Plutarco Elías Calles

Who was Plutarco Elías Calles?

Plutarco Elías Calles was a Mexican general and politician. He was the powerful interior minister under President Álvaro Obregón, who chose Calles as his successor. The 1924 Calles presidential campaign was the first populist presidential campaign in the nation's history, as he called for land redistribution and promised equal justice, more education, additional labor rights, and democratic governance. Calles indeed tried to fulfill his promises during his populist phase, but entered a repressive and violent anti-Catholic phase.

After leaving office he continued to be the dominant leader from 1928–1935, a period known as the maximato. Calles is most noted for a fierce oppression of Catholics that led to the Cristero War, a civil war between Catholic rebels and government forces, and for founding the Partido Nacional Revolucionario, which became the Partido de la Revolución Mexicana which eventually became the Institutional Revolutionary Party, that governed Mexico from 1929 to 2000 under these three different names.