Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano is a civil engineer and prominent social-democrat Mexican politician. The son of 51st President of Mexico Lázaro Cárdenas, he is a former Head of Government of Mexico City and a founder of the Party of the Democratic Revolution. He ran for the presidency of Mexico three times, and his 1988 loss to the Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate Carlos Salinas de Gortari had long been considered a direct result of obvious electoral fraud perpetrated by the ruling PRI, later acknowledged by President Miguel de la Madrid. He previously served as a Senator, having been elected in 1976 to represent the state of Michoacán and also as the Governor of Michoacán from 1980 to 1986.

Lázaro Cárdenas del Río was a Mexican army officer and politician who served as president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940. Previously, he served as a general in the Constitutional Army during the Mexican Revolution and as Governor of Michoacán and President of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. He later served as the Secretary of National Defence. During his presidency, which is considered the end of the Maximato, he implemented massive land reform programs, led the expropriation of the country's oil industry, and implemented many left-leaning reforms.