Mexico's PRI Marks 70 Years in Power
March 4, 1999 - 0:0
MEXICO CITY Mexico's PRI marks 70 years in power Thursday priding itself on the stability it has given the country and brushing aside claims that corruption and near-dictatorship helped it become the world's oldest ruling party. Officials of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) say Thursday's festivities will demonstrate the party's ability and determination to remain at the helm for many more years.
But analysts say the PRI will face a tough battle for the 2000 presidential elections, amid growing disenchantment over the way it has ruled the country since it took power in March 1929 in the wake of a series of bloody uprisings that formed the Mexican revolution. In a biting comment he wrote a few years ago, noted Mexican author Carlos Fuentes said that like all good brothels, the PRI has lived off the pleasures it provides stability in this case and despite its reputation for constant fraud.
But nobody any longer believes in its virtues, while its vices have become more obvious, Fuentes, who is also a former ambassador to France, wrote in A New Time for Mexico. Most political analysts agree that the PRI's longevity record is based on a complex mix of populist policies, authoritarianism and often questionable practices. It is not a classic dictatorship, it is not a military dictatorship and it is not a banana-republic rule either, said Porfirio Munoz Ledo, a former PRI president who quit the party and now hopes to be the presidential candidate for the center-left Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD).
It is almost a perfect dictatorship ... it is so well disguised, the PRD lawmaker told AFP, paraphrasing Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa. Criticism of the PRI's practices ranges from widespread claims of continuing electoral fraud to suspicions the party may have been linked to political assassinations. Its lengthy and iron-grip rule has been likened to that of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, though a number of analysts say the PRI is far more flexible.
It reaches arrangements, buys, co-opts, extorts, blackmails, said Raymundo Riva Palacio, editorial director of Multimedia, one of Mexico's leading media groups. He conceded, however, that some of these practices were dying out. It even goes as far as doing good works, Riva Palacio said. Even the harshest critics agree the PRI has achieved major successes, notably in the fields of education, social security and infrastructure.
Many of the grass-root PRI supporters admit candidly to receiving direct benefits from the party help in getting a license to carry out a trade or in obtaining a small plot of land, or money in exchange for attendance at political rallies. The practice, known here as clientelism, has been seen for years as one of the key pillars of the PRI's support, and extended to the under-the-table payment of journalists for favorable coverage and, allegedly, to the protection of corrupt business officials, politicians or even drug dealers.
Munoz Ledo said the system is so ingrained that it is difficult to know where repression stops and self-limitation starts. For decades, the party has ruled almost every aspect of life in Mexico, notably controlling trade unions, education and the media. As a mid-level government employee, I automatically received my PRI membership. I was never asked whether I wanted to join or not, a former Fisheries Ministry employee told AFP. Every year I had to pay a `quota'.
Cash, no receipt. Had I refused to pay up I would have lost my annual bonus, possibly my job. That's how the system works, said the former official, who asked not to be named. But, faced with the prospect of a fight for survival, the PRI is increasingly moving away from such practices, and many of its members are calling for more rapid reform toward democracy.
The PRI is facing a process of internal restructuring, as it is not willing to let itself collapse only because the hour of change has come, said political analyst and former PRI adviser Julio Portales. It is changing to remain in power, he said, warning that sharp divisions between reformists and dinosaurs would seriously harm the party should it fail to follow the path to democracy.
(AFP)
But analysts say the PRI will face a tough battle for the 2000 presidential elections, amid growing disenchantment over the way it has ruled the country since it took power in March 1929 in the wake of a series of bloody uprisings that formed the Mexican revolution. In a biting comment he wrote a few years ago, noted Mexican author Carlos Fuentes said that like all good brothels, the PRI has lived off the pleasures it provides stability in this case and despite its reputation for constant fraud.
But nobody any longer believes in its virtues, while its vices have become more obvious, Fuentes, who is also a former ambassador to France, wrote in A New Time for Mexico. Most political analysts agree that the PRI's longevity record is based on a complex mix of populist policies, authoritarianism and often questionable practices. It is not a classic dictatorship, it is not a military dictatorship and it is not a banana-republic rule either, said Porfirio Munoz Ledo, a former PRI president who quit the party and now hopes to be the presidential candidate for the center-left Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD).
It is almost a perfect dictatorship ... it is so well disguised, the PRD lawmaker told AFP, paraphrasing Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa. Criticism of the PRI's practices ranges from widespread claims of continuing electoral fraud to suspicions the party may have been linked to political assassinations. Its lengthy and iron-grip rule has been likened to that of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, though a number of analysts say the PRI is far more flexible.
It reaches arrangements, buys, co-opts, extorts, blackmails, said Raymundo Riva Palacio, editorial director of Multimedia, one of Mexico's leading media groups. He conceded, however, that some of these practices were dying out. It even goes as far as doing good works, Riva Palacio said. Even the harshest critics agree the PRI has achieved major successes, notably in the fields of education, social security and infrastructure.
Many of the grass-root PRI supporters admit candidly to receiving direct benefits from the party help in getting a license to carry out a trade or in obtaining a small plot of land, or money in exchange for attendance at political rallies. The practice, known here as clientelism, has been seen for years as one of the key pillars of the PRI's support, and extended to the under-the-table payment of journalists for favorable coverage and, allegedly, to the protection of corrupt business officials, politicians or even drug dealers.
Munoz Ledo said the system is so ingrained that it is difficult to know where repression stops and self-limitation starts. For decades, the party has ruled almost every aspect of life in Mexico, notably controlling trade unions, education and the media. As a mid-level government employee, I automatically received my PRI membership. I was never asked whether I wanted to join or not, a former Fisheries Ministry employee told AFP. Every year I had to pay a `quota'.
Cash, no receipt. Had I refused to pay up I would have lost my annual bonus, possibly my job. That's how the system works, said the former official, who asked not to be named. But, faced with the prospect of a fight for survival, the PRI is increasingly moving away from such practices, and many of its members are calling for more rapid reform toward democracy.
The PRI is facing a process of internal restructuring, as it is not willing to let itself collapse only because the hour of change has come, said political analyst and former PRI adviser Julio Portales. It is changing to remain in power, he said, warning that sharp divisions between reformists and dinosaurs would seriously harm the party should it fail to follow the path to democracy.
(AFP)