Emilio Portes Gil

Infobox_President | name=Emilio Portes Gil
nationality=Mexican


office = President of Mexico
term_start=December 1, 1928
term_end=February 4, 1930
predecessor=Plutarco Elías Calles
successor=Pascual Ortiz Rubio
birth_date=birth date|1890|10|3|mf=y
birth_place=Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas
dead=yes
death_date=death date and age|1978|12|10|1890|10|3|mf=y
death_place=Mexico DF
spouse=Carmen García
party=Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)

Emilio Portes Gil (October 3 1890 – December 10 1978) was President of Mexico from 1928 to 1930.

Portes Gil was born in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of the state of Tamaulipas in northeast Mexico. The outbreak of the Mexican Revolution found him studying law at Mexico City's Escuela Libre de Derecho.In late 1914 he allied himself with revolutionary Venustiano Carranza (who would assume the presidency of the country the following May) and, when he graduated in 1915, he had already begun his career in the public administration with a posting in the Department of Military Justice.

Over the ensuing years he continued to serve the government in both a legal capacity – supreme state court judge in Sonora; legal advisor to the Ministry of War – and in elective office: he was elected to Congress in 1917, 1921, and 1923, and he served as governor of his native Tamaulipas on two occasions (1920 and 1925).

Between August 28 and November 30 1928 he was Minister of the Interior in the cabinet of Plutarco Elías Calles. Since president-elect Álvaro Obregón had been assassinated on 17 July, 1928 by a religious fanatic, it fell to Portes to assume office as provisional president for a period of 14 months while fresh elections were called. At this point he also inherited a widespread and violent religious rebellion known as the Cristero War.

Faced with a university strike during his period in office, he managed to defuse the situation by convening a special session of Congress that ultimately enacted the legislation whereby the National University of Mexico was granted its autonomy. He also attempted to negotiate the withdrawal of the United States troops from Nicaragua in exchange for the surrender of General Augusto Sandino; when the talks failed, he granted Sandino political asylum in Mexico – and a parcel of land in Temixco.

He handed on the presidential sash to Pascual Ortiz on 5 February 1930, in whose cabinet he then served for 18 months as interior minister. He subsequently traveled to Europe as Mexico's first representative to the League of Nations.Under later presidents, he served in various capacities, including ambassador, foreign minister, attorney-general, and president of the Partido Nacional Revolucionario – the National Revolutionary Party, which would later restyle itself the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

He died in Mexico City on December 10 1978, at the age of 88 years.

Persondata
NAME=Portes Gil, Emilio
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= President of Mexico (1928 - 1930)
DATE OF BIRTH=1890-10-03
PLACE OF BIRTH= Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico
DATE OF DEATH= 1978-12-10
PLACE OF DEATH= Mexico City, Mexico