his successor Adolfo López Mateos.

Adolfo Ruiz Cortines was the last of the Mexican presidents born in the 19th century and the last to participate in the Mexican Revolution. After his administration, he chaired the Non-Ferrous Metals Trust Commission and the National Financial Commission. He withdrew into private life after the death of his son in 1962 and did not intervene in national politics again. He died in the port of Veracruz on December 3, 1973.

Early Years

Childhood and family

The widow Maria Cortines Cotera with his sons María and Adolfo Ruiz in a photograph made around 1895 in Veracruz.

Of Andalusian descent according to Krauze, it is said that he also descended from famous figures of the XIX century such as Francisco Zarco, and by maternal route of Ignacio Manuel Altamirano. He was born as Adolfo Tomás Ruiz Cortines at 3:00 p.m. m. on Monday, December 30, 1889 at number 15 Calle Zamora in the port of Veracruz, where his parents lived with his paternal grandfather. His father was Adolfo Ruiz Tejeda (1851-1889), from Alvaradeño, a former civil servant Ayuntamiento and later a customs agent of Veracruz, who died before his birth. His mother, María Cortines Cotera from Jalapeña (1859-1935), was the daughter of the merchant Diego Francisco Cortines and his wife María Dolores Damiana Cotera, who were members of one of the oldest and most respected families living in Mexico during the New Spanish Viceroyalty: those of Cotera Salmón Rivascacho.

This Placa Conmemorativa points out the place where the president Adolfo Ruiz Cortines was born in the city and port of Veracruz.

After the death of his father; his mother, Adolfo and his sister María (1888-1934) went to live in the house of their uncle José Gabriel Cotera Calzada, a brother of their maternal grandmother who was a Veracruz artisan with modest financial resources. Ruiz Cortines would later say that his uncle Gabriel had taught him "the value of personal cleanliness, admiration for the men of the Reformation, and the need for order in all aspects of life."

Also counting on the support of her aunts Elena Josefa and Juana Octaviana Cotera Calzada, María Cortines managed to support her family. Ruiz Cortines' paternal grandfather, Professor José Ruiz Parra (1817-1895), who at the time of the French Intervention held charity raffles in his house in order to raise funds for the Mexican soldiers, contributed to the maintenance of his grandchildren María and Adolfo until the moment of his death, which occurred when Ruiz Cortines was five years old. His grandfather registered him a couple of weeks later, on January 12, 1890, while his mother and some friends took more than half a year to baptize him, on June 8, his godparents being his aunt Octaviana Cotera and her husband Benito Pendás. Climbing.

The Ruiz Cortines were of wealthy extraction and aristocratic in manner, although with the sudden death of their father on September 13, 1889, the family experienced poverty with all its anguish and desire to improve. One day Ruiz Cortines heard his mother say: "Don't worry Adolfo, your sister knitted a shawl and we already have something to eat." As many of his biographers affirm, his mother María Cortines was the one who cemented in him the principles and values of conduct and proceeding, which were irreducible throughout his life.

“In Don Adolfo, the image of his mother was something of the most intimately loved and his silent and reverent love always kept a painting to the oil of doña María Cortines dressed in black with wide skirt, where only the tip of the footwear looks and the long sleeve of the white fist [...] and the collar of alamares. Sitting in a wicker chair and holding the granddaughter in her arms. ”

Education

The young Adolfo Tomás Ruiz Cortines in his years of student at the Jesuit College of the priest Joaquín Díaz, who taught him the formal smear of language and instilled a great sense of honesty and responsibility.

His mother taught him the first letters at home at the age of three. In 1894, out of the habit of following his sister María everywhere, he attended the so-called "Friendly School", an educational institution founded under the pedagogical norms of Enrique C. Rébsamen. The school was located in an area attached to the temple of La Pastora. He then went to the Jesuit school, located at 15 Manuel Gutiérrez Zamora street, directed by the priest Joaquín Jerónimo Díaz and professor Florencio Veyro. On September 21, 1901, without having turned 12, he enrolled in the Veracruz Institute, where he studied accounting, where his teachers would be Esteban Morales, José Miguel Macías, Cayetano Rivera and Julio S. Montero.

Ruiz Cortines learned a lot from his teachers. The priest Jerónimo Díaz taught him that "the supreme thing in life is to be honest and honest"; the Spaniard Esteban Morales oriented him regarding the "meaning of liberalism and the people's struggle to modernize the country" and the Cuban Cayetano Rivera taught him "considerations related to the value of the rational and intelligent use of money, family and social prejudices and of waste and, on the other hand, of the constructive effects of the will to save for personal and family benefit”; teachings that he would put into practice throughout his life.

Although he was always attracted to the idea of pursuing a professional career, circumstances did not allow it. At the end of 1905, at the age of 16, he left the Veracruz Institute to take responsibility for the economic support of his family, which was going through a difficult stage of monetary restriction. He went to work as an assistant accountant in the commercial clothing company owned by the Spaniard Julián Aragón y Sobrino in Veracruz, where he thoroughly learned bookkeeping and where he worked until the end of 1912.

Youth

In his student days at the Instituto Veracruzano, in addition to moral lessons, the Cuban professor Cayetano Rivera, an intense practitioner of baseball, transmitted his love for the game to Ruiz Cortines. From him, the young Adolfo learned the secrets of baseball, the strategies of the plays, unity, the importance of being "in the right place" that marks the play.

During the time he was an employee at the Aragón store, he used to go with a group of co-workers to La Sirena, located on the corner of Aquiles Serdán and Zaragoza, a place where they served the famous 'Greca' coffee. He attended the gatherings of the time and later, he began to attend the La Parroquia café, where he began to become fond of dominoes. The painter David Alfaro Siqueiros describes him as "an embryo of a porteño dandy" at this stage of his life. Ruiz Cortines frequented the port's brothels, where he was known as “El Fakir”, and danced danzón in the Villa del Mar room, where he was nicknamed “El Cintura Brava”.

Military career

In 1908, the book The presidential succession in 1910 by Francisco I. Madero motivated him to reconsider the prevailing political situation. The Mexican Revolution broke out on November 20, 1910, the names of Abraham González, Francisco Villa and Pascual Orozco became famous in the north of the country. From the boardwalk, Ruiz Cortines witnessed the boarding of ousted President Porfirio Díaz into exile aboard the German ship “Ypiranga”.

In 1912, at the age of 23, he left the port of Veracruz and went to Mexico City, where he rented a small room in a guest house at number 20 Calle de los Medina in the Historic Center. During his stay in the capital, Ruiz Cortines was surprised by the Tragic Ten of 1913.

After the fall and assassination of Francisco I. Madero, and with the rise of Victoriano Huerta to power, Ruiz Cortines joined the revolutionary ranks by civil means under the orders of engineer Alfredo Robles Domínguez, whom Venustiano Carranza he had appointed to organize the constitutionalist forces in the center and south of the Republic. On August 18, 1914, Carranza appointed engineer Robles Domínguez governor of the Federal District. Ruiz Cortines, already with the rank of second captain, was part of his assistant corps. Later he continued with the same functions with General Heriberto Jara, substitute governor for Robles Domínguez appointed on September 19 of the same year.In November 1914 he accompanied Jara to occupy the Veracruz plaza that the US troops were abandoning.

It is claimed that Ruiz Cortines had worked at the Veracruz Customs during the US intervention, at the service of the invading troops. The signature of an Adolfo Ruiz C. among the paymasters who served the occupation forces drew him attacks throughout his political life, especially when he was a presidential candidate in 1952. Militating under the Under the orders of General Jacinto B. Treviño, Ruiz Cortines attended the Battle of El Ébano, where Villista troops fought. On December 31, 1915, he married Lucía Carrillo Gutiérrez in Mexico City, with whom he had three children: María Cristina (1917–1940), Lucía (1919–2008) and Adolfo (1922–1962). Assistant to the General Staff of General Francisco de Paula Mariel's brigade, where he served as paymaster for the army.

He was promoted to first captain and participated in the Tehuantepec campaign against the troops of the traitor Alfonso Santibáñez. In 1917 he was appointed assistant to General Heriberto Jara, then Governor and Military Commander of Veracruz residing in Orizaba. From 1917 to 1919 he served as private secretary to Treviño, then a deputy to the XXVII Federal Legislature.In 1920 he joined the Agua Prieta Plan. On May 19 of that same year, and with the overthrow of the government of Venustiano Carranza, Major Adolfo Ruiz Cortines marched from Aljibes to Mexico City guarding the national treasure (150 million gold pesos) on the Olivo Train. Ruiz Cortines was in charge of delivering it notarially to the new president of Mexico, Adolfo de la Huerta.

In 1926, working as a paymaster for the Military Command of Mexico, at the age of 37, Ruiz Cortines asked to retire from the army. He was the last president to participate in the Mexican Revolution. That same year he was distinguished with the decoration of & # 34; Veterans of the Revolution, second period: years 1913-1916 & # 34;.

Political career

During the brief stay of General Jacinto B. Treviño in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Ruiz Cortines was the private secretary. In 1922 he went to work for the Sonoran Manuel Padrés in the reorganization office of the National Railways of Mexico. At that time, President Álvaro Obregón created the Autonomous Department of National Statistics, which was chaired by Padrés. In 1925 he took a three-month statistics course taught by the economist Daniel Cosío Villegas. In 1926 he is promoted to director of National Statistics. He later worked in the Commission for the Review of Military Service Sheets, of which General Treviño was head.

In the early 1930s, Ruiz Cortines participated in a National Migration Convention. Between 1934 and 1935, he wrote several technical articles in the magazine Crisol and in the newspaper "El Nacional", where he wrote about the desirable political autonomy of the Department of Statistics, the need to decongest the large metropolises and the importance of creating demographic awareness among the country's inhabitants.

In 1930, Ruiz Cortines wrote for Crisol “Our statistical meetings”, “Let's get to know our agriculture and livestock” and “Society gravitates over a third of herself”. In 1931 his columns were published “Our renowned criminality is a myth”, “Where there is bread, there is a man” and “Indispensable autonomy for the Department of Statistics”. In 1932 he wrote “Population and its politics” and in 1934 Mexico and population policy”. In 1935, the VII American Scientific Congress awarded an award for his statistician work entitled "Need for a wise population policy". As his friend Hesiquio Aguilar Marañón recalled, "Ruiz Cortines was fond of giving statistics on everything."

Senior Officer of the Department of the Federal District, 1935

As Chief Officer of the Federal District Department, Ruiz Cortines met and became a friend of Miguel Alemán Valdés, then a judge of the High Court of Justice.

In 1935, he divorced his wife Lucia. That same year, at the age of forty-five, Ruiz Cortines began his political career as Senior Officer of the Department of the Federal District. In addition to administrative, technical and political issues, in the DDF he had to deal with 73 bureaucratic organizations.

It was in the DDF where he met and became friends with Miguel Alemán Valdés, a young lawyer who served as a Magistrate of the Superior Court of Justice, and whom he had met through attorney Fernando López Arias. In the long run, Alemán it would become an important pillar in the administrative career of Ruiz Cortines.

Participation in the government of Manuel Ávila Camacho, 1937-1944

Ruiz Cortines was a treasurer during the presidential campaign of Manuel Ávila Camacho, who, when assuming the Presidency of the Republic, appointed him as Chief of Officer of the Ministry of the Interior.

In 1936, Ruiz Cortines lost his candidacy for governor of Veracruz. The following year he successfully contended for deputy to the Congress of the Union, in the XXXVII Legislature, for the district of Tuxpan. During the elections, the engineer Enrique Barón, an opposition candidate, accused him of having served the US occupation forces in Veracruz during 1914, something that the candidate Ruiz Cortines publicly denied. In 1939, the fight for the presidential succession broke out. The Party of the Mexican Revolution nominated General Manuel Ávila Camacho as its candidate; the then governor Miguel Alemán requested a license from the state to direct the Comité Pro Ávila Camacho and invited Adolfo to take charge of its treasury. When Alemán left office, Fernando Casas Alemán took his place; at the end of January 1940 Ruiz Cortines was appointed Secretary of the Government of Veracruz.

On December 1, 1940, General Manuel Ávila Camacho assumed the presidency of the Republic and appointed Miguel Alemán Secretary of the Interior, and he, for his part, appointed Ruiz Cortines Senior Officer in said secretariat, where he worked until April of 1944. At the beginning of 1941 he married María Izaguirre, widow and divorced from his second marriage.

Governor of Veracruz, 1944-1948

Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, Miguel Alemán Valdés and Manuel Suárez and Suárez in Veracruz.

At the Convention of the Party of the Mexican Revolution, held on April 20, 1944, at the Cine Radio in the city of Xalapa, Ruiz Cortines protested as a candidate for governor of Veracruz. He visited all the regions and towns of the Veracruz territory. On December 1 of that same year, with the motto "Veracruz Unity", he took possession of the Government of Veracruz. During his administration, among other actions of his government, the the meetings of Moral, Civic and Material Improvement.

"It occurred to him that asking for citizen cooperation could be done many things, and began by telling them: organising themselves in neighboring boards, in groups so that the most urgent works [...] the government cannot only [...] cooperate with work, with materials [...] for every weight you put and manage, the state cooperates with another weight [...] It was a great success [...] in Veracruz the boards have never disappeared. "

During his administration, Governor Ruiz Cortines:

• He created the Department for Technical Studies.
• Instituted the Department of Anthropology.
• Established the irrigation system The Hope and the Commission on State Zoning and Planning.
• It regulated urban fractions.
• It created regional acronym positions.
• It proposed a reform of the local Constitution for women to participate in the electoral and municipal role.
• He pacified the Veracruz countryside, built schools, roads and revised tax systems.
• It eradicated corruption and doubled fiscal funds.

Secretary of the Interior, 1948-1951

The first Secretary of the Interior of President Miguel Alemán Valdés, the doctor and historian Héctor Pérez Martínez, died unexpectedly of a heart condition on February 12, 1948. Upon his death, Ruiz Cortines requested leave in his state and held the post of secretary. His recommendation came from former President Manuel Ávila Camacho, who appreciated him greatly.During his tenure at the Ministry of the Interior, Ruiz Cortines attended to different private organizations, businessmen, governors, senators, agrarian leaders, workers, professionals, and representatives local and federal He thoroughly knew the needs of the different social sectors, thereby achieving great results in terms of domestic policy.

1952 Presidential Election

General Miguel Henríquez Guzmán, an opposition candidate whose candidacy was endorsed by the Mexican Constitutionalist Party and the Mexican People’s Party Federation. After the defeat in the 1952 elections, he promoted demonstrations among his supporters, who were stifled with violence by the government of Miguel Alemán.

Since the middle of 1949, the agitation for the presidential succession began to be felt. President Miguel Alemán had the idea of being re-elected or extending his presidential term, just as Plutarco Elías Calles did. When Generals Lázaro Cárdenas and Manuel Ávila Camacho, in the voice of Abelardo Rodríguez, declared on August 3, 1951 for “Excélsior” that they did not believe that “extension of the presidential term or re-election is convenient for the country.”

The trade union leader Vicente Lombardo Toledano, candidate run by the Popular Party and supported by the Mexican Communist Party. It received just 1.98% of the votes cast in the 6 July 1952 elections.

Faced with the refusal of many important politicians and close collaborators, Miguel Aleman seemed to favor the candidacy of Fernando Casas Aleman, a possibility that was rejected by some public figures with whom the candidate had fallen out. According to Daniel Cosío Villegas, "the final selection was not made among the largest group in the cabinet, but within the very small group of close friends."

Miguel Alemán ended up leaning towards the candidacy of Ruiz Cortines, his Secretary of the Interior who, although he did not belong to the group of presidential candidates, did not believe he had a chance due to his advanced age and because he was considered not to be in good physical health.

In his own words, Ruiz Cortines himself once stated that Alemán had chosen him as a candidate because he thought that due to his age, he could die at any time during the six-year term, thus leaving former president Miguel Alemán free to resume functions as Chief Executive.

On October 14, 1951, Ruiz Cortines protested as a presidential candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI, in a ceremony at the Olympic Stadium in Ciudad de los Deportes attended by nearly one hundred thousand spectators. He set out to tour the Mexican Republic adopting the motto of “Austerity and Work”. During his stay in Yucatán as a candidate, he had a short-lived romance with Flor Campos, a union from which his daughter Flor Ruiz was born. Fields in the early 1950s.

Throughout her campaign she delivered 34 speeches, where on 21 occasions she dealt with the issue of women and their electoral rights. Ruiz Cortines was concerned about consolidating the unity of the Mexicans, he wanted to moralize the public administration to achieve the confidence of the Mexicans in the Executive Branch. He promised to raise the standard of living of the people, fight monopolies, hoarding, scarcity, high prices of products, impose penal sanctions on the corrupt, lower the price of clothing, and solve the housing problem.

He was determined to multiply work and increase national wealth, boost agricultural and livestock production, conserve natural resources, and achieve the industrialization of the country. He promised to combat illiteracy and attend to the improvement of teachers.

For the 1952 elections, the opposition candidates were General Miguel Henríquez Guzmán, whose candidacy was supported by the Mexican Constitutionalist Party and the Federation of Mexican People's Parties, created in January 1951. The National Action Party was the lawyer Efraín González Luna and the trade unionist Vicente Lombardo Toledano, who was postulated by the Popular Party and supported by the Communist Party.

Elections were held on July 6, 1952 under strict military surveillance. In the Federal District, most of the opposition representatives were not accepted by the polling station presidents, almost always arguing that their appointment was not duly accredited; In many cases, the polling station authorities counted the votes without allowing access to the opposition and/or without giving their representatives a copy of the tally sheets, especially when the vote favored the opposition, roadblocks occurred to prevent the vote of the henriquistas, the theft and falsification of electoral records and the stuffing of ballot boxes. At the end of the electoral day, the PRI announced its victory in the elections and the henriquistas protested with a demonstration that was violently quelled by orders of President Miguel Alemán. Finally, that same day at night, the electoral bodies of the Ministry of the Interior reported that the winner was Adolfo Ruiz Cortines.

The Electoral College of the Chamber of Deputies declared the validity of the elections and the citizen Adolfo Ruiz Cortines as constitutional president for the period 1952–1958 on September 12. The declaration was published the following day in the Official Gazette of the Federation.

President of Mexico (1952-1958)

Protest

Ruiz Cortines took office on the morning of Monday, December 1, 1952 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

Ruiz Cortines occupied the presidential chair at the age of 62. He took office on the morning of Monday, December 1, 1952 in an austere ceremony, his main characteristic, held at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, converted into an official venue. Twenty-one cannon shots resounded after the ceremony and at 12:30 p.m. m. began a military parade in which fifteen thousand men, including cadets from the Military College, paraded through the main avenues of the capital towards the Plaza de la Constitución, until they reached the central balcony of the National Palace.

Ruiz Cortines was there accompanied by his cabinet, the foreign delegations and embassies that came to the ceremony, representatives of the Legislative and Judicial powers, and senior commanders of the Army and Navy. The Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City rang its bells. For two hours, sixteen squadrons and two squadrons of the Mexican Air Force flew over the city to show their support for the new president.

In his opening speech, Ruiz Cortines talks about social justice. He recalled the & # 34; scarcity of national resources and the need to use them with reasoned moderation. & # 34; He highlighted the deficiencies of the citizens and spoke of an emergency plan "to make corn, beans, sugar or piloncillo, edible fats, blankets, denim and calico available to the people& #34; and stated that his collaborators "would be held to more rigid standards of administrative honesty and patriotic concern than ever before."

Cabinet

The same morning he took office, his private secretary announced the names of his collaborators for the following six years. His cabinet was not made up of young people or professionals, but by experienced and capable men, unrelated to former President Miguel Aleman. Ruiz Cortines was looking for a quality in them: the culture of serving the people and not using them.

Other important cabinet-level positions:

• Head of the Federal District Department
  • Ernesto P. Uruchurtu (1952–1958)
• Head of the Agricultural and Colonization Department
  • Villaseñor Luquín (1952–1958)
• Attorney General of the Republic
  • Carlos Franco Sodi (1952–1955)
  • José Luis Guitérrez Gutiérrez (1955)
  • José Aguilar and Maya (1955-1958)
• District Attorney and Federal Territories
  • Guillermo Aguilar and Maya (1952–1956)
  • Ignacio Acosta Fuentes (1956-1958)
• Secretary of the Presidency
  • Enrique Rodríguez Cano (1952–1958)
• Secretary Particular of the President
  • Salvador Olmos (1952–1958)
• Air Force Commander
  • Alberto Viétiz (1952-1954)
  • General Brigadier Alfonso Cruz Rivera (1954-1958)
• Director of the Federal Electricity Commission
  • Carlos Ramírez Ulloa (1952-1958)
• Director General de Pension Civil de Retiro
  • Nicolás Pizarro Suárez (1952-1958)
• Director General de Ferrocarriles nacionales de México
  • Roberto Amorós Guiot (1952-1958)
• Director of IMSS
  • Antonio Ortiz Mena (1952-1958)

During his government, Ruiz Cortines' cabinet underwent some modifications. The Secretary of Communications and Public Works, the architect Carlos Lazo Barreiro died on November 5, 1955. On the 8th he was replaced by the architect Walter Cross Buchanan. The Secretary of the Navy, General Rodolfo Sánchez Taboada, died in office on May 2, 1955. His position would be held by the naval engineer Alfonso Poire Ruelas from May to July 1955, Admiral Roberto Gómez Maqueo from July 1955 to June 1958 and Admiral Héctor Meixueiro Alejandre from June to December 1958. The last change that occurred was in the Secretariat of Hydraulic Resources; the architect Eduardo Chávez resigned on April 25, 1958 and was replaced by the engineer Luis Echegaray Bablot.

Heritage assets

Dr. Gustavo Baz was responsible for practicing Ruiz Cortines with an appendix surgery in December 1952.

The day after announcing his cabinet, on December 2, 1952, Ruiz Cortines ordered the publication of the complete list of his personal assets:

• A house in Mexico City.
• A ranch in Veracruz he was a co-owner.
• A car brand Lincoln model 1948.
• Your wife's car, modest savings in the bank and its furniture.

The total value of his properties was $34,000. Ruiz Cortines demanded that the 250,000 public officials make his asset declarations, which were verified at the beginning and end of the six-year term in 1958.

Health problems

Adolfo Ruiz Cortines had not distinguished himself by a healthy physical state. Only a small group of people found out that, five weeks after his inauguration, he underwent surgery to remove his appendix by Dr. Gustavo Baz, and he refused to apply general anesthesia. So that the press or the government would not notice him, Ruiz Cortines ordered an improvised operating room at his residence in San José Insurgentes, where he had his convalescence.

Internal Policy

At the beginning of his administration, Ruiz Cortines focused on the objective of projecting a new image of presidential power, discredited by the Miguel Alemán regime and by the general idea that this president boosted the economy by omitting social benefit policies. Although Alemán had achieved a boom in the Mexican economy, the general discontent of the people was evident due to the corruption of public officials, who in the Alemanist six-year term were businessmen who had enriched themselves enormously. Meanwhile, the standard of living of the working classes suffered a considerable deterioration.

Austerity policies and moralization

Miguel Alemán's sexenium was characterized by corruption of public officials. Ruiz Cortines used a policy of austerity and moralization during his sexenium.

In search of a policy that would contrast with the regime of Miguel Alemán Valdés, Ruiz Cortines sought to provide a solution to social problems and began a new era of austerity and moralization. The law regarding the responsibility of public servants was modified, which indirectly pointed to being corrupt, when Ruiz Cortines proposed that said officials declare their assets before starting their work and that the origin of the fortune of those who own property could be investigated higher than their economic income.

The law regulating article 28 of the Constitution underwent a reform regarding monopolies: people who monopolized essential items would be punished more severely. During 1953, merchants were fined for violations of the prices set for said items, which amounted to $16,242 pesos and reflected the severity of the Ruiz Cortines government. Soon after, he ordered the suspension of all payments to government contractors to review the status of each project. He reported to the Ministry of Communications and Transportation the receipt of an invoice regarding a 120-kilometer highway that did not exist; he immediately ordered that the contractor be fined three times the amount he intended to collect.

The Ruizcortinista government decided to reduce public spending adjusting to current income, with the purpose of achieving the consolidation of public finances and combating inflation. At the time, businessmen were baffled by the new style of government, fearing that their chances of profit would be affected at a time when the Mexican economy was going through a crisis. This led to uncertainty in private industry and capital flight. In 1953 private investment was reduced, Ruiz Cortines reoriented his policy towards boosting production.

Women's vote

Adolfo Ruiz Cortines on the cover of the magazine Time of September 14, 1953 after having been elected president. He was the sixth Mexican president to appear on the cover of the prestigious magazine.

Women's struggle to obtain their voting and decision-making rights began around the world several centuries ago. In Mexico, the first manifestations of this occurred between 1884 and 1887, when a magazine written exclusively for women demanded women's suffrage. Also during the Mexican Revolution, many women sympathizers of Francisco I. Madero's movement demanded, without obtaining results, their right to vote.

In 1937, President Lázaro Cárdenas asked the Senate for the initiative to reform Article 34 of the Constitution so that women could obtain citizenship. In 1938 the reform was approved by the senators and by the majority of the states. On December 24, 1946, the Chamber of Deputies approved the initiative proposed by Miguel Alemán Valdés, in which article 115 of the Constitution was modified so that women could participate in municipal elections on equal terms with men, with the right to vote and be elected. The law went into effect on February 12, 1947.

In a speech he gave as a candidate on April 6, 1952 in the Parque 18 de marzo in Mexico City, Ruiz Cortines promised the 20,000 women in attendance that “if the vote favors us in the next elections, we intend to initiate before the Chambers the legal reforms necessary for women to enjoy the same political rights as men”.

As president, Ruiz Cortines sent his initiative on December 9, 1952; same that was approved immediately and unanimously by the Congress of the Union. On October 17, 1953, President Ruiz Cortines fulfilled his promise and promulgated constitutional reforms that granted women the vote in federal elections. That same day, the reform of article 34 of the Constitution was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation:

“Men and women are citizens of the Republic who, having the quality of Mexicans, are also eligible: having reached 18 years of age, being married, or 21 if they are not and having an honest way of living.”

Social fighters and intellectuals attended the parliamentary hall to be present at the historic moment. Among them were Elvia Carrillo Puerto, who fought her entire life to achieve her goal, Adelina Zendejas, Adela Formoso de Obregón Santacilia, María Lavalle Urbina and Amalia Castillo Ledón. Later, a tribute was paid to Ruiz Cortines at the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

For the federal elections of July 3, 1955, where deputies, senators and seven governors should be elected; women went to the polls for the first time. The first to cast his vote was his wife María de los Dolores Izaguirre. Representatives Remedios Albertina Ezeta for the state of Mexico were elected; Margarita García Flores for Nuevo León, Guadalupe Ursúa Flores for Jalisco and Marcelina Galindo Arce for Chiapas.

Sociopolitical conflicts

In the sexenium of Ruiz Cortines, several governors from different entities of the country were against him because they did not like the form of government he had implemented. One of the governors who was removed from office during his sexenio was the Governor of Guerrero Alejandro Gómez Maganda, a great friend of former President Miguel Alemán.

The leaders of the PRI collaborated in the dissolution of the Henriquista movement, which happened in February 1954. Several states did not agree with their government, which is why Ruiz Cortines imposed discipline to remove the dissidents: the governor of Yucatán Tomás Marentes Miranda resigned from office on June 15, 1953, and Guerrero's Alejandro Gómez Maganda did the same on May 20, 1954. On March 22, 1955, Manuel Bartlett Bautista resigned as governor of Tabasco; On August 9 of the same year, Ruiz Cortines demanded the resignation of the governor of Chihuahua, Óscar Soto Maynez. Another opposition governor was that of the state of Oaxaca, General Manuel Cabrera Carrasqueado, who died of a heart condition on October 1, 1955. At the end of the six-year term, as Krauze says, Ruiz Cortines had "twenty-eight faithful governors of twenty-nine possible."

In April 1952, the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Peasants was created, an association that affiliated with the PRI, and which soon entered into a dispute with the CTM. In an attempt to achieve the unification of the workers, the government promoted the formation of the Bloque de Unidad Obrera, which for a time managed to agglomerate centrals and unions with differences between them.

Generals Marcelino García Barragán, Miguel Henríquez Guzmán, Celestino Gasca and Francisco J. Múgica maintained a distanced relationship with the government of Ruiz Cortines because, in addition to being dissatisfied with his administration, they had the idea of taking up arms again. With some soldiers, Ruiz Cortines took severe measures: he dissolved the Federation of Mexican People's Parties, to which the generals were affiliated; they were expelled from the PRI and discharged from the Mexican Army.

During his administration, the proportion of the budget allocated to the military was reduced from 9.7 to 8%. Other old generals of the Mexican Revolution, such as Jacinto B. Treviño and Juan G. Barragán, allied to form the Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution. Ruiz Cortines facilitated the registration, being himself the one who granted it.

Agrarian problem

During the six-year term of Ruiz Cortines, land distribution decreased considerably since only 3.5 million hectares had been granted between 1952 and 1958, since there was no longer much land that the government could distribute. ^{[citation needed]} At the beginning of 1958, the disgruntled day laborers and peasants from the north of the country began a period of invasion of private properties, where their owners were actually large estates.

In Sinaloa, Baja California, Sonora and the Comarca Lagunera; Thousands of peasants invaded private lands to reveal the large estates, giving rise to the case where some invaders were forced to leave the land by force. In the state of Sonora, the government expropriated the US latifundia of Cananea, which consisted of an extension of half a million hectares. In this place, as in some others where latifundia was explicit, Ruiz Cortines ordered the expropriation of the lands by decree issued on August 21 and proceeded to its distribution immediately. The police and the army repressed and imprisoned the leaders of the invasions, thus resolving the peasant conflict.

Teachers strike

Many of the teachers of the IX Section of the National Union of Education Workers did not agree with the direction their union had taken, which is why they organized a rebellion led by normal school teachers Othón Salazar and José Encarnación Pérez Rivero. In July 1956, the teachers' union began a mobilization throughout the country demanding a salary increase because they refused to receive the poor increase offered by the president of the SNTE Manuel Sánchez Vite.

The SNTE broke away from the CTM-controlled union and created the Movimiento Revolucionario del Magisterio. Taking advantage of the fact that the presidential elections were approaching, in 1958 the mobilization began in search of salary improvements and recognition of the MRM within the SNTE.

The teachers, headed by Othón Salazar, took possession of the building of the Secretariat of Public Education for a few months. Ruiz Cortines, on the advice of his wife, made the decision to give the order that the person who left, no longer entered. They had not been able to evict before because the teachers came and went freely.

With the great demonstration held in the Plaza de la Constitución in April 1958, the government sent the Federal District police and the grenadiers to repress the dissidents and imprison their leaders. Othón Salazar was imprisoned in the Lecumberri prison. Since public opinion sided with the teachers, on the occasion of the Teacher's Day celebration, Ruiz Cortines granted the social improvements demanded by the IX Section of the National Union of Education Workers on May 15, 1958.

Railway movement

The railway movement was the most important during his administration. The workers were tired of the repressive methods that Jesús Díaz de León, general secretary of the Union of Railway Workers of the Mexican Republic, implemented to repress any opposition and because their salaries had decreased 1.35% between the six-year period from 1951 to 1957..

In 1958, the dissatisfied railway workers created the Great Wages Commission, in which the representative of the XII Section of the National Union of Oil Workers, Demetrio Vallejo, began to stand out. The Commission collided with the Executive Committee of the union, since while the latter demanded a $200 pesos increase in salary, the opposition asked for $350. In the end. the government of Ruiz Cortines decided to give an increase of $215 pesos; the Great Commission and the Executive Committee decided to accept.

Ruiz Cortines resolved the problem momentarily on Wednesday, July 2, 1958; acceding to some worker requests and dealing with worker pressure. The problem would be inherited by his successor, Adolfo López Mateos, who would have to deal with the 1959 railway strike.

Education policy

In his government, educational establishments were built in various parts of the country and campaigns were carried out to eradicate illiteracy; but the educational backlog was never resolved. The insufficiency of federal spending on education during his six-year term to coordinate the states and municipalities, motivated the creation of the National Technical Education Council on June 26, 1957.

There were small student demonstrations over the 1954 invasion of Guatemala in Mexico City. The National School of Teachers, the Superior Normal School and several schools dependent on the National Polytechnic Institute were closed due to the lack of classrooms and other facilities.

Government Policy

Ruiz Cortines instructed Antonio Ortiz Mena, director of the IMSS, to take insurance to all parts of the country and to start social security for peasants; he also ordered that there be an adequate use of the money destined for that dependency to avoid waste in medical expenses and medicines. In his first government report, on September 1, 1953, Ruiz Cortines reported that 42% of Mexicans were illiterate, that 19 million peasants lived from day to day, and that 60% of the population had the economic perception of barely fifth of the national income. In the last ten years, the population had grown by 6 million people.

During his six-year term, there were 32.656 million people in Mexico, many of whom found no other way out than to cross the border as wetbacks, as they were called because many swam across the Rio Grande. The first year had served to initiate the process of honesty and austerity that he had promised in his inaugural speech, in addition to detecting the main problems and proposing solutions. From 1954 he would begin to do important works.

During his administration, the real wages of workers increased; The oil works were financed through the use of bond issues and without contracting external debt. At the end of his six-year term in 1958, Ruiz Cortines left a debt of $798 million dollars. National campaigns to eradicate malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases were very successful. The implementation throughout the country of civic and moral improvement boards, as he did in his days as Governor of Veracruz, were well received. During his administration, national savings were encouraged from childhood, the Mexican Housing Institute was founded, and the Investment Commission was established.

CEIMSA

In 1956, the reorganized Compañía Exportadora e Importadora Mexicana S.A. resumed operations. (CEIMSA), founded in 1937 during the regime of Lázaro Cárdenas. This was aimed at the poorest neighborhoods of Mexico City, where trucks full of lentils, rice, beans, eggs and milk arrived; where it was cheaper than commercial establishments between 30 or 40%. During the time that CEIMSA was in operation, many families benefited from the offers of basic products that they could buy at cheap prices.

Ruiz Cortines' program was affected by corruption. The same people from the neighborhoods to whom the CEIMSA trucks distributed were in complicity with the official distributors. The company operated under the same name until 1962, when the purposes of CEIMSA were resumed by President López Mateos, giving rise to the creation of CONASUPO.

The March to the Sea

Ruiz Cortines considered, based on his experience in demographic and statistical matters, that Mexico had the advantage of its two extensive coastlines, so that the population could be redistributed if tourist, coastal and fishing ports were better developed. For this reason, Ruiz Cortines implemented the Maritime Progress Program, to which $750 million pesos were allocated during his six-year term, and which advertising summarized as “The March to the Sea”. For the 10,000 kilometers of coastline that Mexico has, 70 ports were located in order to improve them or build them from the beginning; links from the Altiplano to the coasts and interoceanic communications were established.

1957 earthquake

In 1957, an earthquake struck the city of Mexico and the Angel of Independence was torn down at the foot of it, so Ruiz Cortines ordered it to be restored immediately.

At 2:44 a.m. on July 28, 1957, an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale occurred and lasted 90 seconds. It was later reported that the epicenter was in the state of Guerrero. The Ángel de la Independencia fell and some buildings such as the Rioma, located on Insurgentes avenue. Other buildings were seriously damaged and the authorities ordered their demolition. The incident left a balance of 52 dead and 657 injured. That same day, the Mexico City Seismological Observatory recorded thirty aftershocks of different magnitudes.

From three in the morning, Ruiz Cortines ordered that the victims be quickly helped. Uruchurtu and Ruiz Cortines toured the city to give an account of the damage; they ordered the unstable buildings to be evacuated and instructed the police chief and the commander of the presidential guards to help those affected. Elements of the Health, Interior and Communications secretariats received orders to go help those affected in other parts of the country. The next day; civilians, members of the Mexican Army, the Red Cross, the fire brigade and police officers collaborated with the authorities to quickly help the victims.

Economy and Finance

The problems in the Mexican economy became evident at the end of the Korean War in 1953, as global demand was reduced and international prices of raw materials were reduced.

At the beginning of his presidential term, Ruiz Cortines faced an economy immersed in inflation, originated in the previous six-year terms, which had not been eradicated despite the continuous economic growth that began in 1950.

That same economic boom was the one that caused accelerated inflation due to the uncontrolled increase in investments, due to the consequences caused by the dependence on foreign markets and due to the narrowing of the internal market caused by the policy of control of salaries.

These problems became evident at the end of the Korean War in 1953, as world demand fell and international prices for raw materials fell, events that quickly affected agricultural production in Mexico, which had its main bases in export crops.

In this way, the income for the peasant class was reduced, giving as an internal consequence that there was no demand for agricultural and industrial products. The businessmen decided to limit their investments in Mexico, a fact that aggravated the problem because the GDP was reduced, which almost came to a standstill in 1952.

After a decade of continuous growth, the national economy had reached a crisis. For this reason, Ruiz Cortines implemented a “Stabilizing Policy” that had the objective of stopping the rapid increase in the cost of living and preventing domestic demand from continuing to slow down, factors that affected industrial growth.

To put the “Stabilizing Policy” into practice, Ruiz Cortines implemented the Emergency Agricultural Plan. It was presented on December 11, 1952 by Gilberto Flores Muñoz, Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock and took office in January 1953. The plan was specifically aimed at:

• Raise the production of basic food crops such as corn, wheat and beans.
• Channel a larger number of private banking credits to the rural sector.
• Apply modern procedures for the best use of properties.

The Emergency Agricultural Plan was successful; it was possible to increase the production of basic foods, even though it was not enough to cover the needs of the population. The benefit to small farmers was almost nil as preferences continued to be given to medium and large companies that owned the best land.

The importance of importing food was fundamental in the fight against the 6.9% inflation that existed in his six-year term. It consisted of exclusively importing the essential food to preserve the crops that would be obtained in the country through the Agricultural Plan.

The harvests were not so large due to the drought that hit the Mexican countryside in 1953, a factor that caused the increase in imports with the objective of satisfying the internal demand for basic foods.

Price control was managed during his six-year term by the General Directorate of Prices, in charge of setting prices and ensuring that merchants respected them; and the Ministry of the Interior, which was dedicated to eradicating hoarding and monopoly.

The stabilization of the budget and the decrease in prices that it brought with it, allowed to improve the real salaries of the workers, with the exception of the unemployed due to the contractions of private and public investments, caused by inflation.

Private businessmen refrained from investing until the Ruiz Cortines government modified its budgetary austerity policy and decided to boost industry, which it had to do at the end of 1953.

Since that year, the government intensified the promotion of agricultural production, improving the guaranteed prices of corn and beans, expanding the budget items to implement irrigation systems, which allowed adequate use of natural resources and providing inputs to farmers. producers.

Devaluation of the peso, 1954

In Holy Week 1954, on April 17, Ruiz Cortines devalued the peso from $8.50 to $12.50 per dollar. The new parity was undervalued, but the president said that "he did not want to spend the six-year term devaluing." The next devaluation would be until 1976. The government made the decision to devalue on holy days because the banks would remain closed and with it it avoided the uncontrolled purchase of dollars.

Industry boost

Ruiz Cortines gave a great boost to the industry, as had happened in previous administrations. In 1954, a budget of 20.2% was allocated to the parastatal sector, tax facilities were provided to private companies, which made it possible to considerably raise extensions and taxes, which reduced the ISR and other less important subsidies. In addition, it was established that taxes would not be paid on salaries of $300 pesos per month, in order to improve the income of buyers of Mexican products.

Financial measures were applied that made it possible to increase the availability of deposit credit institutions and, as a consequence, their ability to grant credit. The Guarantee and Promotion Fund for medium and small industries was established in 1954. The Financiera Nacional Azucarera was created, whose objective was to promote the sugar industry.

The Council for the Promotion and Coordination of National Production was established, in charge of coordinating the government's economic policy with the private initiative, to improve the national economy. In February 1954, taxes on imports were raised by 25% and limited the importation of luxury items; and the rate of the general import tax was modified in order to adjust it to the needs of national companies.

With the industry promotion policy, the government of Ruiz Cortines managed to put an end to the inflationary spiral, making Mexico enter the stage of “stabilizing development”, a triumph that caused great surprise internationally and was considered as the “Mexican miracle.” The situation of the economy began to change negatively towards the end of 1956, due to the fact that speculative capital had entered along with direct foreign investment. As a result, the last year of the six-year term was characterized by demonstrations by the working classes due to the high cost of living.

However, the government of Ruiz Cortines succeeded in laying the foundations of an economic policy that would be decisive for the capitalist development of Mexico in the following decade.

Foreign Policy

United States

With the President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ruiz Cortines maintained a friendly relationship during his government. They met twice, one in 1953 during the inauguration of the Falcon Dam and another in 1956 in West Virginia.

Louis St. Laurent, Prime Minister of Canada. Ruiz Cortines met him and Eisenhower at Sulphur Springs, Virginia in 1956.

Good diplomatic relations between Mexico and the United States dated back to when US Ambassador Dwight W. Morrow had implemented President Franklin D. Roosevelt's “good neighbor” policy. The Ruiz Cortines government sought to ally itself with the Latin American countries to form a common front in the face of the great influence of the United States, a country with which it refused to make military agreements that would commit Mexico to international wars.

Despite this, relations between the two countries were friendly. During his six-year term, the construction of the Falcón dam was completed, built with 58.6% US capital and 41.4% Mexican. The work was inaugurated on October 17, 1953 by Ruiz Cortines and President Dwight Eisenhower. One characteristic of his administration regarding diplomatic relations with the United States was the little criticism that Mexico made of that country's foreign policies.

Between March 26 and 28, 1956, Ruiz Cortines attended a meeting with President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Canadian Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent held in Sulfur Springs, West Virginia. During the interview, the three presidents spoke about immigration problems, cotton sales from Mexico to the United States, the economic collaboration of the Eximbank, the development of civil aviation, and illegal fishing on the coast.

From July 21 to 24, 1956, Ruiz Cortines coincided with President Eisenhower in Panama, where 19 American presidents met for the celebration of the CXXX Anniversary of the "American Assembly", established at the initiative of Simón Bolívar.

On August 5, 1957, Dr. Milton Eisenhower, rector of Johns Hopkins University and envoy on behalf of his brother, President Eisenhower, arrived in Mexico. Ruiz Cortines received him at the National Palace, where they toured the halls and galleries, visiting the Benito Juárez homage site.

Immigration problems

First bracer Mexicans arriving in Los Angeles by train in 1942, during the presidency of Manuel Ávila Camacho. In March 1954 an agreement was signed between the government of Ruiz Cortines and Eisenhower to improve the quality of life of the bracer residents of the United States and to deport undocumented immigrants.

With the Bracero Program signed during the Manuel Ávila Camacho administration in 1942, millions of Mexican day laborers went to work in the United States. The problem of the braceros endangered good relations with the neighboring country.

The US agricultural businessmen, to favor their interests, wanted to renew the agreement with Mexico in 1951. At first Ruiz Cortines refused to accept it because, seeing the need for the United States to look for Mexican labor, he thought it convenient to postpone it so that they made an agreement where Mexico would benefit more.

In view of the fact that the negotiations of the agreement were not resumed; in January 1954 the Dwight D. Eisenhower government announced that they would hire Mexican workers without the authorization of the Mexican government. When the contracts were announced, thousands of braceros prepared to cross the border area. The Mexican authorities, in an attempt to detain them, making them promises of work, resorted to military force on some occasions.

This situation forced both governments to sign a new agreement on March 10, 1954, in which the Mexican government agreed to contracting at the border. For its part, the United States established that insurance would be provided to workers in case of unemployment and created a mixed commission dedicated to investigating the problems of legal and illegal emigration. The Korean War was another important factor that led the government to resume it, so that with some suspensions, modifications, and extensions, these agreements were maintained until 1964.

During the rest of Ruiz Cortines' six-year term, the agreement was executed correctly and there were no mishaps with the braceros in the United States. Between 1953 and 1954 there were about 1,400 thousand Mexican emigrants. In 1954, United States Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. ordered “operation wetback”, which was supervised by General Joseph May Swing, and was intended to deport undocumented Mexican workers en masse.

Gen Swing, who was appointed commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, was charged with introducing military tactics into border patrol operations and ordering police to invade Mexican neighborhoods throughout the southeastern United States. Thanks to Brownell's initiative, the number of undocumented immigrants was reduced to 72,000. However, the migratory flow increased in the following years due to the great disparities in employment and wages between the two countries.

Richard Nixon in Mexico

Vice President Richard Nixon came to Mexico in February 1955.

On Wednesday, February 9, 1955, Vice President Richard Nixon came to Mexico accompanied by his wife. Nixon declared upon his arrival that his "visit to Mexico is the result of friendship and understanding between these two countries" and concluded by saying that with his counterparts he felt "as in his house” .

The first talks took place in the office of Ruiz Cortines, who after the meeting declared that “he came to express the very cordial greetings of Mr. President Eisenhower”, hoping with this, to improve relations between Both countries. During their stay in Mexico, the Nixon couple visited, in the company of President Ruiz Cortines, the DM Nacional industrial plant, the Basilica of Guadalupe, the University City, the IMSS facilities, the Lomas de Santa Fe housing complex, and the Mexican-American Cultural Institute. They were also offered a dinner at the American Embassy and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In the end they were offered a meal in Los Pinos. Nixon's insistence on talking about communism in Mexico was such that Ruiz Cortines put him in a car and took him to the lost cities near the official residence of Los Pinos. It is said that Ruiz Cortines told Nixon “this ism is the most widespread in Mexico, hunger, and that is what I am interested in eradicating so that the isms that worry you do not occur.”

Ethiopia

Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, made a pleasure visit to Mexico City from June 19 to 24, 1954. President Ruiz Cortines received him and military honors were given by members of the Presidential Guard, cadets from the Military College, the corporation of the First Infantry Division and an artillery battery; all under the command of General Pascual Cornejo Brun.

In his speech at the airport, Haile Selassie told the press that this was:

“an unforgettable day in my life as a great friend of Mexico. I come to a country that, as my beloved homeland, has always been a champion of freedom and justice; this is an unforgettable day for me, of the great friendship of Mexico and Ethiopia. ”

Emperor Haile Selassie delivered a speech on his arrival in Mexico City where he said:"a great friend of Mexico, champion of freedom and justice".

During his stay, President Ruiz Cortines organized a reception for him in Los Pinos and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Selassie attended a ceremony in the Chapultepec forest, a charrería, a bullfight, the rectory tower in Ciudad Universitaria, the pyramids of Teotihuacán, and a visit to the Basilica of Guadalupe. At the National Palace, Selassie gave a speech where he said that:

"Ethiopia does not forget that Mexico refused to recognize the facts consummated by the fascist Italian forces of Benito Mussolini, and that it raised the voice in defense of reason, truth, justice and law; with complete accuracy, we use the word brothers to refer to Mexico and the Mexicans, for we will never forget the fraternal and virile attitude that the Mexican delegation developed in defense of the sacred rights of Ethiopia. In those moments of our millennial history as a state with more than thirty centuries of sovereign and independent existence, the voice of Mexico rose once again, generous and courageous, letting itself be heard to defend Ethiopia as a strong champion. ”

On June 22, Haile Selassie unveiled an allusive plaque at the roundabout located at the intersection of Cuauhtémoc avenue, diagonal San Antonio, Xola and Cumbres de Maltrata in the Narvarte neighborhood; which from that day bears the name of Glorieta de Etiopía. Although the roundabout disappeared with the subway works in 1980, the name persists in the Collective Transport Service station. At 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 24, Ruiz Cortines fired Selassie in a ceremony held in the Presidential Hangar from Mexico City International Airport. During his visit, Selassie was awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle.

Japan

On October 24, 1954, the Minister of Relations of Japan Katsuo Okazaki arrived in Mexico City, coming from Washington, to then go to his country. One of his main purposes when visiting the country was to strengthen cultural ties between both nations, for which reason a treaty was signed between Mexico and Japan on the 25th, where they agreed to implement strategies in both countries in order to strengthen cultural and scientific relations. between both countries. This letter was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on December 12, 1955.

Cultural Convention between Mexico and Japan

The government of the United Mexican States, and the government of Japan, eager to maintain and strengthen, for their mutual benefit, the ties of a cultural nature that bind the two countries, have decided to conclude a Cultural Convention and, to that end, have appointed their respective Plenipotentiaries to:

The government of the United Mexican States, Mr. Luis Padilla Nervo, Secretary of Foreign Affairs; and the government of Japan, Mr. Katsuo Okazaki, Minister of Foreign Affairs; who after having communicated their full powers, found in good and proper form, have agreed:

ARTICLE I: the contracting parties grant each other the greatest possible facilities in order to ensure in their respective countries a better understanding of the culture of the other country through, primarily,:

1. books, newspapers and other publications;
2. conferences, concerts and performances of theatrical works;
3. art exhibitions and other cultural exhibitions;
4. broadcasting, discs and other similar media;
5. films of a scientific, educational or cultural nature.

ARTICLE II: the Contracting Parties shall encourage the exchange among their respective countries of teachers, scientists and students as well as of other persons interested in participating in cultural activities.

ARTICLE III: The contracting parties will encourage the development and creation of courses on any subject related to the culture of the other party in their universities and other educational and research establishments.

ARTICLE IV: In order to enable nationals of each contracting party to undertake studies and research or to undertake technical studies in the other country, the contracting parties shall consider the means to grant scholarships and other facilities to such nationals.

ARTICLE V: The contracting parties shall consider the means and conditions by which the qualifications and diplomas obtained in the courses or at the end of the courses in universities and other educational establishments, as well as the other diplomas obtained in each of the two countries may be revalued in the other country, both academically and in certain cases to be determined for professional purposes.

ARTICLE VI: the contracting parties will encourage collaboration between the scientific societies and other cultural organizations of the two countries.

ARTICLE VII: Each contracting party shall grant nationals of the other party access facilities to museums, libraries and other information and archive centres.

ARTICLE VIII: the contracting parties shall be consulted if necessary in order to establish more precisely the conditions for the operation of this convention and to ensure its application.

ARTICLE IX: the present convention shall be ratified. It will enter into force on the date of the exchange of instruments of ratification in Tokyo.

ARTICLE X: the present agreement has a validity of five years and will remain in force at the end of this period until the expiration of the term of one year from the date on which one or another of the contracting parties denounces it.

Foreign direct investment

During the Ruiz Cortines period, direct foreign investment covered the sectors of manufacturing production and trade. In the commercial field, the influence of American customs was notable: the large department stores and the use of credit cards produced a great social impact, especially in the Mexican middle classes, enthusiastic about the variety of products and the new facilities of the purchase of credit.

Pan American Conferences, 1954

The government of Ruiz Cortines was interested in joining the inter-American system of the Organization of American States, which sought to make an agreement with the United States, in order to obtain its financial support but, simultaneously, sought to prevent that support boost US claims to hurt Latin American economies. For Mexico it was very important to stay within its traditional tone of foreign policy, based on non-intervention and free self-determination of nations.

In April 1954, the foreign relations secretaries of the Latin American countries attended the X Inter-American Meeting in Caracas. The United States pressured Latin American governments to fight communism. Luis Padilla Nervo, José Gorostiza and Roberto Córdova, Mexican delegates; they opposed it with the arguments that the best solution against communism was economic progress. The proposals were rejected by 17 votes against and 3 in favor, corresponding to Mexico, Argentina and Guatemala.

Post-presidency

Residence that lived Ruiz Cortines at the end of his days in Veracruz. Today is home to the Casa-Museo Ruiz Cortines.

At the end of his presidency, Ruiz Cortines and his wife María Izaguirre retired to private life at their home at number 89 José María Ibarrán street in the San José Insurgentes neighborhood, Benito Juárez delegation. When he was invited to participate in politics, Ruiz Cortines clarified that he belonged "to the august institution of exes, whose first duty is to respect who he is and show absolute discipline."

On December 8, 1961, the press announced that former presidents Roque González Garza, Pascual Ortiz Rubio, Emilio Portes Gil, Abelardo L. Rodríguez, Lázaro Cárdenas, Miguel Alemán Valdés and Ruiz Cortines; they had been invited to work in the López Mateos government. Ruiz Cortines served as trustee delegate of Nacional Financiera for the study, exploitation and organization of non-ferrous metals; refusing to receive a salary for his services. As soon as he received the appointment from him, he made one of the few statements that he would give to the press where he said that:

“To serve the homeland where the President of the Republic orders is a duty and an honour for every Mexican citizen, but in the case of the ex-presidents I estimate that it is a patriotic obligation, since the experience gained in the exercise of the executive power of the Nation corresponds to the benefit of it and not to the personal benefit, as President Adolfo López Mateos stated. ”

Ruiz Cortines worked with López Mateos until April 22, 1962, when his son Adolfo Ruiz Carrillo died. Shortly after, he distanced himself from his wife and retired to live in a house with address at number 10 Miguel Alemán street in the port of Veracruz. In the afternoons he went to & # 34; La Parroquia & # 34; to find his old friends to play dominoes and drink coffee that he liked very much.

He frequented the Veracruz main square, where he had his shoes shined and liked to sit on a bench to read the news from "El Dictamen", his favorite newspaper. Sometimes he was seen tidying up his little garden but during the last months of his life he did not leave his house, he hardly received any friends and he forbade his relatives to visit him.

Death and funeral

In his last days, his friend Manuel Alpino Caldelas García, a politician he had known in his youth, began to live with him in his house in Veracruz. Caldelas helped him with the housework and took care of the eighty-year-old former president Ruiz Cortines. On the morning of December 3, 1973, Ruiz Cortines got up due to discomfort caused by swelling in his feet, lower extremities and abdomen.

In the afternoon of that same day, Ruiz Cortines' state of health became more critical. Dr. Mario Díaz Tejeda went to the home to treat the condition of the former president. His last words, addressed to Caldelas, were "you are my son, I want to die now." When the drugs took effect on him, Ruiz Cortines fell asleep.

Caldelas went down to the phone to answer a call from Mario Moya Palencia, who, by order of President Luis Echeverría Álvarez, called constantly to find out about Ruiz Cortines' state of health. Ten minutes later, Caldelas heard a scream and when he went up to the former president's room, he found him half stretched out on his bed. At 9:05 p.m. on Monday, December 3, 1973, Adolfo Tomás Ruiz Cortines died at 83-year-old victim of heart failure caused by generalized arteriosclerosis. Dr. Edmundo Denis Mezo prepared the corpse for transfer to Mexico City.

Maurico Locken Izaguirre, his stepson, was the first to go to the place where he died. He and his mother agreed to bring the body of Ruiz Cortines to the capital to watch over him and bury him. Jacobo Zabludovsky was in charge of breaking the news of the death of Ruiz Cortines on television through the news program 24 hours of channel 2 of Televisa. President Luis Echeverría orchestrated the official honors and although Ruiz Cortines' last will was to be buried next to his mother and sister in Veracruz, his burial took place in the family crypt of the Dolores pantheon on December 5.

Legacy

Ruiz Cortines dictated his will to the notary Francisco Ramírez Govea in 1967, in which his daughter Lucía Ruiz Carrillo, Fernando Román Lugo and the lawyer Miguel Ángel Cordera Pastor appeared as executors. Ruiz Cortines left his house in Veracruz with a value of $1,200,000. To the notary Ramírez Govea he delivered his last writing that said:

"I am sure that all, absolutely all Mexicans, mainly the citizens and foreigners who live in Mexico and many in a splendid way, we must for our own convenience contribute, in addition to the existing legal taxes, with the cooperation that demand us the needs of our compatriots, according to the possibilities of each one, but bearing in mind that the progress of the community is our progress. Our Mexico has an impassable urgency to solve the problems of the 45 million inhabitants, whose majority are still lacking the most indispensable, despite the ongoing and upward efforts of the Mexican revolution, whose magnificent doctrine and brilliant achievements, make it exemplary, mainly in order to obtain the greatest and best social justice for the majority in need. "

For the Cotera-Ruiz Cortines Foundation, created on January 2, 1968 and named after his uncles Elena, Gabriel and Octaviana Cotera Calzada, who protected him in his childhood; He left the amount of $300,000 pesos. The institution should use the funds to grant scholarships to low-income or orphaned students and abide by the principles that he himself established in his will:

"For their part, the fellows of the Cotera-Ruiz Cortines Foundation, in accepting the scholarships granted to them, must accept without reservation the obligation to provide their social service for the time and place that the institution itself points to them, since they want to contribute to the improvement of the homeland, which includes their personal. I put in the hands of the directors of five schools of the state of Veracruz, the government of the Foundation that I have established, because I am sure that they are composed as they are of the noble causes that it pursues, as well as of the needs of orientation, training and culture of our youth, will make it a factor of the progress of the homeland."

In his personal safe deposit box at his home in Veracruz, he treasured several small piles of Mexican gold coins wrapped in newsprint, securities from Nacional Financiera, and the deeds of some small properties. He ordered these funds to be given in equal parts to his eight grandchildren as they turned 25 years of age. With the exception of a love message in her will, Ruiz Cortines left nothing to María Izaguirre, arguing that she had properties that allowed her to survive.

His residence at Calle Miguel Alemán #10 became the headquarters of the Ruiz Cortines House Museum in 1974, which aims to commemorate the life and work of Ruiz Cortines. Every December 3rd, the Veracruz state government awards the "Medalla al Mérito Adolfo Ruiz Cortines" to people who stand out for their service to society.