Mexican general election, 1952

Last updated April 24, 2019

General elections were held in Mexico on 7 July 1952.^[1] The presidential elections were won by Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, who received 74.3% of the vote. In the Chamber of Deputies election, the Institutional Revolutionary Party won 151 of the 161 seats.^[2] These were the last presidential elections in Mexico in which women were not allowed to vote.

Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost 2,000,000 square kilometres (770,000 sq mi), the nation is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the 13th largest independent state in the world. With an estimated population of over 120 million people, the country is the eleventh most populous state and the most populous Spanish-speaking state in the world, while being the second most populous nation in Latin America after Brazil. Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and Mexico City, a special federal entity that is also the capital city and its most populous city. Other metropolises in the state include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana and León.

Adolfo Tomás Ruiz Cortines was a Mexican politician who served as 47th President of Mexico from 1952 to 1958, as the candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Unlike his predecessor as president Miguel Alemán and his successor Adolfo López Mateos, he had participated in the Mexican Revolution. He was one of the oldest presidents of Mexico, perhaps best remembered for granting women the right to vote in presidential elections and stimulating the Mexican economy during the period known as the Mexican Miracle.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party is a Mexican political party founded in 1929 that held uninterrupted power in the country for 71 years from 1929 to 2000, first as the National Revolutionary Party, then as the Party of the Mexican Revolution, and finally renaming itself as the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1946.

Campaign

President Miguel Alemán Valdés appointed his Minister of the Interior, Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, as the PRI's presidential candidate.

Miguel Alemán Valdés was a Mexican politician who served a full term as the President of Mexico from 1946 to 1952, the first civilian president after a string of revolutionary generals. His administration was characterized by Mexico's rapid industrialization, often called the Mexican Miracle, but also for a high level of personal enrichment for himself and his associates. His presidency was the first of a new generation of Mexican leaders, who had not directly participated in the Mexican Revolution, and many in his cabinet were also young, university-educated civilians, close friends from his days at university.

Miguel Henríquez Guzmán, a former PRIísta who left the party in 1951, was nominated as the candidate of the Federation of the Mexican People's Parties. The National Action Party (PAN) nominated Efraín González Luna as their first-ever presidential candidate. Finally, the well-known union leader Vicente Lombardo Toledano ran as the Popular Socialist Party's candidate.

Miguel Henríquez Guzmán was a Mexican politician and military officer.

The Federation of the Mexican People's Parties was created in 1951 as an umbrella group for people and parties in Mexico seeking an electoral alternative to the Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI.

The National Action Party, founded in 1939, is a conservative political party in Mexico, one of the three main political parties in Mexico. Since the 1980s, it has been an important political party winning local, state, and national elections. In 2000, PAN candidate Vicente Fox was elected president for a six-year term; in 2006, PAN candidate Felipe Calderón succeeded Fox in the presidency. During the period 2000-2012, both houses of the Congress of the Union contained PAN pluralities, but the party had a majority in neither. In the 2006 legislative elections the party won 207 out of 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 52 out of 128 Senators. In the 2012 legislative elections, the PAN won 38 seats in the Senate, and 114 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. The members of this party are colloquially called Panistas.

The 1952 campaign season saw the model of political advertising aimed at praising the virtues of a party's candidate adopted. It was also the first time in Mexican history that market research was used in a political campaign.

Among the opposition candidates, Henríquez Guzmán became particularly popular. His campaign used a mariachi tune composed for him by Manuel Ramos Trujillo to promote his candidacy. Though this use of campaign jingles was condemned by critics who saw it as taking away the seriousness of politics, the success of the song throughout many regions of the country led to widespread adoption of this and other marketing techniques in future campaigns.

Mariachi is a style of music and musical group performance that dates back to at least the 18th century, evolving over time in the countryside of various regions of western Mexico. It has a distinctive instrumentation, musical genre, performance and singing styles, and clothing.

Results

President

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Adolfo Ruiz Cortines	Institutional Revolutionary Party	2,713,419	74.3
Miguel Henríquez Guzmán	Federation of the Mexican People's Parties	579,745	15.9
Efraín González Luna	National Action Party	285,555	7.8
Vicente Lombardo Toledano	Popular Socialist Party	72,482	2.0
Other candidates		282	0.0
Invalid/blank votes			–
Total		3,651,483	100
Source: Nohlen

Chamber of Deputies

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/-
Institutional Revolutionary Party	2,713,419	74.3	151	+9
Federation of the Mexican People's Parties	579,745	15.8	¹	New
National Action Party	301,986	8.3	5	+1
Popular Socialist Party	32,194	0.9	2	+1
Mexican National Party	24,139	0.7	¹	New
Invalid/blank votes		–	–	–
Total	3,651,483	100	161	+14
Source: Nohlen

¹ Between them, the Federation of the Mexican People's Parties and the Mexican National Party won three seats.^[1]

Aftermath

In the official election count, Ruiz Cortines won with more than 74 percent of the popular vote, followed by Henríquez Guzmán with 16 percent. These results set off a wave of protests in several states by Henríquez supporters, which were violently suppressed by the administration of Miguel Alemán Valdés. Among those calling for justice were the former Mexican ambassador to Honduras, José Muñoz Cota Ibáñez, and Alicia Pérez Salazar.

Some military chiefs, sympathizers of Henríquez Guzmán and aligned with former president Lázaro Cárdenas, seized the opportunity and proposed to carry out a Coup d'état so that Henríquez would become President. However, it was Henríquez himself who rejected the plan, and instead he asked his supporters to stop the violent protests.^[3]

Despite the intensity of the protests, the results stood. Henríquez Guzmán then retired from public life and Ruiz Cortines took office on 1 December.

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References

1 2 Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p453 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
↑ Nohlen, p468
↑ Aguilar Garcia, Juan Carlos. "Henríquez Guzmán, el general que evitó un baño de sangre en 1952". Crónica. Retrieved 28 August 2018.

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[N1-1] 1 2 Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p453 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6

[2] Nohlen, p468

[3] Aguilar Garcia, Juan Carlos. "Henríquez Guzmán, el general que evitó un baño de sangre en 1952". Crónica. Retrieved 28 August 2018.

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