Miguel Aleman 1947 - 52

Miguel Aleman was the first civilan president since Carranza . Postwar Mexico was prosperous and booming .Mexico had a healthy surplus after the war and Aleman launced a number of large public works projects such as the Morelos and Falcon Dams helped increase agricultural output , irragate vast tracts of land and tripled Mexico's electrical capacity by 1952 .The railway was modernized and the Mexican segment of the Pan-American Highway was finished in 1951 .Women were allowed to vote in 1952 .Pemex built new refineries and pipeline and doubled its production from 1946 to 1952 .Aleman used his influence to help bring the 1968 Olympics to Mexico .

The main library of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, cover with murals by Juan O'Gorman. Because of corroption, there were no books on the bookshelves. Money for books had been 'diverted.'

A new University City was built to house the National University in 1952, one of the most modern in the world atthe time .America was able to count on Mexican support in the Cold War and loans from the Import-Export Bank flowed into Mexico .However, all was not well . There was large scale corruption, strikes were supressed by the army and the pay of teachers was so low that there were not enough to staff the new schools .and fewer than half of school age children went to school .

Ruiz Cortines 1952 - 58

Cortines began to confront  the problem of corruption of the past administration . The Mexican economy continued to do well and a devaluation of the Peso in 1953 helped stabilize the country and bring in more investment .Afraid that Aleman may have overtaxed the economy with his huge projects, he did not undertake and new large projects .The population of Mexico had doubled in 30 years to 32,000,000 a people poured into the cities , but being a Catholic country, the issue of birth control was skirted around .

Adolfo Mateos  1958- 64

Mateos was one of Mexico's most popular postwar presidents .Many young Mexicans  identified with the young Mateos (47) much as young Americans of this generation did with J.F.K. He continued land redistribution, nationalized foreign utility concessions and movie industries by buying controlling stock, implemented new social welfare and rural education programs .While he was more leftist leaning than Cortines, Communists were not tolerated and arrested .Strong economic growth continued. Large housing projects were started to deal with house the numerous people flocking to the cities , some of the largest housing 100,000 people .Industry was given incentives to locate away from Mexico City .In 1960, the urban population surpassed the rural population .Mateos maintained diplomatic relations with Cuba after Castro took over, much to the chagrin of the US . The Chamizal border issue with the US was solved where the Rio Grande had changed course south by returning the land to question to Mexico and making a concrete lined channel in the area .Criticism of the one party system continued to grow during the Mateos administration as the electorate grew sophisticated.In response, Mateos added an amendment to the Constitution to make it easier for opposition parties to gain ground .Almost as soon as he left office he suffered a stroke and lay in a coma until his death in 1970 .

Gustavo Diaz Ordaz  1964 - 70

Ordaz was a conservative with an agenda that favored business and the economy grew 6%. and the tourist trade greatly increased .But he is most remember for his supression of civil liberties during the turbulent late 60s .Diaz had fired the reform minded president of the PRI, Carlos Madrazo and annulled elections where oposition parties won mayoral elections in Tijuana and Mexicalli . Students at the National University were the first to organize protests and many university campuses exploded in violence and strikes, sometimes with federal troops being called in .

Tlatelolco massacre

Mexico won the bid to host the summer games of 1968 .In July 26, 1968 leftist students gathered to celebrate the anniverary of the Cuban Revolution, which was met with riot police and erupted into a large street riot .In the following days there were more riots. Huge demonstrations were held on many universities . On August 27, there was a huge demonstration of half a million people and the government moved tanks and troops in , the following clash led to some deaths.In September students occupied many buildings and threatening to disrupt he Olympics .Diaz ordered troops into the buildings .and 500 demonstratoers were put in jail .For two weeks bands of students roamed the streets, barricading streets and burning buses .On October 2, 1968 another strike was called for at Tlatelolco. After the rally ended and the demonstrators failed to disband, the army used tear gas and clubs .The army claimed they were fired upon and opened up with their machine guns. However it started, several hundred people were killed .

Despite this, the Olympic Games themselves were free of violence. On Oct 1969 on the anniversary of Tlatelolco., underground groups set off bombs at government offices and government buildings .

Ordaz launched the Border Industrialization Program in which maquiladoras established next to the border that assembled goods .Raw materials from US factories were assembled by low wage workers and exported duty free to Mexico.

Luis Echeverría  1970 - 76

Echeverría, former secretary of the interior, became president in 1970 .Caught in the inflation of the early 70s, he tried to order price controls on basic items .He was one of the first presidents to give an endorsement of birth control .The unemploed went to the big cities and started squatter towns. One of the largest, outside Mexico City had a population of 2 million in the 1980s. The government was forced to recognize it and it was named Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl .Many started to go to America illegally. The official bracero prgoram ended in 1964 .

Robberies and kidnappings , the bane of other Latin American countries, started in Mexicoby guerrilla groups and there was insurrection in Guerrero that took a year to put down . During his period, the country's external debt soared from $6 billion in 1970 to $20 billion in 1976. This caused the ruling party, at least in terms of its economic policies, to gradually lose prestige at home and abroad. In September, 1976, the Peso was devaluated 60 % and a month larer it was devlued a further 40%. By 1974, about 70,000 Mexicans worked in 450 maquiladoras. By the 1970s the population of the bodertowns such as Ciudad Jarez surged .Since 1973, maquiladoras have also accounted for nearly half of Mexico’s export assembly. Wages were low and workers conditions were bad .Despite this and the building of a booming tourist industry in the Yucatan, Echeverría was unable to remake the state led economic miracle of the postwar years.

Jose Lopez Portillo 1976 - 82

Jose Portillo came to power during the jump in oil prices during the oil embargo and the sudden world oil glut that sent Mexico into recession .His opponents internationally and domestically accused López Portillo of "rampant corruption," "excessive overseas borrowing," galloping inflation (which continued with his successor), and responsibility for devaluations of the peso.In September, 1976, to make exports more competitive, the Peso was devaluated 60 % and a month larer it was devlued a further 40%.¡Defenderé el peso como un perro! – "I will defend the peso like a dog!" It earned him the nickname 'El perro' (The dog) and having people barking at him.

 In 1974, huge new oil reserves were found in Chiapas and Tabasco, with the rising oil prices after the OPEC embargo, suddenly Mexico was a wealthy nation .In 1982 oil made up 78% of imports . Plans were made to make Mexico self-sufficient in food production and billions of dollars were invested in rural development .Despite the oil boom, by the end of the Lopez administration, the trade deficit approached 12 billion dollars and was 18 % of the GDP by 1982. The total debt climed to 80 billion dollars .The oil prices fell and the economy was devestated .Mexico could not meet its debt repayments. The US federal Reserve and the IMF stepped in to bail Mexico out .

Miguel de la Madrid  1982 - 86

During his tenure, the economy only made weak progress, crushed by the huge debt from the oil boom years .Madrid was not as free as his predeccors to manage the economy with the restrictions placed by the world Bank and the IMF .The Peso was devalued again and fell from 80 to 155 Pesos to the dollar .Price controls were lifted on thousand of commodities and bread, for example, increased 100% in price .Public spending was cut by one third .Mexico renegotiated its debts and had to commit 53% of the federal budget to repayments. Even thought the economy contracted an estimated 6% yearly in the 80s, foreign investors and banks were encouraged to invest in Mexico again by the government actions .

On Sept 19, 1985 , a 8.1 earthquake devastated Mexico City and the next day a 7.3 earthquake hit and killed at least 10,000 and caused more than $4 billion in damage .Over 100,000 were left homeless .Madrid's The goverment was slow to respond and grassroot movement sprang up.Madrid's popularity was severly damaged .More loans were necessary to deal with the problem and the national debt soared to 96 billion dollars .

There were now violent protests against the PRI for corruption, fraud and strong arm election tactics .Inflation increased on an average of 100% a year. During de la Madrid's presidency, he introduced liberal economic reforms that encouraged foreign investment, and widespread privatisations of outdated state-run industries and reduction of tariffs, a process that continued under his successors. He joined the removed protective tarrifs from mamy products to be able to join the GATT ( General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ) in 1986 .

Hoping to regain the popularity lost after the earthquake, Madrid started a policy to deal corruption and the demands people always faced for mordidas or bribes .Some progress was made with political corruption as well, and the conservative opposition party PAN was premitted to win some elections .

Carlos Salinas de Gortari  1988 - 1994

In the election of 1988, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas on the new FDN party, was believed to have gotten more votes than the PRI candidate, Carlos Salinas .But vote counting was interrupted by a mysterious computer failure. In the end Salinas won with barely over 50%.Salinas  tranformed Mexico's state dominated economy into one of private enterprise and free trade , the high point of which was the NAFTA agreement .

masked ELZN fighters

In 1994 a new Zapatista uprising , EZLN, started in Chiapas against corruption, Indian abuse and its own government . Their main spokesperson is Subcomandante Marcos .The group takes its name from Emiliano Zapata, the anarchist commander of the Liberation Army of the South during the Mexican Revolution, and thus see themselves as his ideological heirs.It was led by The president responded with military repression, but reports of the national and international media , forcing a change in government policy and a negotiatin through the church .

Also in 1994, Salinas' chosen sucessor, Luis Colosio was assassinated in Tijuana .He reformed the Clerical Laws which had forbidden Catholic priests from voting, and established a new relationship between State and Church, which had been severely damaged after the Cristero War. The new laws also allowed the Catholic churches to own their own buildings.

He has been vilified for the economic crisis Mexico plunged into after he left office .Salinas privatized Telmex and 400 other state owned businesses, the government owned provider of telecommunications service and placed the owner of the newly formed company into the name of a formerly unknown person by the name of Carlos Slim Helú. Debts repaments was reduced to 29% of the GDP and the economy grew $5 in 1991 .During Salinas' term drug trafficing grew into a huge business after the UD crackdown on shipments from Columbia .Salinas and his advisors pursued a policy of allowing the Peso to become highly overvalued and led to a run on the Peso in December 1994 .Because of large scale corruption and the assassination of Ruiz Massieu which led to the arrest of Salinas brother Raul, Salinas has become one of the most reviled figures in Mexican history, behind Cortes and Diaz . In 1997 he moved to  Ireland, which does not have an extradition treaty with Mexico .Many Mexicans feel corruption has bankrupted the country. Raul Salinas is estimated to have $300 million abroad .Some allege that the huge prices paid during the privatization shows drug money was involved .

Ernesto Zedillo  1994 - 2000

Within days of taking office, the Peso suddenly collapsed , known as the December Mistake, and led to an economic recesssion . The crisis ended after a series of reforms and actions led by Zedillo. US president Bill Clinton granted a $50 billion loan to Mexico, which helped in one of Zedillo's intiatives to rescue the banking system. Foreign ad Mexican investors withdrew billions from Mexico, putting the country in an economic tailspin .He replaced en masse the notoriosly supreme court. Zedillo was able to make some headway against Mexico's crime lords .He reformed politics so that power was peacefully transferred to a non PRI successor, Vicente Fox .

Vicente Fox 2000 - 2006

Fox was Mexico's first non=PRI president .In 2000, Vicente Fox decided to run for President of Mexico. In spite of opposition within his party, Fox secured his candidacy representing the Alliance for Change, a political coalition formed by the National Action Party and the Ecological Green Party of Mexico.Vicente Fox was one of the few Presidents to avoid a major economic upheaval during office, however economy grew at a slow pace .GDP growth dropped to an average an average of 2.2% during Fox's administration. Since globalization has contributed to the competition and advent of low-cost offshore assembly in places like Taiwan, China, and countries in Central America, maquiladoras in Mexico have been on the decline since 2000: According to federal sources, approximately 529 maquiladoras shut down and investment in assembly plants decreased by 8.2 percent in 2002.

Felipe Calderon 2006 - present