Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, Mexican leftist leader, dies at 92
Why it matters: His disputed 1988 presidential run helped crack decades of PRI dominance and pushed Mexico toward electoral reform.
Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, a towering figure of Mexico’s left who challenged the ruling PRI in a watershed 1988 presidential election, has died at 92. Cardenas was the son of former President Lazaro Cardenas and later became Mexico City’s first elected mayor in 1997. He broke with the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1987 and helped found the Party of the Democratic Revolution, giving the opposition a stronger national vehicle after decades of one-party dominance. Though he lost three presidential bids, his contested 1988 race against Carlos Salinas became a turning point in Mexican politics after vote-counting systems crashed and the PRI claimed victory. President Claudia Sheinbaum called his role in Mexico’s contemporary history fundamental.