The 'Institutional Revolutionary Party'
(
Spanish: ''Partido Revolucionario Institucional'' or 'PRI') is a
Mexican political party that wielded 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.
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 a
centrist political party formed in 1929 as 'Revolutionary National Party' (Spanish: "Partido Nacional Revolucionario" or PNR) focused on protecting the poor after the
Mexican Revolution2.
Lázaro Cárdenas, perhaps Mexico's most-popular
20th-century president and most renowned for
expropriating the oil interests of the
United States and
European
petroleum companies in the run-up to
World War II, came from the ranks of the PNR. He was a person of
leftist ideas who nationalized different industries and provided many social institutions which are dear to the Mexican people.
After several decades in power the PRI became a symbol of corruption and electoral fraud
[2]. Because of this latter, its
left 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
2. The growth of these two parties consolidated 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 member of the PAN (
Manuel Clouthier11,
Addy Joaquín Coldwell and
Demetrio Sodi), most of the PRD (most notably all three
Mexico City mayors
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 presidencial candidates from the opposition (Clouthier, López Obrador, Cárdenas, González Torres, Campa and
Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, among many others). The party was 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 state for much of the
20th century.
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 roads, 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 who's 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.
Origins
The party was the result of
Plutarco Elías Calles'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) and created the broad-based political alliances necessary for the PRI's long-term survival, by
splitting the party into interest groups representing different facets of national political life (for example, the ''
Confederación Nacional Campesina'', the farmer's group). Cárdenas' 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.
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 investment on infrastructure. From 1940 to 1970 GDP increased sixfold and the population only doubled
[3] 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.
Mexico City became the first in
Latin America,
Spain and
Portugal to be chosen to host the
Olympic Games in 1968. 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 asked the United States for assistance, through
LITEMPO a spy-program to inform the United States about of the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US to obtain information from Mexico. The CIA responding by sending military radios, weapons and ammunition
[4]. The LITEMPO had prevously provided the Díaz Ordaz government with 1,000
.223 Colt automatic ammunition in 1963
[5]. During the protests fires were shot and a number of students died (officially 39, unofficially hundreds) 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
[6].
The economic crises
The government of
Luis Echeverría (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 old 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
[7]. 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
7. 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
7.
During his campaign, López Portillo promised to defend the peso "like a dog"
[8], hoping for stabilization of the oil prices continued social spending through heavy borrowing President López Portillo. López Portillo refused to devaluate the currency
7 since he said that a president that devaluates, gets devaluated himself
8. The discover 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
8 (compared to 25 billion
7 during Echeverría). Oil production increased from 94,000 barrels a day at the beginning of his administration to 1.5 million barrels a day at the end of his administration and Mexico became the fourth largest oil producer in the world
8. The price for a barrel of oil also increased from three dollars in 1970 to 35 dollars in 1981
8.
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 the
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. 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
8. 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"
[9].
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 parties 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 communist deputies in the
Congress of Mexico8.
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
8.
All this prosperity ended when the over-supply of oil in
June 1981 caused oil prices to plummet and damaged severely the national economy. Interest rates skyrocketed and external debt reached 100 billion dolars and exchange rate went from 26 to 70 pesos per dollar and inflation 100%. This all culminated in the suspension on payments of external debt the nationalization of the banking industry in 1982, this latter diminished the consequences of the crises but did not stop from López Portillo's reputation to plummet and his character became the butt of jokes from the press
8.
Miguel de la Madrid was the first of a series of economists to rule the country, a
technocrat implemented
neoliberal reforms. After the 1982 default and crisis lenders were unwilling to loan Mexico and this resulted in currency devaluations to finance spending. Inflation hit a record high in 1987 at 159.7%.
Left-wing splits from the PRI
In 1986,
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas (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[10] 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 [''1988'', ''La Jornada'', July 18, 2006.]. 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 y
Luis Felipe Bravo Mena as cabinet members and Clouthier as cabinet coordinator). The purpose of this cabinet was to vigilate the accions 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
[11]. That same year, the PRI lost its first state government with the election of
Ernesto Ruffo Appel as
governor of Baja California.
Death of Colosio and the loss of majority in Congress
In
1990 Peruvian writer
Mario Vargas Llosa called the government under the PRI ''
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.
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
[12]:
★
Francisco Labastida Ochoa (former
governor of Sinaloa and
Secretary of the Interior)
★
Roberto Madrazo Pintado (former
governor of Tabasco)
★
Manuel Bartlett (former
governor of Puebla and Secretary of the Interior)
★
Humberto Roque Villanueva
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 slang 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. Many considered that this event would mark the party's downfall. In the
senatorial elections of the same date, the party won with 38.1%, or 51 out of 128 seats in the
Senate of Mexico.
The PRI as an opposition party
After much restructuring, the party was able to make an impressive recovery, winning the greatest number of seats (5% short of a true majority) in Congress in 2003: at these
elections, 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
governorship 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 Pintado,
president of the PRI, left his post to seek a nomination as the party's candidate in the 2000 presidential election. According to the statutes, the presidency of the party would then fall on the head of
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")
[13] which was formed by governors and former state governors:
★
Arturo Montiel (former
governor of the State of Mexico)
★
Enrique Jackson (federal senator)
★
Tomás Yarrington (
governor of Tamaulipas)
★
Enrique Martínez (former
governor of Coahuila)
★
Manuel Núñez (
governor of Hidalgo)
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
[14]. Madrazo and
Everardo Moreno contended in the primaries which was won by the first
[15]. 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
[16].
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 teacher's 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
[17].
See also
★
List of presidents of the Institutional Revolutionary Party
Footnotes
1. People Daily
2. PRI at the NNDB
3. Crandall R (2004). "Mexico's Domestic Economy", in Mexico's Democracy at Work: Political and Economic Dynamics, Crandall, Paz and Roett (editors) Lynne Reiner Publishers, United States
4. ''The Tlatelolco Massacre'', Kate Doyle.
5. ''Documents link past presidents to CIA'', October 20, 2006.
6. ''1968: Student riots threaten Mexico Olympics'', BBC, October 2, 1968.
7. ''Prelude to Disaster: José López Portillo and the Crash of 1976'', National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 115, Edited by Kate Doyle.
8. Biography of López Portillo
9. What is COPPAL?
10. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, at Encyclopedia Britannica
11. Biography of Manuel Clouthier, at the Political Studies National Institute.
12. ''Los «cuatro fantásticos» del PRI, listos para las urnas'', ''El Mundo'', November 4, 1999.
13. ''Integrantes del Tucom, de políticos pobres a precandidatos que gastan millones'', ''La Jornada'', July 25, 2005.
14. ''Montiel deja vía libre a Madrazo'', ''El Universal'', October 21, 2005.
15. ''Confirman el triunfo de Madrazo en Michoacán'', ''La Jornada'', November 14, 2005.
16. ''AMLO, "primo hermano": Chuayffet'', ''La Jornada'', March 15, 2006.
17. "El Movimiento"
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