Manuel Ávila Camacho (; 24 April 1897 – 13 October 1955) was a Mexican politician and military leader who served as the
president of Mexico
The president of Mexico (), officially the president of the United Mexican States (), is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the Constitution of Mexico, the president heads the executive branch of the federal government and ...
from 1940 to 1946. Despite participating in the
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution () was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw the destruction of the Federal Army, its ...
and achieving a high rank, he came to the presidency of Mexico because of his direct connection to General
Lázaro Cárdenas
Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (; 21 May 1895 – 19 October 1970) was a Mexican army officer and politician who served as president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940. Previously, he served as a general in the Constitutional Army during the Mexican Revo ...
and served him as the Chief of his General Staff during the Mexican Revolution and afterwards. He was called affectionately by Mexicans "The Gentleman President" ("El Presidente Caballero"). As president, he pursued "national policies of unity, adjustment, and moderation." His administration completed the transition from military to civilian leadership, ended confrontational anticlericalism, reversed the push for socialist education, and restored a working relationship with the US during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
Early life
Manuel Ávila was born in
Teziutlán
Teziutlán is a city in the northeast of the Mexican state of Puebla. Its 2005 census population was 60,597. It also serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding Teziutlán Municipality. The municipality has an area of 84.2 km2 (32.51 ...
, a small but economically important town in
Puebla
Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...
, to middle-class parents, Manuel Ávila Castillo and Eufrosina Camacho Bello. His older brother,
Maximino Ávila Camacho, was a more dominant personality. There were several other siblings, among them a sister, María Jovita Ávila Camacho, and several brothers. Two of his brothers, Maximino Ávila Camacho and Rafael Ávila Camacho, served as
governors of Puebla.
Manuel Ávila Camacho did not receive a university degree although he studied at the
National Preparatory School.
Early career
He joined the revolutionary army in 1914 as a second lieutenant and reached the rank of colonel by 1920. The same year, he served as the chief of staff of the state of
Michoacán
Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, is one of the 31 states which, together with Mexico City, compose the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The stat ...
under
Lázaro Cárdenas
Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (; 21 May 1895 – 19 October 1970) was a Mexican army officer and politician who served as president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940. Previously, he served as a general in the Constitutional Army during the Mexican Revo ...
and became his close friend. He opposed the 1923 rebellion of former revolutionary general
Adolfo de la Huerta. In 1929, he fought under General Cárdenas against the Escobar Rebellion, the last serious military rebellion of disgruntled revolutionary generals, and the same year, he achieved the rank of
brigadier general.
He was married to Soledad Orozco García (1904–1996), who was born in
Zapopan, Jalisco, and was a member of a prominent family in Jalisco.
After his military service, Ávila Camacho entered the public arena in 1933 as the executive officer of the Secretariat of National Defense and became Secretary of National Defense in 1937. In 1940, he was elected president of Mexico after he had been nominated to represent the party that later became the
Institutional Revolutionary Party
The Institutional Revolutionary Party (, , PRI) is a List of political parties in Mexico, political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 as the National Revolutionary Party (, PNR), then as the Party of the Mexican Revolution (, PRM) and fin ...
.
Camacho won the controversial presidential election over right-wing candidate and revolutionary-era General
Juan Andreu Almazán.
Presidency
End of conflict between church and state

Camacho, a professed
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
, said, "I am a believer." Since the revolution, all presidents had been
anticlerical. During Camacho's term, the conflict between the
Roman Catholic Church in Mexico and the Mexican government largely ended.
Domestic policy
He protected the working class by creating the
Mexican Social Security Institute
The Mexican Institute of Social Security (, IMSS) is a Federal government of the United Mexican States, governmental organization that assists public health, pensions and social security in Mexico operating under the Secretariat of Health (Mexic ...
(IMSS) in 1943. He worked to reduce illiteracy, continued land reform, and declared a rent freeze to benefit low-income citizens.
He promoted election reform and passed a new electoral law in 1946 to make it difficult for opposition parties of the far right and the far left to operate legally. The law established the following criteria that had to be fulfilled by any political organization to be recognized as a political party:
* have at least 10,000 active members in 10 states;
* exist for at least three years before elections;
* agree with the principles established in the constitution;
* not form alliances or be subordinated to international organizations or foreign political parties.
On 18 January 1946, he had the Party of the Mexican Revolution (PRM) renamed to the
Institutional Revolutionary Party
The Institutional Revolutionary Party (, , PRI) is a List of political parties in Mexico, political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 as the National Revolutionary Party (, PNR), then as the Party of the Mexican Revolution (, PRM) and fin ...
(PRI), its current name. The Mexican army had been a sector of the PRM, but it was eliminated from the organization of the PRI.
Economically, he pursued the country's industrialization, which benefited only a small group, and income inequality increased.
World War II stimulated Mexican industry, which grew by approximately 10% annually between 1940 and 1945, and Mexican raw materials fueled the US war industry.
In agriculture, his administration invited the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...
to introduce
Green Revolution
The Green Revolution, or the Third Agricultural Revolution, was a period during which technology transfer initiatives resulted in a significant increase in crop yields. These changes in agriculture initially emerged in Developed country , devel ...
technology to bolster Mexico's agricultural productivity.
In education, Camacho reversed Lázaro Cárdenas's policy of socialist education in Mexico and had the constitutional amendments that mandated it repealed.
Foreign policy

During his term, Camacho faced the difficulty of governing during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. After two of Mexico's ships (''
Potrero del Llano'' and ''
Faja de Oro'') carrying oil were destroyed by German
submarines
A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or info ...
in the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...
, Camacho declared war against the
Axis powers
The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis and also Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, was the military coalition which initiated World War II and fought against the Allies of World War II, Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Ge ...
on 22 May 1942. Mexican participation in World War II was mainly limited to an airborne squadron, the
201st (''Escuadrón 201''), to fight the Japanese in the Pacific. The squadron consisted of 300 men, and after receiving training in Texas, it was sent to the Philippines on 27 March 1945. On 7 June 1945, its missions started, and the squadron participated in the
Battle of Luzon
The Battle of Luzon (; ; ) was a land battle of the Pacific Theater of Operations of World War II by the Allied forces of the U.S., its colony the Philippines, Mexico, and allies against forces of the Empire of Japan. The battle resulted in a U ...
. By the end of the war, 5 Mexican soldiers had lost their lives in combat. Despite its short participation in the war, Mexico belonged to the victorious nations and had thus gained the right to participate in the postwar international conferences.
Mexico's joining the conflict on the side of the Allies improved relations with the United States. Mexico provided both raw material for the conflict and also 300,000 guest workers under the
Bracero program to replace some of the Americans who had left to fight in the war. Mexico also resumed diplomatic relations with the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, which had been broken off during the presidency of
Lázaro Cárdenas
Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (; 21 May 1895 – 19 October 1970) was a Mexican army officer and politician who served as president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940. Previously, he served as a general in the Constitutional Army during the Mexican Revo ...
. In 1945, Mexico signed the
United Nations Charter
The Charter of the United Nations is the foundational treaty of the United Nations (UN). It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the United Nations System, UN system, including its United Nations System#Six ...
, and in 1946, it became the headquarters of the Inter-American Conference about War and Peace.
Conflicts with the United States, which had existed in the decades before his presidency, were resolved. Especially in the early years of World War II, Mexican-American relations were excellent. The United States provided Mexico with financial aid for improvements on the railway system and the construction of the Pan American Highway. Moreover, the Mexican foreign debt was reduced.
Later life
When his term ended in 1946, Camacho retired to work on his farm.
In 1951, President
Miguel Alemán Valdés, nearing the end of his six-year term, expressed his desire to have the
Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed.
When these pri ...
amended to allow him to be re-elected. Ávila Camacho and Cárdenas had former president
Abelardo L. Rodríguez give a statement that they didn't "think extension of the presidential term or re-election is convenient for the country." This allowed for the transfer of power to President
Adolfo Ruiz Cortines in 1954.
Ávila Camacho died at his farm of a heart ailment on 13 October 1955, aged 58.
Awards
* 1945,
Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon
from the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
*
Poland (in exile):
Order of the White Eagle
See also
*
List of heads of state of Mexico
References
Bibliography
*
Further reading
*
Camp, Roderic Ai. ''Mexican Political Biographies''.
Tucson
Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...
,
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
:
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...
, 1982.
*
Krauze, Enrique. ''Mexico: Biography of Power''. New York: HarperCollins 1997, chapter 17: "Manuel Ávila Camacho: The Gentleman President", pp. 491–525.
* Medina, Luis. ''Historia de la Revolución Mexicana, periodo 1940-1952: Del cardenismo al avilacamachismo''. Mexico City: Colegio de México 1978.
External links
*
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, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Avila Camacho, Manuel
20th-century presidents of Mexico
Mexican generals
Secretaries of defense of Mexico
World War II political leaders
1897 births
1955 deaths
Institutional Revolutionary Party politicians
*
Mexican Roman Catholics
Politicians from Puebla
1940s in Mexico
20th-century Mexican politicians
Recipients of the Order of Propitious Clouds
People from Teziutlán
Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)