For decades, Lázaro Cárdenas’ decision to nationalise the country’s oil industry has been hailed by Mexicans as one of the most courageous and daring acts of patriotism since independence in 1821.

Statues of the moustachioed former leader, president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940, abound in cities and towns throughout the country, and in the imposing offices of Pemex, the country’s state-run oil monopoly, there is a bronze of him so big that it dwarfs the thousands of Pemex employees who bustle past every day.