José María Pino Suárez

Who was José María Pino Suárez?

José María Pino Suárez was a Mexican statesman, jurist, poet, journalist and revolutionary who served as the 7th and last Vice President of Mexico from 1911 until his assassination in 1913. In 1969, he was awarded the Belisario Domínguez Medal post mortem. He dedicated his short life to fighting for democracy and advocating against social injustices in Mexico.

Born in the southern state of Tabasco, he moved at a very young age to Mérida, Yucatán, to pursue his education. Shortly after graduating from law school, he established a law firm and began to write his poetry, for which he was later offered a seat in the Spanish Academy. As an entrepreneur, he also established the newspaper El Peninsular in which he made the public aware of the social injustices occurring in the Yucatán peninsula at the time. Joining the pro-democratic cause of Francisco I. Madero, José Maria Pino Suárez was important in establishing the Antireelectionist party in the south of the Republic. Fighting against the political oligarchy which controlled Yucatán, and of which he ironically was a part of through marriage, he was declared candidate of the Antireelectionist party as Governor of Yucatán but was soon arrested by order of the official party. Fleeing from arrest, he joined presidential candidate Madero in the United States. There Pino Suárez helped to draft the Plan of San Luis Potosí which declared the 1910 presidential elections to be null and void, and ignited the Mexican Revolution. Under the plan, Madero was declared substitute president and in his cabinet, Pino Suárez was declared Secretary of Justice.