Francisco I. Madero

Who was Francisco I. Madero?

Francisco Ignacio Madero González was a Mexican statesman, writer, and revolutionary who served as the 33rd president of Mexico from 1911 until his assassination in 1913. An advocate for social justice and democracy, Madero was instrumental in creating the revolutionary movement that began in 1910 and led to the fall of the dictatorship of then-president, Porfirio Diaz.

Born into a wealthy landowning family in northern Mexico, Madero was the prototypical upper-class politician. In his 1908 book entitled The Presidential Succession in 1910, Madero called on voters to prevent the sixth reelection of Porfirio Díaz, which Madero considered anti-democratic. His vision would lay the foundation for a democratic, 20th-century Mexico but without polarizing the social classes. To that effect, he funded the Anti-Reelectionist Party and incited the Mexican people to rise up against Díaz, which ignited the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Arrested by the dictatorship shortly after being declared Presidential candidate by his party, the opposition leader escaped from prison and launched the Plan of San Luis Potosí from the United States, in this manner beginning the Mexican Revolution.