Fidel Velázquez

Fidel Velázquez Sánchez was born on 12 May 1900 in San Pedro Azcapotzaltongo, now Villa Nicolás Romero, in the State of Mexico, where his father was mayor. The family moved to Puebla during the Revolution; after his father's death in 1920 he went to Azcapotzalco in Mexico City, where he delivered milk and in 1923 organised a union of dairy workers affiliated with the CROM, then the country's most powerful labour confederation.

When the CROM lost government support after 1928, he and Jesús Yurén withdrew their unions and on 25 February 1929 founded a federation of Federal District unions. In 1936 he was among the founders, with Vicente Lombardo Toledano, of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), the national federation most closely tied to the ruling party; he replaced Lombardo as its leader in 1941 and expelled him in 1948.

He led the CTM without interruption until his death on 21 June 1997 — the preeminent Mexican union leader of the twentieth century, and one of the most powerful figures of the PRI era.

How the name is written

Velázquez, Mexican spelling; universally referred to by both surnames, Velázquez Sánchez, or simply as "don Fidel".

Sources

Facts in this profile are drawn from the Wikipedia article(s) linked below, consulted on 21 September 2026; the text is original. Wikipedia (English) · Wikipedia (Spanish)

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