of Famous People"). He represented the Tabasco state government in Mexico City, and supported Adolfo López Mateos's successful bid for the presidency, campaigning on his behalf. When López Mateos arrived in Tabasco, he proposed the development of the Southeast of Mexico as a possibility for the country's prime source of income. On April 20, 1958, Madrazo took the oath of candidacy for the office of Governor of Tabasco, and was elected in 1959. His governorship saw public improvements such as 100 kilometers of roadway and the opening of hundreds of schools and hospitals in addition to private developments such as milk rehydration and pasteurization plants and the industrialization of the cacao industry at Cárdenas. Following his governorship, President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz appointed Madrazo to the presidency of the PRI, hoping that his energetic but loyal leadership would placate the youthful faction of the party without disrupting the old guard's control of the party. But Madrazo took his appointment as a mandate to democratize the party. He replaced old and corrupt party officials with dynamic members of the new generation, and tried to institute such reforms as open primaries for local offices, and a "Commission of Honor" to investigate and punish political corruption. These proposals lay bare the empty nature of Mexican "democracy" and earned him enemies within the PRI, and in 1965 he was forced to resign his leadership of the party. After being relieved of his duties, he returned to his position as the head of the national librarian school. He continued to be active in the PRI, beginning "an unprecedented campaign of sniping at the government from the sidelines", whence he "gathered a considerable body of opinion behind him". Death In 1969 he died in the Mexicana Flight 704 plane crash on Pico del Fraile Hill in Monterrey, Nuevo León, with his wife Graciela Pintado. Bibliography La verdad en el "caso" de los braceros: origen de esta injusticia: nombre de los verdaderos responsables, ca. 1945. México. Anécdotas de Personajes Famosos, 1952. Mexico. Madrazo: voz postrera de la revolución; discursos y comentarios. Compiled by L. Darío Vasconcelos, 1971. Mexico, B. Costa-Amic. Citations External links Obituary from the National Institute of Political Studies 1915 births 1969 deaths Governors of Tabasco Institutional Revolutionary Party politicians Mexican democracy activists Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Mexico) Mexican male writers Politicians from Tabasco Writers from Tabasco Presidents of the Institutional Revolutionary Party National