Muñoz Ledo Lazo de la Vega, Porfirio (1933–)

Porfirio Muñoz Ledo Lazo de la Vega is a Mexican politician and one of the founders of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). An important political figure since the 1970s, Muñoz Ledo abandoned the government party after he and Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas failed to reform it from within in 1987. A key organizer of Cárdenas's campaign in the 1988 presidential elections, he was elected as one of the first opposition senators in modern times. In 1993 he became president of PRD.

Born on July 23, 1933, in Mexico City, Muñoz Ledo studied at the Centro Universitario Mexicano with a distinguished generation of future politicians and graduated with a law degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1955. He obtained a doctor of laws degree at the University of Paris in 1958. After teaching political science at UNAM and the Colegio de México, as well as holding other teaching positions, he entered public life, serving in the secretariat of public education and the social security institute. He rose to the post of undersecretary of the presidency (1970–1972) and then secretary of labor (1972–1975) under Luis Echeverría. He became president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 1975–1976 and briefly served as secretary of education (1976–1977) before being fired by President José López Portillo. He later served as ambassador to the United Nations (1979–1985) under López Portillo and Miguel de la Madrid.

In 1986 he co-founded the Democratic Current in the PRI, serving as its national coordinator, before supporting Cárdenas's 1988 presidential campaign. He was elected senator and served from 1988 to 1994. In 1988 Muñoz Ledo co-founded the PRD, becoming president of the party in 1993, the only politician in modern times to preside over two of the three major parties. From 1997 to 2000, he served as leader of the PRD congressional delegation. He remains an active figure in the PRD.

See alsoMexico, Political Parties: Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bruhn, Kathleen. Taking on Goliath: The Emergence of a New Left Party and the Struggle for Democracy in Mexico. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997.

Langston, Joy. Three Exits from the Mexican Institutional Revolutionary Party: Internal Ruptures and Political Stability. Mexico: CIDE, 1994.

Muñoz Ledo, Porfirio. Sumario de una izquierda republicana. Mexico: Océano, 2000.

                                  Roderic Ai Camp