Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, Mexico's veteran political chameleon, has died

Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, Mexico’s veteran political chameleon who played a key role in the country’s democratic reforms, has died at age 89, his family announced Sunday.

Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, Mexico's veteran political chameleon who played a key role in the country's democratic reforms, has died at age 89, his family announced Sunday.

His relatives did not give a cause of death, but he had been in ill health for some time.

Since entering politics in the 1970s, Muñoz Ledo was never far from the centre of power, even if that meant changing parties.

Tributes poured in from most of Mexico's political parties; he had belonged to most of them at some point. And many of the tributes began with phrases like "despite our differences," because Muñoz Ledo eventually broke with all of them.

A brilliant strategist, Muñoz Ledo was able to conceive of many possible paths in Mexico's long transition to democracy. But he was never able to imagine one without himself in a central role.

In a 2020 interview with The Associated Press, Muñoz Ledo joked about his own mortality. Asked if he represented the "living history" of Mexican politics, the husky-voiced political pro answered, "I'm about to become dead history." "I am dedicating all my experience and history to democratising this country," he said. "That is the last legacy I have." President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wrote on his Twitter account, "I regret the passing of Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, who I agreed with for a long time. The recent disagreements don't erase the long, good moments of friendship and comradery." On the other end of the political spectrum, former president Felipe Calderón — López Obrador's arch-nemesis — wrote: "I heard about the death of P. Muñoz Ledo. Despite our differences, we worked together in the opposition" to pass electoral reforms.

Those reforms eventually made elections fair enough so that the opposition could unseat the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party in 2000. The PRI, as the party is known, had held Mexico's presidency for 70 uninterrupted years at that point.