ABSTRACT
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano, son of former Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas del Río, was born in 1934. In 1985 he became leader of the Corriente Democrático within the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional, and, following his expulsion from the party, unsuccessfully contested the 1988 presidential elections, widely believed to have been rigged. As leader of the Partido Revolucionario Democrático he was again unsuccessful in 1994, and subsequently decided to run for the newly created post of Mayor of Mexico City. Though at his third attempt to win the presidency, in 2000, he achieved a substantial majority of the votes cast in the federal capital, the right-wing opposition candidate, Vicente Fox Quesada, was nevertheless the ultimate victor.
