President Porfirio Diaz Nationality Mexican Preceded by Ignacio Mariscal Name Enrique Creel | Preceded by Jose Maria Sanchez Role Politician Preceded by Luis Terrazas | |
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Born 30 August 1854
Chihuahua, Chihuahua ( 1854-08-30 ) Relations Luis Terrazas (father-in-law) Died August 18, 1931, Mexico City, Mexico Education University of Pennsylvania Succeeded by Francisco Leon de la Barra | ||
Enrique Clay Creel Cuilty, sometimes known as Henry Clay Creel (30 August 1854 – 18 August 1931) was a Mexican businessman and politician member of the powerful Creel-Terrazas family of Chihuahua. He is considered the foremost banker during the Porfirato (1876-1910) and was a wielded considerable political power, becoming "one of the most hated symbols of the Porfirian regime." He served as governor of Chihuahua on two occasions, ambassador of Mexico to the United States, and served in the cabinet of President Porfirio Díaz as his Minister of Foreign Affairs in the last years of his regime.
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Biography
Creel was the son of Reuben Creel, a veteran of the Mexican American War from Greensburg, Kentucky, and Abraham Lincoln's US Consul in Chihuahua. He was born in Chihuahua, Chihuahua and became son-in-law of don Luis Terrazas by virtue of marriage to his daughter Angela (Reuben Creel and Luis Terrazas were married to sisters of the wealthy Cuilty family, whose ancestry was English and was related to Sir Thomas More).
After Porfirio Díaz became president of Mexico in 1876, he appointed Creel as a director of the National Board of Dynamite and Explosives. Mexico’s demand for explosives was high because of its mining and railroad industries and the army’s need for munitions. The board imposed an 80% import duty on dynamite, allowing its members to manufacture explosives without competition and reportedly enabling Creel to amass an even larger fortune in kickbacks.
Enrique Creel served as Mexico's Minister of Foreign Relations and as its Ambassador to the United States. The bilingual Creel served as interpreter when Presidents Porfirio Díaz and William Howard Taft met in 1909 on the international bridge between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso. He became vice-president of the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway, where he was responsible for the construction of part of the railroad west of Chihuahua, now the Chihuahua Pacific Railroad (Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico) and runs through the town of Creel, Chihuahua. He was a key intermediary between the Mexican government and foreign companies, serving on their boards, as well as helping arrange "government subsidies and tax abatements and financial support for foreign firms." His haciendas once totaled more than 1.7 million acres (6,900 km²). Creel was one of Díaz's advisers who had urged the president to be interviewed by James Creelman of Pearson's Magazine, in which Díaz declared he would not be a candidate for president in 1910.
The Mexican Revolution forced him to abandon Mexico for the United States and he had major financial losses due to the Revolution, with revolutionaries expropriating his landed estates. He returned after the end of the revolution, and served for a period in the administration of northern revolutionary general Alvaro Obregón (1920–24). He died in Mexico City on August 18, 1931 .