News and Stories
April 4, 2007
Prominent Mexican politician to speak April 10
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano, a founding member of Mexico's Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolución Democrática - PRD) and former head of government for the country's Federal District, will deliver a lecture titled "A Progressive Agenda for Mexico" at 6 p.m. Tuesday (April 10) in the Hesburgh Center auditorium at the University of Notre Dame.
The lecture is sponsored by the Kellogg Institute for International Studies and the Institute for Latino Studies and is free and open to the public
In his talk, Cárdenas will analyze the challenges to Mexico's left and its legislative agenda, consider Mexico's role in Latin America, and provide perspective on U.S.-Mexico bilateral relations.
A prominent Mexican politician, Cárdenas is a senior member of the PRD and is considered the "moral leader" of the party. In addition to serving as head of government of the Federal District (a position similar to mayor of Mexico City) from 1997 to 1999, Cardenas was senator of the state of Michoacán (1976 to 1980) and governor of the same state (1980 to 1986).
Cárdenas split with the party in 1987. The following year he headed a coalition comprised of socialists and former communists and made a bid for the presidency.
He narrowly lost to Carlos Salinas de Gortari in an election that was widely believed to be fraudulent.
In 1989, Cárdenas and other leading center-left and leftist politicians formally founded the PRD, and he served as its president from 1990 to 1993, and as the party's candidate in the 1994 and 2000 presidential elections.