Luis H. Álvarez
Encyclopedia
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
industrialist and politician. Álvarez is a member of the National Action Party
National Action Party (Mexico)
The National Action Party , is one of the three main political parties in Mexico. The party's political platform is generally considered Centre-Right in the Mexican political spectrum. Since 2000, the President of Mexico has been a member of this party; both houses have PAN pluralities, but the...
. In 1958 he was a candidate for the Presidency of Mexico. He has also served as Mayor of Chihuahua, president of his party and to this date is the coordinator of the dialogues for peace in Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
.
Luis Héctor Álvarez dedicated most of his life to the textile industry. He first became involved in politics in Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez , officially known today as Heroica Ciudad Juárez, but abbreviated Juárez and formerly known as El Paso del Norte, is a city and seat of the municipality of Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez's estimated population is 1.5 million people. The city lies on the Rio Grande...
. In 1956 the PAN nominated him as candidate to Governor of Chihuahua. He lost the election to PRI candidate Teófilo Borunda
Teófilo Borunda
Teófilo Borunda Ortiz was a Mexican politician, member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, was Governor of Chihuahua from 1956 to 1962, Senator and Federal Deputy....
. After the election an electoral fraud
Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
was claimed by Álvarez and his party. In an act of civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
, Alvarez headed a caravan from Chihuahua
Chihuahua, Chihuahua
The city of Chihuahua is the state capital of the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It has a population of about 825,327. The predominant activity is industry, including domestic heavy, light industries, consumer goods production, and to a smaller extent maquiladoras.-History:It has been said that the...
to Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
.
In 1958, he ran as the PAN candidate in the federal election against Adolfo López Mateos
Adolfo López Mateos
Adolfo López Mateos was a Mexican politician affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party who served as President of Mexico from 1958 to 1964...
where he lost.
In the following years Álvarez dedicated himself mainly to his private enterprise, until 1983 when he was elected Municipal President
Municipal president
A presidente municipal is the chief of government of municipios in Mexico. The position is comparable to the county executive of a county in the United States or to the mayor of a city in the United States, although the jurisdiction of a presidente municipal includes not only a city but the...
of Chihuahua
Chihuahua, Chihuahua
The city of Chihuahua is the state capital of the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It has a population of about 825,327. The predominant activity is industry, including domestic heavy, light industries, consumer goods production, and to a smaller extent maquiladoras.-History:It has been said that the...
. Being an opposition figure, Álvarez constantly clashed with the state and federal governments. Álvarez claimed he was not given the proper legal resources and participation in his citys decisions. In protest, Álvarez started a hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
that lasted 40 days. The strike also contested the 1986 elections in Chihuahua in which opposition parties claimed an electoral fraud
Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
had taken place once again.
In 1987 he was elected 14th president of the PAN party and in 1990 he won the re-election.
His tenure as president of the party is controversial. His supporters claim that during his administration the party became the strongest opposition force in Mexican politics. His detractors on the other hand claim that his party strayed away from its original doctrine and was now run by the “neo-panistas” (e.g. Manuel Clouthier
Manuel Clouthier
Manuel de Jesús Clouthier del Rincón, also known as Maquío was a Mexican businessman and politician affiliated to the conservative National Action Party...
, Vicente Fox
Vicente Fox
Vicente Fox Quesada is a Mexican former politician who served as President of Mexico from 1 December 2000 to 30 November 2006 and currently serves as co-President of the Centrist Democrat International, an international organization of Christian democratic political parties.Fox was elected...
, Francisco Barrio Terrazas and Ernesto Ruffo Appel
Ernesto Ruffo Appel
Ernesto Ruffo Appel is an American-born Mexican politician famous for being the first state governor not belonging to the Partido Revolucionario Institucional since its formation in 1929....
). Prominent party members, including Pablo Emilio Madero
Pablo Emilio Madero
Pablo Emilio Madero Belden was a Mexican politician. He was the 13th president of the National Action Party and former presidential candidate who represented both the PAN and the extinct Mexican Democratic Party .Pablo Emilio Madero...
, Jesus González Schmal, Jose González Torres and Bernardo Bátiz, left the PAN in protest arguing that Álvarez's policy of dialogue with Carlos Salinas de Gortari legitimized his government which was under intense national criticism of perpetrating an electoral fraud
Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
.
He was elected to the Senate
Senate of Mexico
The Senate of the Republic, constitutionally Chamber of Senators of the Honorable Congress of the Union After a series of reforms during the 1990s, it is now made up of 128 senators:...
for Chihuahua from 1994 to 2000, during which period he served as a member of the Commission of Concord and Pacification in Chiapas that was in charge of the peace negotiation between the Federal Government and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is a revolutionary leftist group based in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico....
. In 2000, President Vicente Fox designated him Coordinator of the Dialogue for La Paz in Chiapas.
During this time he never was able to contact the leadership of the EZLN.
On December 15, 2006, president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa designated him head of the Commission for the Development of the Indigenous People.