He was the dictator of Mexico: Who is Porfirio Diaz?

(1830-1915) Mexican soldier and statesman. He ruled Mexico with a dictatorship for nearly 35 years. Born September 5, 1830, in Oaxaca, died July 2, 1915, in Paris. He is the son of a middle-class family of Native American Spanish mixed race. He started working at a young age to contribute to his family's livelihood. Upon the US invasion of Mexico in 1846, he left the seminary where he was studying and entered the army, and fought against the invaders. In 1848, when the war was over, he returned to Oaxaca and entered the law department of the Institute of Arts and Sciences there.

Porfirio Díaz, (born September 15, 1830, Oaxaca, Mexico—died July 2, 1915, Paris, France), was a soldier and president of Mexico (1877–80, 1884–1911), who established a strong centralized state that he held under firm control for more than three decades.

He joined the Civil War in 1857 between the Liberals, who initiated religious and political reforms, and the Conservatives, who opposed these reforms. Due to his success in the war, he gained the trust of the Liberal leader Juarez and was promoted to brigadier general in 1861. In the same year, upon his refusal to pay his debts to foreign countries - with the French, English, and Spanish armies who intervened in Mexico together, III. He participated in the resistance that began against the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, whom Napoleon had declared Emperor of Mexico. He assumed command duties in the war and made important contributions to the victory. After peace was made, he left the army and started farming in Oaxaca.

In the following period, Diaz, who revolted first against President Juarez and then against President Lerdo de Tejada, seized power in May 1877 after long struggles. Between 1877-1880 and 1884-1911, he remained in power for more than 30 years, making Mexico the longest-serving president.

In the first years of his presidency, Porfirio Diaz initiated practices aimed at strengthening the central government and maintaining order in the country. He maintained tight control over the courts and increased the power of the police organization. He silenced his opponents and the press. Between the federal government and the church, the defendant reached a compromise on the principle of non-interference in each other's internal affairs. Diaz, who handed over the presidency to Gonzalez in 1880, later assumed the post of governor of Oaxaca. In 1884, he became president again, not complying with the article of the Constitution that prevented the re-election of a once-presidential winter.

Porfirio Diaz then established a harsh and authoritarian rule in Mexico, based on large landowners, privileged Creoles (second-generation Spaniards born in the colonies), and foreign capital. During Diaz's 25-year rule, railroad construction was accelerated and the country's economic life was revived. Industrial production increased and foreign trade volume grew. However, the opening of the country's doors to foreign capital and the granting of great privileges to foreigners gradually led to the undermining of national industry. On the other hand, the transfer of the lands from the hands of the Indian people to the large landowners accelerated the processes of dispossession and impoverishment in agriculture. All these developments increased the discontent against the Diaz administration in various sections of society. Diaz tried to suppress the Yaqui and Maya peasant uprisings, the strikes initiated by the workers, with the help of the city police and the rural police, led directly by the landlords. Diaz, who was overthrown on May 25, 1911, after an uprising led by Madero in 1910, fled Mexico to France and died in exile.