Álvaro Obregón

Who was Álvaro Obregón?

General Álvaro Obregón Salido was the President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. He supported Sonora's decision to follow Venustiano Carranza as leader of a revolution against the Huerta regime, and Carranza appointed Obregón commander of the revolutionary forces in northwestern Mexico and in 1915 appointed him as his minister of war. In 1920, Obregón launched a revolt against Carranza, in which Carranza was assassinated; he won the subsequent election with overwhelming support.

Obregón's presidency was the first stable presidency since the Revolution began in 1910. He oversaw massive educational reform, moderate land reform, and labor laws sponsored by the increasingly powerful Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers. In 1923–24, Obregón's finance minister, Adolfo de la Huerta, launched a rebellion; Obregón returned to the battlefield to crush the rebellion.

In 1924, Obregón's hand-picked successor, Plutarco Elías Calles, was elected as president, and although Obregón ostensibly retired to Sonora, he remained influential under Calles.