User:Mikejohnduffy/Marcelino García Barragán

Marcelino García Barragán (Cuautitlán, Jalisco; June 2, 1895 - Guadalajara, Jalisco; September 3, 1979) was a Mexican officer and politician, who was Governor of Jalisco and Secretariat of National Defense in the Government of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz.

Background
Marcelino García Barragán was the son of Luis García and Virginia Barragán, his early education was in the community of Autlán de Navarro and in 1920 he entered the Heroic Military College, where he would serve as director from 1941 to 1943. At the age of 18 he joined up to fight in the Mexican Revolution, in the Juárez Brigade in the state of Chihuahua, and forthwith he devoted himself to the arms race; first he was a supporter of Francisco Villa and the Northern Division, later he fought for Constitutionalism, which he joined on May 15, 1915. In 1922 he was a member of the cadet company that President Álvaro Obregón sent to South America to attend the Centennial of Brazil independence. He was a fighter in the Cristero War and played a leading role in the Army in several states of the Republic.

Political and Military Career.
In 1943 he was elected Governor of Jalisco, beginning his term as Constitutional Governor on March 1 of the same year, succeeding Silvano Barba González, a supporter of the presidential candidacy of Miguel Henríquez Guzmán, in opposition against Miguel Alemán Valdés, who was finally elected President. This was the reason for his dismissal as Governor by the Jalisco Congress on February 16, 1947, two weeks before completing his constitutional term.

He reappeared in public life in 1950 as president of the Federation of Parties of the Mexican People (FPPM), a political body that nominated General Miguel Henríquez Guzmán for the Presidency of the Republic, this time having now left the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI); In the elections, Adolfo Ruiz Cortines was officially elected, but the henriquists (supporters of Guzmán) claimed electoral fraud and began preparations for an armed uprising. Marcelino García Barragán was a supporter of this uprising, however, it never took place and after this the FPPM had it's registration as a political party canceled and he withdrew from public activity.

Documents, declassified in 2007 by the Mexican government, showed that the espionage services of the Federal Security Directorate discovered that García Barragán together with other henriquists were preparing a coup d'etat, that should have taken place in December 1953, against President Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, although eventually the plan was abandoned.

In 1960, President Adolfo López Mateos reinstated him into the Mexican Army, naming him commander of the Seventeenth Military Zone based in the city of Toluca, capital of the State of Mexico, and later commander of the twenty-second military zone with its headquarters in the city. of Santiago de Querétaro, Querétaro..

On December 1, 1964, President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz appointed him Secretariat of National Defense, a position he held during the six years of his government, this position proved to be the most significant for García Barragán, especially because of the actions of the armed forces under his command in 1968, particularly in the Tlatelolco Massacre. After this unfortunate event, in which hundreds of young students were murdered, he withdrew from the army and from all political activity, until his death on September 3, 1979.

His son Javier García Paniagua was also a prominent politician.

See als0

 * Cabinet of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz
 * Tlatelolco Massacre