Cuauht�moc C�rdenas Sol�rzano (born May 1, 1934) is a prominent Mexican politician.
He was born in Mexico City, the son of Mexican President L�zaro C�rdenas del R�o.
Cuauht�moc C�rdenas served as governor of the state of Michoac�n from 1980 to 1986, representing the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). After many disagreements with his party, he decided to leave; he then received the support from several small left wing parties and was the presidential candidate of the ADN, a loose alliance of these organizations in 1988.
Although he ultimately lost, many people believe that he was the actual winner: the ruling PRI was accused of rigging the election to favor their candidate Carlos Salinas de Gortari, famously claiming that there had been a massive systems crash with the computer system used to track the results and in line with their well known dubious electoral tactics.
The following year (5 May 1989) C�rdenas and other leading center-left and leftist politicians formally founded the Partido de la Revoluci�n Democr�tica (PRD). He was this new party's candidate in the 1994 presidential election, in which he was placed third, after the PRI and PAN candidates, with 17% of the national vote.
In 1997 he was the PRD's candidate for the newly created post of Head of Government (Jefe de Gobierno) of the Federal District – effectively, a role lying somewhere between that of Mexico City's mayor and a state governorship. He won this election, held on 6 July 1997, with a 47.7% share of the popular vote.
He ran for the presidency again in 2000, and was again placed third, with a 16% share.