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| “ | Kill them in hot. | „ |
| ~ Porfirio Díaz ordering the repression of the Veracruz uprising of 1879 |
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori (15 September 1830 - 2 July 1915) was a Mexican general and politician, who was President of Mexico on seven different occasions, which added up to 31 years, this period in Mexico's history being known as the "Porfiriato".
Being a national hero for his participation in the Second French Intervention in Mexico, where he helped drive out the French, he was made general. After overthrowing President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, Porfirio Díaz begins his government.
Porfirio Díaz is a very controversial character in the history of Mexico. On the one hand, during his government, Mexico enjoyed great prosperity, and brought great progress with the creation of the railroad and the telegraph, apart from the fact that during his government the Mexican peso came to be worth the same as the US dollar. However, his government was characterized by great authoritarianism, with very severe punishments for those who opposed him, winning the title of dictator, and his government also stood out for high rates of corruption, electoral fraud in the elections, and great inequality.
It is also infamous for its participation during the Veracruz uprising of 1879, where some people tried to make a rebellion against Díaz in Veracruz, and he said his infamous phrase "Mátalos en Caliente" (Kill them in hot), which produced people who They had participated in the revolt, some in a peaceful way, they were assassinated. Another of his most infamous acts was to order the extermination of the Yaqui Indians, who rebelled against Díaz because they were stripped of their lands, to which the government authorized their extermination, and many were deported to Yucatan as slaves.
Díaz was finally overthrown after the Mexican Revolution, for which he had to go into exile to France, where he died in 1915 at the age of 84.