End of conflict between church and state ,
Benito Juárez,
Francisco I. Madero and Ávila Camacho. Ávila Camacho, a professed
Catholic, said, "I am a believer." Since the revolution, all presidents had been
anticlerical. During Ávila's term, the conflict between the
Roman Catholic Church in Mexico and the Mexican government largely ended.
Domestic policy He protected the working class by creating the
Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) in 1943. He worked to reduce illiteracy, continued land reform, and declared a rent freeze to benefit low-income citizens. He promoted election reform and passed a new electoral law in 1946 to make it difficult for opposition parties of the far right and the far left to operate legally. The law established the following criteria that had to be fulfilled by any political organization to be recognized as a political party: • have at least 10,000 active members in 10 states; • exist for at least three years before elections; • agree with the principles established in the constitution; • not form alliances or be subordinated to international organizations or foreign political parties. On 18 January 1946, he had the Party of the Mexican Revolution (PRM) renamed to the
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), its current name. The Mexican army had been a sector of the PRM, but it was eliminated from the organization of the PRI. Economically, he pursued the country's industrialization, which benefited only a small group, and income inequality increased. World War II stimulated Mexican industry, which grew by approximately 10% annually between 1940 and 1945, and Mexican raw materials fueled the US war industry. In agriculture, his administration invited the
Rockefeller Foundation to introduce
Green Revolution technology to bolster Mexico's agricultural productivity. In education, Ávila reversed Lázaro Cárdenas's policy of socialist education in Mexico and had the constitutional amendments that mandated it repealed.
National unity against political divisionism ,
Abelardo L. Rodríguez,
Plutarco Elías Calles,
Lázaro Cárdenas,
Emilio Portes Gil, and
Adolfo de la Huerta on 15 September 1942. As a further demonstration that National Unity sought to eradicate political divisions, on 15 September 1942 Ávila Camacho convened a National Reconciliation Assembly, to which six former presidents were invited:
Adolfo de la Huerta,
Plutarco Elías Calles,
Emilio Portes Gil,
Pascual Ortiz Rubio,
Abelardo L. Rodríguez, and
Lázaro Cárdenas.
Foreign policy , having dinner with US President
Franklin Roosevelt. arriving in Los Angeles, California by train in 1942. Photograph by
Dorothea Lange. During his term, Ávila Camacho faced the difficulty of governing during
World War II. After two of Mexico's ships (
Potrero del Llano and
Faja de Oro) carrying oil were destroyed by German
submarines in the
Gulf of Mexico, Ávila declared war against the
Axis powers on 22 May 1942. Mexican participation in World War II was mainly limited to an airborne squadron, the
201st (
Escuadrón 201), to fight the Japanese in the Pacific. The squadron consisted of 300 men, and after receiving training in Texas, it was sent to the Philippines on 27 March 1945. On 7 June 1945, its missions started, and the squadron participated in the
Battle of Luzon. By the end of the war, 5 Mexican soldiers had lost their lives in combat. Despite its short participation in the war, Mexico belonged to the victorious nations and had thus gained the right to participate in the postwar international conferences. Mexico's joining the conflict on the side of the Allies improved relations with the United States. Mexico provided both raw material for the conflict and also 300,000 guest workers under the
Bracero program to replace some of the Americans who had left to fight in the war. Mexico also resumed diplomatic relations with the
United Kingdom and the
Soviet Union, which had been broken off during the presidency of
Lázaro Cárdenas. In 1945, Mexico signed the
United Nations Charter, and in 1946, it became the headquarters of the Inter-American Conference about War and Peace. Conflicts with the United States, which had existed in the decades before his presidency, were resolved. Especially in the early years of World War II, Mexican-American relations were excellent. The United States provided Mexico with financial aid for improvements on the railway system and the construction of the Pan American Highway. Moreover, the Mexican foreign debt was reduced.
Official international trips This is a list of
official trips abroad made by Ávila Camacho during his presidency. According to Article 88 of the
Constitution of Mexico, the president may leave the country for up to seven days by informing the
Senate or, where applicable, the
Permanent Commission in advance of the reasons for the absence, as well as of the results of the measures carried out. For absences longer than seven days, permission from the Senate or the Permanent Commission is required. ==Later life==