Background
Castillo was born in Ixhuatlán de Madero, Veracruz, and received a bachelor"s degree in civil engineering from the National Autonomous University.
engineer member of the Senate of Mexico
Castillo was born in Ixhuatlán de Madero, Veracruz, and received a bachelor"s degree in civil engineering from the National Autonomous University.
National Autonomous University of Mexico.
He became a political activist and got involved in several workers" rights struggles, leading to imprisonment by the federal government in the infamous Lecumberri Penitentiary. In his last years in politics he became a staunch critic of the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas and, crucially, voluntarily withdrew from the presidential race in 1988 to support the unified candidacy of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas. He died on April 5, 1997 in Mexico City and received the Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor (postmortem) that same year.
Castillo was one of the first among leading left-wing politicians to express dismay at the dictatorial nature of Soviet-bloc governments, starting a movement towards a social democracy-based left wing and away from a Moscow-based left leaning opposition in Mexico. During his lifetime he co-founded three political parties: the Mexican Workers" Party (Partido Mexicano de los Trabajadores, Mexican Workers Party), the Mexican Socialist Party (Partido Mexicano Socialista, PMS) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolución Democrática, Party of the Democratic Revolution).