Rodolfo Sánchez Taboada (22 March 1895 – 2 May 1955) was a Mexican military officer and politician who served as secretary of the navy from 1952 until his death in 1955, during the presidency of Adolfo Ruiz Cortines. He previously served as the governor of the territory of Baja California from 1937 to 1944 and as president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) from 1946 to 1952.
Born in the state of Puebla, Sánchez Taboada attended the University of Puebla before dropping out to join the Constitutional Army during the Mexican Revolution. He took part in the assassination of Emiliano Zapata in 1919, and subsequently rose through the ranks, supporting the government during several rebellions. He was appointed as governor of Baja California, then a federal territory, in 1937 by President Lázaro Cárdenas. As governor, Sánchez Taboada promoted the Good Neighbor policy with the United States. He resigned in 1944 and returned to service in the army.
In 1946, Sánchez Taboada became the president of the ruling PRI, and was reelected the position in 1950, the first to do so. He implemented an anti-communist platform for the party and directed the successful presidential campaign of Ruiz Cortines in 1952. He also mentored and gave appointments to a generation of future PRI politicians, the most prominent of which was Luis Echeverría, a future president of Mexico. In 1952, he left his position to become secretary of the navy under Ruiz Cortines. He oversaw the implementation of the March to the Sea program, which sought to modernize and expand the usage of the country's maritime resources. He died in office in 1955. Several locations have been named after him, including Mexicali International Airport and a borough in Tijuana.
Family and education Rodolfo Sánchez Taboada was born on 22 March 1895 in Acatzingo de Hidalgo in the municipality of Acatzingo, Puebla. His parents, Tirso "Charro" Sánchez Limón and Margarita Taboada, were middle-class farmers. His brother Ruperto Sánchez Taboada was a federal deputy for Puebla from 1946 to 1949, and his brother Tirso Sánchez Taboada was a Supreme Court justice from 1941 to 1942.
Sánchez Taboada received his elementary education in San Sebastián Villanueva. He completed his secondary education at the Colegio de San José and Hospicio de Puebla. He then attended the University of Puebla. He completed two years of a pre-medical program at the university, but ended his studies in 1914 to fight in the Mexican Revolution.
He was married to Emma Cruz. Their children were Rodolfo, Margarita, and Matilde "Maty" Sánchez Cruz. Sánchez Taboada had three grandchildren through his son Rodolfo Sánchez Cruz; Laura Alicia, Manuel, and Rodolfo Sánchez Corro. Though his daughter Matilde Sánchez Cruz, Sánchez Taboada had another grandson, Germán Sierra Sánchez. Sánchez Taboada's son Rodolfo Sánchez Cruz was also a PRI politician representing Puebla, as was his grandson Sierra Sánchez.
Military career Mexican Revolution In February 1913, during the Mexican Revolution, President Francisco I. Madero was overthrown by Victoriano Huerta. This inspired Sánchez Taboada to join the Constitutionalist forces, serving under Fortunato Maycotte. He enrolled in the Heroic Military Academy on 10 November 1914 as a sub-lieutenant to join the medical corps. He fought Zapatistas in the state of Morelos under the command of Col. .
On 10 April 1919, Guajardo's troops assassinated the revolutionary general Emiliano Zapata in Chinameca, Morelos. Sánchez Taboada participated in the operation. Sánchez Taboada is said by some to have been the one who gave Zapata the coup de grâce, according to the magazine Zeta. Sánchez Taboada later stated of the event:
He reportedly said this in conversation with Gonzalo N. Santos and Leobardo Reynoso, who stated that he was not at the Chinameca hacienda where Zapata was killed. Sánchez Taboada and Guajardo were reportedly promoted for taking part in the operation. Sánchez Taboada supported General Álvaro Obregón's Plan of Agua Prieta against President Venustiano Carranza in 1920.
Post-revolution and political beginnings
He remained loyal to Obregón's government during the Delahuertista Rebellion of 1923 to 1924 and to Emilio Portes Gil's government during the Escobar Rebellion of 1929. Also in 1929, Plutarco Elías Calles founded the Institutional Revolutionary Party (), or PRI. The party would rule Mexico uninterrupted from 1929 until 2000. Its one-party rule was characterized as a restricted democracy, with elections being regularly held and some opposition parties allowed in a way that propped up a mostly antidemocratic regime. Sánchez Taboada was a founding member of the party.
Sánchez Taboada was a friend of General Lázaro Cárdenas. It is unknown if they were in contact prior to 1932, which is their earliest confirmed meeting, and Sánchez Taboada is not known to have previously been involved in politics. Sánchez Taboada accompanied Cárdenas on his presidential campaign in 1933 and 1934. Cárdenas won the election.
Sánchez Taboada served as an assistant to President Cárdenas in 1935. That same year, he also served as the budget director for the office of the presidency. Sánchez Taboada achieved the rank of colonel on 4 October 1939. After the end of his governorship in 1944, Sánchez Taboada returned to service in the army. He was at the direct disposal of President Manuel Ávila Camacho from 1 August 1944 until 15 October 1945. In 1950, a group of Zapatista veterans wrote in La Prensa that Sánchez Taboada should be removed from the army for his role in assassinating Zapata. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on 1 November 1952.
Governor of Baja California Administration
On 22 February 1937, President Cárdenas discharged the governor of Baja California, Rafael Navarro Cortina, due to complaints of gambling resurfacing along the Mexico–United States border, and appointed Sánchez Taboada to serve as governor. Sánchez Taboada assumed the office on 1 March 1937. While Sánchez Taboada was serving as governor of Baja California, Manuel J. Contreras served as the military commander of the Northern District of Baja California, which left Sánchez Taboada in charge of civilian authorities and Contreras in charge of military authorities.
Like many northern governors, Sánchez Taboada supported Manuel Ávila Camacho for the PRI candidacy during the 1940 presidential election. Ávila Camacho ultimately won the election. It was reported by the Los Angeles Times in August 1941 that Ávila Camacho was going to replace Sánchez Taboada with Edmundo Sánchez Cano. However, this did not happen. Sánchez Taboada's term ended on 31 July 1944. He resigned, being given permission by Baja California's legislature to leave office, reportedly due to dissatisfaction with the perceived incompetence of his appointments. He was succeeded by Juan Felipe Rico Islas, who had been chosen for the role the previous year.
Domestic affairs
At the time of his governorship, Baja California was a federal territory. During his administration, the second Pro-State Committee () was formed in 1940, following the first in 1929. The territory would ultimately become a state in 1952.
Sánchez Taboada supported Cárdenas's vision for land reform. By April 1937, more than 100,000 acres of American-owned land in Baja California had been taken under government control for redistribution. This led to 11,000 ranchers protesting throughout April and May, demanding immediate cash payment for the work that they had done on the land they no longer controlled. Sánchez Taboada averted a general strike by agreeing to the ranchers' general demands.
Parts of Mexicali, the state's capital, were damaged in the 1940 El Centro earthquake, including by fire and flooding. Sánchez Taboada placed affected areas under governmental care and promised immediate aid in rebuilding.
During World War II, a national directive was issued that ordered governors to remove their Japanese populations to designated zones of Mexico City and Guadalajara. Sánchez Taboada quickly rounded up his state's Japanese population and forced them on trains and trucks bound for the zones. He gave them only twenty-four hours to evacuate, but ex-president Cárdenas, who was in charge of military operations in the Pacific zone, expanded the timeframe to one week.
Mexico–United States relations In March 1937, Sánchez Taboada traveled to the city of Calexico, California, and met with the city's officials in an effort to promote the Good Neighbor policy in place between Mexico and the United States at the time. In May 1938, Sánchez Taboada met the governor of California, Frank Merriam, in San Ysidro, San Diego. In February 1941, Sánchez Taboada and California governor Culbert Olson met at the border of the two countries, then Sánchez Taboada once again visited Calexico, followed by Olsen's visit to Mexicali. In December 1942, the governor-elect of California, Earl Warren, visited Sánchez Taboada in Mexicali, and Sánchez Taboada again traveled to Calexico. In April 1943, for Pan American Day, Sánchez Taboada attended a good neighbor luncheon in El Centro, pledging close ties between the two countries, which was received warmly by now-governor Warren.
President of the PRI First term Sánchez Taboada served as president of the Regional Committee of the PRI for the Federal District in 1946 during the presidential campaign of Miguel Alemán Valdés. Alemán won the election by a large margin. Afterwards, Sánchez Taboada expected to be included in the new administration, with a post such as the secretary of agriculture or the head of the Department of the Federal District. However, Alemán did not give him such a position. Instead, Sánchez Taboada became the president of the PRI's National Executive Committee (, CEN) on 4 December 1946, succeeding Rafael Pascasio Gamboa Cano. The latter was appointed by the then-candidate Alemán in an attempt to "civilianize" the party. However, Gamboa was largely unknown and unpopular, and within less than a year Alemán replaced him with Sánchez Taboada.
During Alemán's presidency, the PRI branded itself as more decentralized, but the party remained heavily centralized. The PRI's National Assembly only met twice under Alemán and Sánchez Taboada, grassroots PRI organizations were virtually nonexistent, and only the state committees and the CEN held real power within the party structure. Sánchez Taboada and the CEN led a vast party membership drive in 1947, but this did not turn the PRI into a "party of citizens". Sánchez Taboada became the first of four PRI presidents in a row from 1946 to 1964 who were all generals and some of Mexico's most prominent military figures.
Following the declaration of the Truman Doctrine in the United States in 1947, the PRI followed its lead in adopting increasingly anti-communist stances. The party declared itself to be "neither extreme left nor extreme right" (). Sánchez Taboada declared that from that point on the PRI would not accept people from other parties, which was intended to allow for the expulsion of communists from the party. That same year, U.S. President Harry S. Truman visited Mexico City. During the visit, Sánchez Taboada denounced communism as a "pernicious influence" and derided the left-wing politician Vicente Lombardo Toledano as an agent of Moscow. Sánchez Taboada also led a push to drive communists out of the Secretariat of Public Education.