Introduction to Mexican Presidential Politics

I'm a born political nut, so the natural thing for me to do when I get someplace new is to learn as much as I can about the local political scene. Although I learned a bit about the Mexican political system in college, it has been a while and a lot has changed in Mexican politics. Also this year is a presidential election year in Mexico, and potentially one of the most important in recent history. So over the next few months leading up to the July 2nd general election I will be writing bi-weekly (or more often) about what is happening in Mexican presidential politics. Megan will chime in from time to time as well, I suspect. Although I am a pretty opinionated person, you won't see my personal feelings about any of the candidates or parties in this election (for reasons I will go into in my next entry).

Because I am aware that most Americans aren't very familiar with the Mexican political system, I am going to write today about the recent history of Mexican presidential politics, the three main parties and their candidates for president.

The last 80 years of Mexican politics has been dominated by one party, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional or Instutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). From 1929 till 2000 they held the presidency and even since 2000 they have had a majority of the representatives in the national assembly and the state governerships. This party was created after the turmoil of the revolution to act as a unifying political fource to stabilize a political system in upheval. It did so with such precision (and corruption) that it became in many respects the party of the state for the next 70 years. This parties reign was marked by very competent and popular presidents, but also marred by corrupt, wasteful and incompetent presidents. While they guaranteed their relection in nearly every office of importance accross the country, during the 60's & 70's the popularity of the party began to decrease in parts of the country and especially amongh the educated youth. One of the turning points in the support of the PRI was the horrible massacre of students at Tlatelco in Mexico City prior to the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
In the years that followed the PRI leadership slowly started to open up the process to allow minimum participation from other parties. During the early 90's the PRI began creating a semi-independent electorial governance body to ensure more fair and free elections that were open to any party. The PRI candidate for the 2006 elections is Roberto Madrazo and in most polls he is currently running in last place.

In most recent presidential election the PRI were dealt a defeat by their long running opposistion party the Partido Acción Nacional or National Action Party (PAN). In this election, the PAN's Vincente Fox won the presidency with promises widespread change and an end to PRI dominance. The foundation of the PAN dates back to the end of the Christero War in which the Mexican government defeated catholic insurgents in the late 1920s. At the end of the war Catholic leaders wanted to pursue peaceful political means to oppose the revolutionary government and the conservative PAN was the answer. For many years the PAN held no elected offices, but portrayed itself as the moral opposistion to the PRI. As the political process opened up in the late 20th century, the PAN began to elect more representatives in the national assembly and to the governerships of more conservative states. Jalisco, the state in which Guadalajara is located, is currently under the leadership of a PAN governer and pro-PAN sentiment is strong here. In the last 10 years (or so) the PAN has also started to focus on representing big business interest in Mexico as well as the liberalization of trade laws (such as NAFTA and the WTO agreements). More and more the PAN is begining to look similiar to the Republican Party in the United States. During his term Vincente Fox created a completely independent electoral commision that should insure fair elections. Since the Mexican president is constitutionally limited to one 6 year term, Vincente Fox cannot run for reelection. The PAN has selected Felipe Calderón as its presidential candidate and he is currently running 2nd in most polls.

The newest of the major Mexican political parties is the Partido de la Revolución Democrática or the Party of the Democratic Revolution. This party was formed in 1989 in the wake of the loss of left wing presidential candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas in the presidential 1988 election. Cárdenas' loss to PRI candidate Carlos Salinas was contraversial because of various suspected frauds on the part of the PRI. The largest of this was a suspicious outage of the election computer system in the late hours of election night. When the system was repaired the next day, Salinas had defied expectations and had won. Cárdenas and some other leaders of the left formed the PRD shortly after this loss, calling it the party of the 6 de Julio (the date of the 1988 election). Cárdenas again ran for president in 2000, but this time lost in the uncontested election of the PAN's Fox. This year the PRD has nominated former Mexico City mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador or AMLO and he is currently leading most polls. AMLO is considered the political sucessor to Cárdenas, although recently Cárdenas has distanced himself from AMLO.

Next time: Prohibited foreign influence and the 2006 election

Posted by Noah Brimhall at March 31, 2006 04:37 PM