Heberto Castillo Martínez (August 23, 1928 – April 5, 1997) was a Mexican

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

and political activist. Castillo was born in

Ixhuatlán de Madero Ixhuatlán de Madero is a Municipality in Veracruz, Mexico. It is located in north zone of the State of Veracruz, about 376 km from state capital Xalapa, in the region called Huasteca Baja. It is one of 212 municipalities in Veracruz. It has ...

, Veracruz, and received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the National Autonomous University. An accomplished engineer, he taught several courses at the UNAM and at the National Polytechnic Institute, wrote several textbooks and invented the tridilosa. He became a political activist and got involved in several workers' rights struggles, leading to imprisonment by the federal government in the infamous Lecumberri Penitentiary. Castillo was one of the first among leading left-wing politicians to express dismay at the dictatorial nature of Soviet-bloc governments, starting a movement towards a social democracy-based left wing and away from a Moscow-based left leaning opposition in Mexico. During his lifetime he co-founded three

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...

: the

Mexican Workers' Party The Mexican Workers' Party (in Spanish: ''Partido Mexicano de los Trabajadores'', PMT) was an old Mexican political party of left, that had legal registration in the 1980s, its main political figures were Heberto Castillo and Demetrio Vallejo. T ...

''(Partido Mexicano de los Trabajadores, PMT)'', the Mexican Socialist Party ''(Partido Mexicano Socialista, PMS)'' and the Party of the Democratic Revolution ''(Partido de la Revolución Democrática, PRD)''. In his last years in politics he became a staunch critic of the

Zapatista rebellion The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (, EZLN), often referred to as the Zapatistas (Mexican ), is a far-left political and militant group that controls a substantial amount of territory in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico. Since ...

Chiapas Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...

and, crucially, voluntarily withdrew from the presidential race in 1988 to support the unified candidacy of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas. He died on April 5, 1997 in Mexico City and received the

Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor The Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor (Spanish: ''Medalla de Honor "Belisario Domínguez" del Senado de la República'') is the highest award bestowed by the Mexican Senate. It forms part of the Mexican Honors System and is currently Mexico's ...

(''postmortem'') that same year.

References

External links

The Heberto Castillo Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castillo, Heberto 1928 births 1997 deaths Members of the Senate of the Republic (Mexico) Party of the Democratic Revolution politicians Mexican democracy activists Mexican civil engineers National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni Instituto Politécnico Nacional faculty Recipients of the Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor Mexican inventors People from Veracruz Socialist Mexican Party politicians Mexican Workers' Party politicians Science and technology in Mexico