<Tr> <Th> Years of service </Th> <Td> 1848 - 1876 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Rank </Th> <Td> General </Td> </Tr> <P> José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori (Spanish pronunciation: (porˈfiɾjo ði. as); 15 September 1830--2 July 1915) was a Mexican general and politician who served seven terms as President of Mexico, a total of three and a half decades from 1876 to 1880 and from 1884 to 1911 . A veteran of the War of the Reform (1858--60) and the French intervention in Mexico (1862--67), Díaz rose to the rank of General, leading republican troops against the French - imposed rule of Emperor Maximilian . Seizing power in a coup in 1876, Díaz and his allies, a group of technocrats known as "Científicos", ruled Mexico for the next thirty - five years, a period known as the Porfiriato . </P> <P> Díaz has always been a controversial figure in Mexican history; while the Porfirian regime brought stability after decades of conflict, it grew unpopular due to civil repression and political stagnation . His economic policies largely benefited his circle of allies as well as foreign investors, and helped a few wealthy estate owning hacendados acquire huge areas of land, leaving rural campesinos unable to make a living . Likewise these estates were often deadly resulting in approximately 600,000 deaths in 1900 through the end of Diaz's rule . Despite public statements favoring a return to democracy and not running for office, Díaz reversed himself and ran in 1910 . His failure to institutionalize presidential succession, when he was 80 years old, triggered a political crisis between the Científicos and the followers of General Bernardo Reyes, allied with the military and with peripheral regions of Mexico . After Díaz declared himself the winner of an eighth term in office in 1910, his electoral opponent, Francisco I. Madero, issued a call for armed rebellion against Díaz, leading to the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution . After the Federal Army suffered a number of military defeats against Madero's forces, Díaz was forced to resign in May 1911 and went into exile in France, where he died four years later . </P>

Who ran mexico for decades as a dictator