Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, historic Mexican politician and former presidential candidate, dies at 92
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, a three-time presidential candidate and one of Mexico's most important modern political voices, died Wednesday at 92, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said.
An undisputed leader of the Mexican left, Cárdenas was the son of one of the country’s most popular presidents — Gen. Lázaro Cárdenas. He was respected by allies and critics alike.
Cárdenas played a pivotal role in Mexico’s democratization, beginning with his first presidential bid in 1988, which ended in a defeat widely regarded as the result of massive electoral fraud.
He became Mexico City’s first popularly elected mayor in 1997. Cárdenas was so steadfast in his principles that in 2014 he resigned from the party he had founded in the late 1980s, the Democratic Revolution Party, because it governed the state of Guerrero when 43 students disappeared.
Cárdenas also distanced himself from his longtime ally Andrés Manuel López Obrador when López Obrador became president in 2018.
Cárdenas was “a man of firm principles,” Sheinbaum said on X, who transformed Mexico’s political life by leading “a peaceful democratic movement that channeled millions of Mexicans’ yearning for change.”
“That historic election day, when he should have been recognized as president, marked the beginning of the democratic transformation. His dignity and republican convictions remain an essential reference point for our nation," she added.
Sheinbaum's predecessor and ally López Obrador was among a swell of people to lament Cárdenas' death, calling him a “pioneer of the democratic movement.”
“Without him, the country’s political reality would be different. He was a transformative figure; he leaves us his teachings and ideals that never die,” López Obrador wrote on a post on X.
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