Cardenismo and the Mexican Left in the 1950s and Early 1960s

This paper will explore the role and impact of Cardenismo (followers of ex-President Lázaro Cárdenas), both as a political force and as an ideology, in 1950's and early ‘60s Cold War Mexico. It will analyze the influence of Cardenismo on the Mexican Peace Movement (an outgrowth of the World Peace Council) and the National Liberation Movement (MLN), a political reform movement founded in the wake of the Cuban Revolution and headed by ex-President Cárdenas from 1961-63. For a brief period the MLN brought together a broad spectrum of students, intellectuals, workers and peasants in a direct challenge to the dominance of the one-party state. Until Lázaro Cárdenas officially returned to the “Revolutionary Family” by endorsing the candidacy of Díaz Ordaz in early 1963, official candidate of the ruling party who was openly despised by the Left, the potency of the Cardenista movement was viewed both in Mexico and the United States as a direct threat to the nation's political stability—even more so than that of armed revolutionary movements emulating the success of the revolution in Cuba. The paper will also explore the relationship between Cardenismo and the other left parties, (Partido Popular, Partido Comunista Mexicana, Partido Obrero y Campesina de México), both in terms of internal politics, as well as in the context of the Guatemalan (1944-54) and Cuban (1959) revolutions.