Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as the 50th President of Mexico from 1970 to 1976. At the time of his death in 2022, he was the oldest former head of state in the country’s history, as well as the only centenarian.
His presidency was characterized by his authoritarian manners, the 1971 Corpus Christi massacre against student protesters, the Dirty War against leftist sublevations in the country (while adopting a leftist-populist rhetoric himself), and the economic crisis that occurred in Mexico towards the end of his term.
At the international stage, he attempted to become a leader of the so-called “Third World”, the countries that were not aligned with either the US or the USSR during the Cold War; he established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China after visiting the country and meeting with Mao Zedong, strained relations with Israel (and Jews in the United States) after supporting a UN resolution that equated Zionism to racism, and unsuccessfully tried to become Secretary-General of the United Nations.
In 2006, he was indicted and ordered under house arrest for his role in the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre and the 1971 Corpus Christi massacre, but in 2009 the charges against him were dismissed and he regained freedom.
Echeverría married María Esther Zuno (1924-1999) on 2 January 1945 and they had eight children. His son Álvaro Echeverría Zuno, an economist, committed suicide on 19 May 2020 at age 71. Luis Echeverría died at age 100 at his home in Cuernavaca on 8 July 2022.
Link to Wikipedia biography