Mexican politician Porfirio Muñoz Ledo died this Sunday at the age of 89, his family has confirmed. Born in Mexico City, he had one of the most prosperous political careers. He was a member of the PRI and co-founded the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) with Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas in 1989 after the so-called system collapse, a controversial computer breakdown of the electoral system in which the ruling party’s candidate, PRI candidate Carlos Salinas de Gortari. This event marked the birth of a thriving leftist movement in Mexico, led by Cárdenas and Muñoz Ledo. Speakers from all parties lamented the death of a milestone in the country’s political history. The causes of his death are not clear. He was just days away from turning 90.
Lawyer and political scientist Muñoz Ledo played a key role in the creation of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), which meant wresting control of the electoral machinery from the government and handing it over to an autonomous and civic body. He was a congressman and senator, as well as a constituent legislature of the congress that transformed the federal district into Mexico City, another institutional reform to which his leadership contributed.
Muñoz Ledo was the 2000 presidential candidate of the fugitive Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution, but ultimately declined, backing the cause of the PAN conservative Vicente Fox, a decision that drew heavy criticism from the left movement. In the Fox administration he was ambassador to the European Union and UNESCO.
In 2006, he resumed the path to the left, accompanying Andrés Manuel López Obrador in his first bid for the presidency of the Republic. The attack was unsuccessful considering what López Obrador always saw as electoral fraud that brought PAN member Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) to power.
The relationship between Muñoz Ledo and López Obrador, two heavyweights of the contemporary left, has always been critical, never subservient. Muñoz Ledo realized that one of his greatest wishes was to put the presidential sash on López Obrador, which he achieved in 2018 when the new reference party, the Morena, finally led the progressive movement to government: López Obrador became President of the República and Muñoz Ledo as head of the Chamber of Deputies .
Already in power, the relationship between the two experienced several crises. Muñoz Ledo, who tried unsuccessfully to become a leader of Morena, turned his back on various government and party decisions. In one of his last statements to the media, he pointed out that the Republican model of separation of powers had been threatened by the López Obrador government, which he casually described as catastrophic. “I agree with several friends that the López Obrador government was a sham because it was presented to us as a progressive government, but is in fact a right-wing government,” he told Reforma in May.
López Obrador has put aside the recent dissent and offered his condolences on Twitter. “I regret the death of Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, with whom I had coincidences for a long time. Recent disagreements do not erase the good and long moments of friendship and camaraderie; let alone his political legacy. I hug your family and friends,” he wrote.
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