Plutarco Elías Calles, (born Sept. 25, 1877, Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico—died Oct. 19, 1945, Mexico City), military and political leader who modernized the revolutionary armies and later became president of Mexico. He was the founder of the Partido Nacional Revolucionario (PNR; National Revolutionary Party), which became the major Mexican political party (renamed in 1938 the Partido de la Revolución Mexicana and in 1946 the Partido Revolucionario Institucional).
He began his career as an elementary schoolteacher but joined the struggle of Francisco Madero against the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz in 1910. Calles was an extremely gifted organizer and leader and was a general in the battles, first against Victoriano Huerta and then against Pancho Villa and his rebel forces.
In 1917 Calles became governor of Sonora. Appointed secretary of commerce, labour, and industry in the cabinet of President Venustiano Carranza, he resigned to support the candidacy of Alvaro Obregón and was instrumental in overthrowing Carranza in 1920. Calles served as secretary of foreign relations in the provisional government of Adolfo de la Huerta (1920) and then as secretary of the interior under President Obregón (1920–24).
In 1924 Calles was elected president. Though he was becoming increasingly conservative, he sponsored agrarian, labour, and educational reforms. Recognizing the dangers of military coups, he curtailed the influence of the army in Mexico’s political life. His term was marked also by difficulties with the Roman Catholic Church and the United States. He applied the constitutional provisions that limited the number of clergy and prohibited church schools. The church, as a consequence, held no public religious services for three years until the dispute was arbitrated in 1929. He approved legislation that restricted alien ownership of land and regulated the petroleum industry; both of these actions angered the United States.
President-elect Obregón was assassinated in 1928, and for the next six years Calles was the real power behind three puppet presidents. His base was the PNR, which he had organized in 1929; its support of a candidate was tantamount to election. In those six years the more radical aspects of the revolution were methodically curbed. By 1934, however, when left-wing groups had begun to control the PNR, Calles was forced to support their candidate for president, Lázaro Cárdenas. This misalliance deteriorated into an open break, and Calles was forced into exile. He lived in California until 1941, when he was permitted to return to Mexico.