Velasco was born in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, in 1914.

In 1977, he was appointed director emeritus and honorary member of the Governing Board of the Institute until his death in December 2001.

He created the chair of neurology and neurosurgery at the Faculty of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and in 1989 that university named him Emeritus Professor and distinguished him with the Academic Merit Medal for having taught classes for more than 60 years.

As a humanist, he participated in the struggles against the proliferation of nuclear and chemical weapons and within these efforts he was the Hispanic American leader of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, an association that in 1985 received the Nobel Peace Prize.

[citation needed] He became a politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and served as governor of Chiapas from 1970 to 1976.