He became a member of the Mexican Congress in 1869, and supported Presidents Benito Juárez, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, Manuel González, and Porfirio Díaz in succession, notwithstanding their different policies.
When the Mexican government proposed the Law of Monuments (1897), which passed overwhelmingly in the Mexican Congress, Chavero opposed the provision banned the export of Mexican artifacts, which in his view "hindered the flow of artifacts to museums abroad and thus obstructed the cause of science."[REF]