Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, figure in Mexico’s democratic transition, dies at 92

Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, whose campaigns helped open Mexico’s political system after decades of one-party dominance, died in Mexico on Wednesday, 28 October, aged 92. President Claudia Sheinbaum paid tribute to the former Mexico City leader, who challenged the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, in a disputed presidential election and later helped build a left-wing opposition party.

The Rio Times reported that Cárdenas died on Wednesday evening and that no cause of death had been disclosed. His body was taken to the Panteón Francés cemetery in Mexico City late that night, with a funeral service scheduled there for 10 a.m. local time on Thursday, the outlet reported.

Why Cárdenas’s 1988 campaign mattered

The contest helped drive reforms that strengthened the opposition, Reuters reported. The PRI had dominated Mexican politics since 1929 and lost the presidency in 2000. Historian Lorenzo Meyer told Reuters that Cárdenas galvanized left-wing opposition to the party: ‘And he had the capacity to mobilise.’

After the 1988 election, Cárdenas helped found the Party of the Democratic Revolution. He ran for president twice more, finishing third in 1994 and 2000. He won the 1997 election to lead Mexico City, becoming its first elected head of government when residents voted directly for the post for the first time.

Sheinbaum and López Obrador pay tribute

Sheinbaum said Cárdenas had led a peaceful democratic movement in 1988 that expressed millions of Mexicans’ desire for change, according to Reuters. The Rio Times reported that she called him ‘a man of firm principles who transformed the political life of our country.’ Former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador also publicly mourned Cárdenas, the outlet reported.