Mexican Elections - To PRI or Not to PRI?
Matloff, Judith
Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is fighting to maintain its 53-year-old hold on Mexican politics in its hardest campaign ever. Although the official party will win easily...
...Three other small parties fused to form the PSUM on August 15, and a fourth joined later...
...Ibarra, Mexico's first female presidential candidate, is a highly regarded critic of political repression who became active when her son "disappeared...
...This term has come to mean "an official who will plan greater economic and industrial develop36 0 0 o z De la Madrid's campaign pledges a renewal of revolutionary morale, ment at any cost to the poor," in the words of one peasant organizer in Morelos state...
...Abouth 10 of the 30 participants were injured while the police, who didn't show up during the entire 30 minute attack, later arrested five men...
...And with Martinez Verdugo's candidacy, the Mexican people may for the first time officially choose a leftist alternative to PRI's 53-year rule...
...The far-right Mexican Democratic Party (PDM), the moderate Democratic Socialist Party (PDS) and the Fourth International Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT) have small constituencies, as does the left-ofcenter Socialist Workers Party (PST...
...Besides the economic crisis, Mexicans are acutely aware of police brutality and political repression...
...PMT leaders say they are willing to continue unity talks after July...
...They insisted on proportional representation in the Central Committee and at a unification assembly which was to be held in November...
...Groups seeking registration must have 65,000 card-carrying members, have existed for four years and gain 1.5% of the vote to extend their registration to following elections...
...The PSUM chose PCM chairman Arnoldo Martinez Verdugo as presidential candidate by a narrow margin...
...For the Left, PSUM represents an important start at achieving unity and formulating an alternative national agenda that could attract broad sectors of Mexicans...
...Mexico's first gay liberation demonstration was held in June 1978...
...By channeling dissent into an institutional framework, the party creates an illusion of greater liberalism and seeming legitimacy while maintaining virtual authoritarian control...
...But this is the first step toward organizing on a mass scale...
...The Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution (PARM) and the Popular Socialist Party (PPS) allegedly receive PRI funding and have endorsed de la Madrid...
...The PSUM, on the other hand, did not address gay issues in its political program or nominate any gay candidates, although the Communist Party had, prior to merging into the PSUM, endorsed gay rights and had openly gay members...
...Having cracked the door to the opposition, the PRI's task will now be to ward off efforts to force the door wide open...
...update * u figures, a veteran of the 1968 student upheavals who was jailed until 1971...
...But it is clear that de la Madrid's winning margin will be reduced this year...
...Six candidates are running against the PRI, thanks to President Lopez Portillo's 1977 electoral reforms which opened the field to alternative parties...
...Of the eight parties running against the PRI, only two-the PSUM and the National Action Party (PAN)-are likely to gain many votes...
...A vigorous counter-offensive has been mounted, including a demonstration on the attack site and denunciations of the assault and repression of the movement signed by prominent Mexicans and progressive organizations...
...According to Amnesty International, over the past few years 300-400 persons have "disappeared" at the hands of paramilitary forces...
...Her candidacy, and that of the gays, thrusts the issue of human rights and political and social repression into the electoral debate...
...While it is difficult to determine the weight of each of these issues, it does seem clear that the PMT was afraid that what was in the works was not a fusion, but a swallowing whole of the PMT by the Communists...
...Abstentionism continues to be a major problem in Mexican electoral races...
...Practically the only point Coming Out In Mexico by Paul Horowitz This year's Mexican elections mark the "coming out" of gay rights in Latin American politics...
...His speeches tend to employ vague nationalist language designed to garner popular support...
...The PSUM has been taking full page newspaper ads on issues such as the government's monopoly on registering trade unions and deciding the legality of strikes...
...Mexico's last devaluation (1976) and the ensuing inflation were cushioned by the oil boom...
...The larger PCM held that each party should be represented by the same number...
...A favorite with conservative businessmen and the international business community, de la Madrid is labeled a "technocrat" by leftist critics...
...In 1979, he landed the post of Planning and Budget Secretary...
...The appearance of openly gay of agreement between the PRI and the PSUM is in continuing Lopez Portillo's foreign policy...
...In nominating Rosario Ibarra de Piedra as its presidential candidate, the party underlined its commitment to full participation in political life by women...
...The PCM continued the unity process nonetheless, countering by calling their recent ally "sectarian and bureaucratic...
...It is believed that this embarrassing success helped convince Lopez Portillo to open up the electoral field...
...Oil exports rose to 70% of the country's total exports before prices and sales fell last summer, causing serious economic woes...
...with the PRI's superior propaganda machine, control of peasant and labor organizations and big business support, coupled with fraud, the party will win...
...Denied electoral registration, the PMT approached the Communist Party about forming an alliance...
...in an attempt to muster a united assault against Mexico's one-party system...
...Much like the 1969 raid on the Stonewall Bar in New York City, the attack may become a watershed for Mexico's gay movement...
...The economy too, will give de la Madrid no small headache...
...The PMT was also upset that the PCM had announced that Castillo was their choice as presidential candidate without consulting the party...
...How much longer can the PRI continue its lip service solidarity with the region's liberation movements while holding the lid so tightly on dissent at home...
...Oil has not launched Mexico into developed country status nor solved domestic ills...
...Mexico's oil finds have raised high hopes, hopes that are not easily satisfied by PRI's continued populist rhetoric...
...On the campaign trail, de la Madrid has stressed populist themes, calling for: 1) an end to corruption, 2) greater economic and political equality for marginalized groups, 3) increased industrial and agricultural production, 4) self-sufficiency in agricultural production and aid to the agrarian sector, 5) greater development of the oil industry and 6) a continuation of Lopez Portillo's popular and outspoken Central America policy...
...The increasing political repression has become a public issue, one which cannot be brushed aside easily...
...Since 1976, about 1,200 businessmen and government officials have been caught on fraud and bribery charges, and over 11 billion pesos recovered...
...See box...
...An engineer and university professor, Castillo is also a popular columnist...
...Not a PRT member, her work with human rights groups has earned her broad support ranging from leftists to conservative housewives...
...It also calls for a reduction in oil exports and greater self-sufficiency by increasing production of oil byproducts...
...Each of the six promised to dissolve its own organization...
...Once in power de la Madrid will only have begun to face the current challenge to his party's firm control and to its mantle of revolutionary legitimacy...
...Since then the movement has spawned a number of organizations and developed a presence within pre-existing organizations of the Left...
...De la Madrid has skirted the issue of repression and repeatedly warned political opponents that he will deal firmly with those who threaten "law and order...
...Rights Activist Campaigns The PSUM's plan of action calls for greater state control, nationalization of the media and transportation, and of the food, chemical and drug industries...
...Six lesbians and gay men have been nominated for Congress by the PRT and, recently, another by the PSD, the first openly gay candidates in Latin America...
...The PMT preferred not to include the words socialist or communist in the new party's name, and firmly rejected the hammer and sickle as party emblem...
...As everyone knows, campaign promises are only gloss," said one political scientist...
...No one doubts the outcome...
...But the movement, and gay life in general, has also faced government repression...
...A naNACLA Report 38update . update . update update tional campaign, despite the ser- ious blocks built into the system against a challenger, offers an op- portunity to raise issues and generate debate...
...But record inflation, austerity measures and 30% unemployment are haunting the campaign of Harvard-educated Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado...
...We're just using the campaign for public criticism of the government and to gain more support for the party...
...The past year has brought an 8% cut in the public sector budget, doubling of domestic gas prices and 29% inflation...
...In the past, the PRI has won an overwhelming majority of the rural vote...
...Slogans during the capital's May Day march focused on public sector cutbacks and corruption of leaders in government-controlled unions...
...From Whence PRI Came The PRI's anointment of de la Madrid as heir apparent is indicative of the party's shift away from its populist roots...
...The reform seems in keeping with PRI's style of holding onto MarlApr 1982 power...
...In 1976 a PCM presidential candidate drew 800,00 write-in votes, a respectable showing for a candidate who was not even on the ballot...
...The PRT has openly participated in gay demontrations since 1978...
...We aren't aiming to win," says Carlos Martinez of the PRT...
...But corruption fighter Javier Coello Trejo, an agent of the Federal Public Ministry, claimed in an interview with the progressive Mexican magazine Proceso that numerous other offenders still run free...
...Unity was shortlived...
...Although the official party will win easily as it has in the last eight presidential elections, the worst economic crisis in five years and a host of opposition candidates promise to cast a shadow on its victory...
...fective, since the PRT presidential candidate is the extremely charismatic Rosario Ibarra de Piedra...
...But part of the problem at least is widespread voter apathy...
...An Open Door, Or Is It...
...Lopez Portillo's 1977 electoral reform law loosened restrictions on electoral participation...
...And in fact, the vigorous de la Madrid campaign has caused more yawns than anything else, and a few glaring violations of the candidate's own declared war on corruption...
...In the Mexican system, the campaign is designed not to win votes but to give el candidato, as PRI's candidate is always known, exposure and credibility as presidential material...
...United We Still Fall The Mexican Communist Party (PCM) has made several attempts over the last few years to encourage electoral cooperation...
...Much of the press has been unsympathetic, and on occasion, openly hostile to gay demands...
...We indicated that what we wanted was a party for always, and not for the elections," said PMT Secretary General Heberto Castillo...
...The PMT's withdrawal has ruined PSUM's chances of serving as a representative mouthpiece of the Left...
...Political squabbles within the party have created an opening for leftist opposition parties which are energetically attacking the firmly entrenched PRI and its policies, and organizing for a long-term alternative...
...Together the six leftist parties would have represented Mexico's second largest political force, albeit far behind the PRI...
...The PRI claims to represent all social classes in Mexico as the authentic standard bearer of the 1910 revolution...
...The PRI campaign reportedly will cost the government $200 million before it's all over on July 4. As proof of de la Madrid's conservative bent, critics point to the 90-billion-peso cut in public spending made last July when de la Madrid still headed the Budget Secretariat...
...The PSUM is an amalgam of leftist parties created last August Judith Matloff is a free-lance writer living in Mexico...
...Wishing to appear as much a man of the people as possible, de la Madrid is playing down his U.S...
...The PRI picks up the tab.for journalists covering the campaign...
...Compiled from eyewitness accounts and coverage by the Bostonbased Gay Community News...
...The predominantly PRI-run federal electoral commission can deny registration to any party...
...The oil doesn't do much for me," says Eduardo Flores, a Mexico City construction worker whose minimum wage is being severely depleted by inflation following a 60% devaluation of the peso in February...
...After receiving a master's degree in Public Management from Harvard in 1965, he worked for Banco de Mexico-Mexico's central bank-going on to become Assistant Director of Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), the state oil monopoly...
...But there is now a world excess of oil, and as London's Financial Times observed, this time Mexico "cannot pump its way out of the crisis...by turning up the oil valves...
...The left vote is further split by the PSUM's exclusion of the Trotskyist PRT from the new alliance because of historical ideological differences and rivalries with the PCM, according to a PSUM Central Committee member...
...The end of Mexico's four-year oil boom is one of the main problems facing the PRI in this election year...
...Though a strike by the sevenmillion member Mexican Workers Federation (CTM) was averted by 10 to 30% wage increases, workers in the government-tied organization stated they needed at least a 45% pay increment to regain past purchasing power...
...In 1976 Lopez Portillo had no real competitor...
...Yet he did not open the door entirely...
...Every president makes the same promises, but few are actually realized...
...Immediately after the devaluation, radical wings of the school teachers' and telephone workers' unions struck in demand of 50% salary hikes...
...The most recent and serious attack against the movement occurred on March 20, at the program marking the beginning of the PRT's gay candidates campaign in the capital...
...Like some of the lesbian and gay candidates, Ibarra is not a PRT member...
...There are also several firsts-the first coalition leftist candidate, the first woman and the first openly gay candidates in Latin America...
...Oil Boom Feeds Discontent For el candidato, soon to be el presidente, the next six years at the helm promise to be turbulent...
...Exacerbating the problem were unprecedented decreases in tourism, also a major source of foreign revenue...
...We didn't exclude ourselves, they excluded us," two PRT leaders told Proceso...
...in 1976 abstentions hovered around 50...
...The Mexican race is interesting for reasons that races usually are not-who crosses the finish line is not at issue...
...A Step Toward Unity Both PSUM and PRT leaders view this election cynically...
...Candidate de la Madrid must now prove that along with his entrepreneurial and economic skills, he possesses political savvy...
...Police raid gay bars and harass people at popular gay gathering places...
...In the 1979 congressional elections, several parties united behind the PCM banner to win 700,000 votes and 18 seats in the 400-member Chamber of Deputies...
...Contradicting lofty speeches pledging "a moral renewal of the revolutionary movement," the candidate chose allegedly corrupt old-boy party members as his regional PRI deputies...
...Their action 35update update update update closed classrooms to eight million students and crippled national phone service...
...Local bankers have predicted another devaluation and inflation levels reaching 50% over the next six months...
...And there is no doubt that de la Madrid's management training is sound...
...They suggested that his emphasis on greater economic productivity will lead to more trade with the United States and will increase oil exports and Mexico's foreign debt...
...The reasons are the number and character of the other contestants, and how the winner will administer his victory...
...We have recovered only 1% of what has been stolen," he added...
...The PMT withdrew from the process in November amid accusations that the PCM was forging ahead too fast on the electoral front...
...In random interviews conducted in Mexico City and the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Michoacan and Guanajuato, the concerns most often mentioned were corruption and repression of political dissidents...
...PMT Secretary General Heberto Castillo is one of the Left's most respected 37update * update...
...ties, going so far as to use an unnecessary English interpreter when interviewed by the foreign press...
...The PRI's campaign has been undermined by labor disenchantment with the devaluation and government austerity measures...
...They are also slipped an envelope daily containing close to $90...
...It'd be science fiction to think we'd win," says Marcos Leonel Posadas, a Unified Socialist Party of Mexico (PSUM) Central Committee member, of his party's attempt to lure votes away from the powerful PRI...
...Their inclusion might have been efCongressional candidates in Mexico follows three years of growing educational work, self-organization and demonstrations...
...Workers Hit By Inflation At the root of the crisis is Mexico's misguided oil policy...
...A gang of 50 thugs, armed with clubs and knives, attacked the event, shouting "perverts", "reds" and "anti-PRIstas...
...In January, the national debt reached $48.7 billion, rivaling only Brazil's...
...The most recent attempt at cooperation, the PSUM, was formed on the initiative of the Mexican Workers' Party (PMT), a nationalist, pro-labor group formed in the early 70s, with about 24,000 members...
...He has continued PRI's practice of staging demonstrations, offering food, transportation and other amenities to bring out NACLA Reportupd ate update update update the crowds...
Vol. 16 • March 1982 • No. 2
