Fidel Velázquez Sánchez

After his father's death in 1920 Velázquez moved to the [[Azcapotzalco]] area of [[Mexico City]], where he worked, among other things, delivering milk. In 1923 he organized a union of milk industry workers, which he affiliated with the [[Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers|Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana]], (CROM), the largest and most powerful union confederation of the day and a key supporter of the regimes of [[Plutarco Elías Calles]] and [[Álvaro Obregón]].

After his father's death in 1920 Velázquez moved to the [[Azcapotzalco]] area of [[Mexico City]], where he worked, among other things, delivering milk. In 1923 he organized a union of milk industry workers, which he affiliated with the [[Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers|Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana]], (CROM), the largest and most powerful union confederation of the day and a key supporter of the regimes of [[Plutarco Elías Calles]] and [[Álvaro Obregón]].

In 1928 former President Obregón was assassinated by a right-wing [[Roman Catholic]] associated with the [[Cristero War|Cristero movement]]. While neither CROM nor its leader, [[Luis Napoleón Morones|Luis Morones]], had any connection to the crime, Calles (who was about to finish his term of office and to begin his run as [[éminence grise]] behind the presidency in the period known as El Maximato) considered Morones the intellectual author of the assassination because he had denounced Obregón's plans to amend the constitution to allow himself to serve another term as President of Mexico. Obregón's successor, [[Emilio Portes Gil]] – a forced ally of Calles due to the upheaval created by Obregón's assassination – fired CROM officials from their government posts and threw the government's support to rival union groups, such as the [[General Confederation of Workers (Mexico)|Confederación General de Trabajadores]], (CGT), a nominally anarchist group, and the Confederación Sindical Unitaria de México, a group associated with the [[Partido Comunista de México|Mexican Communist Party]] (PCM). The CROM began to disintegrate once it lost state support.

In 1928 former President Obregón was assassinated by a right-wing [[Roman Catholic]] associated with the [[Cristero War|Cristero movement]]. While neither CROM nor its leader, [[Luis N. Morones]], had any connection to the crime, Calles (who was about to finish his term of office and to begin his run as [[éminence grise]] behind the presidency in the period known as El Maximato) considered Morones the intellectual author of the assassination because he had denounced Obregón's plans to amend the constitution to allow himself to serve another term as President of Mexico. Obregón's successor, [[Emilio Portes Gil]] – a forced ally of Calles due to the upheaval created by Obregón's assassination – fired CROM officials from their government posts and threw the government's support to rival union groups, such as the [[General Confederation of Workers (Mexico)|Confederación General de Trabajadores]], (CGT), a nominally anarchist group, and the Confederación Sindical Unitaria de México, a group associated with the [[Partido Comunista de México|Mexican Communist Party]] (PCM). The CROM began to disintegrate once it lost state support.

Velázquez and Jesús Yuren, head of the Union of Cleaning and Transport Workers, withdrew their unions from the CROM and, on February 25, 1929, organized the Confederación Sindical de Trabajadores del Distrito Federal (CSTDF), a federation of unions within the Federal District. The CSTDF was a hodgepodge, much like the [[Knights of Labor]] in the [[United States]] in the nineteenth century: it included the two unions led by Velázquez and Yuren, street vendors and merchants organizations, the "unión blanca" or [[company union]] of streetcar workers composed largely of strikebreakers, a union of [[homeopathy|homeopathic]] doctors, grave diggers and bottling plant workers.

Velázquez and Jesús Yuren, head of the Union of Cleaning and Transport Workers, withdrew their unions from the CROM and, on February 25, 1929, organized the Confederación Sindical de Trabajadores del Distrito Federal (CSTDF), a federation of unions within the Federal District. The CSTDF was a hodgepodge, much like the [[Knights of Labor]] in the [[United States]] in the nineteenth century: it included the two unions led by Velázquez and Yuren, street vendors and merchants organizations, the "unión blanca" or [[company union]] of streetcar workers composed largely of strikebreakers, a union of [[homeopathy|homeopathic]] doctors, grave diggers and bottling plant workers.