Roberto Madrazo
Encyclopedia
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...
politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party
Institutional Revolutionary Party
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 , making Mexico one of the few...
(PRI). He was the candidate of the alliance between his party 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 2006 Mexican presidential election
Mexican general election, 2006
A general election was held in Mexico on Sunday, July 2, 2006. Voters went to the polls to elect, on the federal level:*A new President of the Republic to serve a six-year term, replacing then Mexican President Vicente Fox .*500 members to serve for a...
.
Madrazo was born in Villahermosa
Villahermosa
Like most of the Tabasco, Villahermosa has a tropical climate. The city specifically features a tropical monsoon climate. Temperatures during spring and summer seasons reach upwards of 40°C , with humidity levels hovering around 30% during the same period...
, 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....
to Carlos A. Madrazo
Carlos A. Madrazo
Carlos Alberto Madrazo Becerra was a reformist Mexican politician.Madrazo was born on the ranchería of Parrilla, in the state of Tabasco, to Píoquinto Madrazo López, a businessman, and Concepción Becerra, a schoolteacher. His childhood was marked by poverty, but his mother taught him the will to...
and Graciela Pintado Jiménez. His father was a reformist politician at a time when the PRI was the only viable party. Both of his parents died in a plane crash when he was sixteen. Although his father came from humble roots, his prestige allowed Roberto to become one of Mexico's elite. He studied law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico
National Autonomous University of Mexico
The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México is a university in Mexico. UNAM was founded on 22 September 1910 by Justo Sierra as a liberal alternative to the Roman Catholic-sponsored Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) (National Autonomous...
and urbanism
Urbanism
Broadly, urbanism is a focus on cities and urban areas, their geography, economies, politics, social characteristics, as well as the effects on, and caused by, the built environment.-Philosophy:...
at the University of California at Los Angeles, and headed the PRI Youth.
Between 1976 and 1988 , he represented Tabasco 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 the 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:...
. He served as governor of Tabasco
Governor of Tabasco
List of governors of the Mexican state of Tabasco* Víctor Manuel Barceló served as a governor temporarily when Roberto Madrazo requested license-Source:*...
from 1994–2000 and 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 :...
from 2002–2005. Madrazo is mainly credited for bringing cohesion to a disjointed PRI after it historically lost the 2000 presidential election. Madrazo was able to wrestle control of the PRI by negotiating deals with different power groups within the PRI and by neutralizing political adversaries within the party. It is widely perceived in Mexico that Madrazo achieved this through the use of incredibly ruthless political tactics.
He is married to Isabel de la Parra Trillo.
2000 presidential election
Madrazo sought the PRI's presidential candidacy in 2000 but lost to Francisco LabastidaFrancisco Labastida
Francisco Labastida Ochoa is a Mexican economist and politician affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party , who became the first presidential candidate of his party to lose a presidential election, which he did in the 2000 presidential election to Vicente Fox.He was born to Gloria Ochoa...
, a former governor of Sinaloa
Sinaloa
Sinaloa officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 18 municipalities and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales....
and former 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,...
in the cabinet
Mexican Executive Cabinet
The cabinet of Mexico is the Executive Cabinet and is a part of the executive branch of the Mexican government. It consists of eighteen Secretaries of State, the head of the federal executive legal office and the Attorney General....
of 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...
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...
, whom Madrazo perceived as having chosen Labastida as his successor in the Mexican political
Politics of Mexico
The politics of Mexico take place in a framework of a federal presidential representative democratic republic whose government is based on a congressional system, whereby the president of Mexico is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system...
tradition of the dedazo ("the finger", referring to hand-chosen presidential succession).
The PRI had never lost a presidential election since its founding, and the party's structure made the president the arbiter of its internal affairs. Although this was not the first time in PRI's history the presidential authority was defied, Madrazo's anti-"dedazo" campaign was particularly aggressive. He even used a pun on his surname (a "madrazo" is vulgar term for a severe blow in Mexican Spanish
Mexican Spanish
Mexican Spanish is a version of the Spanish language, as spoken in Mexico and in various places of Canada and the United States of America, where there are communities of Mexican origin....
) as a promise to end the corrupt tradition when he said he would strike a "madrazo" against the "dedazo". He attracted some followers inside the PRI but the primary, which, in an unprecedented turn of events, was open to registered voters and not just PRI members, favored Labastida.
Madrazo accepted the outcome, but his aggressive internal campaign had weakened Labastida's candidacy in the eyes of the electorate, and was seen as a major factor in his defeat by the 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) candidate Vicente Fox Quesada.
After the historical loss of the presidential election in 2000
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...
, the PRI was faced an uncertain future. Madrazo, however, as party leader, was able to parlay the party's strong infrastructure and history into electoral victories, particularly in his home state of Tabasco, which helped avoid internecine troubles.
PRI presidency
Elba Esther Gordillo
Elba Esther Gordillo Morales is a Mexican politician, formerly affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party until 2006...
(as his general secretary), the powerful leader of the National Teachers' Union. Together, they defeated their adversary, Senator Beatriz Paredes in a close election. After the election, Gordillo became his political rival, resulting in her retirement from public life for a year amidst many verbal accusations (she was accused of murdering members of her labor-based opposition and conspiring against PRI members). In early 2005 Gordillo returned to the political scene and broke publicly with Madrazo.
2006 presidential campaign
Madrazo's position as national leader of the PRI has given him a considerable advantage in his campaign for the 2006 presidential candidacyMexican general election, 2006
A general election was held in Mexico on Sunday, July 2, 2006. Voters went to the polls to elect, on the federal level:*A new President of the Republic to serve a six-year term, replacing then Mexican President Vicente Fox .*500 members to serve for a...
. As the election neared, there had been a growing discomfort among other would-be PRI candidates, who had increasingly demanded clear rules for the internal campaign be set. Many PRI-affiliated state governors formed the group Democratic Unity, nicknamed TUCOM (Todos Unidos Contra Madrazo, "All United Against Madrazo") in the media. They chose Arturo Montiel
Arturo Montiel
Arturo 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....
as their pre-candidate. In the primary elections, Madrazo, Montiel and a third contender Everardo Moreno Cruz, competed for the candidacy. Montiel resigned after allegations of impropriety concerning mansions in Mexico and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(his wife is a French citizen). His sons were also implicated in embezzlement
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
schemes. The scandals resulted in Madrazo's candidacy, although minimal participation on the part of the PRI votership may indicate a lack of faith in the PRI or a general disinterest. Lately he has been accused by political rivals of tax evasion.
After the primaries, Madrazo forged an alliance with the PVEM, and earned the party's nomination. Madrazo faced a battle against 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...
, the former Head of Government of the Federal District
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....
and PRD presidential candidate. López Obrador was something of a personal rival, having previously lost to Madrazo in the election for the Tabasco governorship in 1994. Another contestant was the right
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
-of-center 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...
candidate 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...
.
The public debate between Madrazo and Gordillo resulted in the creation of a new political party, the Partido Nueva Alianza, formed to oppose Madrazo in his bid for the presidency. For this she was suspended in her rights as a PRI "militant" (an official party position) pending an expulsion process. Gordillo has made it clear that she believes Madrazo is not a viable candidate for Mexico's presidency. The Nueva Alianza candidate, Roberto Campa, spent much of the first presidential debate attacking Madrazo.
Shortly after Gordillo's denunciation, the Mexico City newspaper Reforma
Reforma
Reforma is a Mexican newspaper based in Mexico City. It has 276,700 readers in Mexico City. The paper shares content with other papers in parent newsgroup Grupo Reforma. The cumulative readership of the newsgroup is above 400,000...
, published an article that condemned Madrazo as the owner of a luxury penthouse in a prestigious highrise tower in Miami worth eight million pesos
Mexican peso
The peso is the currency of Mexico. Modern peso and dollar currencies have a common origin in the 15th–19th century Spanish dollar, most continuing to use its sign, "$". The Mexican peso is the 12th most traded currency in the world, the third most traded in the Americas, and by far the most...
($800,000 U.S. dollars
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
) and three luxury apartments in Mexico City with the alleged value of seven million pesos. However, Madrazo's public declaration of assets, liabilities and expenses of January 19, 2006 denies the allegations.
Going into the elections, Madrazo polled at 30 percent.
On July 3, 2006, Madrazo and his coalition conceded defeat in the presidential election. According to official results, he received only 22.26% of the vote or 9,301,441 votes out of 41,791,322 votes—the PRI's worst presidential result ever.
Berlin marathon scam
Madrazo was accused of cheatingCheating
Cheating refers to the breaking of rules to gain advantage in a competitive situation. The rules infringed may be explicit, or they may be from an unwritten code of conduct based on morality, ethics or custom, making the identification of cheating a subjective process. Cheating can refer...
during the 2007 Berlin Marathon
Berlin Marathon
The Berlin Marathon is a major running and sporting event held annually in Berlin, Germany. The official marathon distance of 42.195 kilometers is set up as a city-wide road race where professional athletes and amateur runners jointly participate...
. Posting a time of 2 hours and 41 minutes, his time was just 36 minutes above the then recently achieved world record. His 25 and 30 km checkpoints were unregistered. Madrazo finished the race in 146th place, and allegedly took 21 minutes to cover the 15 kilometers between the 20 km and 35 km marks, while the world record for this distance is 41 minutes.
The cheating was revealed because the time registration of start, finish and all split times of the marathon was done by transponder timing
Transponder timing
Transponder timing is a technique for measuring performance in sport events. A transponder working on a radio-frequency identification basis is attached to the athlete and emits a unique code that is detected by radio receivers located at the strategic points in an event.Prior to the use of this...
. Eventually Madrazo was disqualified, causing a political disturbance in Mexico.
External links
Madrazo for President website- "Who is Who in the Mexican Presidential Election", Paola Reyes, Vista Magazine