por He porfiriato It was a period in Mexican history during which Porfirio Díaz ruled. This period began on November 28, 1876 and ended on May 25, 1911, although it had a brief interruption between 1880 and 1884.
The first stage of the government of Porfirio Díaz was marked by progress and economic development. General Díaz promoted foreign investment, which led to the growth of the agricultural, mineral, and industrial sectors.
However, despite having begun his government by electoral means, Porfirio Díaz soon turned to authoritarianism to become a dictator, particularly during his second government.
Below are the main political and social characteristics that make the Porfiriato considered a dictatorial period.
Reasons why the Porfiriato is considered a dictatorship
there were no free elections
An ironic aspect of the Porfirio Díaz government is that he was re-elected a total of six times. This is ironic, since one of the main reasons Díaz rebelled against Juárez during the 1877 elections was because he wanted re-election banned.
However, once Díaz won the presidency, he made sure to participate as a candidate in all subsequent elections, being re-elected 5 more times.
He centralized power in his person
Díaz’s predecessor, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, made great strides toward democratizing Mexico. This was achieved by promoting the federal government system, ensuring the separation of powers and respecting the civil rights of the population.
However, upon assuming his second presidency, many of these gains were lost. Díaz assigned trusted people as head of the Armed Forces and hand-picked the governors of the states.
In addition, using different strategies, he managed to control the other public powers so that they would do what he wanted. In this way, he centralized all the power of the Mexican state over his person.
Banned social protests
This is another common characteristic of authoritarian and dictatorial governments. Since he controlled the legislative and judicial branches, Porfirio Díaz had the power to create laws that would allow him to imprison his detractors.
The consequence was that people no longer enjoyed civil liberties to express discontent against the government.
took away political liberties
Political freedoms during the Porfiriato were only given to those who were aligned with the Díaz government. In other words, opponents of Porfirio Díaz did not have the right to participate in elections, since this could affect the stability of the regime.
He censored the press
Journalism during the Porfiriato also suffered. Don Porfirio established a «bread and stick» policy. This consisted of subsidizing newspapers that flattered him, allowing them to sell at extremely low prices, and punishing the media that spoke ill of him.
In addition, journalists who were detractors of Porfirio Diaz were often tortured and even killed.
References
Editorial team, Etecé. From: Argentina (2021). Porfiriato – Concept, causes, characteristics and culture. Taken from concept.of
Frias, L. (2016). The press in the time of Don Porfirio. Taken from excelsior.com.mx
Rhea, A. (2017). 3.1.1 The Porfiriato. Economic, political and social characteristics – History of Mexico. Taken from sites.google.com
Ministry of the Interior (2019). Beginning of the Mexican Revolution: the end of the Porfiriato and the Madero uprising. Taken from gob.mx