His family announced on Sunday that Porfirio Muoz Ledo, a veteran politician in Mexico who was known as a political chameleon and instrumental in the country’s democratic reforms, had died at the age of 89. His family has not provided any information regarding the reason for his death; however, he had been in poor health for some years. Since Muoz Ledo entered politics in the 1970s, he has never been more than a stone’s throw from the seat of power, even if it meant changing parties. The majority of Mexican political parties expressed their condolences. He had been a member of the majority of them at one time or another. And the start of many tributes included terms such as “despite our differences”, as Muoz Ledo eventually severed ties with all of them.
Muoz Ledo was a shrewd strategist capable of devising a wide variety of potential courses of action during Mexico’s protracted transition to democracy. But he could never imagine one in which he would not play a significant role at any time. In a 2020 interview with The Associated Press, Muoz Ledo joked about his own impending death. When the raspy-voiced political pro was asked if he represents “living history” in Mexican politics, he replied, “I’m about to become dead history.” “I dedicate all my experience and my history to the democratization of this country,” he said. “I will not rest until this nation is free.” “It’s the last legacy I have.”
On his Twitter account, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said: “I regret the departure of Porfirio Muoz Ledo, with whom I had agreed for a long time. The current disputes do not erase the long history of pleasant times spent together in friendship and camaraderie. On the other side of the political spectrum, López Obrador’s sworn political opponent, former President Felipe Calderón, wrote: “I learned of the death of P. Muoz Ledo. Despite our many disagreements, we were able to cooperate within the opposition and push through electoral reforms. These reforms finally made the elections fair enough for the opposition to win in 2000, allowing them to overthrow the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which had been in power for a very long time. By then, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, also known as the PRI, had held the presidency of Mexico continuously for 70 years. Muoz Ledo has been described as “one of the giants of our public life” by Alicia Barcenas, who served as Mexico’s foreign relations secretary. Muoz Ledo has been described as being “a sharp orator, a fierce polemicist, a shrewd diplomat who had adamant opinions and a frank humour”. A better future for Mexico has always been the driving force behind everything it has done, including its achievements and failures. A person close to us has died.
In the 1970s, Muoz Ledo began his political career as a member of the PRI; however, he split from the PRI in 1988 in order to support Cuauhtémoc Cardenas’ leftist presidential campaign. Cardenas failed in an election marred by fraud. After that, Muoz Ledo rose through the ranks of Cardenas’ Democratic Revolution Party to become a prominent member. Instead, he ran for president in 2000 under the banner of the now defunct Authentic Revolution Party. In another about-face, he backed out of the campaign he was running in mid-2000 to support and campaign for former President Vicente Fox, who was running for the conservative National Action party. Despite their differing political ideologies, Muoz Ledo had the sneaky suspicion that Fox’s outspoken magnetism might one day topple the PRI from office.
