Departures of note

Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas was a towering figure in Mexican politics, the son of President Lázaro Cárdenas, who nationalized Mexico's oil industry in 1938. He built his own political career as a leader of the Mexican left, serving as a senator and governor of Michoacán before breaking with the ruling PRI. In 1988 he ran for president as the candidate of a leftist coalition, and the disputed election results became a defining moment in Mexican political history. He went on to co-found the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and served as the first elected head of government of Mexico City from 1997 to 1999. Cárdenas remained a moral and political reference point for the Mexican left for decades, remembered as a historic figure of the country's democratic and progressive movements.