It’s said that crime doesn’t pay, but I don’t think anyone says that crime can’t be good investment opportunity. And, while the wages of sin are…well… you know, there’s considerable tax revenue in sin that might be put to good use.
Abelardo Rodriguez Lujan is one of those men who might have led a completely unremarkable life had it not been for the Mexican Revolution. Born in 1889 in Guymas, Sonora there was nothing to indicate a 4th grade dropout, growing up in dusty Nogales, would ever amount to anything. Perhaps it was having his face slashed by two gringo boys on the Arizona side of the border (resulting in a scar he’s have the rest of his life) that turned his thoughts less to revenge, than how to “bleed” the gringos.
A tough little guy, he seemed to be up to anything. A true man of all trades, he was a miner, an ironworker, a would be professional singer, and even for a time a professional baseball player by the time the Revolution came along. Willing to try anything, and not adverse to helping himself when it was to his advantage. Being paymaster for his unit didn’t hurt, though there is no record he was corrupt in that position and he proved to be a better than average soldier, and even better politician.
He had the good fortune when he joined the army to have joined the 2nd Battalion of the Sonoran Constitutional Army (as a lieutenant) and eventually coming to the attention of the Sonoran commander, Alvaro Obregón, the millionaire inventor turned politician turned general… turned politician. Proving his loyalty to the Constitutionalist cause, later fighting Pancho Villa’s rouge units (defeated at the Battle of Celeya), Rodriguez was trusted with military and civil command first in Sonora, and later in Baja California under Obregon and, later, Calles, administration.
In the meantime, somehow (and we probably don’t want to know) Rodriguez had made a tidy fortune given his connections on both sides of the border. It was the Prohibition era in the United States, and as a state governor with control of liquor licenses in border states, it’s easy t guess where at least the source of some of his personal wealth.
it was in Baja though, where Rodriguez’ true shady genius flourished. If the “Roaring 20s” were going to roar, they’d need firewater to keep the roar going… alas, under the 19th Amendment something illegal in the United States. Not in Mexico. Where Governor Rodriguez was quite willing to … er… “assist” US based… uh… “entrepreneurial” importers… and, besides, with Tijuana just a short drive from most of Southern California — with its booming middle-class seeking what was advertised as the “good life” — there was a market for all manner of out-of-sight, out-of-mind extracurricular activities for bored Californians.
This is where Rodriguez becomes such an intriguing figure. While we think of the “self-made man” who rises from poverty and obscurity to wealth and power as likely to forget what it was like, he didn’t. Like the millionaire Obregon, he considered himself a Socialist. And one to do something for the betterment of his people. Certainly he had pocketed his share of “investments” and “assistance to foreign interests”, into a string of more legitimate enterprises, in the fishing and canning industry — in part to prevent foreigners for taking over the business, leaving even more money available for his massive personal contributions to public universities and to pay to build public schools and libraries.
As governor, he imposed both an informal and formal “sin tax”… on prostitution, liquor, gambling (having in the meantime built the biggest casino in North America at a time when Las Vegas was still just a desert jerkwater railway town) and the marijuana and opium trade (yes… he was complicit in that, as well) but the revenues went to a cause only someone forced by circumstances to leave his education in the 4th grade would understand. The Baja would have 100% free public education for 100% of the students.
And, that would be a Socialist education, not the religiously influenced one of the old regime. His strong objection to religious education, and his anti-clericalism — something that appealed especially to Plutaro Elias Calles, Obregon’s successor (Calles’ hatred of alcohol only surpassed by his hatred of the clergy). Coupled with Rodriguez’ loyalty to the regime during an attemped coup (as the richest man in Mexico, the plotters assumed he’d be a natural ally against the leftward trend of the government) brought him into the cabinet.
Obregon … thanks to a constitutional change in the length of the presidential term… was allowed to run again for President. Won.. but was assassinated before taking office. The Constitution had provisions for a president leaving office for some reason (like dying) during their term, but not for a situation quite like this. Calles considered staying on, but Rodriquez and other cabinet officials talked him out of it, settling on following the Constitution had Obregon died after being sworn in. Being inn office (obviously) less than two years, an “interim president” would serve until the next Congressional election in two years. Several possibilities were raised, including Rodriquez, but the logical choice was the Secretary of Gobernation (Interior Minister or Home Secretary), Emilio Portes Gil.
Although a Callas loyalist (and Calles … technically out of office remained, as US Ambassador Josephus Daniels would later call him “the strong man of Mexico”… Portes Gil had his independent streak (he did everything possible to bring an end to the Cristero War and official anticlericalism) … and in the 1929 election, Callas’ man was one he though easier to control… Pascal Ortiz Rubio, then Mexico’s Ambassador to Brazil. It took some hanky-panky at the ballot box (and more than a smidgen of political violence), but Ortiz Rubio easily defeated José Vasconcellos and his anti-corruption ticket.
Ortiz Rubio was not in good health, and an attempted assassination (on inauguration day, when he was shot in the jaw) and — worse for him — was not as much as a yes-man as Calles wanted. Whether it was before or after he read about it in the papers, he announced his resignation — “with my hands clean of either blood or money” — on 2 September 1932. Calles need someone — maybe willing to dirty his hands — to finish out the term.
Rodriguez looked to fit the bill. He wasn’t above dirty politics, but he wasn’t about to just say yes to Calles, either. Rodriquez was devious enough to realize Calles was not a well man, his power was slipping, the country was changing… and Rodriquez already had a fortune estimated at 12 million dollars (about 275 million today) so hardly needed to feather his own next.
Among other things during his short time in office, Rodriguez pushed through the first minimal wage law (before the United Staates, by a couple of months), ruther isolating Calles, publicly humiliating the former president and “strong man of Mexico” openly telling the US Ambassador that he could not consult with Callas, nor was any meeting with Calles “official” in any sense of the word. He eased up on his anti-clericalism, satisfying himself with a public disagreement with the Pope over the meaning of a “socialist education” ehile leaving with restrictions there were on the clergy up to the individual states and not involving the federal government.
In a way… the old baseballer was pitching to his sucessor, Lazaro Cardenas, who was campaining on an openly anti-Calles, pro-Socialist platform.
With Prohibition in the United States having come to an end, Rodriguez would focus his post presidential career to his more legitimate business activities and education. He’d occasionally serve as guest lecturer at the University of California, besides maintaining an interest in the University of Baja California Norte. With hsi US born third wife, he lived on and off in San Diego, traveled the world, and — agains those Mexican rich guys can surprise us — extenively travelling in the Soviet Union, writing perceptive but positive about the Soviet economy.
During the Second World War, he did play a small … but vital — role, serving as Naval comander of the Baja Peninsula (seriously considered in danger of a Japanese invasion and regularly targeted by Japanese submarine warfare) and even as a sort of “offical” dope dealer. The US needed morphine and other opiates, but was cut off from their usual legitimate suppliers, and turned to Rodriquez for help… having him arrange for opium poppy seeds and experts in the field to assist the US in growing their own.
He was a rogue, but no hypocrite, and while he might bemoan his own role in the way the narcotics trade has changed since his death in 1967.. he had nothing to apologize for, something very few of us (and even fewer politicians) can ever say.
Sources:
Samaniego López, Marco Antonio. Breve historia de Baja California. Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. 2022.
El General Don Abelardo Rodríguez Luján. Historia de Hemosillo.net
Estrada Ramírez; Arnolfo. “Abelardo Rodríguez: único político en gobernar a México y dos de sus estados” El Vigia (Ensanada, BC). 27 Feb 2019
Martinez, Rubi. “¿El narco presidente de México?: por qué historiadores consideran así a Abelardo L. Rodríguez” Infobae, 2 september 2023.
This post first appeared on The Mex Files | ¡COMO MEXICO NO HAY DOS! The "Real Mexico" From Transvestite Wrestlers To Machete-wielding Naked Farmers. History, Culture, Politics, Economics, News And The General Weirdness That Usually Floats Down From The North., please read the originial post: here
