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Teófilo Stevenson

Teófilo Stevenson Lawrence (29 March 1952 – 11 June 2012) was a Cuban engineer and amateur boxer who competed from 1966 to 1986.

Stevenson won the Val Barker Trophy (1972) as well was honored with the Olympic Order (1987) and is one of only three boxers to win three Olympic gold medals – alongside the Hungarian László Papp and the fellow Cuban Félix Savón.

Early life
Teófilo Stevenson Lawrence was born in Puerto Padre, Cuba. His father, Teófilo Stevenson Patterson, was an immigrant from Saint Vincent. His mother Dolores Lawrence was a native Cuban, but her parents were immigrants from the Anglophone island of Saint Kitts. Teófilo senior arrived in Cuba in 1923, finding work wherever he could, before settling in Camagüey with Dolores, where he gave English lessons to top up his meagre earnings. Due to his large size, Teófilo senior was encouraged into boxing by local trainers, fighting seven times before becoming disillusioned by the corrupt payment structure on offer to young fighters.

Teófilo junior was a shiftless but bright child who at nine years old soon found himself sparring at the makeshift open-air gym his father had frequented. Under the tutelage of former national light heavyweight champion John Herrera, Teófilo junior began his career fighting far more experienced boxers, but according to Herrera, "had what it took". Despite his growing involvement in the sport, Stevenson had yet to tell his mother about his activities. Eventually Teófilo Sr. broke the news to his wife, who was furious; but she agreed to acquiesce on the provision that the boy was accompanied by his father.

Beginnings
The young Stevenson continued to improve under Herrera in the mid-1960s, winning a junior title and gaining additional training in Havana. His victories drew the attention of Andrei Chervonenko, a head coach in Cuba's newly implemented state sports system. Professional sports throughout the island had been outlawed since 1962 by government resolution 83-A, and all boxing activity had come under the guidance of the government sponsored National Boxing Commission. Chervonenko, a retired boxer himself, sent by the Soviet Union, who had created Cuba's Escuela de Boxeo (Boxing school) in a derelict old gym in Havana, began to champion Stevenson's progress.

Stevenson's senior boxing career began at age seventeen with a defeat in the national championships against the experienced heavyweight Gabriel Garcia. Despite the setback, Stevenson went on to register convincing victories over Nancio Carrillo and Juan Perez, two of Cuba's finest boxers in the weight division, securing a place in the national team for the 1970 Central American and Caribbean Boxing Championships. Defeat in the final after three victories was considered no shame, and Stevenson firmly established himself as Cuba's premier heavyweight. Back in the gym Chervonenko and leading Cuban boxing coach Alcides Sagarra worked on Stevenson's jab, which became his ultimate weapon, and paid dividends when the Cuban easily defeated East Germany's Bernd Anders in front of a surprised Berlin crowd. The victory made the entire amateur boxing world take notice of Stevenson as a serious heavyweight contender.

Munich Olympics 1972
Stevenson, now twenty, joined the Cuban boxing team for the Munich Olympics of 1972. Munich 1972 Olympic Games, athletic festival held in Munich that took place August 26–September 11, 1972. His opening bout against experienced Polish fighter Ludwik Denderys began dramatically when Stevenson knocked the other man down within thirty seconds of the opening bell. The fight was stopped moments later due to a large cut next to the Pole's eye.

Proceeding to the quarter finals, Stevenson met American boxer Duane Bobick. Bobick, a gold medalist at the 1971 Pan American Games, had beaten Stevenson previously. After a close first round, Stevenson lost the second, but a ferocious display in the third round knocked Bobick to the canvas three times and the contest was stopped. The victory was viewed on television throughout Cuba, and is still considered Stevenson's most memorable performance.

Stevenson easily defeated German Peter Hussing in the semifinal by TKO in the second round, and received his gold medal after Romanian Ion Alexe failed to appear in the final due to injury. The Cuban boxing team won three gold medals, their first in Olympic boxing history, as well as one silver and one bronze. The Munich games established Cuba's dominance over the amateur sport that was to last decades. It also established Stevenson as the world's premier amateur heavyweight boxer.

Less than two years after his successful performance at the Munich Olympics, Stevenson, then 22-years-old, was rewarded with a house for himself in Havana and another for himself and his family in Delicias. Stevenson later recalled: "I had no idea the house in Delicias was going to be so big. When I was shown the plans, I said, 'What is this? A bunker? AIBA president Anwar Chowdhry, when asked did the Cuban authorities acted properly in giving Stevenson two houses and two cars, said: "These things should not be allowed. If gifts are to be given it should be for everybody—not for a few." Over tea in his office in Havana's Sports City Coliseum, INDER president Conrado Martínez Corona defended the local practice of giving cars and apartments to top athletes. "Our country has the obligation of solving the problems of all citizens—the problems of their nourishment, housing, education and health", he said. "It's a pity we can't solve this problem in the way we need to for everybody."

Prime years
Stevenson did the same at the inaugural 1974 World Championships in Havana, Cuba, and then in the 1976 Summer Olympics, held in Montreal, Stevenson repeated the feat once again. By then, he had become a national hero in Cuba. This was the point where he was the closest to signing a professional contract, as American fight promoters offered him US$5 million to challenge world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali. If he had accepted, it would have made Stevenson the second boxer to go straight from the Olympics into a professional debut with the world's heavyweight crown on the line, after Pete Rademacher. Stevenson refused the offer, however, asking "What is one million dollars compared to the love of eight million Cubans?" Stevenson went to the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and became the second boxer ever, after Papp, to win three Olympic boxing gold medals. The Moscow Games were the 19th occurrence of the modern Olympic Games.

Stevenson participated at the 1982 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Munich, but lost to the eventual silver medalist and future professional world champion Francesco Damiani from Italy. This fight ended an eleven-year unbeaten run by Stevenson and was the only occasion that he did not win the gold medal at the World Championships when he entered the competition.

His loss by a split decision to Aleksandr Lukstin of the Soviet Union in the finals of the 1983 Córdova Cardín, as the Soviet head coach Kontsantin Koptsev later admitted, was due to a plaster-like tape they handwrapped Lukstin's fists with instead of a regular elastic-band hand wrapping.

Stevenson might have won a fourth gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics, but the Soviet Union boycotted the games, which were hosted by Los Angeles, in retaliation for the American boycott of the 1980 Moscow competition. Cuba followed the Soviet lead, and Stevenson did not compete. For consolation, he beat future Olympic champion Tyrell Biggs in February 1984 (breaking three ribs in a process) and won the super heavyweight gold at the 1984 Friendship Games, defeating Ulli Kaden of East Germany and, in the final, Valeriy Abadzhyan of the Soviet Union. At the 1986 World Amateur Boxing Championships, he won the super heavyweight gold, defeating Alex Garcia from the United States in the final. Stevenson retired from boxing shortly after the 1988 Summer Olympics, which Cuba also boycotted.

Rivalry with Vysotsky
Stevenson was known for two fights with Soviet boxer Igor Vysotsky, who defeated him twice. Vysotsky later said in an interview with East Side Boxing: "I fought Teofilo twice. We first met at the 'Córdova Cardín' tournament in 1973 in Cuba. I took the first two opponents, both being Cuban, out early. In the third, I beat Stevenson on points. Although the score was 3:2, the pace of the fight forced Teófilo to take two necessary breaks to retie his gloves. We had a saying in the USSR, 'It's easier to win the World championships than it is to win 'Córdova Cardín'.' The second time was at a class A International tournament in Minsk, in March 1976. In each stanza, Stevenson took a count, while in the final three minutes, I knocked him out."

Vysotsky was the only boxer out of hundreds of Stevenson's opponents to ever stop him, let alone by knockout, and to defeat him twice, both times in his prime, without being avenged. And on top of it, Vysotsky scored his first victory over Stevenson at the Córdova Cardín, Cubans' home tournament, where they do their best to never let any foreigner get into the finals.

Stevenson's second loss to Vysotsky happened six weeks before his knockout winning streak at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, which ended up with victories over John Tate and Mircea Șimon. After losing to Vysotsky for a second time he said, "Nobody is invincible."

Highlights
Local match-up (71 kg), Las Tunas, Cuba, October 1966 (debut): National Youth Championships (+81 kg), Camagüey, Cuba, 1968 VI Playa Girón National Championships (+81 kg), Guantánamo, Cuba, November 1968: VII Playa Girón National Championships (+81 kg), Nueva Gerona, Cuba, December 1969: Local match-up (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, 1970: I Central America and the Caribbean Championships (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, September 1970: III Giraldo Córdova Cardín Tournament (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, October 1970: VI Friendship Youth Tournament (+81 kg), Vidin, Bulgaria, October 1970: Cuba–Czechoslovakia Duals (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, March 1971: Czechoslovakia–Cuba Duals (+81 kg), Prague, Czechoslovakia, March 1971: Yugoslavia–Cuba Duals (+81 kg), Titograd, Yugoslavia, April 1971: Austria–Cuba Duals (+81 kg), Vienna, Austria, May 1971: IV Giraldo Córdova Cardín Tournament (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, June 1971: Panama–Cuba Duals (+81 kg), Panama City, Panama, June 1971: Cuba–Bulgaria Duals (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, July 1971: Pan American Games (+81 kg), Cali, Colombia, August 1971: Local match-up (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, September 1971: III TSC Tournament (+81 kg), Berlin, East Germany, October 1971: Cuba–USSR Duals (+81 kg), Berlin, East Germany, October 1971: IX Playa Girón National Championships (+81 kg), Nueva Gerona, Cuba, October–November 1971 (no medal awarded): II Central America and the Caribbean Championships (+81 kg), San Juan, Puerto Rico, November 1971: VII Friendship Youth Tournament (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, December 1971: Cuba–USSR Duals (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, January 1972: X Playa Girón National Championships (+81 kg), Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, February–March 1972: Cuba–Romania Duals (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, April 1972: Czechoslovakia–Cuba Duals (+81 kg), Ústí nad Labem, Czechoslovakia, April 1972: GDR–Cuba Duals (+81 kg), Berlin, East Germany, 1972: III Chemistry Cup (+81 kg), Halle, East Germany, May 1972: Local match-up (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, May 1972: V Giraldo Córdova Cardín Tournament (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, July 1972: XX Summer Olympics (+81 kg), Munich, West Germany, September 1972: III Central America and the Caribbean Championships (+81 kg), San José, Costa Rica, November 1972: XI Playa Girón National Championships (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, February 1973: Golden Belt Tournament (+81 kg), Bucharest, Romania, April 1973: VI Giraldo Córdova Cardín Tournament (+81 kg), Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, July 1973: IV Central America and the Caribbean Championships (+81 kg), Mexico City, Mexico, November 1973: XII Playa Girón National Championships (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, January 1974: 1974 Central American and Caribbean Games (+81 kg), Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, March 1974: Golden Belt Tournament (+81 kg), Bucharest, Romania, May 1974: VII Giraldo Córdova Cardín Tournament (+81 kg), Camagüey, Cuba, July 1974: World Championships (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, August 1974:
 * Lost to Luis Henríquez (Cuba) by decision
 * (no data available)
 * 1/4: Lost to Adolfo Gálvez (Cuba) by decision
 * 1/2: Defeated Iván Rodríguez (Cuba)
 * Finals: Lost to Gabriel García (Cuba) by decision
 * Defeated Nancio Carrillo (Cuba) KO
 * Defeated Juan Pérez (Cuba)
 * 1/2: Defeated Visley Zulueta (Colombia) KO 1
 * Finals: Defeated Earl McClear (Bermuda) by decision
 * 1/4: Defeated Gabriel García (Cuba) RSC 3
 * 1/2: Defeated Adolfo Gálvez (Cuba) by decision
 * Finals: Lost to Bernd Anders (East Germany) by decision
 * 1/4: Defeated Eckhard Findeisen (East Germany) RSC 1
 * 1/2: Defeated Dumitru Zelinta (Romania) RSC 2
 * Finals: Defeated Vladimir Saprykin (Soviet Union) RSC 1
 * Lost to Peter Sommer (Czechoslovakia) by decision
 * Lost to Peter Sommer (Czechoslovakia) by decision
 * Defeated Iordan Obradović (Yugoslavia) DQ 3
 * Defeated Erwin Suppik (Austria) KO 2
 * 1/2: Defeated Adolfo Gálvez (Cuba) RET
 * Finals: Defeated José Luis Cabrera (Cuba) by decision
 * Defeated Rolando Tey (Panama) RET
 * Defeated Borislav Krastev (Bulgaria) DQ 2
 * 1/4: Defeated Pablo Sarmiento (Argentina) by unanimous decision, 5–0
 * 1/2: Lost to Duane Bobick (United States) by unanimous decision, 0–5
 * Defeated Adolfo Gálvez (Cuba) RSC
 * 1/4: Defeated Jerzy Skoczek (Poland) KO 3
 * 1/2: Defeated Bernd Anders (East Germany) RSC 3
 * Finals: Defeated Josef Motýl (Czechoslovakia) RSC 1
 * Lost to Yuri Nesterov (Soviet Union) by decision
 * 1/4: Defeated Francisco Molina (Cuba) KO
 * 1/2: Defeated Adolfo Gálvez (Cuba) by decision
 * Finals: Defeated Luis Valier (Cuba) RSC
 * Finals: Defeated Georgie Clemente (Puerto Rico) by walkover
 * 1/2: Defeated Borimir Kristiev (Bulgaria) RSC
 * Finals: Defeated Vladimir Volkov (Soviet Union) by decision
 * Defeated Vladimir Volkov (Soviet Union)
 * 1/2: Defeated Francisco Molina (Cuba) KO
 * Finals: Defeated Luis Valier (Cuba) KO 1
 * Defeated Ion Alexe (Romania) by decision
 * Defeated Josef Motýl (Czechoslovakia) KO 2
 * Defeated Bernd Anders (East Germany) KO 2
 * 1/4: Defeated Dieter Limant (East Germany) RSC 1
 * 1/2: Defeated Eberhard Findeisen (East Germany) RSC 1
 * Finals: Defeated Jürgen Fanghänel (East Germany)
 * Defeated Nancio Carrillo (Cuba) KO
 * Finals: Defeated Nancio Carrillo (Cuba) by decision
 * 1/16: Defeated Ludwik Denderys (Poland) KO 1
 * 1/4: Defeated Duane Bobick (United States) RSC 3 (Bobick knocked down twice in the 3rd rd)
 * 1/2: Defeated Peter Hussing (West Germany) RSC 2 (Hussing knocked down twice in the 2nd rd)
 * Finals: Defeated Ion Alexe (Romania) by walkover
 * 1/2: Defeated Jack Powell (Jamaica) RET 1
 * Finals: Defeated Rafael Vega (Costa Rica) RSC 1
 * Finals: Defeated Nancio Carrillo (Cuba)
 * 1/4: Defeated Hennie Thoonen (Netherlands) RET 2
 * 1/2: Defeated Ion Sanatescu (Romania) by decision
 * Finals: Defeated Ion Alexe (Romania) RET 2
 * 1/4: Defeated Nancio Carrillo (Cuba) RET
 * 1/2: Defeated Peter Sommer (Czechoslovakia) KO 1
 * Finals: Lost to Igor Vysotsky (Soviet Union) by split decision, 2–3
 * 1/4: Defeated Jimmy Russell (Jamaica) by walkover
 * 1/2: Defeated Carlos Rivera (Venezuela) RSC 1
 * Finals: Defeated Ismael Ruiz (Mexico) KO 1
 * 1/8: Defeated Roberto Taylor (Cuba) by decision
 * 1/4: Defeated Nancio Carrillo (Cuba) by decision
 * 1/2: Defeated Jesús Benítez (Cuba) RET
 * Finals: Defeated José Luis Cabrera (Cuba) RET
 * 1/2: Defeated Rafael Vega (Costa Rica) KO 1
 * Finals: Defeated Carlos Rivera (Venezuela) RET 1
 * 1/4: Defeated Marian Alexandru (Romania) RET 3
 * 1/2: Defeated Ion Anghel (Romania) KO 2
 * Finals: Defeated Yevgeni Gorstkov (Soviet Union) by walkover
 * 1/4: Defeated Elpidio Valier (Cuba) RSC
 * 1/2: Defeated Roberto Taylor (Cuba) RSC
 * Finals: Defeated Pyotr Zayev (Soviet Union) RSC
 * 1/8: Defeated Tshibangu Hweia (Zaire) by walkover
 * 1/4: Defeated Peter Hussing (West Germany) KO 1
 * 1/2: Defeated Fatai Avinia (Nigeria) by decision
 * Finals: Defeated Marvin Stinson (United States) by unanimous decision, 5–0

V Central America and the Caribbean Championships (+81 kg), Caracas, Venezuela, December 1974: XIII Playa Girón National Championships (+81 kg), Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, January 1975: INDER Anniversary Festival (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, February 1975: XV Honvéd Cup (+81 kg), Budapest, Hungary, March 1975: Golden Belt Tournament (+81 kg), Bucharest, Romania, April 1975: VIII Giraldo Córdova Cardín Tournament (+81 kg), Las Villas, Cuba, July 1975: Pan American Games (+81 kg), Mexico City, Mexico, October 1975: Local match-up (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, December 1975: XIV Playa Girón National Championships (+81 kg), Camagüey, Cuba, January 1976: Jamaica–Cuba Duals (+81 kg), Kingston, Jamaica, February 1976: Usov Memorial Tournament (+81 kg), Minsk, Belarus SSR, April 1976: IX Giraldo Córdova Cardín Tournament (+81 kg), Pinar del Río, Cuba, May 1976: XXI Summer Olympics (+81 kg), Maurice Richard Arena, Montreal, Canada, July 1976: Local match-up (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, February 1977: Local match-up (+81 kg), Camagüey, Cuba, April 1977: Local match-up (+81 kg), Matanzas, Cuba, April 1977: Local match-up (+81 kg), Bayamo, Cuba, April 1977: I Battle of Carabobo International Tournament (+81 kg), Caracas, Venezuela, June 1977: X Giraldo Córdova Cardín Tournament (+81 kg), Matanzas, Cuba, July 1977: VIII Central America and the Caribbean Championships (+81 kg), Panama City, Panama, August 1977: XVI Playa Girón National Championships (+81 kg), Camagüey, Cuba, January 1978: Cuba–USA Duals (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, February 1978: XXIX Strandzha Cup (+81 kg), Sofia, Bulgaria, March 1978: Golden Belt Tournament (+81 kg), Bucharest, Romania, March 1978: XI Giraldo Córdova Cardín Tournament (+81 kg), Cienfuegos, Cuba, April 1978: World Championships (+81 kg), Belgrade, Yugoslavia, May 1978: National Team Championships (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, September 1978: USA–Cuba Duals (+81 kg), Madison Square Garden, New York City, October 1978: XVII Playa Girón National Championships (+81 kg), Guantánamo, Cuba, January 1979: Cuba–USA Duals (+81 kg), Coliseo de la Ciudad Deportiva, Havana, Cuba, February 1979: VIII Chemistry Cup (+81 kg), Halle, East Germany, March 1979: Golden Belt Tournament (+81 kg), Bucharest, Romania, March 1979: XII Giraldo Córdova Cardín Tournament (+81 kg), Havana, Cuba, May 1979: VIII Pan American Games (+81 kg), Roberto Clemente Coliseum, San Juan, Puerto Rico, July 1979: National Team Championships (+81 kg), Puerto Padre, Cuba, September 1979:
 * 1/2: Defeated Rafael Vega (Costa Rica) by decision
 * Finals: Defeated Carlos Rivera (Venezuela) by decision
 * 1/8: Defeated Germán Duvergel (Cuba) by walkover
 * 1/4: Defeated José Luis Cabrera (Cuba) by decision
 * 1/2: Lost to Adolfo Gálvez (Cuba) by walkover
 * Defeated Ángel Milián Rivero (Cuba) by unanimous decision, 5–0
 * 1/4: Defeated István Edocs (Hungary) by decision
 * 1/2: Defeated Igor Kykotoorov ? (Soviet Union) by walkover
 * Finals: Defeated Gennady Kokurin (Soviet Union) RSC 1
 * 1/4: Defeated Claudio Liendo (Venezuela) by walkover
 * 1/2: Defeated Ilie Dascălu (Romania) RET 1
 * Finals: Defeated Mircea Șimon (Romania) by walkover
 * 1/2: Defeated Ricardo Casañas (Cuba) RSC 2
 * Finals: Defeated Dietmar Meyer (East Germany) RET 2
 * 1/8: Defeated Gilberto Acuña (Costa Rica) RSC 1
 * 1/4: Defeated Clarence Hill (Bermuda) by walkover
 * 1/2: Defeated Jair De Campos (Brazil) RSC 1 (2:01)
 * Finals: Defeated Michael Dokes (United States) by unanimous decision, 5–0
 * Defeated David Villa (Cuba) RSC
 * 1/8: Defeated Ramón Lores (Cuba) RSC
 * 1/4: Defeated José Luis Cabrera (Cuba) by walkover
 * 1/2: Defeated Glemond Crawford (Cuba) RET
 * Finals: Defeated Julio Cañizares (Cuba) RSC
 * Defeated ? by decision
 * 1/4: Defeated Leonid Zadorozhny (Soviet Union) RSCI 1
 * 1/2: Defeated Nikolay Malykh (Soviet Union) RET 3
 * Finals: Lost to Igor Vysotsky (Soviet Union) KO 3
 * 1/8: Defeated Fidel César (Cuba) KO 2
 * 1/4: Defeated José Ribalta (Cuba) RSC 1
 * 1/2: Defeated Roberto Taylor (Cuba) RSC 1
 * Finals: Defeated Ángel Milián Rivero (Cuba) by unanimous decision, 5–0
 * 1/16: Defeated Mamadou Drame (Senegal) KO 2
 * 1/4: Defeated Pekka Ruokola (Finland) RSC 1
 * 1/2: Defeated John Tate (United States) KO 1 (1:36)
 * Finals: Defeated Mircea Șimon (Romania) RET 3 (2:35)
 * Defeated Luis Martínez (Cuba) KO
 * Defeated Roberto Taylor (Cuba) by decision
 * Defeated Roberto Gómez (Cuba) by decision
 * Defeated Juan Pérez (Cuba) KO
 * Finals: Defeated Woody Clark (United States) KO 3
 * 1/8: Defeated Roberto Taylor (Cuba) RSC
 * 1/4: Defeated Julio Quintero (Cuba) RSC
 * 1/2: Defeated Fidel César (Cuba) by decision
 * Finals: Defeated Roberto Gómez (Cuba) RET 3
 * 1/4: Defeated José Ángel Castro (Venezuela) by unanimous decision, 5–0
 * 1/2: Defeated Mauricio Realajeno (El Salvador) KO 1
 * Finals: Defeated Rafael Vega (Costa Rica) by walkover
 * 1/16: Defeated Roberto Taylor (Cuba) RSC 1
 * 1/8: Defeated Oscar Rodríguez (Cuba) RSC
 * 1/4: Defeated Ramón Lores (Cuba) RSC
 * 1/2: Defeated Noel Grenot (Cuba) RSC
 * Finals: Defeated Ángel Milián Rivero (Cuba) RSC 2
 * Defeated Jimmy Clark (United States) by split decision, 2–1
 * 1/4: Defeated Hans Müller (East Germany) KO 1
 * 1/2: Defeated Georgi Lefterov (Bulgaria) by walkover
 * Finals: Defeated Georgi Stoimenov (Bulgaria) RSC 3
 * 1/4: Defeated Gheorghe Axente (Romania) RET 1
 * 1/2: Defeated Petre Ungureanu (Romania) by walkover
 * Finals: Defeated Ion Cernat (Romania) RSC 1
 * 1/4: Defeated Ricardo Avilés (Cuba) RSC
 * 1/2: Defeated Glemond Crawford (Cuba) RET 3
 * Finals: Defeated Ángel Milián Rivero (Cuba) KO 2
 * 1/8: Defeated Adama Mensah (Ghana) KO 1
 * 1/4: Defeated Tony Tubbs (United States) by unanimous decision, 5–0
 * 1/2: Defeated Carlos Rivera (Venezuela) KO 2
 * Finals: Defeated Dragomir Vujković (Yugoslavia) RET 1
 * Defeated Fidel César (Cuba) by decision
 * Defeated Jimmy Clark (United States) RSC 1
 * 1/8: Defeated Ramón Lores (Cuba) RSC
 * 1/4: Defeated Eliécer Silé (Cuba) RET
 * 1/2: Defeated Rolando Herrera (Cuba) RSC
 * Finals: Held Ángel Milián Rivero (Cuba) to a draw
 * Defeated Phillip Brown (United States) by unanimous decision, 3–0 (Brown knocked down at 1:19 of the 3rd rd)
 * 1/4: Defeated Lakhdar Kaddour (Algeria) RSC 1
 * 1/2: Defeated Werner Kohnert (East Germany) by split decision, 3–2
 * Finals: Defeated Jürgen Fanghänel (East Germany) by split decision, 3–2
 * Finals: Defeated Peter Hussing (West Germany) by walkover
 * 1/8: Defeated Lázaro Figueras (Cuba) RSC
 * 1/4: Defeated Marcos Díaz (Cuba) RSC
 * 1/2: Defeated Božidar Cvetić (Yugoslavia) by walkover
 * Finals: Defeated Ángel Milián Rivero (Cuba) by majority decision, 4–1
 * 1/2: Defeated Rufus Hadley (United States) KO 1 (1:39)
 * Finals: Defeated Narciso Maldonado (Puerto Rico) RSC 1 (2:18)
 * Defeated Roberto Taylor (Cuba) KO
 * Defeated Rafael Lugo (Cuba) RSC
 * Defeated Armando Lowí (Cuba) RSC

XVIII Playa Girón National Championships (+81 kg), Pinar del Río, Cuba, January 1980: USA–Cuba Duals (+81 kg), Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, North Carolina, February 1980: XI Ústí nad Labem Grand Prix (+81 kg) Ústí nad Labem, Czechoslovakia, April 1980: XX Honvéd Cup (+81 kg), Budapest, Hungary, April 1980: XIII Giraldo Córdova Cardín Tournament (+81 kg), Holguín, Cuba, May–June 1980: XXII Summer Olympics (+81 kg), Moscow, Soviet Union, July–August 1980: XIX Playa Girón National Championships (+91 kg), Matanzas, Cuba, January–February 1981: Local match-up (+91 kg), San José, Cuba, June 1981: XX Playa Girón National Championships (+91 kg), Cienfuegos, Cuba, January 1982: XI Chemistry Cup (+91 kg), Halle, East Germany, March 1982: XV Giraldo Córdova Cardín Tournament (+91 kg), Guantánamo, Cuba, May 1982: World Championships (+91 kg), Munich, West Germany, May 1982: XIV Central American and Caribbean Games (+91 kg), Havana, Cuba, August 1982: USA–Cuba Duals (+91 kg), Sparks Convention Center, Reno, Nevada, November 1982: XXI Playa Girón National Championships (+91 kg), Las Tunas, Cuba, January 1983: Cuba–GDR Duals (+91 kg), n. a., 1983: XVI Giraldo Córdova Cardín Tournament (+91 kg), Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, August 1983: North American Championships (+91 kg), Houston, Texas, September 1983: XXII Playa Girón National Championships (+91 kg), Manzanillo, Cuba, January 1984: USA–Cuba Duals (+91 kg), Sparks Convention Center, Reno, Nevada, February 1984: XIII Chemistry Cup (+91 kg), Halle, East Germany, March–April 1984: AIBA International Challenge (+91 kg), Los Angeles, California, April 1984: Intercup (+91 kg), Karlsruhe, West Germany, May 1984: Cuba–USSR Duals (+91 kg), Havana, Cuba, August 1984: Friendship Games (+91 kg), Havana, Cuba, August 1984: III TSC Tournament (+81 kg), Berlin, East Germany, September 1984: XXIII Playa Girón National Championships (+91 kg), Nueva Gerona, Cuba, January 1985: VI Military Spartakiad of the Friendly Armies of the Socialist Countries (+91 kg), Bydgoszcz, Poland, August 1985: IV TSC Tournament (+91 kg), Berlin, East Germany, September 1985: XXI Vaclav Prochazka Memorial (+91 kg), Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, October 1985: XXIV Playa Girón National Championships (+91 kg), Havana, Cuba, January 1986: XXXVII Strandzha Cup (+91 kg), Sofia, Bulgaria, February 1986: XV Chemistry Cup (+91 kg), Halle, East Germany, March 1986: XVII Ústí nad Labem Grand Prix (+91 kg) Ústí nad Labem, Czechoslovakia, March 1986: XIX Giraldo Córdova Cardín Tournament (+91 kg), Guantánamo, Cuba, April 1986: World Championships (+91 kg), Sparks Convention Center, Reno, Nevada, May 1986:
 * 1/4: Defeated Luis Martínez (Cuba) RSC
 * 1/2: Defeated Roberto Gómez (Cuba) KO
 * Finals: Held Ángel Milián Rivero (Cuba) to a draw
 * Defeated Jimmy Clark (United States) by split decision, 2–1 (Clark was given a standing eight count at 2:12 of the 1st rd; Clark knocked down at 1:55 of the 3rd rd; Cuban referee Romelio Santiago repeatedly issued warnings for lunging to Clark)
 * 1/2: Defeated Czesław Dawiec (Poland) RET 1
 * Finals: Defeated Ulli Kaden (East Germany) RSC 2
 * 1/4: Defeated Nikolay Timkin (Soviet Union) KO 1
 * 1/2: Defeated Ferenc Somodi (Hungary) KO 2
 * Finals: Defeated István Lévai (Hungary) KO 3
 * 1/4: Defeated Rolando Herrera (Cuba) RSC
 * 1/2: Defeated Lázaro Figueras (Cuba) by decision
 * Finals: Lost to Ángel Milián Rivero (Cuba) by walkover
 * 1/16: Defeated Solomon Ataga (Nigeria) KO 1
 * 1/4: Defeated Grzegorz Skrzecz (Poland) KO 3 (2:12)
 * 1/2: Defeated István Lévai (Hungary) by unanimous decision, 5–0
 * Finals: Defeated Pyotr Zayev (Soviet Union) by majority decision, 4–1
 * 1/8: Defeated Hermes Córdova (Cuba) by walkover
 * 1/4: Defeated Rolando Herrera (Cuba) RSC
 * 1/2: Held Ángel Milián Rivero (Cuba) to a draw
 * Finals: Defeated Roberto Taylor (Cuba) by walkover
 * Defeated Jorge Luis González (Cuba) by decision
 * 1/4: Defeated Luis Palmar (Cuba) KO
 * 1/2: Defeated Fidel César (Cuba) KO
 * Finals: Held Ángel Milián Rivero (Cuba) to a draw
 * 1/2: Defeated Dietmar Mayer (East Germany) RSC 1
 * Finals: Lost to Ulli Kaden (East Germany) DQ 1
 * 1/8: Defeated Orlando Ruíz (Cuba) RSC
 * 1/4: Defeated Aleksandr Oreshkin (Soviet Union) RET 2
 * 1/2: Defeated Horacio Navia Ruíz (Cuba) RET 2
 * Finals: Defeated Sergey Kirilitsyn (Soviet Union) by unanimous decision, 5–0
 * 1/4: Lost to Francesco Damiani (Italy) by unanimous decision, 0–5
 * 1/2: Defeated Nelson Rosas (Puerto Rico) KO 1
 * Finals: Defeated James Parson (United States Virgin Islands) RET 1
 * Defeated Tyrell Biggs (United States) KO 2 (2:59)
 * 1/4: Lost to Jorge Luis González (Cuba) by decision
 * Lost to Ulli Kaden (East Germany) by decision
 * 1/2: Defeated Epifanio Estrada (Cuba) by decision
 * Finals: Lost to Aleksandr Lukstin (Soviet Union) by split decision, 2–3
 * 1/2: Lost to Craig Payne (United States) by split decision, 2–3
 * Finals: Defeated Félix Lemus (Cuba) by decision
 * Defeated Tyrell Biggs (United States) by split decision, 3–2 (Biggs knocked down at 2:05 of the 3rd rd; Biggs suffered three ribs broken)
 * 1/4: Defeated Olaf Walther (East Germany) KO 2
 * 1/2: Defeated Pyotr Skok (Soviet Union) RSC 1
 * Finals: Defeated Ulli Kaden (East Germany) by majority decision, 4–1
 * Defeated Biaggio Chianese (Italy) by unanimous decision, 5–0
 * 1/2: Defeated Karl-Heinz Geus (West Germany) KO 2
 * Finals: Defeated John Emmen (Netherlands) RSC 1
 * Defeated Valeriy Abadzhyan (Soviet Union) KO 2
 * 1/2: Defeated Ulli Kaden (East Germany) KO 2
 * Finals: Defeated Valeriy Abadzhyan (Soviet Union) RET 3
 * Finals: Defeated Ulli Kaden (East Germany) KO 2
 * 1/4: Lost to Félix Lemus (Cuba) by decision
 * 1/4: Defeated Khalil Nasser (Iraq) by walkover
 * 1/2: Lost to Vyacheslav Yakovlev (Soviet Union) by unanimous decision, 0–5
 * 1/2: Defeated Sergey Kormilitsyn (Soviet Union) by unanimous decision, 5–0
 * Finals: Defeated Ulli Kaden (East Germany) by unanimous decision, 5–0
 * 1/4: Defeated ? Baguin (Czechoslovakia)
 * 1/2: Defeated Ilya Iliev (Bulgaria)
 * Finals: Defeated Biaggio Chianese (Italy) by walkover
 * 1/2: Defeated Juan Carlos Ortega (Cuba) RSC 1
 * Finals: Defeated Félix Lemus (Cuba) RET 3
 * 1/4: Defeated Aleksander Burmistrov (Bulgaria) by majority decision, 4–1
 * 1/2: Defeated Petar Stoimenov (Bulgaria) KO 2
 * Finals: Defeated Lachezar Kamenov (Bulgaria) by unanimous decision, 5–0
 * Finals: Lost to Ulli Kaden (East Germany) by unanimous decision, 0–5
 * 1/2: Defeated Valeriy Aseyev (Soviet Union) RSC 2
 * Finals: Defeated István Lévai (Hungary) by unanimous decision, 5–0
 * 1/4: Lost to Osvaldo Castillo (Cuba) by majority decision, 1–4
 * 1/8: Defeated Ulli Kaden (East Germany) by unanimous decision, 5–0
 * 1/4: Defeated Petar Stoimenov (Bulgaria) KO 1
 * 1/2: Defeated Vyacheslav Yakovlev (Soviet Union) by majority decision, 4–1
 * Finals: Defeated Alex García (United States) RSCH 2 (1:06)

He finished his twenty-years-long career having 332 fights under his belt, with a record of 302 wins, 22 losses (only 1 by knockout,) and 8 draws. Various western estimates totaling his record to 500+ fights, including there hundreds of unaccounted tough sparrings with a degree of aliveness outstanding for amateur boxing, which paid off with such an excellent career (his fearsome reputation alone brought him 22 walkover wins, and a number of byes to skip unnecessary encounters with a limited opposition.)

1984 and 1988 Summer Olympics
Stevenson might have captured more gold medals for his country, but the Cuban government for purely political reasons boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Games and refused to attend the 1988 Seoul Games because North Korea was not allowed to cosponsor the event.

At his prime in the 1970s, Stevenson dominance in the amateur heavyweight division coincided with Muhammad Ali's reign as the world's heavyweight champion in professional boxing. Stevenson was often dubbed by the American media as Ali's "Communist twin", and speculations went back and forth as to their much anticipated fight if Stevenson would accept an offer to turn pro (which in essence meant to defect and to leave Cuba permanently). Along with Pete Rademacher, he was the only amateur boxer who was offered a shot at the world's heavyweight title in his potential pro debut. Eventually Ali spent one week in Cuba with Stevenson, but their matchup would never happen. Stevenson, when he finally met Ali, suggested to Ali to arrange a three- or four-round fight. Ali refused to fight Stevenson's way, implying he would face him off in a standard 15-round championship bout, in which he would have an edge by outlasting his opponent (although in 1971 Ali himself invited the recent Soviet heavyweight champion Kamo Saroyan, who visited the United States, for a two-round bout). When the aging Ali was going to fight Larry Holmes in 1980, and Stevenson was making his way to the third gold medal in Moscow, Stevenson commented to the press that now it was Ali who should have insisted on a three- or four-round fight.

Stevenson turned down several lucrative offers to go pro, which came from various internationally well-known U.S. boxing kingpins, most notably from Don King and Bob Arum. King's top rival Arum almost succeeded and came the closest to pulling off an Ali-Stevenson matchup when the Cubans accepted his $1 million offer for five three-round exhibition fights. "We plan to use this money for social problems," an INDER official said at the time. But the U.S. Treasury Department did not allow the series, saying that it violated terms of the U.S. embargo against Cuba. Apart from that attempt, Arum used a Jamaican promoter, Lucien Chen, as a mediator, to propose a $1 million fight against Leon Spinks. "I envisioned a fight that would be attended by the two presidents, Fidel Castro and Jimmy Carter," Chen said.

Nevertheless, Stevenson's professional debut never did happen, because he remained loyal to the Cuban revolutionary ideals, never accepting any payday for himself, no matter how big it appeared. After knocking out three opponents at the Munich Olympics in September 1972, including Duane Bobick of the United States, Stevenson was approached by an American promoter, who offered him $1 million to turn pro on the spot. "I will not trade the Cuban people for all the dollars in the world," Stevenson was heard to say. "Stevenson would have been phenomenal as a pro, he could have been in the same class as Muhammad Ali or Joe Frazier. But we'll never know," said Don King.

Retirement
Stevenson finished his sports career in 1988. He started to work as a boxing trainer and sports functionary. He worked at the National Institute for Sports, Physical Education, and Recreation (INDER,) also he served as vice president of the Cuban Boxing Federation.

Later life
In 1999, Stevenson was arrested for an altercation incident at Miami International Airport where, before boarding a United Airlines chartered jet of the Cuban national boxing team, he allegedly headbutted a 41-year-old United Airlines ticket counter employee, knocking out several of his teeth. According to Stevenson, an "agitator" approached him at the airport shouting insults against the Cuban government. Stevenson failed to attend the subsequent court proceedings, having travelled to Havana after his release from custody while on bail. The Cuban state newspaper Trabajadores blamed what it described as the "Miami mafia" (i.e. Cuban exiles, whose vast diaspora reside in Florida) for provoking the incident, alleging that the Cuban American National Foundation organised a public gathering to abuse Stevenson when he returned to Miami airport after his arrest. The newspaper believed that the motives for the alleged provocation were somehow to cast a shadow upon a Cuban sports star.

Death
Stevenson died on 11 June 2012 of a heart attack in Havana at the age of 60. It was first reported by Cuban state media, stating "the Cuban sporting family was moved today by the passing of one of the greatest of all time".

He was survived by his two children.

A forthcoming documentary by Brin-Jonathan Butler, Split Decision, contains the last known interview with Stevenson.

Awards and honours

 * Stevenson was awarded the Val Barker Trophy for Outstanding Boxer at the 1972 Olympic Games.
 * In 1972, Stevenson became a Merited Master of Sport of the USSR, one of a few foreign athletes to be awarded the title in its history.

title: Teófilo Stevenson


text:
Talk:Institutional Revolutionary Party

Flag colors
<>

The reason for this criticism was quite valid.

Many Mexican voters in rural communities were (and are) functionally illiterate and relied on the logo's colors to identify the party. The use of the Mexican flag colors was initially reserved for the PRI (The PAN was allotted a blue and white logo, and the leftist PRD a yellow and black logo).

This gave many voters the impression that the PRI was effectively the party of the state (a fairly true impression until around 1997), and the opposition parties were against the state and perhaps dangerous to the established order. This, coupled with the very real fear that a community that voted against the PRI would suffer losses of funding and state harassment; helped maintain the PRI majority for so many decades.

...
<>

The PRI governed Mexico for 71 years.

The two wings of the PRI are:

1. an old-fashioned, conservative wing, so-called "dinosaurs"

2. a neoliberal, technocrat wing

Inner-party democratization process:

first wave: mid-eighties under Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzanos, finally, towards the presidential election in 1988, he and many of his supporters split up to form the roots of the PRD

second wave: 1994-2000 (under Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León). By 2000 the PRI was the only Mexican party to hold up an open preelection to select their presidential candidate.

Overall, Zedillo made great contributions to enhance democracy in Mexico: he weakened the role of the president with constitutional reforms, made the IFE (Instituto Federal Electoral) independent, unconditionally recognized the opposition's victories (first on state level, than on national level in 2000).

...
<>

The original sentence quoted above is flawed for various reasons, including that the ecomic stability during Vicente Fox's tenure was also developed partially through the Zedillo administration's executive power and cooperation, not by ministers under Fox's administration. Fox merely kept previous stabilizing policies and deepened others. Therefore, the sentence will be split into two more historically, academically, and grammatcially correct sentences so as to say: "Greater economic stability since the 1995 peso crises was achieved in great part through economic reforms begun under Zedillo. Subsequent administrations maintained stability with continued assistance from PRI members such as Secretary of Finance Francisco Gil Diaz and Bank of Mexico head Guillermo Ortiz."

PRI not "authoritarian"?

 * Some academics discuss whether the PRI regime can even be considered totalitarian or authoritarian. (from the first paragraph)

Could someone cite a source for these academics? While I'd agree that PRI rule was not totalitarian, the belief that it wasn't authoritarian would be a fringe view. --metzerly 03:55, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

I corrected the fact Mario Vargas Llosa´s statement was made in 1990 and not in 2000. I was the one to wrote about PRI´s definition as totalitarian or authoritarian. The last point of view it´s supported by people like Soledad Loaeza, Federico Reyes Heroles, Jesús Silva Herzog Junior...all people who had benefits in some way of PRI´s regime. I know by experience it was the worst ("perfect") dictatorship, but that was my personal experience.

Octavio Paz called it a dictatorship also in the original edition of his book "Conjunciones y Disyunciones" (1969) but that was banned in later editions. Posmodern2000

NPOV Tag Removed
The NPOV tag was added by an anonymous editor who didn't sign any comment on this talk page; nor are they any serious POV discussions here. I'm removing it. --01:59, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Role of Freemasonry
Apart from the fact that Calles himself was an acknowledged Freemason, it would not be a bad idea to describe the role of Masons within the IRP, and how they often used the organization to consolidate their influence within Mexican politics and society. ADM (talk) 08:24, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Neoliberal Party?
I had the idea that this party, despite his socialist roots, was largely seen as a neoliberal, at least centrist party. Socialist and social-democratic means basically the same.81.193.188.147 (talk) 01:48, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

You are right. It really has no ideology, and in the last years have taken a Right-wing approach 189.217.127.254 (talk) 20:12, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
 * The ideology is republicanism and "no re-eleccion" historically combined with agrarianism today with neoliberalism.·ʍaunus·snunɐw· 22:04, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

"revolutionary party" = lol
(Spanish: "Partido de la Revolución Mexicana", PRM) whose aim was to establish a democracy of workers and socialism.

"democracy of workers and socialism" makes zero sense. This needs to be edited in order to make it intelligible.
 * I'm supposing what what meant was for workers, then "and socialism" adding the term to indicate its ideology. The Big Hoof! (talk) 13:57, 9 July 2013 (UTC) Struck out sock. bobrayner (talk) 05:33, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

Non-morphological character?
Can someone explain what this sentence means: "Institutionalism in Mexico is a concept that is based in the non-morphological character of consolidated human organizations, having the particular feature of belonging to its determinated legal field and settled as the highest manifestation of social common issues, as well as people use to go in and outside the objective legal field. In its origins, it was determined that institutionalism would be the only way to solve social problems as humans establish their differences and common similarities."? Bookbrad (talk) 21:26, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

What does "Mediatic" mean? Should you be using a word that doesn't exist as a section header? 199.107.16.123 (talk) 21:41, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

Tlatelolco 1968
Hey, you , Gustavo Diaz Ordaz wasnt the one who made the order to kill the students , is was Luis Evecherria ,Gustavo wasnt in the country .--Puchianos86 (talk) 23:37, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
 * You might find this source interesting. To be sure, many of the details of the massacre remain unclear/disputed. ComputerJA ( ☎  •  ✎  ) 01:49, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

Violations of NPOV and UNDUE
Multiple sections (specifically the subsections of "Return of the PRI") are not written in an encyclopedic tone, neutrally, and give undue weight (see WP:NPOV and WP:UNDUE). I will tag the article and try to do some clean-up, but I don't feel like getting into a political war here with those trying to push a certain agenda. MX ( ✉  •  ✎  ) 05:17, 19 November 2017 (UTC)

 * I do not think, there is undue weight people in Mexico clearly perceive the PRI as a corrupt political party. And many perceive their long extended rule of almost a century, as a dictature. And every scandall is sourced. In fact, I think the article is generous to the party, it could make it look even worse if it were really were better edited.Rosvel92 (talk) 05:42, 1 December 2017 (UTC)rosvel92

 * I am working my way through the article, Wikifying existing text and adding text with citations. I don't have a political agenda for the edits. Fairly soon, I'd like to suggest that the NPOV and UNDUE tags be removed. Amuseclio (talk) 17:36, 5 April 2019 (UTC)Amuseclio

PRI corruption
Is the most corrupted political party in Mexico Yaneth99 (talk) 15:40, 6 January 2018 (UTC) PRI REPRESENTATIVES NEVER TELL PEOPLE IN RURAL AREAS WHAT THEY DO THEY JUST ASK FOR THEIR VOTES AND IN EXCHANGE THEY GET TRASH FOOD ! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 104.172.84.98 (talk) 22:06, 11 January 2018 (UTC)

"Untrue" clarification needed
There is apparently an issue with the introductory portion of the article as follows:

Throughout its nine-decade existence, the PRI has adopted a very wide array of ideologies (often determined by the President of the Republic in turn). In the 1980s, the party went through reforms that shaped its current incarnation, with policies characterized as centre-right, such as the privatization of State-run companies, closer relations with the Catholic church, and embracing free-market capitalism. At the same time, the left-wing members of the party abandoned the PRI and founded the Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolución Democrática, PRD) in 1989.

Though it is a full member of the Socialist International (along with its rival, the left-wing PRD; Mexico is one of the few nations with two major, competing parties that are part of the same international grouping), the PRI is not considered a social democratic party in the traditional sense.

Please discuss what needs to be altered from this.Gumbi93 (talk) 15:33, 17 September 2018 (UTC)

Proposal to remove tags
In my assessment, the tags are no longer necessary, but I would like to hear from other Wiki editors about this. Amuseclio (talk) 16:07, 6 April 2019 (UTC)Amuseclio

Presidential succession before the formation of the party
I added a section on presidential succession before the formation of the party. It was deleted with the short explanation "Barely relevant to the history of the Party itself." As an historian, I consider the history and context integral to understanding questions at hand. So I *do* think the political practices and the immediate context are relevant to the formation of the party and I can elaborate further. The issues as I see it are the general lack of parties prior to the formation of the PNR; the principle of no-reelection that Díaz asserted with Juárez and then again with Lerdo, only to abandon it entirely in 1884 to rule until 1911, making no re-election a central tenet of the Mexican Revolution; the Sonoran revolutionary generals' political connections and conflicts and their assertion of power over the civilian Carranza who attempted to impose Bonillas, a civilian and revolutionary nobody as next president; and the crisis that the 1928 assassination of Obregón presented. I would like to hear further why the Wiki editor did not consider the section relevant. Meantime, I will review the deleted text to make the relevance clearer.Amuseclio (talk) 20:43, 6 April 2019 (UTC)Amuseclio

Orphaned references in Institutional Revolutionary Party
I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Institutional Revolutionary Party's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "terra": From 1985 Mexico City earthquake:  From Mario Vargas Llosa: Terra. 2010 October 7. Vargas Llosa a 20 años de "México es una dictadura perfecta" (Vargas Llosa, 20 years after "Mexico is a perfect dictatorship").

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 05:00, 26 December 2019 (UTC)

"regime"
The repeated use of the word "regime" outside of quotes, in wiki-voice seems to be a WP:NPOV concern. ResultingConstant (talk) 16:47, 1 October 2021 (UTC)

 * I'm responsible for some uses of the word in this article. I should clarify that in Spanish, "régimen" doesn't carry the negative connotations that "regime" does in English; it's simply used to describe any kind of government/administration to distinguish it from others. In fact, many times in interviews or books etc, the Mexican presidents of the PRI era themselves use the word for their own governments, saying things such as "in my regime we fought corruption, the economy improved etc".

 * I do understand that the word can be problematic in English due to its negative/authoritarian connotations (though the PRI era was far from being democratic or free as the article explains). If everyone else finds it convenient, it can be replaced with "government", even if I have my own apprehensions about using such a term to refer to a single "PRI Government" (since the period during which the PRI ruled over Mexico between 1929-2000 covers 12 Presidents, and therefore 12 different governments as opposed to one single "PRI Government" with the same President governing during the 71 years.), but if there's no better alternative, I won't oppose replacing the word "regime" with "government" in the instances where it is used in this article if that helps make it more neutral. --CHUI372 (talk) 22:13, 1 October 2021 (UTC)

 * I would much prefer "government". While I agree the PRI may have been authoritarian, wiki voice in english should stick to a less loaded term imo. That being said, of course if there are notable detractors or commentators using the word regime, we can quote them. Regarding the one vs many problem, doesn't regime have the same problem? there were 12 regimes?  in any case, "goverments" is fine although sounds weird. Administrations? tenure?

ResultingConstant (talk) 15:04, 6 October 2021 (UTC)
 * To my mind "regime" is more neutral in English than in Spanish! You get thousands of scholarly hits for "Thatcher regime", "Blair regime", "Clinton Regime" and "Obama Regime", whereas as the Spanish government absolutely lost it when journalists used "the Rajoy regime" when they went through their little Franco throwback moment in Barcelona. Boynamedsue (talk) 17:03, 17 April 2022 (UTC)
 * That's an interesting observation. Maybe in Latin America, or only here in Mexico, "régimen" is a much more neutral word than in Spain. As I said before, former Mexican presidents use "régimen" when talking about their own governments.--CHUI372 (talk) 19:49, 17 April 2022 (UTC)
 * It could well be a difference in typical usage between Spain and Latin America. Given the prominence of Mexican Spanish in Latin American news channels I wouldn't expect a big difference anywhere but the Cono Sur. I was very surprised by the Spanish government's freakout, because to my (English) ears regime sounds quite neutral. I suppose it goes back to the use of "el régimen" as shorthand for "el régimen franquista". Boynamedsue (talk) 20:17, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

Social democracy?
Many sources says that the Institutional Revolutionary Party is a socialdemocratic party in it's latest assembly held last December 2021  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.104.57.209 (talk) 07:41, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Institutional Revolutionary Party


text:
Talk:Charles I of England

Charles I of England
The title of this article is misleading as England was not his sole kingdom. Perhaps one of the regular editors would like to review that? Shipsview (talk) 17:29, 30 August 2023 (UTC)
 * See Talk:Charles I of England/Archive 2. Celia Homeford (talk) 07:27, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Five members
I'm wondering if the section on the Five Members should be summerised more and then linked to the article Five Members which should have all the details? Currently, I do not any such link. Jp2207 (talk) 23:55, 22 November 2023 (UTC)
 * There are two links to that article in that section. Celia Homeford (talk) 10:13, 30 November 2023 (UTC)
 * @Celia Homeford, indeed there is already a link. Thanks for spotting that. But don't you think it is better to have the link to the main article as I did it and remove the other in-line link? This is common practice in the rest of the article where sections have their own page (Bishops' Wars, Irish Rebellion, Long Parliament). My thinking is that such sections should be broad summaries only, or relating to Charles part played in them obviously, and otherwise avoid details best left in their own articles. Thoughts? Jp2207 (talk) 17:16, 30 November 2023 (UTC)
 * @DrKay, re my change may I suggest that the inclusion of the names is superfluous to an article on the life of Charles I? The Five Members article can be easily followed by anyone who cares to find them. I left in Pym as he was the clear leader of the parliamentary opposition to Charles at the time, as referenced several times in the prior section. But I will grant that my first effort is a bit clumsy. How about keeping it simple?:
 * “On 3 January 1642, Charles directed Parliament to give up five specific members of the Commons - Pym included - on the grounds of high treason.”
 * Jp2207 (talk) 02:00, 24 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Nothing is lost by naming the five and it's weird to name Pym but not the others. DrKay (talk) 07:08, 24 December 2023 (UTC)
 * @DrKay Simplicity is lost. And I explained why Pym is mentioned. Anyway, it was just a suggestion based on the existence of a whole article on the 5 members topic to avoid duplication. I can easily live with it as is. Jp2207 (talk) 17:59, 24 December 2023 (UTC)

Martyrdom
Per, all three articles are already linked from this one. Unsurprisingly, that's what I meant by 'repeated links'. Per, it's already in the main body. DrKay (talk) 19:05, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

Requested move 15 February 2024

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. – robertsky (talk) 00:34, 23 February 2024 (UTC)

Charles I of England → Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland – Charles was not only the king of England. DieOuTransvaal (talk) 23:27, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

 * Oppose and WP:SNOW close. It is well-established on Wikipedia that, where someone was a monarch of multiple countries, their title is that of the most important country.  The same applies to move requests on his sons Charles II and James II/VII. PatGallacher (talk) 01:29, 16 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Not exactly, though. In some instances, no countries are shown at all. GoodDay (talk) 15:03, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

 * Oppose and WP:SNOW per PatGallacher. Charles I lived in England during his reign. Векочел (talk) 02:16, 16 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Elizabeth II lived & Charles III lives in the United Kingdom. Yet we omit "of the United Kingdom" from there page names. Then there's George III, George IV, William IV, Queen Victoria, Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII & George VI. So apparently 'where' they live is irrelevant. GoodDay (talk) 15:07, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
 * Oppose per WP:SOVEREIGN: Where a monarch has reigned over a number of states, use the most commonly associated ordinal and state. Rosbif73 (talk) 08:45, 16 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Unnecessarily long. Unnecessary disambiguation. Use the more concise unambiguous title. Celia Homeford (talk) 12:38, 16 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Comment Every monarch of England between 1542 and 1707 was also the monarch of Ireland, why single him out? Every monarch of England between 1603 and 1707 was also the monarch of Scotland. Dimadick (talk) 13:25, 16 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Shorter is generally better. No one will be confused. -- Ssilvers (talk) 01:49, 17 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose per previous.2601:249:9301:D570:928:1581:7D4F:E386 (talk) 02:04, 17 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose He was primarily associated with England; the same way Christian VIII of Denmark was also King of Norway, but primarily associated with Denmark. The suggested title is also unnecessarily long. Keivan.f  Talk 06:55, 17 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Very clear WP:COMMONNAME. -- Necrothesp (talk) 15:53, 22 February 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 19 July 2024
so, i'd like to change Elizabeth Stuart's birthday day, because you put "29th" december while she was born on the 28th. My sources are the wikipedia articles about Elizabeth Stuart. Thanks again Amy2010ben (talk) 09:52, 19 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia is not a reliable source, see WP:CIRC. The source given in the article (Weir 1996, pp. 252–254) says 29th, though I do appreciate that ODNB (https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/8637) says 28th. Other sources give both dates, e.g. . DrKay (talk) 10:34, 19 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Charliehdb (talk) 13:04, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Charles I of England


text:
Tequila Sunrise

Tequila Sunrise may refer to:
 * Tequila sunrise, an alcoholic mixed drink
 * Tequila Sunrise (film), a 1988 film
 * "Tequila Sunrise" (Eagles song), 1973
 * "Tequila Sunrise" (Cypress Hill song), 1998
 * "Tequila Sunrise", a 2019 song by Jackson Wang and Higher Brothers from Head in the Clouds II
 * "Tequila Sunrise", a 1976 song and 2002 album by Annie Whittle
 * Tequila sunrise, a uniform worn by the Houston Astros

title: Tequila Sunrise


text:
Boeing YAL-1

The Boeing YAL-1 airborne laser testbed was a modified Boeing 747-400F with a megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) mounted inside. It was primarily designed to test its feasibility as a missile defense system to destroy tactical ballistic missiles (TBMs) while in boost phase. The aircraft was designated YAL-1A in 2004 by the U.S. Department of Defense.

The YAL-1 with a low-power laser was test-fired in flight at an airborne target in 2007. A high-energy laser was used to intercept a test target in January 2010, and the following month, successfully destroyed two test missiles. Funding for the program was cut in 2010 and the program was canceled in December 2011. It made its final flight on February 14, 2012, to Davis–Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Arizona, to be kept in storage at the "boneyard" operated by the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group. It was ultimately scrapped in September 2014 after all usable parts were removed.

Origins

The Airborne Laser Laboratory was a less-powerful prototype installed in a Boeing NKC-135A. It shot down several missiles in tests conducted in the 1980s.

The Airborne Laser program was initiated by the US Air Force in 1996 with the awarding of a product definition risk reduction contract to Boeing's ABL team. In 2001, the program was transferred to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and converted to an acquisition program.

The development of the system was being accomplished by a team of contractors. Boeing Defense, Space & Security provides the aircraft, the management team, and the systems integration processes. Northrop Grumman was supplying the COIL, and Lockheed Martin was supplying the nose turret and the fire control system.

In 2001, a retired Air India 747-200 was acquired by the Air Force and trucked without its wings from the Mojave Airport to Edwards Air Force Base where the airframe was incorporated into the System Integration Laboratory (SIL) building at Edwards' Birk Flight Test Center, to be used to fit check and test the various components. The SIL was built primarily to test the COIL at a simulated operational altitude, and during that phase of the program, the laser was operated over 50 times, achieving lasing durations representative of actual operational engagements. These tests fully qualified the system so that it could be integrated into the actual aircraft. Following the completion of the tests, the laboratory was dismantled, and the 747-200 fuselage was removed.

The aircraft was built as a 747-400F freighter at the Boeing Everett Factory with manufacturer's serial number 30201 and fuselage line number 1238. The aircraft took its first flight on 6 January 2000. It was shortly thereafter delivered to Boeing Defense, Space & Security in Wichita, Kansas for initial conversion for military use. The aircraft took to the skies again on 18 July 2002. Ground testing of the chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) resulted in its successful firing in 2004. The YAL-1 was assigned to the 417th Flight Test Squadron Airborne Laser Combined Test Force at Edwards AFB.

Testing
Besides the COIL, the system also included two kilowatt-class Target Illuminator Lasers for target tracking. On March 15, 2007, the YAL-1 successfully fired this laser in flight, hitting its target. The target was an NC-135E Big Crow test aircraft that has been specially modified with a "signboard" target on its fuselage. The test validated the system's ability to track an airborne target and measure and compensate for atmospheric distortion.

The next phase in the test program involved the "surrogate high-energy laser" (SHEL), a stand-in for the COIL, and demonstrated the transition from target illumination to simulated weapons firing. The COIL system was installed in the aircraft and was undergoing ground testing by July 2008.

In an April 6, 2009 press conference, the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recommended the cancellation of the planned second ABL aircraft and said that the program should return to a Research and Development effort. "The ABL program has significant affordability and technology problems and the program's proposed operational role is highly questionable," Gates said in making the recommendation.

There was a test launch off the California coast on June 6, 2009. At that time it was anticipated that the new Airborne Laser Aircraft could be ready for operation by 2013 after a successful test. On August 13, 2009, the first in-flight test of the YAL-1 culminated with a successful firing of the SHEL at an instrumented test missile.

On August 18, 2009 the high-energy laser aboard the aircraft successfully fired in flight for the first time. The YAL-1 took off from Edwards Air Force Base and fired its high-energy laser while flying over the California High Desert. The laser was fired into an onboard calorimeter, which captured the beam and measured its power.

In January 2010, the high-energy laser was used in-flight to intercept, although not destroy, a test Missile Alternative Range Target Instrument (MARTI) in the boost phase of flight. On February 11, 2010, in a test at Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center-Weapons Division Sea Range off the central California coast, the system successfully destroyed a liquid-fuel boosting ballistic missile. Less than an hour after that first missile had been destroyed, a second missile—a solid-fuel design—had, as announced by the MDA, been "successfully engaged", but not destroyed, and that all test criteria had been met. The MDA announcement also noted that ABL had destroyed an identical solid-fuel missile in flight eight days earlier. This test was the first time that a directed-energy system destroyed a ballistic missile in any phase of flight. It was later reported that the first February 11 engagement required 50% less dwell time than expected to destroy the missile, the second engagement on the solid-fuel missile, less than an hour later, had to be cut short before it could be destroyed because of a "beam misalignment" problem.

Cancellation
Secretary of Defense Gates summarized fundamental concerns with the practicality of the program concept: I don't know anybody at the Department of Defense, Mr. Tiahrt, who thinks that this program should, or would, ever be operationally deployed. The reality is that you would need a laser something like 20 to 30 times more powerful than the chemical laser in the plane right now to be able to get any distance from the launch site to fire ... So, right now the ABL would have to orbit inside the borders of Iran in order to be able to try and use its laser to shoot down that missile in the boost phase. And if you were to operationalize this you would be looking at 10 to 20 747s, at a billion and a half dollars apiece, and $100 million a year to operate. And there's nobody in uniform that I know who believes that this is a workable concept.

The Air Force did not request further funds for the Airborne Laser for 2010; Air Force Chief of Staff Schwartz has said that the system "does not reflect something that is operationally viable".

In December 2011, it was reported that the project was to be ended after 16 years of development and a cost of over US$5 billion. While in its current form, a relatively low power laser mounted on an unprotected airliner may not be a practical or defensible weapon, the YAL-1 testbed is considered to have proven that air mounted energy weapons with increased range and power could be another viable way of destroying otherwise very difficult to intercept sub-orbital ballistic missiles and rockets. On 12 February 2012, the YAL-1 flew its final flight and landed at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, where it was placed in storage at the "boneyard" operated by the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group until it was ultimately scrapped in September 2014 after all usable parts were removed.

As of 2013, studies were underway to apply the lessons of the YAL-1 by mounting laser anti-missile defenses on unmanned combat aerial vehicles that could fly above the altitude limits of the converted jetliner.

By 2015, the Missile Defense Agency had started efforts to deploy a laser on a high-altitude UAV. Rather than a manned jetliner containing chemical fuels flying at 40000 ft, firing a megawatt laser from a range of "tens of kilometers" at a boost-phase missile, the new concept envisioned an unmanned aircraft carrying an electric laser flying at 65000 ft, firing the same power level at targets potentially up to "hundreds of kilometers" away for survivability against air defenses. While the ABL's laser required 55 kg to generate one kW, the MDA wanted to reduce that to 2 - 5 kg per kW, totaling 5,000 lb for a megawatt. Unlike the ABL, which required its crew to rest and chemical fuel to be reloaded, an electric laser would need only power generating from fuel to fire, so a UAV with in-flight refueling could have near-inexhaustible endurance and armament. A "low-power demonstrator" was planned to fly sometime in or around 2021. Challenges in reaching required power levels on a platform with sufficient performance led to the MDA choosing not to pursue the concept.

COIL
The heart of the system was the COIL, comprising six interconnected modules, each as large as an SUV. Each module weighed about 6,500 pounds (3,000 kg). When fired, the laser used enough energy in a five-second burst to power a typical American household for more than an hour.

Use against ICBMs vs TBMs

The ABL was designed for use against tactical ballistic missiles (TBMs). These have a shorter range and fly more slowly than ICBMs. The MDA had suggested the ABL might be used against ICBMs during their boost phase. This could require much longer flights to get in position, and might not be possible without flying over hostile territory. Liquid-fueled ICBMs, which have thinner skins, and remain in boost phase longer than TBMs, might be easier to destroy.

If the ABL had achieved its design goals, it could have destroyed liquid-fueled ICBMs up to 600 km away. Tougher solid-fueled ICBM destruction range would likely have been limited to 300 km, too short to be useful in many scenarios, according to a 2003 report by the American Physical Society on National Missile Defense.

Intercept sequence
The ABL system used infrared sensors for initial missile detection. After initial detection, three low-power tracking lasers calculated missile course, speed, aimpoint, and air turbulence. Air turbulence deflects and distorts lasers. The ABL adaptive optics use the turbulence measurement to compensate for atmospheric errors. The main laser, located in a turret on the aircraft nose, could be fired for 3 to 5 seconds, causing the missile to break up in flight near the launch area. The ABL was not designed to intercept TBMs in the terminal or descending flight phase. Thus, the ABL would have had to be within a few hundred kilometers of the missile launch point. All of this would have occurred in approximately 8 to 12 seconds.

Operational considerations

The ABL did not burn through or disintegrate its target. It heated the missile skin, weakening it, causing failure from high-speed flight stress. The laser used chemical fuel similar to rocket propellant to generate the high laser power. Plans called for each 747 to carry enough laser fuel for about 20 shots, or perhaps as many as 40 low-power shots against fragile TBMs. To refuel the laser, YAL-1 would have to land. The aircraft itself could have been refueled in flight, which would have enabled it to stay aloft for long periods. Preliminary operational plans called for the ABL to be escorted by fighters and possibly electronic warfare aircraft. The ABL aircraft would likely have had to orbit near potential launch sites (located in hostile countries) for long periods, flying a figure-eight pattern that allows the aircraft to keep the laser aimed toward the missiles.

Use against other targets
In theory, an airborne laser could be used against hostile fighter aircraft, cruise missiles, or even low-Earth-orbit satellites (see anti-satellite weapon). However, the YAL-1 infrared target acquisition system was designed to detect the hot exhaust of TBMs in boost phase. Satellites and other aircraft have a much lower heat signature, making them more difficult to detect. Aside from the difficulty of acquiring and tracking a different kind of target, ground targets such as armored vehicles and possibly even aircraft are not fragile enough to be damaged by a megawatt-class laser.

An analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists discusses potential airborne laser use against low Earth orbit satellites. Another program, the Advanced Tactical Laser, envisions air-to-ground use of a megawatt-class laser mounted on an aircraft better suited for low altitude flight.

Operator

 * United States Air Force
 * 417th Flight Test Squadron - Edwards AFB, California
 * 417th Flight Test Squadron - Edwards AFB, California

title: Boeing YAL-1


text:
Talk:Delaware General Corporation Law

PR management
I think this move did not make anything "more specific" or more clear. To the contrary, the move rather clouds the issue of Delaware corporations, and has been hiding the term almost entirely ever since. It also looks like the introduction has been given a PR makeover by perception managements spinmeisters. Delaware General Corporation Law is certainly the less well-known and less plausible search term, but I think hiding unflattering factual information was the entire point of that move and intervention. —ReadOnlyAccount (talk) 23:49, 23 November 2023 (UTC)

Faz coins
What are they for 71.82.105.134 (talk) 18:31, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Delaware General Corporation Law


text:
Principality of Hutt River

The Principality of Hutt River, often referred to by its former name, the Hutt River Province, was a micronation in Australia, proclaimed on 21 April 1970 when farmer Leonard Casley declared his farm to be a sovereign state, the "Hutt River Province". He claimed to have seceded from Australia, which occurred during his dispute with the authorities concerning wheat production quotas. A few years later, Casley began styling himself as "Prince Leonard" and granting family members royal titles, although he did not include the word "principality" in the official name until 2006. In 2017, Casley's claim to rulership was taken over by his son Graeme, who dropped the claim to sovereignty on 3 August 2020.

The claimed territory was located 517 km north of Perth, near the town of Northampton in the state of Western Australia. It had an area of 75 km2, making it larger than several recognized countries. It was not recognised as a country by the Australian Government nor any other national government, and the High Court of Australia and Supreme Court of Western Australia rejected submissions arguing that it was not subject to Australian laws.

The "principality" was a regional tourist attraction until it announced it was closed to tourists after 31 January 2020. It issued its own currency, stamps and passports (which are not recognised by the Australian government or any other government).

Leonard Casley died on 13 February 2019.

History

Leonard Casley (28 August 1925 – 13 February 2019) declared the principality an independent province in 1970 in response to a dispute with the government of Western Australia over what the Casley family considered draconian wheat production quotas. The Casley farm had around 4000 ha of wheat ready to harvest when the quotas were issued, which allowed Casley to sell only 1,647 bushels or approximately 40 ha. Initially, the five families who owned farms at Hutt River banded together to fight the quota, and Casley lodged a protest with the Governor of Western Australia, Sir Douglas Kendrew. The Governor did not assist.

Two weeks later, Casley claimed the government introduced a bill into Parliament to "resume" his and the other families' lands under compulsory acquisition laws. At this point, Casley claimed that international law allowed them to secede and declare independence from the Commonwealth of Australia. Casley said that he nonetheless remained loyal to Queen Elizabeth II.

At about this time, Casley claimed that in correspondence with the Governor-General's office, Casley was on one occasion inadvertently addressed as the "Administrator of the Hutt River Province". Casley claimed that this constitutes legally binding recognition of the principality.

Shortly thereafter, Leonard Casley styled himself "His Majesty Prince Leonard I of Hutt". Casley did this because he believed it would enable him to take advantage of the British Treason Act 1495, which provides that the de facto king of a nation cannot be guilty of treason in relation to any act against the lawful king and that anyone who interfered with that monarch's duties could be charged with treason.

Casley said that he continued to sell his wheat in open defiance of the quota. Casley believed that under Australian law the federal government had two years to respond to Casley's declaration of sovereignty. Casley says the failure to respond gave the province "de facto autonomy" on 21 April 1972, but that the Western Australian government can still dispute the secession.

On 15 February 1977, despite Casley's claims to sovereignty, he was successfully prosecuted for failing to comply with requirements to furnish the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) with required documents.

On 2 December 1977, Casley "declared war" on Australia, but notified authorities of the cessation of hostilities several days later. It may be more than coincidence that this declaration of war came in just a few months after a court decision where Casley was fined for failing to furnish the ATO with certain documents. The short state of war between the principality and Australia was a scheme whereby the Prince's purpose was to argue that, under the Geneva Treaty Convention of 12 August 1949, a government should show full respect to a nation undefeated from a state of war.

In 1978, Casley appealed to the Supreme Court of Western Australia against a conviction for conducting a shop on his property without a permit. His appeal was dismissed, except to alter the penalty.

In 1970 and 1984, Casley unsuccessfully defended civil legal actions brought against him by private parties – in the former case an injunction was granted against him in relation to a land deal; in the latter case he was ordered to pay debts owed to a publishing company he had contracted to print copies of a book called The Man, which was about himself and his achievements. Casley did not suggest in these cases that he was not subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of Australia. The principality released a number of stamps and coins.

In about 2006, the Prince was again successfully prosecuted by the ATO. He sought special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia, but his application was dismissed with the comment that his arguments were "fatuous, frivolous and vexatious".

In September 2006, the Prince decided to change the province's name to "Principality of Hutt River".

In January 2017, Casley announced that after ruling for 45 years, he would be stepping down, to be succeeded by his youngest son Graeme. With a number of potential sons and daughters, the successor was nominated by Casley and approved by a crown committee. Some commentary at the time had expected his older son, Ian, to be the successor.

In June 2017, Casley was ordered by the Supreme Court of Western Australia to pay $2.7 million in unpaid tax, and his son Arthur Casley was ordered to pay $242,000 in unpaid tax.

In February 2019, Casley died, leaving his son, Graeme Casley to succeed to the throne as "Prince Graeme" and inherit his $2.5 million debt to the Australian Tax Office. In December 2019, citing declining revenue from agriculture as well as a drop in tourist numbers, the Principality issued a media release to announce that it would be closing its borders with effect from 31 January 2020. The Principality would no longer accept visitors, would cease to issue entry and exit visas, and would stand down most government services and offices for the duration of the hiatus. The announcement included the following statement: "It is with a heavy heart and after much thought and consultation with my Cabinet and ADC that I have to inform all that the Government of the Principality of Hutt River is about to go on hiatus. Our borders will be closed to all (including tourists) and all government external services will cease at close of business Friday 31 January 2020 until further notice."

On 3 August 2020, the Principality was formally dissolved, amidst disputes with the Australian Taxation Office demanding the Principality pay millions in unpaid taxes across its 50-year history as well as the financial impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Principality's owned land was sold off to settle the tax dispute.

Status
The Principality had no legal status as a matter of Australian law. In 2007, the High Court of Australia dismissed an application by Casley for leave to appeal against a judgment against him relating to his son Leonard's failure to file tax returns. Leonard argued that he resided in the "Hutt River Province" and that it is not part of Australia and not subject to Australian taxation law. The court dismissed Casley's application and found that his arguments were "fatuous, frivolous, and vexatious."

The Australian government unequivocally stated on its website that it did not recognise the secession of the principality. Passports issued by the principality were not recognised by the Australian government. Leonard made unverified claims that they have been accepted on some occasions by some unspecified foreign countries, but there was a documented instance of a man being arrested in Germany for attempting to use a Hutt River Province "diplomatic passport".

Casley claimed that the ATO sent him a tax demand in 2012 to which he simply responded with a document stating that he was a "foreign national and non-resident of Australia". He also repeatedly claimed that he was classed by the ATO as a "non-resident of Australia for income tax purposes" and did not pay tax. In 2017, however, Justice Le Miere of the Supreme Court of Western Australia ordered Leonard to pay more than A$2.7 million in unpaid taxes, and Arthur Casley to pay more than A$242,000 in unpaid taxes. The judge said that their argument of sovereignty "has no legal merit or substance. Anyone can declare themselves a sovereign in their own home but they cannot ignore the laws of Australia or not pay tax." An appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed.

Despite this, the Principality continued to argue that it was an independent entity within the Australian legal system. The principality tried repeatedly to use a document purporting to be a letter from the Commonwealth Department of Territories admitting that the principality was a "legal entity". The Australian government noted that Casley "has used the document in various countries in the past and even sent a copy of it to Senator Evans in 1993". The Australian Government also told foreign governments, "We have seen the purported 'Department of Territories Minute' before. The clumsy language, including a Malapropian use of 'a mute point' gives it away for what it is, a poorly attempted forgery."

The Principality claimed that all social security benefits were withdrawn from Hutt River's residents at the time of secession by the Australian government. It further claimed that residents did not receive pensions, medical benefits, educational allowances, child endowments, or benefits normally paid to war veterans. Voting is compulsory by law in Australia, but Casley claimed to have successfully removed the names of Hutt River residents from the Australian electoral roll. Casley admitted that he made annual payments to the Shire of Northampton, the local government authority, although he chose to characterise these payments as "gifts" rather than council rates. The principality said that it levied its own income tax of 0.5 per cent on financial transactions by foreign companies registered in the province and personal accounts.

There were some occasions where organisations stated that the province had some sort of sovereignty:

 * The National Museum of Australia contained an exhibition on the theme of "Separation" within Australia which included a Hutt River Province display which stated that Casley "successfully seceded from Australia".
 * Judy Lattas, a sociologist at Macquarie University, once stated that "many officials in Western Australia, some quite high up, and even nationally in Australia are happy to play out the myth of Hutt River's sovereignty" by attending Hutt River functions, returning correspondence, and abandoning the claim for tax.
 * In 2005, the Shire of Northampton listed the principality as having "high historic and social significance as the site of Australia's only independent principality."

The principality appears on Google Maps, but only as a "tourist attraction". In 2010, Brendon Grylls, Western Australian Minister for Regional Development and Lands, was asked if his state had a "position" on the principality. He replied, "only that Prince Leonard is an enigma."

Treatment by overseas nations
From 1984 to 2010, Australian diplomatic missions in 28 countries exchanged 120 diplomatic cables with Australia concerning activities relating to the Principality.

In 2008, the Council of the European Union issued a memorandum identifying Hutt River passports among known "fantasy passports ... issued by private organisations and individuals" to which a visa should not be affixed.

Hong Kong does not recognise the principality, but its corporate registry did at one point recognise the Principality as a place where a company could be incorporated. The Hong Kong Registry, however, were looking at reviewing their list of accredited places for company incorporation after the issue was raised in an adverse manner by Australian media.

In 2008, a 48-year-old French man who claimed to be an ambassador representing the Principality to the United Arab Emirates, his 36-year-old female compatriot and a 28-year-old Pakistani man, were charged by the UAE over issuing travel documents and selling land in the Principality to UAE residents under false pretences. Casley stated the man had no diplomatic standing in the Principality and had only made a single visit to the province.

In April 2016, the Principality received a letter from Queen Elizabeth II which communicated the Queen's good wishes on the anniversary of the founding of the Principality 46 years before, on 21 April 1970. The letter from Buckingham Palace was signed by Sonia Bonici, Senior Correspondence Officer. It reads in part: "I am to convey Her Majesty's good wishes to you and to all concerned for a most enjoyable and successful celebration on 23rd and 24th of April to mark the forty-sixth anniversary of the Principality of Hutt River." The Queen was replying to a letter from Casley congratulating her on her 90th birthday.

Statistics
The Principality was situated 517 km north of Perth, along the Hutt River. It was about 75.9 km2 in size. Exports included wildflowers, stamps and coins and agricultural produce which is also exported overseas. Tourism was also important to the economy with 40,000 tourists, predominantly from overseas countries, visiting the principality every year.

While the Principality had only 23 residents, it claimed a worldwide citizenry of 14,000.

After 2 September 2004, Hutt River Province/Principality accepted company registrations. At least one company experienced in the registration of entities in traditional offshore jurisdictions (British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands etc.) as tax havens was authorised to act as a registered agent for PHR incorporations. On 29 March 2005 the Hutt River Province International Business Company announced it would accept registrations of company trusts which have since been promoted worldwide by registered financial agents. Concerned that Hutt River registrations "may be sold as part of a tax avoidance or evasion arrangement", in April 2012 the Australian Taxation Office warned potential purchasers that the registrations have no legal basis and "could be illegal".

In 1997, the legislation committee presented a proposal for a constitution to Casley and his cabinet. Although he and the cabinet never officially adopted the proposal, there was a decree stating that any constitution would be in effect while under consideration, except for any clauses that conflict with the bill of rights, so the proposal essentially became a provisional constitution.

Casley family

Leonard Casley worked for a shipping company based in Perth, although he left school at 14, and described himself as a mathematician and physicist; he also claimed to have written articles for NASA. He was an adherent of hermeticism, a subject on which he privately published a number of research papers and books. He is the subject of a permanent exhibit at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.

Casley was married to Shirley (née Butler) until her death on 7 July 2013, when the Principality went into a period of mourning, closing some of its services. She was styled as "Her Royal Highness Princess Shirley of Hutt, Dame of the Rose of Sharon", and she played host to dignitaries and diplomatic representatives visiting the Principality each year, as well as receiving television crews and magazine journalists. She was the patroness and chair of the board of directors of the Red Cross of Hutt, a parallel organisation to the International Red Cross.

Princes of Hutt River
Hutt River had two sovereign princes over its 50-year existence, Casley as "Prince Leonard", and his son Graeme Casley as "Prince Graeme". Both abdicated.

Currency
The Principality's currency was the Hutt River Dollar, which was divided into 100 Cents. The Hutt River Dollar was pegged at a one-to-one ratio with the Australian Dollar. All authorised Principality coins were minted by Canada's Lombardo Mint and the New Queensland Mint.

First series: 1976–78
Four denominations of coins, 5c, 10c, 20c and 50c, were issued from 1976 to 1978, but the 1978 issue was a proof only issue. There was also a silver $30 coin and a gold $100 coin, struck only in proof.

Silver Jubilee $1 coin

In 1977, $1 coins were struck to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II. These coins are known as "holey dollars". Coins of the same design were struck again in 1978, without the inscription "Queen's Jubilee".

Later series
In 2010, the Principality issued a $30 gold- and silver-plated brass coin to mark the 40th anniversary of independence. Following the death of his wife in 2013, Casley authorised a special commemorative coin to celebrate her life.

Commemorative coins

All of these Principality coins are contained in the standard catalogue of Unusual World Coins by Colin Bruce II, edited by Tom Michael and George Cuhaj. A A$100 denomination proof commemorative coin issue that contained 1 troy ounce of pure palladium sold for $299 in 1989; the 2012 value of the palladium content was $630.

title: Principality of Hutt River