Portal:Mexico/Selected biography/4

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Benito Juárez García (March 21, 1806 – July 18, 1872) was a Zapotec Amerindian who served five terms (1858–1861), (1861–1865), (1865–1867), (1867–1871), and (1871–1872), as President of Mexico. For resisting the French occupation, overthrowing the Empire, and restoring the Republic, as well as his efforts to modernize the country, Juárez is often regarded as Mexico's greatest and most beloved leader. He was also the first Mexican leader who did not have a military background, and the first full-blooded indigenous national to serve as President of Mexico.Juárez became a lawyer in 1834 and a judge in 1842. He was governor of the state of Oaxaca from 1847 to 1853, at which time he went into exile because of his objections to the corrupt military dictatorship of Antonio López de Santa Anna.Benito Juarez is remembered as being a progressive reformer dedicated to democracy, equal rights for his nation's indigenous peoples, lessening the great power that the Roman Catholic Church then held over Mexican politics, and the defence of national sovereignty.