Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, historic leader of Mexico’s left, dead at 92
The politician and engineer, son of General Lázaro Cárdenas, made three unsuccessful presidential bids but opened the path to power for the left after decades of PRI hegemony
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, a historic leader of Mexico’s left, died on Wednesday at age 92. Without him, it would be impossible to understand how the left has gained power in Mexico. Both the current president, Claudia Sheinbaum, and her precedecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, both of the Morena party, walked arm in arm with Cárdenas during the democratic struggles of the 1980s, when El Ingeniero (The Engineer, as he was known because of his engineering degree), broke up the long hegemony of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) from within, giving rise to the transition.
“A man of strong principles who transformed political life,” said President Sheinbaum, adding that “his dignity and republican convictions remain as an indispensable reference for our nation.” López Obrador said that “without him, the country’s political reality would be different. He was a transformer; he leaves us his teachings and the ideals that never die.”
News of his death caused something unusual in recent times: politicians of all stripes united around a figure who cuts across the ideological spectrum. Two former presidents of the National Action Party (PAN), Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón, as well as leaders from all the parties, joined in on the messages of condolence.
A precursor of democracy
A civil engineer trained at UNAM, the politician served as governor of Michoacán (1980–1986), head of government of the Federal District (1997–1999). He was a presidential candidate on three occasions (1988, 1994 and 2000). In the 1988 election, Cárdenas managed to bring together leftist parties —legalized just 10 years earlier — and emerging social forces into one great national front. His campaign attracted the student movement that broke into the UNAM in 1986 — with Claudia Sheinbaum as one of its leaders. It mobilized peasants and the working classes, and competed vote for vote with the PRI candidate, Carlos Salinas, whose victory has always been attributed to a government operation: a failure of the computer system allowed millions of non-existent votes for the PRI to be added. The operation was engineered by Manuel Bartlett Díaz, then president of the Federal Electoral Committee and Secretary of Government Affairs.
The 1988 fraud was another foundational milestone for the Mexican left. It encouraged people like Andrés Manuel López Obrador (who was still a member of PRI up to then) to break with the regime. In 1989, Cárdenas co-headed the creation of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), which for 30 years was the main leftist political group, and with which he made two more bids for the presidency (in 1994 and 2000). In 1997 he became Head of Government of the Federal District, his first and only electoral victory. His tenure marked the beginning of nearly 30 years of progressive administrations in Mexico City, creating a stark contrast with the neoliberal administrations of Ernesto Zedillo and Vicente Fox.
News of his death comes eight months after he was named chair of a new commission at Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) focused on strategic analysis of hydrocarbons. Cárdenas’s role at the state oil company was almost symbolic: at 91 he was tasked with leading a group of experts to offer opinions and recommendations to inform decision-making within the company. The announcement was made on March 18, during the anniversary of the oil expropriation, a process led by his father, former president Lázaro Cárdenas, who governed the country from 1934 to 1940.
Cárdenas remained a relevant figure. Just a couple of years ago, on another anniversary of the expropriation, he appeared publicly at a campaign event to endorse Claudia Sheinbaum two months before the elections. There were few public statements by Cárdenas in recent years, but two of them take on special relevance: he spoke after the death of Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, on July 9, 2023, and again after the death of Ifigenia Martínez in October 2024. He acknowledged both of them for their struggle and their friendship and their contributions to democracy. All three of them became pillars of the transition and the greatest references for the left that is now in power. Cárdenas, the great precursor, was the last one to bow out.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition