Adolfo López Mateos (Napoleon's World)

Adolfo López Mateos (26 May 1909 - 22 September 1969) was a Mexican politician who served as Prime Minister of Mexico from 1958 to 1965, and was the first of a forty-year dynasty of Prime Ministers from the Popular Democratic Party. Mateos was the first genuinely left-wing Prime Minister since Lazaro Cardenas and vastly expanded Mexico's welfare state and was an economic nationalist. Nevertheless, Mateos positioned himself as a staunch ally of the United States and served as an intermediary between Washington and much of Latin America in the early 1960s, having a warm and cordial relationship with all three Presidents with whom he significantly overlapped. Mateos retired after nearly seven years and was succeeded by his Interior Minister, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz. Mateos disliked "GDO" and commented shortly before his death that he regretted not pushing harder for a successor in his mold. It would be the last orderly transition between leaders in the PDP - GDO would retire after a decade in poor health with numerous ambitious Cabinet members vying to take his place, and every transition after that was typically a compromise candidate after the previous Prime Minister resigned in disgrace (Portillo), was unable to form a government after hung elections (Miguel de la Madrid), faced a Cabinet revolt (Cardenas, Camacho) or was seen as so unpopular as to possibly threaten the PDP's electoral fortunes (Colosio).