| José Manuel Puig Casauranc | |
| Birth Name: | José Manuel Puig Casauranc |
| Birth Date: | 31 January 1888 |
| Birth Place: | Laguna del Carmen, Campeche |
| Death Place: | Havana, Cuba |
| Nationality: | Mexican |
| Office: | Head of the Federal District Department |
| Term Start: | 1 January 1929 |
| Term End: | 31 May 1930 |
| President: | Emilio Portes Gil |
| Predecessor: | Primo Villa Michel |
| Successor: | Crisóforo Ibáñez |
| Office1: | Secretary of Foreign Affairs |
| Term Start1: | 1 January 1933 |
| Term End1: | 30 November 1934 |
| Predecessor1: | Manuel C. Téllez |
| Successor1: | Emilio Portes Gil |
| President1: | Abelardo L. Rodríguez |
| Office2: | 3rd Secretary of Public Education |
| Term Start2: | 9 December 1930 |
| Term End2: | 9 October 1931 |
| Predecessor2: | Carlos Trejo Lerdo de Tejada |
| Successor2: | Narciso Bassols |
| President2: | Pascual Ortiz Rubio |
| Term Start3: | 1 December 1924 |
| Term End3: | 22 August 1928 |
| Predecessor3: | Bernardo J. Gastélum |
| Successor3: | Moisés Sáenz |
| President3: | Plutarco Elías Calles |
| Office4: | Member of the Chamber of Deputies for Veracruz's 19th district |
| Term Start4: | 1 September 1922 |
| Term End4: | 31 August 1924 |
| Predecessor4: | Aurelio P. Márquez |
| Successor4: | Andrés E. Gómez |
José Manuel Puig Casauranc (31 January 1888 – 5 May 1939) was a Mexican politician, diplomat and journalist who served as Secretary of Public Education, Secretary of Industry, Commerce and Labor, Secretary of Foreign Affairs and federal legislator in both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies.[1] [2] As a key adviser to President Plutarco Elías Calles (1924–28), he is credited with drafting Calles's speech to Congress following the assassination of President-elect Alvaro Obregón declaring the end of the age of caudillos and the start of rule of institutions and laws.[3]
He did his basic studies in the state of Veracruz and in 1911 he graduated as a medical doctor from the School of Medicine in Mexico City. He was also elected that year as a deputy to the congress, where he was a supporter of Francisco I. Madero. Following the coup of Victoriano Huerta ousting Madero in February 1913, Puig Casauranc refused to recognize Huerta's government, for which he was arrested. He remained exiled in the United States during part of the Mexican Revolution, until he returned to occupy a deputation in 1922. By then he is clearly identified with the political group of Sonoran generals turned politicians, Álvaro Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles.
He directed Calles's presidential campaign for the 1924 elections. Puig Casauranc was elected Senator for Campeche, but Calles appointed him as the head of the Ministry of Public Education. During the interim presidency of Emilio Portes Gil (1928-1930), he served as Head of the Department of the Federal District (1929–30), the jurisdiction of the national capital. Following the election of Pascual Ortiz Rubio as president, he appointed Puig Casauranc as Secretary of Education (1930–31) for a second term, and then Mexican Ambassador to the United States (1931–33). After Ortiz Rubio's resignation, President Abelardo L. Rodríguez appointed him Secretary of Foreign Affairs (1933–34).He was outspoken in this position. The "apogee of his public career was his confrontation with U.S. Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, at the 1933 Pan-American Conference in Montevideo, Uruguay... critici[zing] international bankers and U.S. dominance in the Mexican economy."[4]
In 1934 he refused to direct the presidential campaign of Lázaro Cárdenas. He also turned down offers that Cárdenas himself made him to head a number of ministries. Instead he was appointed Mexican Ambassador to Argentina (1935–36).
On his return to the country he retired from politics and devoted himself to practicing medicine and to contributing to newspapers such as El Imparcial and El Universal. He was a corresponding member of the Mexican Academy of the Language.[5]