Background
Manuel Avila Camacho was born in Tezuitlan, in the state of Puebla, Mexico on April 24, 1897; a brother of Maximino Ávila Camacho.
Manuel Avila Camacho was born in Tezuitlan, in the state of Puebla, Mexico on April 24, 1897; a brother of Maximino Ávila Camacho.
Manuel Ávila Camacho did not receive a university degree, although he studied at the National Preparatory School.
Camacho began his military career when he entered the Constitutionalist forces as a junior officer in 1914. During the 1920's he served in various military capacities in Sonora, Michoacán, and Colima, where he directed operations against the Cristeros (rebels supporting the Church) as chief of the military zone. He became undersecretary of war for President Abelardo Rodriguez in 1933-1934 and secretary of defense under President Lazaro Cardenas in 1939. The official presidential candidate in 1940, Avila Camacho triumphed over Gen. Juan Andreu Almazán in an election marred by violent clashes. There was little popular enthusiasm for the new president, who was not well known and heavy in appearance and speech. It was his task to consolidate the gains and heal the divisions resulting from Cárdenas's presidency, and so he called for unity, adjustment, and moderation.
In April 1943 Avila Camacho and President Franklin Roosevelt conferred in Monterrey on the joint war effort, beginning a pattern of visit exchanges between the executives of the two nations. At the end of his term, Avila Camacho peacefully transferred the presidential power to his secretary of the interior, Miguel Alemán, who accelerated the industrial development of Mexico begun during his predecessor's term. Avila Camacho dropped out of public view after his presidency. He spent much of his time at his property La Herradura in the Federal District, where he died on October 13, 1955.
He was married to Soledad Orozco García (1904-1996).