Institutional Revolutionary Party
Encyclopedia
The Institutional Revolutionary Party is a Mexican political party that held power in the country—under a succession of names—for more than 70 years. The PRI is a member of the Socialist International
, as is the rival Party of the Democratic Revolution
(PRD), making Mexico one of the few nations with two major, competing parties part of the same international grouping. However, PRI is not considered a socialist party in the traditional sense, its modern policies being characterized as centrist. Its membership in the International dates from the Mexican Revolution
and the founding of the party by Plutarco Elías Calles
, when the party had a clearer leftist orientation.
The adherents of the PRI party are known in Mexico as priistas and the party is nicknamed el tricolor because of its use of the colors green, white and red.
Although the armed phase of the Mexican revolution
had ended in 1920, Mexico had continued to encounter political unrest. A grave political crisis caused by the 1928 assassination of president-elect Álvaro Obregón
led to the founding in 1929 of the National Revolutionary Party (Spanish: "Partido Nacional Revolucionario" or PNR) by Plutarco Elías Calles
, Mexico's president from 1924 to 1928. The intent was to institutionalize the Mexican Revolution
. In the first years of the party's existence, the PNR was, above all, the political machine of Calles. As 'Maximum Chief' of the party, he continued to hold the real power in an era known as the Maximato
. The presidents of this period, Emilio Portes Gil
, Pascual Ortiz Rubio
and Abelardo L. Rodríguez
were little more than puppets of Calles.
This ended with the election of Lázaro Cárdenas
, a candidate handpicked by Calles, in 1934. It quickly became clear Cárdenas would not accept a subordinate role like his predecessors did. After establishing himself in the presidency, in 1936 Cárdenas had Calles and dozens of his corrupt associates arrested or deported to the United States. Cárdenas became perhaps Mexico's most-popular 20th-century president
and most renowned for expropriating the oil interests
of the United States
and Europe
an petroleum
companies in the run-up to World War II
. He was a person of leftist ideas who nationalized different industries and provided many social institutions which are dear to the Mexican people and had the party renamed to Party of the Mexican Revolution (PRM). Cárdenas' successor Manuel Ávila Camacho
gave the party its present name in 1946.
From 1929 to 1982, the PRI won every presidential election by well over 70 percent of the vote—margins that were usually obtained by massive electoral fraud. Toward the end of his term, the incumbent president in consultation with party leaders, selected the PRI's candidate in the next election in a procedure known as "the tap of the finger" . In essence, given the PRI's overwhelming dominance, the president chose his successor. The PRI's dominance was near-absolute at all other levels as well. It held an overwhelming majority in the Chamber of Deputies
, as well as every seat in the Senate and every state governorship.
After several decades in power the PRI became a symbol of corruption and electoral fraud. Consequently, its left wing went on to form its own party the Party of the Democratic Revolution
(PRD) in 1989. The conservative National Action Party
(PAN) became a stronger party after 1976 when it obtained the support from businessmen after recurring economic crises. The growth of these two parties culminated in the loss of the presidency in 2000, won by the PAN and in 2006, won by the PAN with a small margin over the PRD. Many prominent members of the PAN (Manuel Clouthier
, Addy Joaquín Coldwell
and Demetrio Sodi
), most of the PRD (most notably all three Mexico City mayor
s Andrés Manuel López Obrador
, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas
and Marcelo Ebrard
), the PVEM (Jorge González Torres
) and New Alliance
(Roberto Campa
) were once members of the PRI, including many presidential candidates from the opposition (Clouthier, López Obrador, Cárdenas, González Torres, Campa and Porfirio Muñoz Ledo
, among many others).
The PRI was criticized for using the colors of the national flag
in its logo, something considered not unreasonable in many countries, but frowned upon in Mexico, while there is no law that forbids this act. Critics claim electoral fraud
, with voter suppression
and violence, was used when the political machine
did not work and elections were just a ritual to simulate the appearance of a democracy
. However, the three major parties now make the same claim against each other (PRD against Fox
's PAN
and PAN vs. López Obrador
's PRD, and the PRI against the PAN at the local level and local elections such as the Yucatán state election, 2007
). Two other PRI presidents Miguel de la Madrid
and Carlos Salinas de Gortari privatized many outmoded industries, including banks and businesses, entered the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
and also negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement
.
Greater economic stability since the last major economic crisis in Mexico (the 1995 peso crisis) was achieved in great part through economic reforms begun under Ernesto Zedillo
, who was the last successive PRI-nominated president to serve since the Mexican Revolution
, and whose tenure commenced just as the peso crisis was coming to a head. Subsequent administrations maintained stability with continued assistance from PRI members such as Secretary of Finance Francisco Gil Diaz
and Bank of Mexico Governor Guillermo Ortiz.
's efforts to stop the violent struggle for power between the victorious factions of the Mexican Revolution
, and guarantee the peaceful transmission of power for members of the party. Lázaro Cárdenas
(president of the party and, in 1938, president of Mexico
) renamed the party as Party of the Mexican Revolution (Spanish: "Partido de la Revolución Mexicana", PRM) whose aim was to establish a democracy of workers and socialism. However, this was never achieved and his main intention was to create the broad-based political alliances necessary for the PRI's long-term survival, splitting the party into mass organizations
representing different interest groups and acting as the political consciousness of the country in a more realistic level (for example, the Confidential National, the farmer's group). His strategy with the party mirrored the balanced ticket
approach of 1930s Chicago
Mayor Anton Cermak
, who created the Cook County Democratic Organization
, characteristic of Chicago by balancing ethnic interests. Settling disputes and power struggles within the party structure helped prevent congressional gridlock and possible armed rebellions, but this style of dispute resolution also created a "rubber stamp
" legislative apparatus.
The party, under its three different names, held every political position until 1946 when the PAN started winning posts for municipal president
and federal deputies
and senators
, starting in 1946, after the party changed its name to its current name Partido Revolucionario Institucional. The party had, by then, acquired a reputation for corruption, and while this was admitted (to a degree) by some of its affiliates, its supporters maintained that the role of the party was crucial in the modernization and stabilization of Mexico
.
became the first city in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world to be chosen to host an Olympic Games
. Using the international focus on the country, students at the National Polytechnic Institute
(IPN) protested the lack of democracy and social justice. President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz
(1964–1970) ordered the army to occupy the university to suppress the revolt and minimize the disruption of the Olympic Games. On October 2, 1968 student groups demanding the withdrawal of the IPN protested at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas
. Unaccustomed to this type of protests, the Mexican Government made an unusual move by asking the United States for assistance, through LITEMPO, a spy-program to inform the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) of the US to obtain information from Mexico. The CIA responded by sending military radios, weapons and ammunition. The LITEMPO had previously provided the Díaz Ordaz government with 1,000 rounds of .223 Remington
ammunition in 1963. During the protests shots were fired and a number of students died (officially 39, although hundreds are claimed) and hundreds were arrested. The President of the Olympic Committee then declared that the protests were against the government and not the Olympics so the games proceeded.
(1970–76), secretary of interior during the Díaz Ordaz administration, increased social spending, through external debt, at a time when oil production and prices were surging. However, the growth of the economy came accompanied by inflation and then by a plummeting of oil prices and increases in interest rates. Investment started fleeing the country and the peso became overvalued, to prevent a devaluation and further fleeing of investments, the Bank of Mexico borrowed 360 million dollars from the Federal Reserve with the promise of stabilizing the economy. External debt reached the level of $25 billion dollars. Unable to contain the fleeing of dollars, Echeverría allowed the peso to float for the first time on August 31, 1976, then again later and the peso lost half of its value. Echeverría designated José López Portillo
, his secretary of Finance, as his successor for the term 1976-82, hoping that the new administration would have a tighter control on inflation and to preserve political unity.
During his campaign, López Portillo promised to defend the peso "like a dog", López Portillo refused to devalue the currency saying "The president who devalues, devalues himself." The discovery of significant oil sites in Tabasco
and Campeche
helped the economy to recover and López Portillo promised to "administer the abundance". The development of the promising oil industry was financed through external debt which reached 59 billion dollars (compared to 25 billion during Echeverría). Oil production increased from 94000 oilbbl/d at the beginning of his administration to 1500000 oilbbl/d at the end of his administration and Mexico became the fourth largest oil producer in the world. The price for a barrel of oil also increased from three dollars in 1970 to 35 dollars in 1981.
The government attempted to develop heavy industry. However, waste became the rule as centralized resource allocation and distribution systems were accompanied by inefficiently located factories incurring high transport costs.
Mexico increased its international presence during López Portillo: in addition to becoming the world's fourth oil exporter, Mexico re-started relations with the post Franco
-Spain in 1977, allowed Pope John Paul II
to visit Mexico, welcomed American president Jimmy Carter
and broke relations with Somoza
and supported the Sandinista National Liberation Front
in its rebellion against the United States supported government. López Portillo also proposed the Plan Mundial de Energéticos in 1979 and summoned a North-South World Summit in Cancún
in 1981 to seek solutions to social problems. In 1979, the PRI founded the COPPPAL
, the Permanent Conference of Political Parties of Latin America and the Caribbean, an organization created "to defend democracy and all lawful political institutions and to support their development and improvement to strengthen the principle of self determination of the people’s of Latin America and the Caribbean".
López Portillo also freed political prisoners and proposed a reform called Ley Federal de Organizaciones Políticas y Procesos Electorales which gave official registry to opposition groups such as the Partido Demócrata Mexicano and the Partido Comunista Mexicano. This law also created positions in the lower chamber of congress for opposition parties through proportionality of votes, relative majority, uninominal and plurinominal. As a result 1979 saw the first independent (non-PRI) communist deputies in the Congress of Mexico
.
Social programs were also created through the Alliance for Production, Global Development Plan, el COPLAMAR, Mexican Nourishing System, to attain independency on food, to reform public administration. López Portillo also created the secretaries of Programming and Budgeting, Agriculture and Water Resources, Industrial Support, Fisheries and Human Settlements and Public Works. Mexico then obtained high economic growth, a recuperation of salaries and an increase in spending on education and infrastructure. This way, social and regional inequalities started to diminish.
All this prosperity ended when the over-supply of oil in early 1982 caused oil prices to plummet and damaged severely the national economy. Interest rates skyrocketed in 1981 and external debt reached 86 billion dollars and exchange rates went from 26 to 70 pesos per dollar and inflation of 100%. This situation became so desperate that Lopez-Portillo ordered the suspension on payments of external debt and the nationalization of the banking industry in 1982 consistent with the Socialist goals of the PRI. Capital fled Mexico at a rate never seen before in history. The Mexican government provided subsidies to staple food products and rail travel; this diminished the consequences of the crises on the populace. Job growth stagnated and millions of people migrate North to escape the economic stagnation. López Portillo's reputation plummeted and his character became the butt of jokes from the press.
The attempted industrialization had not been responsive to consumer needs. Therefore, unprecedented urbanization and overcrowding followed and so, substandard pre-fabricated apartment blocs had to be built in large cities.
Miguel de la Madrid
was the first of a series of economists to rule the country, a technocrat
who started to implement neoliberal
reforms, causing the number of state-owned industries to decline from 1155 to a mere 412. After the 1982 default, crisis lenders were unwilling to loan Mexico and this resulted in currency devaluations to finance spending. An earthquake in September 1985, in which his administration was criticised for its slow and clumsy reaction, added more woe to the problems. As a result of the crisis, black markets supplied by goods stolen from the public sector appeared. Galloping inflation continued to plague the country, hitting a record high in 1987 at 159.2%.
(former Governor of Michoacán
) formed the Corriente Democrática (Spanish: "Democratic Current") of the PRI, which criticized the federal government for reducing spending on social programs to increase payments on foreign debt. The members of the Democratic Current were expelled from the party and formed the National Democratic Front
(FDN, Spanish: "Frente Democrático Nacional") in 1987. The following year, the FDN elected Cárdenas as presidential candidate for the 1988 presidential election
which was won by Carlos Salinas de Gortari, obtaining 50.89% of the votes (according to official figures) versus 32% of Cárdenas. The official results were delayed, with the Secretary of the Interior (until then, the organizer of elections) blaming it on a computer system failure. Cárdenas, who claimed to have won and claimed such computer failure was caused by a manipulation of the system to count votes. Manuel Clouthier
also claimed to have won, although not as vocally.
Clouthier, Cárdenas and Rosario Ibarra de Piedra then complained before the building of the Secretary of the Interior
. Clouthier and his followers then set up other protests, among them one at the Chamber of Deputies
, demanding that the electoral packages be opened. In 1989, Clouthier presented an alternative cabinet (a British
style Shadow Cabinet
) with Diego Fernández de Cevallos
, Jesús González Schmall, Fernando Canales Clariond
, Francisco Villarreal Torres, Rogelio Sada Zambrano, María Elena Álvarez Bernal, Moisés Canales, Vicente Fox
, Carlos Castillo Peraza
and Luis Felipe Bravo Mena
as cabinet members and Clouthier as cabinet coordinator. The purpose of this cabinet was to vigilate the actions of the government. Clouthier died next October in an accident with Javier Calvo
, a federal deputy. The accident was claimed by the PAN as a state assassination since then. That same year, the PRI lost its first state government with the election of Ernesto Ruffo Appel
as governor of Baja California
.
vian writer Mario Vargas Llosa
called the government under the PRI as la dictadura perfecta ("the perfect dictatorship"). In 1994, for the first time since the revolution a presidential candidate was murdered, Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta. His campaign director, Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, was subsequently elected in the first presidential election monitored by international observers. The 1994 economic crisis in Mexico
caused the PRI to lose its absolute majority in both chambers of the federal congress
for the first time in 1997.
The favorites in the primaries were Labastida and Madrazo, and the latter initiated a campaign against the first, perceived as Zedillo's candidate since many former secretaries of the interior were chosen as candidates by the president. His campaign, produced by prominent publicist Carlos Alazraki
, had the motto "Dale un Madrazo al dedazo" or "Give a Madrazo to the dedazo" with "madrazo" being an offensive slang term for a "strike" and "dedazo" a slang used to describe the unilaterally choosing of candidates by the president (literally "finger-strike").
In the presidential elections
of July 2, 2000, its candidate Francisco Labastida Ochoa was defeated by Vicente Fox
, after getting only 36.1% of the popular vote. It was to be the first Presidential electoral defeat of the PRI. In the senatorial elections
of the same date, the party won with 38.1%, or 33 out of 128 seats in the Senate of Mexico
.
, the party won 224 out of 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
, remaining as the largest single party in both the Chamber of Deputies
and Senate
. In the Federal District the PRI obtained only one borough mayorship (jefe delegacional) out of 16, and no first-past-the-post
members of the city assembly. The PRI recouped some significant losses on the state level (most notably, the governor
ship of former PAN stronghold Nuevo León
). On August 6, 2004, in two closely contested elections in Oaxaca
and Tijuana
, PRI candidates Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
and Jorge Hank Rhon
won the races for the governorship and municipal presidency respectively. The PAN had held control of the president's office of the municipality of Tijuana for 15 years. Six out of eight gubernatorial elections held during 2005 were won by the PRI: Quintana Roo
, Hidalgo, Colima
, Estado de México, Nayarit
, and Coahuila
. The PRI then controlled the states on the country's northern border with the US except for Baja California
.
Later that year Roberto Madrazo
, president of the PRI
, left his post to seek a nomination as the party's candidate in the 2006 presidential election. According to the statutes, the presidency of the party would then go to Elba Esther Gordillo
as party secretary. The rivalry between Madrazo and Gordillo caused Mariano Palacios Alcocer
instead to become president of the party. After what was perceived an imposition of Madrazo as candidate a group was formed called Unidad Democrática (Spanish: "Democratic Unity"), although nicknamed Todos Unidos Contra Madrazo (Spanish: "Everybody United Against Madrazo" or "TUCOM") which was formed by governors and former state governors:
Montiel won the right to run against Madrazo for the candidacy but withdrew when it was made public that he and his French wife had multi-million properties in Europe. Madrazo and Everardo Moreno contended in the primaries which was won by the first. Madrazo then represented the PRI and the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico
(PVEM) in the Alliance for Mexico
coalition.
During his campaign Madrazo declared that the PRI and PRD were "first cousins", to this Emilio Chuayffet Chemor responded that if that was the case then Andrés Manuel López Obrador
(AMLO), candidate of the PRD would also be a first cousin and he might win the election.
AMLO was, by then, the favorite in the polls, with many followers within the PRI. Madrazo, second at the polls, then released TV spots against AMLO with little success, his campaign was managed again by Alazraki. Felipe Calderón
ran a more successful campaign and then tied with Madrazo and later surpassed him as the second favorite. Gordillo, also the teachers' union leader, resentful against Madrazo, helped a group of teachers constitute the New Alliance Party
. Divisions within the party and a successful campaign of the PAN candidate caused Madrazo to fall to third place. The winner, as announced by the Federal Electoral Institute
and valuated by the Mexican Election Tribunal amidst a controversy, was Felipe Calderón
of the ruling PAN
Party. On November 20 of the same year, a group of young PRI politicians launched a movement that is set to reform and revolutionize the party. The PRI candidate failed to win a single state in the 2006 presidential election.
In the 2006 legislative elections the party won 106 out of 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
and 35 out of 128 Senators
.
In 2007 the PRI re-gained the governorship of Yucatán and was the party with the most mayorships and state congresspeople in the elections in Yucatán (tying with the PAN in the number of deputies), Chihuahua, Durango, Aguascalientes, Veracruz, Chiapas and Oaxaca. The PRI obtained the most mayorships in Zacatecas and the second most deputies in the congressional elections of Zacatecas and Baja California.
In 2009, the PRI re-gained plurality control of Mexican congress. This is the first time congress will be controlled by the PRI since the first initial victory by the opposing party PAN in the year 2000.
Socialist International
The Socialist International is a worldwide organization of democratic socialist, social democratic and labour political parties. It was formed in 1951.- History :...
, as is the rival Party of the Democratic Revolution
Party of the Democratic Revolution
The Party of the Democratic Revolution is a democratic socialist party in Mexico and one of 2 Mexican affiliates of the Socialist International...
(PRD), making Mexico one of the few nations with two major, competing parties part of the same international grouping. However, PRI is not considered a socialist party in the traditional sense, its modern policies being characterized as centrist. Its membership in the International dates from the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
and the founding of the party by Plutarco Elías Calles
Plutarco Elías Calles
Plutarco Elías Calles 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...
, when the party had a clearer leftist orientation.
The adherents of the PRI party are known in Mexico as priistas and the party is nicknamed el tricolor because of its use of the colors green, white and red.
Profile
The Institutional Revolutionary Party is described by some scholars as a "state party", a term which captures both the non-competitive history and character of the party itself, and the inextricable connection between the party and the Mexican nation-state for much of the 20th century.Although the armed phase of the Mexican revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
had ended in 1920, Mexico had continued to encounter political unrest. A grave political crisis caused by the 1928 assassination of president-elect Álvaro Obregón
Álvaro Obregón
General Álvaro Obregón Salido was the President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. He was assassinated in 1928, shortly after winning election to another presidential term....
led to the founding in 1929 of the National Revolutionary Party (Spanish: "Partido Nacional Revolucionario" or PNR) by Plutarco Elías Calles
Plutarco Elías Calles
Plutarco Elías Calles 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...
, Mexico's president from 1924 to 1928. The intent was to institutionalize the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
. In the first years of the party's existence, the PNR was, above all, the political machine of Calles. As 'Maximum Chief' of the party, he continued to hold the real power in an era known as the Maximato
Maximato
The Maximato was a period in the historical and political development of Mexico ranging from 1928 to 1934. That period was named after Plutarco Elías Calles, who was known as the Jefe Maximo of the Revolution. Elias Calles was president in the period 1924-1928, but in the next six years, there were...
. The presidents of this period, Emilio Portes Gil
Emilio Portes Gil
Emilio Cándido Portes Gil was President of Mexico from 1928 to 1930.-Biography:Portes Gil was born in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of the state of Tamaulipas in northeast Mexico....
, Pascual Ortiz Rubio
Pascual Ortiz Rubio
Pascual Ortiz Rubio was a Mexican politician. He was born in Morelia, Michoacán as the son of Pascual Ortiz de Ayala y Huerta and Lenor Rubio Cornelis...
and Abelardo L. Rodríguez
Abelardo L. Rodríguez
Abelardo Rodríguez Luján, commonly known as Abelardo L. Rodríguez was the interim president of Mexico from 1932–1934, completing the term of Pascual Ortiz after his resignation.-Early life:...
were little more than puppets of Calles.
This ended with the election of Lázaro Cárdenas
Lázaro Cárdenas
Lázaro Cárdenas del Río was President of Mexico from 1934 to 1940.-Early life:Lázaro Cárdenas was born on May 21, 1895 in a lower-middle class family in the village of Jiquilpan, Michoacán. He supported his family from age 16 after the death of his father...
, a candidate handpicked by Calles, in 1934. It quickly became clear Cárdenas would not accept a subordinate role like his predecessors did. After establishing himself in the presidency, in 1936 Cárdenas had Calles and dozens of his corrupt associates arrested or deported to the United States. Cárdenas became perhaps Mexico's most-popular 20th-century president
President of Mexico
The President of the United Mexican States is the head of state and government of Mexico. Under the Constitution, the president is also the Supreme Commander of the Mexican armed forces...
and most renowned for expropriating the oil interests
Expropiación petrolera
The Mexican oil expropriation was the expropriation of all oil reserves, facilities, and foreign oil companies in Mexico in 1938....
of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
companies in the run-up to World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He was a person of leftist ideas who nationalized different industries and provided many social institutions which are dear to the Mexican people and had the party renamed to Party of the Mexican Revolution (PRM). Cárdenas' successor Manuel Ávila Camacho
Manuel Ávila Camacho
Manuel Ávila Camacho served as the President of Mexico from 1940 to 1946.Manuel Ávila was born in the city of Teziutlán, a small town in Puebla, to middle-class parents, Manuel Ávila Castillo and Eufrosina Camacho Bello. He had several siblings, among them sister María Jovita Ávila Camacho and...
gave the party its present name in 1946.
From 1929 to 1982, the PRI won every presidential election by well over 70 percent of the vote—margins that were usually obtained by massive electoral fraud. Toward the end of his term, the incumbent president in consultation with party leaders, selected the PRI's candidate in the next election in a procedure known as "the tap of the finger" . In essence, given the PRI's overwhelming dominance, the president chose his successor. The PRI's dominance was near-absolute at all other levels as well. It held an overwhelming majority in the Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Mexico
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Congress of the Union, Mexico's bicameral legislature. The structure and responsibilities of both chambers of Congress are defined in Articles 50 to 70 of the current constitution.-Composition:The Chamber of Deputies is composed of one federal...
, as well as every seat in the Senate and every state governorship.
After several decades in power the PRI became a symbol of corruption and electoral fraud. Consequently, its left wing went on to form its own party the Party of the Democratic Revolution
Party of the Democratic Revolution
The Party of the Democratic Revolution is a democratic socialist party in Mexico and one of 2 Mexican affiliates of the Socialist International...
(PRD) in 1989. The conservative National Action Party
National Action Party (Mexico)
The National Action Party , is one of the three main political parties in Mexico. The party's political platform is generally considered Centre-Right in the Mexican political spectrum. Since 2000, the President of Mexico has been a member of this party; both houses have PAN pluralities, but the...
(PAN) became a stronger party after 1976 when it obtained the support from businessmen after recurring economic crises. The growth of these two parties culminated in the loss of the presidency in 2000, won by the PAN and in 2006, won by the PAN with a small margin over the PRD. Many prominent members of the PAN (Manuel Clouthier
Manuel Clouthier
Manuel de Jesús Clouthier del Rincón, also known as Maquío was a Mexican businessman and politician affiliated to the conservative National Action Party...
, Addy Joaquín Coldwell
Addy Joaquín Coldwell
Addy Cecilia Joaquín Coldwell is a Mexican politician from Cozumel, Quintana Roo.Her brother Pedro Joaquín Coldwell is a former Governor of Quintana Roo...
and Demetrio Sodi
Demetrio Sodi
Demetrio Javier Sodi de la Tijera is a Mexican politician who has served in the upper and lower house of Congress...
), most of the PRD (most notably all three Mexico City mayor
Head of Government of the Federal District
The Head of Government wields executive power in the Mexican Federal District.The Head of Government serves a six-year term, running concurrently with that of the President of the Republic....
s Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good...
, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano is a prominent Mexican politician. He was a former Head of Government of the Federal District and a founder of the Party of the Democratic Revolution .-Biography:...
and Marcelo Ebrard
Marcelo Ebrard
Marcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubón is the current Head of Government of the Federal District since December 5, 2006. He is a Mexican politician affiliated to the Party of the Democratic Revolution who served as Secretary-General of the former Mexican Federal District Department, minister of public...
), the PVEM (Jorge González Torres
Jorge González Torres
Jorge González Torres is a Mexican politician, founder of the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico. He was also the co-president of the Federation of Green Parties of the Americas.-References:...
) and New Alliance
New Alliance Party (Mexico)
The New Alliance Party is one of the newest political parties in Mexico.Its creation was proposed by the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación , the largest trade union in Latin America, led by Elba Esther Gordillo, the controversial former general secretary of the Institutional...
(Roberto Campa
Roberto Campa
Roberto Rafael Campa Cifrián is a Mexican lawyer and politician who was the New Alliance presidential candidate in the 2006 elections...
) were once members of the PRI, including many presidential candidates from the opposition (Clouthier, López Obrador, Cárdenas, González Torres, Campa and Porfirio Muñoz Ledo
Porfirio Muñoz Ledo
Porfirio Alejandro Muñoz Ledo y Lazo de la Vega is a Mexican politician. He is one of the founders of the Party of the Democratic Revolution ....
, among many others).
The PRI was criticized for using the colors of the national flag
Flag of Mexico
The flag of Mexico is a vertical tricolor of green, white, and red with the national coat of arms charged in the center of the white stripe. While the meaning of the colors has changed over time, these three colors were adopted by Mexico following independence from Spain during the country's War...
in its logo, something considered not unreasonable in many countries, but frowned upon in Mexico, while there is no law that forbids this act. Critics claim electoral fraud
Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
, with voter suppression
Voter suppression
Voter suppression is a strategy to influence the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing people from exercising their right to vote. It is distinguished from political campaigning in that campaigning attempts to change likely voting behavior by changing the opinions of potential voters...
and violence, was used when the political machine
Political machine
A political machine is a political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses , who receive rewards for their efforts...
did not work and elections were just a ritual to simulate the appearance of a democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
. However, the three major parties now make the same claim against each other (PRD against Fox
Vicente Fox
Vicente Fox Quesada is a Mexican former politician who served as President of Mexico from 1 December 2000 to 30 November 2006 and currently serves as co-President of the Centrist Democrat International, an international organization of Christian democratic political parties.Fox was elected...
's PAN
National Action Party (Mexico)
The National Action Party , is one of the three main political parties in Mexico. The party's political platform is generally considered Centre-Right in the Mexican political spectrum. Since 2000, the President of Mexico has been a member of this party; both houses have PAN pluralities, but the...
and PAN vs. López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good...
's PRD, and the PRI against the PAN at the local level and local elections such as the Yucatán state election, 2007
Yucatán state election, 2007
Local elections were held in the Mexican state of Yucatán on May 20, 2007. Voters went to the polls to elect on the local level:*a new Governor of Yucatán to serve for a six-year term;*106 municipal presidents to serve for a three-year term;...
). Two other PRI presidents Miguel de la Madrid
Miguel de la Madrid
Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado is a Mexican politician affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party who served as President of Mexico from 1982 to 1988.-Biography:...
and Carlos Salinas de Gortari privatized many outmoded industries, including banks and businesses, entered the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was negotiated during the UN Conference on Trade and Employment and was the outcome of the failure of negotiating governments to create the International Trade Organization . GATT was signed in 1947 and lasted until 1993, when it was replaced by the World...
and also negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement
North American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA is an agreement signed by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. It superseded the Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement...
.
Greater economic stability since the last major economic crisis in Mexico (the 1995 peso crisis) was achieved in great part through economic reforms begun under Ernesto Zedillo
Ernesto Zedillo
Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León is a Mexican economist and politician. He served as President of Mexico from December 1, 1994 to November 30, 2000, as the last of the uninterrupted seventy year line of Mexican presidents from the Institutional Revolutionary Party...
, who was the last successive PRI-nominated president to serve since the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
, and whose tenure commenced just as the peso crisis was coming to a head. Subsequent administrations maintained stability with continued assistance from PRI members such as Secretary of Finance Francisco Gil Diaz
Francisco Gil Díaz
Francisco Gil Díaz is a Mexican economist who served as Secretary of Finance in the cabinet of President Vicente Fox and currently serves as regional chairman of Telefónica for Mexico and Central America....
and Bank of Mexico Governor Guillermo Ortiz.
Origins
The party was the result of Plutarco Elías CallesPlutarco Elías Calles
Plutarco Elías Calles 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...
's efforts to stop the violent struggle for power between the victorious factions of the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
, and guarantee the peaceful transmission of power for members of the party. Lázaro Cárdenas
Lázaro Cárdenas
Lázaro Cárdenas del Río was President of Mexico from 1934 to 1940.-Early life:Lázaro Cárdenas was born on May 21, 1895 in a lower-middle class family in the village of Jiquilpan, Michoacán. He supported his family from age 16 after the death of his father...
(president of the party and, in 1938, president of Mexico
President of Mexico
The President of the United Mexican States is the head of state and government of Mexico. Under the Constitution, the president is also the Supreme Commander of the Mexican armed forces...
) renamed the party as Party of the Mexican Revolution (Spanish: "Partido de la Revolución Mexicana", PRM) whose aim was to establish a democracy of workers and socialism. However, this was never achieved and his main intention was to create the broad-based political alliances necessary for the PRI's long-term survival, splitting the party into mass organizations
Corporatism
Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common...
representing different interest groups and acting as the political consciousness of the country in a more realistic level (for example, the Confidential National, the farmer's group). His strategy with the party mirrored the balanced ticket
Ticket balance
In United States politics, balancing the ticket is when a political candidate chooses a running mate with the goal of bringing more widespread appeal to the campaign. It is most prominently used to describe the selection of the U.S. Vice Presidential candidate.There are several means by which the...
approach of 1930s Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
Mayor Anton Cermak
Anton Cermak
Anton Joseph Cermak was the mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1931 until his assassination by Giuseppe Zangara in 1933.-Early life and career:...
, who created the Cook County Democratic Organization
Cook County Democratic Organization
The Cook County Democratic Organization is one of the most powerful political machines in American history. Historically called the "Chicago Democratic machine", or simply the "Chicago Machine", the organization has dominated Chicago politics since the 1930s...
, characteristic of Chicago by balancing ethnic interests. Settling disputes and power struggles within the party structure helped prevent congressional gridlock and possible armed rebellions, but this style of dispute resolution also created a "rubber stamp
Rubber stamp (politics)
A rubber stamp, as a political metaphor, refers to a person or institution with considerable de jure power but little de facto power; one that rarely disagrees with more powerful organs....
" legislative apparatus.
The party, under its three different names, held every political position until 1946 when the PAN started winning posts for municipal president
Municipal president
A presidente municipal is the chief of government of municipios in Mexico. The position is comparable to the county executive of a county in the United States or to the mayor of a city in the United States, although the jurisdiction of a presidente municipal includes not only a city but the...
and federal deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Mexico
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Congress of the Union, Mexico's bicameral legislature. The structure and responsibilities of both chambers of Congress are defined in Articles 50 to 70 of the current constitution.-Composition:The Chamber of Deputies is composed of one federal...
and senators
Senate of Mexico
The Senate of the Republic, constitutionally Chamber of Senators of the Honorable Congress of the Union After a series of reforms during the 1990s, it is now made up of 128 senators:...
, starting in 1946, after the party changed its name to its current name Partido Revolucionario Institucional. The party had, by then, acquired a reputation for corruption, and while this was admitted (to a degree) by some of its affiliates, its supporters maintained that the role of the party was crucial in the modernization and stabilization of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.
The Mexican Miracle
The first four decades of government of the PRI are dubbed the "Mexican Miracle", a period of economic growth through substitution of imports and low inflation. Much of the growth was spurred by successful national development plans which, following the steps of the Soviet Union, provided for major investment on infrastructure. From 1940 to 1970 GDP increased sixfold and the population only doubled while the peso-dollar parity was maintained.The Tlatelolco Massacre
The improvement of the economy had a disparate impact in different social sectors and discontent started growing within the low classes. In 1968 Mexico CityMexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
became the first city in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world to be chosen to host an Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
. Using the international focus on the country, students at the National Polytechnic Institute
National Polytechnic Institute
The National Polytechnic Institute colloquially known as the Polytechnic is one of the largest public universities in Mexico with 153.027 students at the high school, undergraduate and postgraduate levels...
(IPN) protested the lack of democracy and social justice. President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz
Gustavo Díaz Ordaz
Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Bolaños served as the President of Mexico from 1964 to 1970.- Political career :Díaz Ordaz was born in San Andrés Chalchícomula . His father, Ramón Díaz Ordaz Redonet, worked as an accountant, while his mother, Sabina Bolaños Cacho de Díaz Ordaz, worked as a school teacher...
(1964–1970) ordered the army to occupy the university to suppress the revolt and minimize the disruption of the Olympic Games. On October 2, 1968 student groups demanding the withdrawal of the IPN protested at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas
Plaza de las Tres Culturas
The Plaza de las Tres Culturas is the main square within the Tlatelolco neighbourhood of Mexico City. The name "Three Cultures" is in recognition of the three periods of Mexican history reflected by those buildings pre-Columbian, Spanish colonial, and the independent "mestizo" nation...
. Unaccustomed to this type of protests, the Mexican Government made an unusual move by asking the United States for assistance, through LITEMPO, a spy-program to inform the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) of the US to obtain information from Mexico. The CIA responded by sending military radios, weapons and ammunition. The LITEMPO had previously provided the Díaz Ordaz government with 1,000 rounds of .223 Remington
.223 Remington
The .223 Remington is a sporting cartridge with almost the same external dimensions as the 5.56×45mm NATO military cartridge. The name is commonly pronounced either two-two-three or two-twenty-three. It is loaded with a diameter, jacketed bullet, with weights ranging from , though the most common...
ammunition in 1963. During the protests shots were fired and a number of students died (officially 39, although hundreds are claimed) and hundreds were arrested. The President of the Olympic Committee then declared that the protests were against the government and not the Olympics so the games proceeded.
The economic crisis
The government of Luis EcheverríaLuis Echeverría
Luis Echeverría Álvarez served as President of Mexico from 1970 to 1976.-Early history:Echeverría joined the faculty of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1947 and taught political theory...
(1970–76), secretary of interior during the Díaz Ordaz administration, increased social spending, through external debt, at a time when oil production and prices were surging. However, the growth of the economy came accompanied by inflation and then by a plummeting of oil prices and increases in interest rates. Investment started fleeing the country and the peso became overvalued, to prevent a devaluation and further fleeing of investments, the Bank of Mexico borrowed 360 million dollars from the Federal Reserve with the promise of stabilizing the economy. External debt reached the level of $25 billion dollars. Unable to contain the fleeing of dollars, Echeverría allowed the peso to float for the first time on August 31, 1976, then again later and the peso lost half of its value. Echeverría designated José López Portillo
José López Portillo
José López Portillo y Pacheco was the President of Mexico from 1976 to 1982.Born in Mexico City, López Portillo studied Law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico before beginning his political career with the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1959.He held several positions in the...
, his secretary of Finance, as his successor for the term 1976-82, hoping that the new administration would have a tighter control on inflation and to preserve political unity.
During his campaign, López Portillo promised to defend the peso "like a dog", López Portillo refused to devalue the currency saying "The president who devalues, devalues himself." The discovery of significant oil sites in Tabasco
Tabasco
Tabasco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tabasco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa....
and Campeche
Campeche
Campeche is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Located in Southeast Mexico, it is bordered by the states of Yucatán to the north east, Quintana Roo to the east, and Tabasco to the south west...
helped the economy to recover and López Portillo promised to "administer the abundance". The development of the promising oil industry was financed through external debt which reached 59 billion dollars (compared to 25 billion during Echeverría). Oil production increased from 94000 oilbbl/d at the beginning of his administration to 1500000 oilbbl/d at the end of his administration and Mexico became the fourth largest oil producer in the world. The price for a barrel of oil also increased from three dollars in 1970 to 35 dollars in 1981.
The government attempted to develop heavy industry. However, waste became the rule as centralized resource allocation and distribution systems were accompanied by inefficiently located factories incurring high transport costs.
Mexico increased its international presence during López Portillo: in addition to becoming the world's fourth oil exporter, Mexico re-started relations with the post Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
-Spain in 1977, allowed Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
to visit Mexico, welcomed American president Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
and broke relations with Somoza
Somoza
The Somoza family was an influential political dynasty who ruled Nicaragua as an hereditary dictatorship. Their influence exceeded their combined 43 years in the de facto presidency, as they were the power behind the other presidents of the time through their control of the National Guard...
and supported the Sandinista National Liberation Front
Sandinista National Liberation Front
The Sandinista National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas in both English and Spanish...
in its rebellion against the United States supported government. López Portillo also proposed the Plan Mundial de Energéticos in 1979 and summoned a North-South World Summit in Cancún
Cancún
Cancún is a city of international tourism development certified by the UNWTO . Located on the northeast coast of Quintana Roo in southern Mexico, more than 1,700 km from Mexico City, the Project began operations in 1974 as Integrally Planned Center, a pioneer of FONATUR Cancún is a city of...
in 1981 to seek solutions to social problems. In 1979, the PRI founded the COPPPAL
COPPPAL
The Permanent Conference of Political Parties of Latin America and the Caribbean , or COPPPAL, is an international forum of political parties in Latin America and the Caribbean.-Overview:...
, the Permanent Conference of Political Parties of Latin America and the Caribbean, an organization created "to defend democracy and all lawful political institutions and to support their development and improvement to strengthen the principle of self determination of the people’s of Latin America and the Caribbean".
López Portillo also freed political prisoners and proposed a reform called Ley Federal de Organizaciones Políticas y Procesos Electorales which gave official registry to opposition groups such as the Partido Demócrata Mexicano and the Partido Comunista Mexicano. This law also created positions in the lower chamber of congress for opposition parties through proportionality of votes, relative majority, uninominal and plurinominal. As a result 1979 saw the first independent (non-PRI) communist deputies in the Congress of Mexico
Congress of Mexico
The Congress of the Union is the legislative branch of the Mexican government...
.
Social programs were also created through the Alliance for Production, Global Development Plan, el COPLAMAR, Mexican Nourishing System, to attain independency on food, to reform public administration. López Portillo also created the secretaries of Programming and Budgeting, Agriculture and Water Resources, Industrial Support, Fisheries and Human Settlements and Public Works. Mexico then obtained high economic growth, a recuperation of salaries and an increase in spending on education and infrastructure. This way, social and regional inequalities started to diminish.
All this prosperity ended when the over-supply of oil in early 1982 caused oil prices to plummet and damaged severely the national economy. Interest rates skyrocketed in 1981 and external debt reached 86 billion dollars and exchange rates went from 26 to 70 pesos per dollar and inflation of 100%. This situation became so desperate that Lopez-Portillo ordered the suspension on payments of external debt and the nationalization of the banking industry in 1982 consistent with the Socialist goals of the PRI. Capital fled Mexico at a rate never seen before in history. The Mexican government provided subsidies to staple food products and rail travel; this diminished the consequences of the crises on the populace. Job growth stagnated and millions of people migrate North to escape the economic stagnation. López Portillo's reputation plummeted and his character became the butt of jokes from the press.
The attempted industrialization had not been responsive to consumer needs. Therefore, unprecedented urbanization and overcrowding followed and so, substandard pre-fabricated apartment blocs had to be built in large cities.
Miguel de la Madrid
Miguel de la Madrid
Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado is a Mexican politician affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party who served as President of Mexico from 1982 to 1988.-Biography:...
was the first of a series of economists to rule the country, a technocrat
Technocracy (bureaucratic)
Technocracy is a form of government where technical experts are in control of decision making in their respective fields. Economists, engineers, scientists, health professionals, and those who have knowledge, expertise or skills would compose the governing body...
who started to implement neoliberal
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
reforms, causing the number of state-owned industries to decline from 1155 to a mere 412. After the 1982 default, crisis lenders were unwilling to loan Mexico and this resulted in currency devaluations to finance spending. An earthquake in September 1985, in which his administration was criticised for its slow and clumsy reaction, added more woe to the problems. As a result of the crisis, black markets supplied by goods stolen from the public sector appeared. Galloping inflation continued to plague the country, hitting a record high in 1987 at 159.2%.
Left-wing splits from the PRI
In 1986, Cuauhtémoc CárdenasCuauhtémoc Cárdenas
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano is a prominent Mexican politician. He was a former Head of Government of the Federal District and a founder of the Party of the Democratic Revolution .-Biography:...
(former Governor of Michoacán
Governor of Michoacán
According to the Political Constitution of the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, the exercise of the Ejectivo Power of this Mexican organization, it is deposited in a single individual, that denominates Constitutional Governor of the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo...
) formed the Corriente Democrática (Spanish: "Democratic Current") of the PRI, which criticized the federal government for reducing spending on social programs to increase payments on foreign debt. The members of the Democratic Current were expelled from the party and formed the National Democratic Front
National Democratic Front (Mexico)
The National Democratic Front was a coalition of left-wing Mexican political parties created in 1988 presidential elections, and that is the immediate antecedent of the Party of the Democratic Revolution. It was result of an agglutination of small political left and center-left forces with a...
(FDN, Spanish: "Frente Democrático Nacional") in 1987. The following year, the FDN elected Cárdenas as presidential candidate for the 1988 presidential election
Mexican general election, 1988
General elections were held in Mexico on July 6, 1988. The presidential elections were won by Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who received 50.7% of the vote, the lowest for a winning candidate since direct elections were introduced for the presidency in 1917...
which was won by Carlos Salinas de Gortari, obtaining 50.89% of the votes (according to official figures) versus 32% of Cárdenas. The official results were delayed, with the Secretary of the Interior (until then, the organizer of elections) blaming it on a computer system failure. Cárdenas, who claimed to have won and claimed such computer failure was caused by a manipulation of the system to count votes. Manuel Clouthier
Manuel Clouthier
Manuel de Jesús Clouthier del Rincón, also known as Maquío was a Mexican businessman and politician affiliated to the conservative National Action Party...
also claimed to have won, although not as vocally.
Clouthier, Cárdenas and Rosario Ibarra de Piedra then complained before the building of the Secretary of the Interior
Secretary of the Interior (Mexico)
The Mexican Secretary of the Interior is the head of the Secretariat of the Interior, concerned with the country's internal affairs, the presentation of the president's bills to Congress, their publication and certain issues of national security. The country's main intelligence agency, CISEN,...
. Clouthier and his followers then set up other protests, among them one at the Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Mexico
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Congress of the Union, Mexico's bicameral legislature. The structure and responsibilities of both chambers of Congress are defined in Articles 50 to 70 of the current constitution.-Composition:The Chamber of Deputies is composed of one federal...
, demanding that the electoral packages be opened. In 1989, Clouthier presented an alternative cabinet (a British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
style Shadow Cabinet
Shadow Cabinet
The Shadow Cabinet is a senior group of opposition spokespeople in the Westminster system of government who together under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition form an alternative cabinet to the government's, whose members shadow or mark each individual member of the government...
) with Diego Fernández de Cevallos
Diego Fernández de Cevallos
Diego Fernández de Cevallos Ramos is a Mexican politician affiliated to the conservative National Action Party . He was a presidential candidate in the 1994 election and President of the Mexican Senate.-Life and career:...
, Jesús González Schmall, Fernando Canales Clariond
Fernando Canales Clariond
Fernando de Jesús Canales Clariond is a Mexican politician and businessman affiliated to the National Action Party . He succeeded his cousin, Benjamín Clariond as governor of Nuevo León in 1997...
, Francisco Villarreal Torres, Rogelio Sada Zambrano, María Elena Álvarez Bernal, Moisés Canales, Vicente Fox
Vicente Fox
Vicente Fox Quesada is a Mexican former politician who served as President of Mexico from 1 December 2000 to 30 November 2006 and currently serves as co-President of the Centrist Democrat International, an international organization of Christian democratic political parties.Fox was elected...
, Carlos Castillo Peraza
Carlos Castillo Peraza
Carlos Enrique Castillo Peraza was an intellectual, journalist and Mexican politician, Member of the National Action Party of which he was the 15th President from 1993 to 1996....
and Luis Felipe Bravo Mena
Luis Felipe Bravo Mena
Luis Felipe Bravo Mena is a Mexican politician. He was elected as the 17th president of the National Action Party and current Mexican ambassador to the Vatican City....
as cabinet members and Clouthier as cabinet coordinator. The purpose of this cabinet was to vigilate the actions of the government. Clouthier died next October in an accident with Javier Calvo
Javier Calvo
Javier Calvo Perales is a Spanish writer born in Barcelona in 1973.-Life:Javier Calvo graduated in journalism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and studied comparative literature at Pompeu Fabra University....
, a federal deputy. The accident was claimed by the PAN as a state assassination since then. That same year, the PRI lost its first state government with the election of Ernesto Ruffo Appel
Ernesto Ruffo Appel
Ernesto Ruffo Appel is an American-born Mexican politician famous for being the first state governor not belonging to the Partido Revolucionario Institucional since its formation in 1929....
as governor of Baja California
Governor of Baja California
The Governor of Baja California represents the executive branch of the government of the state of Baja California, Mexico, per the state's constitution. The official title is "Free and Sovereign State of Baja California" , and the position is democratically elected for a period of 6 years, and is...
.
Death of Colosio and the loss of majority in Congress
In 1990 PeruPeru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian writer Mario Vargas Llosa
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...
called the government under the PRI as la dictadura perfecta ("the perfect dictatorship"). In 1994, for the first time since the revolution a presidential candidate was murdered, Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta. His campaign director, Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, was subsequently elected in the first presidential election monitored by international observers. The 1994 economic crisis in Mexico
1994 economic crisis in Mexico
The 1994 Economic Crisis in Mexico, widely known as the Mexican peso crisis, was caused by the sudden devaluation of the Mexican peso in December 1994....
caused the PRI to lose its absolute majority in both chambers of the federal congress
Congress of Mexico
The Congress of the Union is the legislative branch of the Mexican government...
for the first time in 1997.
Loss of the presidency of Mexico
Prior to the 2000 general elections, the PRI held its first primaries to elect the party's presidential candidate. The primary candidates, nicknamed "los cuatro fantásticos" (Spanish for The Fantastic Four), were:- Francisco Labastida Ochoa (former governor of SinaloaGovernor of SinaloaList of governors of the Mexican state of Sinaloa:Name PartyTermJesús AguilarJuan S. MillánRenato Vega AlvaradoFrancisco LabastidaAntonio Toledo CorroAlfonso G...
and Secretary of the InteriorSecretary of the Interior (Mexico)The Mexican Secretary of the Interior is the head of the Secretariat of the Interior, concerned with the country's internal affairs, the presentation of the president's bills to Congress, their publication and certain issues of national security. The country's main intelligence agency, CISEN,...
) - Roberto Madrazo Pintado (former governor of TabascoGovernor of TabascoList of governors of the Mexican state of Tabasco* Víctor Manuel Barceló served as a governor temporarily when Roberto Madrazo requested license-Source:*...
) - Manuel BartlettManuel BartlettManuel Bartlett Díaz , was Mexican Secretary of the Interior during the six year term of Miguel de la Madrid, from December 1, 1982 to November 30, 1988. During the first years of the Carlos Salinas government he was Secretary of Public Education, position he left after being nominated by the PRI...
(former governor of Puebla and Secretary of the Interior) - Humberto Roque VillanuevaHumberto Roque VillanuevaHumberto Roque Villanueva is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Partido Revolucionario Institucional .He is a native of Torreón, Coahuila....
The favorites in the primaries were Labastida and Madrazo, and the latter initiated a campaign against the first, perceived as Zedillo's candidate since many former secretaries of the interior were chosen as candidates by the president. His campaign, produced by prominent publicist Carlos Alazraki
Carlos Alazraki
Carlos Alazraki Grossmann is a Mexican advertising executive.Alazraki is the founder, president, and CEO of Alazraki & Asociados Publicidad agency and the previous president of the Asociación Mexicana de Agencias de Publicidad...
, had the motto "Dale un Madrazo al dedazo" or "Give a Madrazo to the dedazo" with "madrazo" being an offensive slang term for a "strike" and "dedazo" a slang used to describe the unilaterally choosing of candidates by the president (literally "finger-strike").
In the presidential elections
Mexican general election, 2000
General elections were held in Mexico on 6 July 2000. The presidential elections were won by Vicente Fox of the Alliance for Change, who received 43.4% of the vote, the first time the opposition had won an election since the Mexican Revolution...
of July 2, 2000, its candidate Francisco Labastida Ochoa was defeated by Vicente Fox
Vicente Fox
Vicente Fox Quesada is a Mexican former politician who served as President of Mexico from 1 December 2000 to 30 November 2006 and currently serves as co-President of the Centrist Democrat International, an international organization of Christian democratic political parties.Fox was elected...
, after getting only 36.1% of the popular vote. It was to be the first Presidential electoral defeat of the PRI. In the senatorial elections
Mexican general election, 2000
General elections were held in Mexico on 6 July 2000. The presidential elections were won by Vicente Fox of the Alliance for Change, who received 43.4% of the vote, the first time the opposition had won an election since the Mexican Revolution...
of the same date, the party won with 38.1%, or 33 out of 128 seats in the Senate of Mexico
Senate of Mexico
The Senate of the Republic, constitutionally Chamber of Senators of the Honorable Congress of the Union After a series of reforms during the 1990s, it is now made up of 128 senators:...
.
As an opposition party
After much restructuring, the party was able to make a recovery, winning the greatest number of seats (5% short of a true majority) in Congress in 2003: at these elections2003 Mexican elections
A number of elections, both federal and local, took place in Mexico during 2003:-Federal Congress:**Chamber of Deputies – 500 federal deputies-Colima:**Governor, state congress, and mayors**See: 2003 Colima state election-Nuevo León:...
, the party won 224 out of 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Mexico
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Congress of the Union, Mexico's bicameral legislature. The structure and responsibilities of both chambers of Congress are defined in Articles 50 to 70 of the current constitution.-Composition:The Chamber of Deputies is composed of one federal...
, remaining as the largest single party in both the Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Mexico
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Congress of the Union, Mexico's bicameral legislature. The structure and responsibilities of both chambers of Congress are defined in Articles 50 to 70 of the current constitution.-Composition:The Chamber of Deputies is composed of one federal...
and Senate
Senate of Mexico
The Senate of the Republic, constitutionally Chamber of Senators of the Honorable Congress of the Union After a series of reforms during the 1990s, it is now made up of 128 senators:...
. In the Federal District the PRI obtained only one borough mayorship (jefe delegacional) out of 16, and no first-past-the-post
Plurality voting system
The plurality voting system is a single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member constituencies...
members of the city assembly. The PRI recouped some significant losses on the state level (most notably, the governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
ship of former PAN stronghold Nuevo León
Nuevo León
Nuevo León It is located in Northeastern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north and east, San Luis Potosí to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León has a 15 kilometer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S...
). On August 6, 2004, in two closely contested elections in Oaxaca
Oaxaca
Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...
and Tijuana
Tijuana
Tijuana is the largest city on the Baja California Peninsula and center of the Tijuana metropolitan area, part of the international San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. An industrial and financial center of Mexico, Tijuana exerts a strong influence on economics, education, culture, art, and politics...
, PRI candidates Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
Ulises Ruiz Ortiz is a Mexican politician and former governor of the State of Oaxaca. He took office in 2004 as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party .- Election Controversy :...
and Jorge Hank Rhon
Jorge Hank Rhon
Jorge Hank Rhon is a Mexican politician, businessman and owner of Mexico's largest sports betting company, Caliente. An eccentric and controversial personality, he served from December 2004 to February 2007 as the president of the municipality of Tijuana. He is the son of former Mexico City mayor...
won the races for the governorship and municipal presidency respectively. The PAN had held control of the president's office of the municipality of Tijuana for 15 years. Six out of eight gubernatorial elections held during 2005 were won by the PRI: Quintana Roo
Quintana Roo
Quintana Roo officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Quintana Roo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 10 municipalities and its capital city is Chetumal....
, Hidalgo, Colima
Colima
Colima is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It shares its name with its capital and main city, Colima....
, Estado de México, Nayarit
Nayarit
Nayarit officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its capital city is Tepic.It is located in Western Mexico...
, and Coahuila
Coahuila
Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico...
. The PRI then controlled the states on the country's northern border with the US except for Baja California
Baja California
Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...
.
Later that year Roberto Madrazo
Roberto Madrazo
Roberto Madrazo Pintado is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party . He was the candidate of the alliance between his party and the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico in the 2006 Mexican presidential election.Madrazo was born in Villahermosa, Tabasco to Carlos A....
, president of the PRI
President of the Institutional Revolutionary Party
This is a list of Presidents of the Institutional Revolutionary Party of Mexico.-As Partido Revolucionary Institucional :-As Partido de la Revolución Mexicana :-As Partido Nacional Revolucionario :...
, left his post to seek a nomination as the party's candidate in the 2006 presidential election. According to the statutes, the presidency of the party would then go to Elba Esther Gordillo
Elba Esther Gordillo
Elba Esther Gordillo Morales is a Mexican politician, formerly affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party until 2006...
as party secretary. The rivalry between Madrazo and Gordillo caused Mariano Palacios Alcocer
Mariano Palacios Alcocer
Mariano Palacios Alcocer is a Mexican politician affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party .He is a former governor of Querétaro and has presided twice over the PRI....
instead to become president of the party. After what was perceived an imposition of Madrazo as candidate a group was formed called Unidad Democrática (Spanish: "Democratic Unity"), although nicknamed Todos Unidos Contra Madrazo (Spanish: "Everybody United Against Madrazo" or "TUCOM") which was formed by governors and former state governors:
- Arturo MontielArturo MontielArturo Montiel Rojas is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party . He is a former governor of the State of México and a former federal deputy....
(former governor of the State of MexicoGovernor of the State of MexicoThe Governor of the State of Mexico wields executive power in the State of Mexico ....
) - Enrique JacksonEnrique JacksonJesús Enrique Jackson Ramírez is a Mexican politician affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party .Jackson was born in Los Mochis, Sinaloa...
(federal senator) - Tomás YarringtonTomás YarringtonTomás Jesús Yarrington Ruvalcaba is a Mexican politician affiliated to the Revolutionary Institutional Party. He is a former mayor of Matamoros, and former governor of Tamaulipas....
(governor of TamaulipasGovernor of TamaulipasThis is a list of governors of Tamaulipas since it became a state of Mexico in 1917.The Governor is elected to a six year term and may only hold the title once...
) - Enrique MartínezEnrique Martínez y MartínezEnrique Martinez y Martinez is a Mexican politician affiliated to the Revolutionary Institutional Party. He served as governor of Coahuila from 2 December 1999 to 1 December 2005....
(former governor of CoahuilaGovernor of CoahuilaList of governors of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila de Zaragoza, since its establishment as the province of Nueva Extremadura in Northern New Spain, later province of Coahuila and Texas, and Coahuila as a Mexican state....
) - Manuel NúñezManuel Ángel Núñez SotoManuel Ángel Núñez Soto is a Mexican politician affiliated to the Revolutionary Institutional Party . He is a former governor of Hidalgo....
(governor of HidalgoGovernor of HidalgoList of governors of the Mexican state of Hidalgo.*: Matías Rodríguez*: Bartolomé Vargas Lugo*: Ernesto Viveros*: Javier Rojo Gómez*: Otilio Villegas Lora*: José Lugo Guerrero...
)
Montiel won the right to run against Madrazo for the candidacy but withdrew when it was made public that he and his French wife had multi-million properties in Europe. Madrazo and Everardo Moreno contended in the primaries which was won by the first. Madrazo then represented the PRI and the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico
Ecologist Green Party of Mexico
The Ecologist Green Party of Mexico is one of the six political parties to have representation in the Mexican Congress. The party's congressional strength currently stands at 17 deputies and five senators .-Elections 2000:...
(PVEM) in the Alliance for Mexico
Alliance for Mexico
The Alliance for Mexico is the name of two different multi-party electoral alliances in Mexico; one from 2000 and the other from 2006.-2000 elections:...
coalition.
During his campaign Madrazo declared that the PRI and PRD were "first cousins", to this Emilio Chuayffet Chemor responded that if that was the case then Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good...
(AMLO), candidate of the PRD would also be a first cousin and he might win the election.
AMLO was, by then, the favorite in the polls, with many followers within the PRI. Madrazo, second at the polls, then released TV spots against AMLO with little success, his campaign was managed again by Alazraki. Felipe Calderón
Felipe Calderón
Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa is the current President of Mexico. He assumed office on December 1, 2006, and was elected for a single six-year term through 2012...
ran a more successful campaign and then tied with Madrazo and later surpassed him as the second favorite. Gordillo, also the teachers' union leader, resentful against Madrazo, helped a group of teachers constitute the New Alliance Party
New Alliance Party (Mexico)
The New Alliance Party is one of the newest political parties in Mexico.Its creation was proposed by the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación , the largest trade union in Latin America, led by Elba Esther Gordillo, the controversial former general secretary of the Institutional...
. Divisions within the party and a successful campaign of the PAN candidate caused Madrazo to fall to third place. The winner, as announced by the Federal Electoral Institute
Federal Electoral Institute
The Federal Electoral Institute is an autonomous, public organization responsible for organizing federal elections in Mexico, that is, those related to the election of the President of the United Mexican States and to the election of the members of the Lower and Upper Chambers that constitute the ...
and valuated by the Mexican Election Tribunal amidst a controversy, was Felipe Calderón
Felipe Calderón
Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa is the current President of Mexico. He assumed office on December 1, 2006, and was elected for a single six-year term through 2012...
of the ruling PAN
National Action Party (Mexico)
The National Action Party , is one of the three main political parties in Mexico. The party's political platform is generally considered Centre-Right in the Mexican political spectrum. Since 2000, the President of Mexico has been a member of this party; both houses have PAN pluralities, but the...
Party. On November 20 of the same year, a group of young PRI politicians launched a movement that is set to reform and revolutionize the party. The PRI candidate failed to win a single state in the 2006 presidential election.
In the 2006 legislative elections the party won 106 out of 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Mexico
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Congress of the Union, Mexico's bicameral legislature. The structure and responsibilities of both chambers of Congress are defined in Articles 50 to 70 of the current constitution.-Composition:The Chamber of Deputies is composed of one federal...
and 35 out of 128 Senators
Senate of Mexico
The Senate of the Republic, constitutionally Chamber of Senators of the Honorable Congress of the Union After a series of reforms during the 1990s, it is now made up of 128 senators:...
.
In 2007 the PRI re-gained the governorship of Yucatán and was the party with the most mayorships and state congresspeople in the elections in Yucatán (tying with the PAN in the number of deputies), Chihuahua, Durango, Aguascalientes, Veracruz, Chiapas and Oaxaca. The PRI obtained the most mayorships in Zacatecas and the second most deputies in the congressional elections of Zacatecas and Baja California.
In 2009, the PRI re-gained plurality control of Mexican congress. This is the first time congress will be controlled by the PRI since the first initial victory by the opposing party PAN in the year 2000.
See also
- List of presidents of the Institutional Revolutionary PartyPresident of the Institutional Revolutionary PartyThis is a list of Presidents of the Institutional Revolutionary Party of Mexico.-As Partido Revolucionary Institucional :-As Partido de la Revolución Mexicana :-As Partido Nacional Revolucionario :...
- Lessons for the Modern-Day Autocrats