Armando Diaz
Porfirio Díaz ruled Mexico for thirty-four years after seizing power on a platform of no re-election. Born in Oaxaca in 1830 to a family of modest means and Mixtec descent, he trained for the priesthood, switched to law, and became a soldier in the wars of the Reform — rising to general and winning the battle of Puebla on 5 May 1862 against a French army, which is the date Mexico still celebrates. He fought the French occupation for five years and took Mexico City in 1867. He then ran for president twice against Benito Juárez and lost, revolted in 1871 and failed, and revolted again in 1876 under the Plan of Tuxtepec — whose central demand was that presidents should not succeed themselves. He took power that year and held it until 1911, with one four-year interval in which he ran the country through a placeman. The Porfiriato brought railways, telegraphs, ports, foreign investment, oil concessions and a balanced budget, and it was built on the systematic transfer of communal village land to surveying companies and haciendas. Something like a fifth of the national territory changed hands, and by 1910 the great majority of rural Mexicans owned nothing. Order was kept by the rurales and by the formula pan o palo — bread or the club. He told an American journalist in 1908 that Mexico was ready for democracy and that he would not stand again, and then stood. Madero's revolution began in November 1910. He resigned in May 1911 and died in Paris.
- Lived: 1861 CE – 1928 CE
- Nationality: Italian
- Roles: chief_of_staff, military_leader
