Luis Napoleón Morones

Luis Napoleón Morones (1890–1946) was a Mexican union boss who served as secretary general of the Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers (Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana, CROM) and as secretary of economy under President Plutarco Elías Calles.

Morones was born in Tlalpan, a delegación of the Mexican Federal District, and worked as an electrician.

During the Revolution, he supported Venustiano Carranza. He was an electrician, joined the Casa del Obrero Munidal in 1913. He founded the "Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas" (SME) local in the Mexican Telephone and Telegraph Co. in 1915. From 1916 to 1918, he participated in political and labor organizations and congresses, and by 1920, he was head of the CROM, and helped to broker General Álvaro Obregón's accession to the presidency. In 1922, he founded the Mexican Labor Party (Partido Laborista Mexicano PLM) and its organ El Sol, and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico, where his prime role consisted of mediating between the working class and government elites. His cooperation brought him into conflicts with communist and socialist elements of the union factions, but Calles rewarded his loyalty by appointing him the nation's Secretary of Economy in 1924, a post from which he resigned after Obregón's assassination in 1928. In this position he amassed a fortune, which he flaunted with diamond rings and expensive cars, leading to charges of hypocrisy and corruption. In 1935 he was exiled, but returned to Mexico years later.

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