<P> José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori ( Spanish pronunciation : ( porˈfiɾjo ði. as ) ; 15 September 1830 -- 2 July 1915 ) was a Mexican general and politician who served seven terms as President of Mexico , a total of three and a half decades from 1876 to 1880 and from 1884 to 1911 . A veteran of the War of the Reform ( 1858 -- 60 ) and the French intervention in Mexico ( 1862 -- 67 ) , Díaz rose to the rank of General , leading republican troops against the French - imposed rule of Emperor Maximilian . Seizing power in a coup in 1876 , Díaz and his allies , a group of technocrats known as `` Científicos '' , ruled Mexico for the next thirty - five years , a period known as the Porfiriato . </P>
<P> José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori ( Spanish pronunciation : ( porˈfiɾjo ði. as ) ; 15 September 1830 -- 2 July 1915 ) was a Mexican general and politician who served seven terms as President of Mexico , a total of three and a half decades from 1876 to 1880 and from 1884 to 1911 . A veteran of the War of the Reform ( 1858 -- 60 ) and the French intervention in Mexico ( 1862 -- 67 ) , Díaz rose to the rank of General , leading republican troops against the French - imposed rule of Emperor Maximilian . Seizing power in a coup in 1876 , Díaz and his allies , a group of technocrats known as `` Científicos '' , ruled Mexico for the next thirty - five years , a period known as the Porfiriato . </P>
who ran mexico for decades as a dictator
who ran mexico for decades as a dictator
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori