Plutarco Elías Calles (September 25, 1877 – October 19, 1945) was a Mexican general and politician. He was president of Mexico from 1924 to 1928, but he continued to be the de facto ruler from 1928-1935, a period known as the maximato. Calles is most noted for his oppression of Catholics which led to the Cristero War, a civil war between Catholic rebels and government forces that erupted as a reaction against his anticlerical policies, and for founding the Partido Nacional Revolucionario (National Revolutionary Party, or PNR), which eventually became the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) – which governed Mexico for more than 70 years.