114-491: José Guillermo Abel López Portillo y Pacheco ( Spanish pronunciation: [xoˈse ˈlopes poɾˈtiʝo] ; 16 June 1920 – 17 February 2004) was a Mexican writer, lawyer, and politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as the 58th president of Mexico from 1976 to 1982. López Portillo was the only official candidate in the 1976 presidential election , being
228-589: A North-South dialogue, took place. The summit was attended by 22 heads of state and government from industrialized countries (North) and developing nations (South). During López Portillo's presidential term, Mexico supported the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua. In 1977, after the death of dictator Francisco Franco , Mexico resumed diplomatic relations with Spain. Also, in 1979 Pope John Paul II visited Mexico for
342-580: A System that governs them, through understandable acts in which they participate, see, hear, learn, express themselves and even, are distracted with trips and companies. The Party can, the Party must." Jorge Cruickshank García from the Popular Socialist Party was elected Senator for the state of Oaxaca . Although he ran in coalition with the PRI and therefore was not an opposition senator, he
456-415: A complete sweep of elections – the carro completo ("full car") – the party used the campaign mechanism of the acarreo ("hauling"), the practice of trucking PRI-supporters to rallies to cheer the candidate and to polling places to cast votes – in exchange for gifts of some kind. The party would shift voting booths from one place to another, making it difficult for people to cast their votes. When it
570-556: A continuing rapprochement with the United States, which built on their alliance in World War II. Although there was rhetoric about economic nationalism and defense of Mexican sovereignty, there was broad-based cooperation between the two countries. Cracks appeared in the system. There was significant labor unrest with strikes by railway workers, electricians, and even medical doctors that were brutally suppressed. Culturally
684-533: A national survey conducted in 2012, 25% of respondents considered that the López Portillo administration was "very good" or "good", 17% responded that it was an "average" administration, and 44% responded that it was a "very bad" or "bad" administration. Institutional Revolutionary Party The Institutional Revolutionary Party ( Spanish : Partido Revolucionario Institucional , Spanish: [paɾˈtiðo reβolusjoˈnaɾjo jnstitusjoˈnal] , PRI )
798-527: A path to legally participate in national politics) and allowed for greater representation of opposition parties in the Chamber of Deputies , as well as granting amnesty to many of the guerrilla fighters from the Dirty War . On the economic front, López Portillo was the last of the so-called economic nationalist Mexican presidents. His tenure was marked by heavy investments in the national oil industry after
912-399: A small clique of businessmen to dominate their sectors of the economy by supplying government-owned companies with goods and commodities. A major impact of Mexico's economic growth was urban population growth, transforming the country from a largely rural one to urban. The middle class grew substantially. The overall population of Mexico grew substantially with a greater proportion being under
1026-455: A stable exchange rate. Economic nationalist and protectionist policies implemented in the 1930s effectively closed off Mexico to foreign trade and speculation, so that the economy was fueled primarily by state investment and businesses were heavily reliant on government contracts. As a result of these policies, Mexico's capitalist impulses were channeled into massive industrial development and social welfare programs , which helped to urbanize
1140-512: A system of dictatorship which has so efficiently recruited the intellectual milieu , bribing it with great subtlety. The perfect dictatorship is not communism, nor the USSR , nor Fidel Castro ; the perfect dictatorship is Mexico. Because it is a camouflaged dictatorship." The phrase became popular in Mexico and around the world until the PRI fell from power in 2000. Despite losing the presidency in
1254-534: A term as president. Calles sought to stop the violent struggle for power between the victorious factions of the Revolution, particularly around the presidential elections and to guarantee the peaceful transmission of power for members of the party. A conclave of revolutionary generals including Calles met to create a national party, forging together their various regional strongholds. They were not primarily concerned with ideology, but rather to hold power. Formally,
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#17327935017251368-546: A tight grip over the working classes ; the PRI held rural farmers in check through its control of the ejidos (state-owned plots of land that peasants could farm but not own), and generous financial support of universities and the arts ensured that most intellectuals rarely challenged the ideals of the Mexican Revolution. In this way, PRI rule was supported by a broad national consensus that held firm for decades, even as polarizing forces gradually worked to divide
1482-567: Is a political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 as the National Revolutionary Party (Spanish: Partido Nacional Revolucionario , PNR ), then as the Party of the Mexican Revolution (Spanish: Partido de la Revolución Mexicana , PRM ) and finally as the PRI beginning in 1946. The party held uninterrupted power in the country and controlled the presidency twice: the first one was for 71 years, from 1929 to 2000,
1596-505: The 2000 elections , and 2006 presidential candidate Roberto Madrazo finishing in third place without carrying a single state, the PRI continued to control most state governments through the 2000s and performed strongly at local levels. As a result, the PRI won the 2009 legislative election , and in 2012 its candidate Enrique Peña Nieto regained the presidency. However, dissatisfaction with corruption in Peña Nieto's administration,
1710-718: The Catholic Church , and embracing free-market capitalism . Subsequently, many left-wing members of the party abandoned the PRI and founded the Party of the Democratic Revolution ( Partido de la Revolución Democrática , PRD) in 1989 following the controversial, and fraudulent 1988 presidential election. In 1990, Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa famously described Mexico under the PRI as being "the perfect dictatorship", stating: "I don't believe that there has been in Latin America any case of
1824-656: The Confederación Nacional Campesina (CNC), or National Peasant Confederation, which Cárdenas saw as a force against landowners, but it became the vehicle for patron-client / state-campesino relationships. Whether the intention or not of Cárdenas, the CNC became a means to channel and control the peasantry. The so-called "popular" sector of the party was organized via the Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Populares (CNOP), which
1938-560: The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) before beginning his political career. After graduating, he began his political career with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 1959. He held several positions in the administrations of his two predecessors before being appointed to serve as finance minister under Luis Echeverría , a close friend from childhood, between 1973 and 1975. An ideological centrist, López Portillo frequently asserted that he
2052-737: The Partido Radical Tabasqueño , of Tomás Garrido Canabal ; the Yucatán-based Partido Socialists del Sureste , of Felipe Carrillo Puerto ; and the Partido Socialista Fronterizo of Emilio Portes Gil, the current interim president. CROM's political arm, the Laborist Party, was not part of the coalition. The party developed a written set of principles and a platform that drew support from agraristas and workers in
2166-647: The Tlatelolco massacre in which the Mexican Army killed hundreds of unarmed demonstrators in Mexico City. Subsequently, a series of economic crises beginning in the 1970s drastically lowered the living standards of much of the country's population. Throughout its nine-decade existence, the party has represented a very wide array of ideologies , typically following from the policies of the President of
2280-613: The Yugoslavian -born actress Sasha Montenegro . They had two children (Nabila and Alejandro) but later separated. He was the brother of late Mexican novelist Margarita López Portillo, who died on 8 May 2006, of natural causes. He died in Mexico City when he was 83 years old. He was the victim of a cardiac complication generated by pneumonia . He was buried at the Mexico City Military Cemetery. In
2394-408: The técnicos , bureaucrats with specialized knowledge and training, especially with the economy, and políticos , the seasoned politicians, many of whom had regional roots in state politics. Miguel Alemán was the PRI's candidate in the 1946 elections, but he did not run unopposed. Alemán and his circle had hoped to abandon sectoral representation in the party and separate the party as an organism of
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#17327935017252508-537: The 1970s a 'pragmatic hegemonic state', and in the 1990s as a 'single party'". The close relationship between the PRI and the Mexican state has been examined by a number of scholars. "Today we have the chance, unique in many years, to go from the category of a country of caudillos , to a Nation of Institutions." - Plutarco Elías Calles , during his last Address to the Congress on 1 September 1928. Even though
2622-584: The 237 seats, as well as winning all 64 seats in the Senate election. Voter turnout was 65% in the Senate election and 62% in the Chamber election. Before the electoral reform of 1977, only four political parties were allowed to participate in the elections: the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the Popular Socialist Party (PPS), the Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution (PARM) and
2736-616: The Anti-Reelectionist Party was the high-profile former Secretary of Education, José Vasconcelos . Vasconcelos had considerable support among university students, the middle class, intellectuals, and some workers from Mexico's northeast. According to historian Enrique Krauze , the 1929 campaign saw the PNR's "initiation into the technology of electoral fraud, a 'science' that later became its highly refined speciality." Tactics included breaking up political meetings and insults, to
2850-555: The CNC for Ávila Camacho by personally guaranteeing their interests would be respected. In the final year of Ávila Camacho's term, the party assembly decided on a new name, pushed by the circle of Miguel Alemán , the Institutional Revolutionary Party, pairing seemingly contradictory terms of "institutional" and "revolutionary." The party's name was changed in 1946, the final year of Manuel Ávila Camacho 's term of office. The sectoral representation in
2964-536: The Congressional and Senate elections in order to ensure better representation of opposition parties – something extremely difficult under the first-past-the-post system that had been in force. However, the PRI retained its position as the dominant party, retaining the presidency until Vicente Fox of the National Action Party was elected in 2000 . The 1976 elections were the last in which
3078-496: The Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1946, the basic structure was retained. Cárdenas's calculation that the military's incorporation into the PRM would undermine its power was essentially correct, since it disappeared as a separate sector of the party, but was absorbed into the "popular" sector. The organizational change in the PNR to the PRM, and later the PRM to the PRI, were "imposed by Mexican presidents without any discussion within
3192-429: The Laborist Party. "The PNR is the instrument of political action by means of which Mexico's great campesino and worker masses fight to keep control of the public power in their hands, a control wrested from the landowning and privileged minorities through the great armed movement that began in 1910." One possible presidential candidate for the PNR was Aarón Sáenz Garza , former governor of the state of Nuevo León , who
3306-416: The López Portillo campaign, titled "¿Dónde estás, José?" ("Where are you, José"?). Other entertainers such as Enrique Guzmán and María Elena Velasco performed on an LP issued by the López Portillo campaign. In his campaign, López Portillo defended the infamous acarreo ("hauling", the practice of trucking PRI supporters to rallies to cheer its candidates in exchange for gifts of some kind), saying that
3420-562: The PNR was a political party, but it has been labeled a "confederation of caciques " ("political bosses"). The new party-in-formation did not contain any labor elements. At the time, the strongest labor organization was the Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers (CROM) controlled by Luis N. Morones , the political wing of which was the Laborist Party . Calles went to the Laborist Party convention and addressed
3534-528: The PRI as a "state party" due to its dominance of domestic politics and the inextricable connection between the party and the identity of the Mexican nation-state for much of the 20th century. According to Austin Bay, for more than seven decades, the PRI ran Mexico under an " autocratic , endemically corrupt, crony -ridden government". The elites of the PRI controlled the police and the judicial system, and were susceptible to bribery . During its time in power,
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3648-536: The PRI became a symbol of corruption , repression , economic mismanagement, and electoral fraud ; many educated Mexicans and urban dwellers in the 21st century worried that its return to power would lead to regression to its worst excesses. The PRI became a full member of the Socialist International in 2003. It is also considered a social democratic party. The name "Institutional Revolutionary Party" appears as an oxymoron or paradox , as
3762-401: The PRI delegations that would visit his house to congratulate him on his nomination, and so he decided to buy the land that was behind the garden so as to enlarge it. However, he would later discover that he had misinterpreted Echeverría's comment, and that he wasn't his chosen candidate. In June 1975, Echeverría privately told López Portillo that he would be his successor, and on 5 October he
3876-403: The PRI had begun experiments in internal primaries, but Alemán cracked down on this democratic opening and had congress pass a law against parties holding primaries. Revolutionary general Rodolfo Sánchez Taboada , president of the party, had been in favor of primaries, but Alemán's viewpoint prevailed and PRI candidates were chosen in closed party assemblies. Sánchez was replaced as titular head of
3990-512: The PRI until 1976, and all state governors were also from the PRI until 1989. Throughout the seven decades that the PRI governed Mexico, the party used corporatism , co-option , electoral fraud , and political repression to maintain political power. In particular, the presidential elections of 1940 , 1952 and 1988 were characterized by massive irregularities and fraudulent practices denounced by both domestic and international observers. While Mexico benefited from an economic boom which improved
4104-454: The PRI's overwhelming dominance, and its control of the electoral apparatus, the president chose his successor. The PRI's dominance was near-absolute at all other levels as well. It held an overwhelming majority in the Chamber of Deputies , as well as every seat in the Senate and every state governorship. The political stability and economic prosperity in the late 1940s and the 1950s benefited
4218-533: The PRI, that were fully operative until the 1990s. The most important was the dedazo , with the finger ( Spanish : dedo ) of the president pointing to the next PRI candidate for the presidency, meaning the president choosing his successor. Right up to the moment the president considered optimal, several pre-candidates would attempt to demonstrate their loyalty to the President and their high competence in their respective positions, usually as prominent members of
4332-516: The PRI. At the time, the opposition party PAN was going through internal conflicts and, for the first time upon its foundation, was unable to nominate a candidate for the 1976 presidential elections. On the other hand, the Mexican Communist Party nominated Valentín Campa as their presidential candidate. At the time, however, this party had no official registry and was not allowed to participate in elections, so Campa's candidacy
4446-462: The PRM's "[f]or a workers' democracy" ( Por una democracia de trabajadores ) to the PRI's "[d]emocracy and justice" ( Democracia y justicia ). In practice after Cárdenas left office, the party became more centrist, and his more radical agrarian policies were abandoned. With Lombardo Toledano's replacement as leader of the CTM, labor under the CTM's Fidel Velázquez became even more closely identified with
4560-410: The PRM. Lombardo stepped down from the leadership of the CTM in 1941, after Cárdenas left the presidency. He was replaced by Fidel Velázquez , who remained head of the CTM until his death at age 97. Within the party structure and the government, labor has had a continuous, formalized, visual corporate role, but with Velazquez's death in 1997, organized labor has fractured. Peasants were organized via
4674-572: The President who held public office. He appointed his sister Margarita López Portillo head of the General Directorate of Radio, Television and Cinematography (RTC), his cousin Guillermo López Portillo as the first -and only- head of the newly created National Institute of Sport (INDE, which was dissolved in 1981), and his son José Ramón López Portillo (who was described by the President as "the pride of my nepotism")
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4788-575: The Republic . Formed from an amalgamation of the various ideologies of the Constitutionalists , the party originated as a centre-left party on the political spectrum . It experienced a sharp, leftward turn during the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas who instituted extensive reforms, including the nationalization of Mexico's petroleum and telecommunication industries. Furthermore his administration carried out extensive land reform and oversaw
4902-537: The Revolution in the north, serving with Calles. The Jefe Máximo had no idea that Cárdenas would take his own path as he settled into the presidency. He had campaigned widely throughout the country, making a national reputation for himself and forming personal connections throughout the country outside the corridors of power. Calles had become increasingly conservative in his views, ending land reform for all practical purposes and cracking down on organized labor. Under Cárdenas, unions went on strike and were not suppressed by
5016-429: The age of 16. These factors combined to decrease the pull of the past. The policies promoting industrial growth helped fuel the growth of Mexico's north as a center of economic dynamism, with the city of Monterrey becoming Mexico's second-largest. The general economic prosperity served to legitimize PRI hegemony in the eyes of most Mexicans, and for decades the party faced no real opposition on any level of government. On
5130-624: The armed phase of the Mexican Revolution had ended in 1920, Mexico continued to encounter political unrest. A grave political crisis caused by the July 1928 assassination of president -elect Álvaro Obregón led to the founding on 4 March 1929 of the National Revolutionary Party ( Spanish : Partido Nacional Revolucionario , PNR) by Plutarco Elías Calles , Mexico's president from 1924 to 1928. Emilio Portes Gil
5244-470: The assassination of president-elect Álvaro Obregón in 1928. Although Calles himself fell into political disgrace and was exiled in 1936, the party continued ruling Mexico until 2000, changing names twice until it became the PRI. The PRI governed Mexico as a one-party state for the majority of the twentieth century; besides holding the Presidency of the Republic, all members of the Senate belonged to
5358-451: The attendees "are not ‘hauled’, they are ‘transported’ by the Party's own men and forces", adding that "All organized truck drivers in Mexico are part of the PRI and it is a tradition for them to take their vehicles to transport people to public events". He further justified in his autobiography that there was "no reason not to facilitate, for example, to our peasants, transportation to public meetings, who concur, after all, to communicate with
5472-456: The cabinet. Until the 2000 election, the party had no direct input into the president's decision, although he could consult with constituencies. The president's decision was a closely-kept secret, even from the victor. The destape (the unveiling), that is, the announcement of the president's choice, would occur at the PRI's National Assembly (which would typically take place in November of
5586-575: The candidate in 1988, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and Porfirio Muñoz Ledo left the PRI to form a separate party, and Cárdenas challenged Salinas at the polls. The 1988 presidential election which followed is widely considered to have been fraudulent, and was confirmed as such by former president Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado and in an analysis by the American Political Science Review . The term alquimistas (alchemists) referred to PRI specialists in vote-rigging. To achieve
5700-567: The conflict between the two generals, the Church sided with Cárdenas. Cárdenas had Calles arrested along with many of his allies, exiling the former president to the United States. Cárdenas became perhaps Mexico's most popular 20th-century president, most renowned for the 1938 expropriating the oil interests of the United States and European petroleum companies in the run-up to World War II . That same year Cárdenas put his own stamp on
5814-416: The constitutional change to allow a form of re-election, he was ineligible to run. The founding of a national political party that had an existence beyond elections became the mechanism to control the power through peaceful means. The party had two names before taking its third and current name; however, its core has remained the same. It has been characterized as "in the 1960s as 'strongly dominant party', in
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#17327935017255928-513: The corporatist model is most often associated with fascism , whose rise in Germany and Italy in the 1930s coincided with Cárdenas's presidency. But Cárdenas was emphatically opposed to fascism; however, he created the PRM and organized the Mexican state on authoritarian lines. That reorganization can be seen as the enduring legacy of the Cárdenas presidency. Although the PRM was reorganized into
6042-445: The discovery of new oil reserves, which propelled initial economic growth , but later gave way to a severe debt crisis after the international oil prices fell in the summer of 1981, leading Mexico to declare a sovereign default in 1982. As a result of the crisis, the last months of his administration were plagued by widespread capital flight , leading López Portillo to nationalize the banks three months before leaving office, and by
6156-595: The discovery of new petroleum reserves in the states of Veracruz and Tabasco by Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the country's publicly owned oil company. In 1980, Mexico joined Venezuela in the Pact of San José, a foreign aid project to sell oil at preferential rates to countries in Central America and the Caribbean . The economic confidence that he fostered led to a short-term boost in economic growth, but by
6270-400: The election. López Portillo had been separated from his wife Carmen Romano for some time, but upon being nominated by the PRI as its presidential candidate, the two of them were persuaded by PRI advisers to reunite and to maintain the appearance of a solid marriage, so as to not alienate the largely conservative, catholic populace. Popular Cuban singer Celia Cruz recorded a jingle for
6384-460: The end of his term Mexico had the highest external debt in the world. His presidency was also marked by widespread government corruption and nepotism . Shortly after leaving office, during the presidency of his successor Miguel de la Madrid , numerous officials who had worked under the López Portillo administration were prosecuted for corruption, the most notorious cases being Arturo Durazo and Jorge Díaz Serrano . Although López Portillo himself
6498-480: The end of his term. This would have been a violation of the no re-election principle of post-revolutionary Mexico, which had its origins in the 19th century. With the support of the revolutionary army, the Sonoran generals' Plan of Agua Prieta successfully challenged Carranza's attempt to perpetuate his power; Carranza was killed as he was fleeing the country. De la Huerta became interim president of Mexico and Obregón
6612-557: The escalation of the Mexican drug war , and rising crime led to PRI nominee José Antonio Meade losing the 2018 presidential election with the worst performance in the party's history. The adherents of the PRI are known in Mexico as Priístas and the party is nicknamed El tricolor (the Tricolor) because of its use of the Mexican national colors of green, white and red as they appear on the Mexican flag . Some scholars characterise
6726-410: The extreme of murder of Vasconcelos supporters. Ortiz Rubio won the election in a landslide, but the results would likely have been different were the election clean. The party did largely contain the political violence of former revolutionary generals. In the first years of the party's existence, the PNR was the only political machine in existence. During this period, known as Maximato (named after
6840-409: The first time. In the year leading to the end of his term as president on 1 December 1982, López Portillo personally chose two candidates as possibilities to replace himself, following the succession ritual established by his party. One, Javier García Paniagua , would have been appointed if a man of greater political skill were needed. The other, ultimately his successor, was Miguel de la Madrid , who
6954-416: The following criteria: Muñoz Ledo would later recall that during this period, he received a visit from President Echeverría. During the meeting at Muñoz Ledo's house, Echeverría went to the garden and commented that it was "too small to receive delegations". Muñoz Ledo understood the phrase as meaning that he would be the chosen one to succeed him as President, interpreting Echeverría's comment as referring to
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#17327935017257068-570: The formation of the party in 1929. In 1920, the Sonorans staged a coup against President Venustiano Carranza , the civilian First Chief of the Constitutionalist faction that had won the Mexican Revolution . Carranza had attempted to impose his own candidate for the presidency, Ignacio Bonillas . Bonillas had zero revolutionary credentials and no power base of his own, with the implication that Carranza intended to hold onto power after
7182-562: The government. As Cárdenas increasingly diverged in his thinking and practice from Calles, Calles sought to regain control. Cárdenas, however, had outmaneuvered Calles politically, gaining allies among labor unions and peasants as well as the Catholic Church. Calles had attempted to strictly enforce the anticlerical provisions of the Constitution, which led directly to conflict with the Catholic Church and its loyalists, so that in
7296-502: The labor vote at election time, a guaranteed base of support for the party. During prosperous years, CTM could argue for benefits of the rank-and-file, such as higher wages, networking to provide jobs for union loyalists, and job security. The principle of no-reelection did not apply to the CTM, so that the party loyalist Velázquez provided decades of continuity even as the presidency changed every six years. The PRI won every presidential election from 1929 to 1982, by well over 70 percent of
7410-567: The largest campaign of land expropriation in Latin American history. With his term expiring in 1940 Cárdenas left office as the final military general of the revolution and returned political power to civilian leadership . His successor Manuel Ávila Camacho , presided over a rightward shift that escalated in the 1980s. At the start of the decade, the party moved to the centre-right and later right pursuing policies such as privatizing state-run companies, establishing closer relations with
7524-469: The major opposition party, winning the presidency in 2000. The most powerful labor union prior to the formation of the party was the Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers (CROM), headed by Luis N. Morones , an ally of Obregón and Calles. A dissident within the CROM, Marxist Vicente Lombardo Toledano , formed a rival labor confederation, the CTM in 1936, which became the mass organization of labor within
7638-477: The membership in a conciliatory fashion, but Morones launched into a diatribe against Emilio Portes Gil , the interim president of Mexico, for disrespecting Morones personally. It was a political gaffe for Calles, and he withdrew from the organizing committee of the party, but he turned it to his advantage in the long run, appearing to be a referee or arbiter in the party, and impartial senior statesman. The PNR incorporated other political parties under its umbrella,
7752-577: The middle class sector by the Federation of Unions of Workers in Service to the State (FSTSE). The party incorporated the majority of Mexicans through their mass organizations, but absent from the structure for ideological reasons were two important groups, private business interests and adherents of the Catholic Church. Those two came together in 1939 to form the National Action Party , which grew to be
7866-470: The mood was changing as well, with Carlos Fuentes publishing The Death of Artemio Cruz ( La Muerte de Artemio Cruz ) in 1962, metaphorically the death of the ideals of the Mexican Revolution. The fictional Cruz had been a revolutionary soldier, corrupt politician, and businessman, now on his deathbed. Considered a landmark in Latin American literature, it highlighted aspects of Mexican history and its political system. When Alemán became president in 1946,
7980-408: The most unpopular Mexican presidents in recent history. López Portillo was the last economic nationalist president to emerge from the ranks of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Subsequent presidents have all been for free trade ( librecambismo ). López Portillo's first wife was Carmen Romano . After leaving the presidency, López Portillo divorced Romano and married in 1995 his longtime partner,
8094-502: The mostly-agrarian country, funded generous welfare subsidies for the working class, and fueled considerable advances in communication and transportation infrastructure. This period of commercial growth created a significant urban middle class of white-collar bureaucrats and office workers, and allowed high-ranking PRI officials to graft large personal fortunes through their control over state-funded programs. State monopoly over key industries like electricity and telecommunication allowed
8208-406: The nation in preparation for the crises of the 1970s and 1980s. The consensus specifically held that Mexico would be capitalist in its economic model; that the masses of workers and peasants would be kept in check – as separate units and not allowed to merge into a single sector that would have too much strength; that the state and the party would be the agent for this control; and that
8322-424: The number of members of the Chamber of Deputies to 400: 300 being elected single-member districts by plurality voting ( uninominales ) and 100 being elected according to proportional representation ( plurinominales ). The reform furthermore opened the electoral process for small opposition parties. The López Portillo administration was notorious, more than previous administrations, for the number of relatives of
8436-419: The only president in recent Mexican history to win an election unopposed. Politically, the López Portillo administration began a process of partial political openness by passing an electoral reform in 1977 [es] which loosened the requisites for the registration of political parties (thus providing dissidents from the left , many of whom had hitherto been engaged in armed conflict against the government, with
8550-579: The party and structured them into mass organizations to represent different interest groups within the party, to protect the interests of workers and peasants. The PRM had four sectors: labor, peasant ( campesino ), "popular", mainly teachers and civil servants; and the military. The labor section was organized via the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM); the peasant sector by the National Confederation of Campesinos , (CNC); and
8664-425: The party continued for the workers, peasants, and the popular sector, but the military was no longer represented by its own sector. The Mexican president was at the apex of the political system with the PRI. To reach the top of the government, as the candidate and then president of the republic, the path was only through membership and leadership in the party and government service. Within the party, there were factions,
8778-502: The party rather than allow it to be a separate group outside the party and potentially a politically interventionist force. Although some critics questioned the military's incorporation into the party, Cárdenas saw it as a way to assert civilian control. He is quoted as saying, "We did not put the Army in politics. It was already there. In fact it had been dominating the situation, and we did well to reduce its voice to one in four." In general,
8892-473: The party, and the president of the republic remained firmly in control. 1976 Mexican general election Luis Echeverría PRI José López Portillo PRI General elections were held in Mexico on 4 July 1976. José López Portillo was the only candidate in the presidential election, and was elected unopposed. In the Chamber of Deputies election, the Institutional Revolutionary Party won 195 of
9006-563: The party, reorganizing it in 1938 as the Party of the Mexican Revolution (Spanish: Partido de la Revolución Mexicana , PRM) whose aim was to establish a democracy of workers and socialism. However, this was never achieved. Cárdenas's intention was to establish the broad-based political alliances necessary for the party's long-term survival, as a national party with territorial presence in state and municipal governments, and organization of mass interest groups, via corporatism . The structure he established has remained intact. He created sectors of
9120-529: The party, so that in general Mexicans did not object to the lack of real democracy. Starting with the Alemán administration (1946–1952) until 1970, Mexico embarked on a sustained period of economic growth, dubbed the Mexican Miracle , fueled by import substitution and low inflation . From 1940 to 1970 GDP increased sixfold while the population only doubled, and peso - dollar parity was maintained at
9234-540: The party. The more radical left of the labor movement, under Vicente Lombardo Toledano, split from the PRI, the Partido Popular. Although the party gave voice to workers' demands, since it was outside the umbrella of the PRI and lost power and influence. The leadership of component unions became advocates of PRI policy at the expense of the rank and file in exchange for political backing from the party and financial benefits. These charro ("cowboy") unions turned out
9348-406: The party." Cárdenas followed the pattern of Calles and Obregón before him, designating his choice in the upcoming elections; for Cárdenas this was Manuel Ávila Camacho . In the 1940 election, Ávila Camacho's main rival was former revolutionary general Juan Andreu Almazán , with PRM victory coming via fraud after a violent campaign period. Cárdenas is said to have secured the support of the CTM and
9462-538: The power of the ruling PRI. Some of the PRI contenders for the party's 1976 presidential candidacy were: In October 1974, the Instituto Mexicano de Opinión Pública (IMOP) carried out, for the first time in Mexican politics, an opinion poll to reveal the public's perceptions of the contenders and their chances to obtain the PRI presidential candidacy in 1976 and succeed Echeverría. 2,730 people were asked to choose which contender, in their opinion, better fit
9576-480: The principle of no-re-election in the Mexican Constitution, the two Sonorans sought a loophole to allow the former president to run. The Constitution was amended to allow re-election if the terms were not-consecutive. With that change, Obregón ran in the 1928 election and won; but before his inauguration he was assassinated by a religious fanatic. Given that Calles had just served as president, even with
9690-411: The problem of presidential succession with no institutional structures. Obregón was one of three revolutionary generals from Sonora, with Plutarco Elías Calles and Adolfo de la Huerta , who were important for the post-revolutionary history of Mexico. Their collective and then internecine struggles for power in the decade after the end of the military phase of the Mexican Revolution had a direct impact on
9804-460: The quality of life of most people and created political stability during the early decades of the party's rule, issues such as inequality, corruption, and a lack of political freedoms cultivated growing opposition against the PRI. Amid the global climate of social unrest in 1968 dissidents, primarily students, protested during the Olympic games held in Mexico City. Tensions escalated culminating in
9918-501: The rare occasions when an opposition candidate, usually from the conservative National Action Party , whose strength was in Mexico's north, garnered a majority of votes in an election, the PRI often used its control of local government to rig election results in its favor. Voter apathy was characteristic in this period, with low turnout in elections. The PRI co-opted criticism by incorporating sectors of society into its hierarchy. PRI-controlled labor unions (" charro unions") maintained
10032-410: The right-wing National Action Party (PAN), which was practically the only real opposition party at the time. The campaign and the elections took place during a tense period: the economic crisis, the leftist guerrilla uprisings in some parts of the country and the Dirty War the government took against them, were some of many issues that outgoing President Luis Echeverría faced and which jeopardised
10146-436: The second was for six years, from 2012 to 2018. The PNR was founded in 1929 by Plutarco Elías Calles , Mexico's paramount leader at the time and self-proclaimed Jefe Máximo (Supreme Chief) of the Mexican Revolution . The party was created with the intent of providing a political space in which all the surviving leaders and combatants of the Mexican Revolution could participate to solve the severe political crisis caused by
10260-503: The specter of renewed violence. Calles succeeded Obregón in 1924, and shortly thereafter he began enforcing the restrictions on the Catholic Church in the year of 1917 Constitution, resulting in a huge rebellion by those opposed to such restrictions, known as the Cristero War (1926–29). The Cristero War was ongoing when elections were to be held. Obregón sought to run again for the presidency in 1928 to succeed Calles, but because of
10374-401: The state and private entrepreneurs would compete in the mixed economy. So long as there was general prosperity, the system was stable economically and politically. Political balance meant that sectors had a voice within the party, but the party and the state were the arbiters of the system. Those supporting the system received material rewards that the state distributed. In this period, there was
10488-460: The state, but there was considerable pushback from the labor sector and the CTM, which would have lost influence, along with the other sectors. The structure of the party remained sectoral, but the Alemanistas abandoned the goal that had been "the preparation of the people for the implementation of a workers' democracy and for the arrival of a socialist regime." The party slogan was changed from
10602-418: The term "revolution" may imply the destruction of institutions. According to Rubén Gallo , the concept of institutionalizing the revolution refers to the corporatist nature of the party; the PRI subsumed the "disruptive energy" of the Mexican Revolution by co-opting and incorporating its enemies into the party's bureaucratic régime. There is a lexicon of terms used to describe people and practices of
10716-507: The time he left office, the economy had deteriorated and gave way to a severe debt crisis and a sovereign default. One of his last acts as president, announced during his annual State of the Nation address on 1 September 1982, was to order the nationalization of the country's banking system . During his presidential term, his critics accused him of corruption and nepotism. An electoral reform conducted during his presidential term increased
10830-435: The title Calles gave himself as "Maximum Chief of the Revolution"), Calles remained the dominant leader of the country and Ortiz Rubio (1929–32) and Abelardo L. Rodríguez (1932-34), have been considered in practice subordinates of Calles. Calles chose revolutionary general Lázaro Cárdenas as the PNR candidate for the 1934 Mexican general election . Cárdenas was originally from the southern state of Michoacan, but he joined
10944-413: The vote – margins that were usually obtained by massive electoral frauds. Toward the end of his term, the incumbent president in consultation with party leaders, selected the PRI's candidate in the next election in a procedure known as "the tap of the finger" ( Spanish : el dedazo ), which was integral in the continued success of the PRI towards the end of the 20th century. In essence, given
11058-527: The year prior to the elections), with losing pre-candidates learning only then themselves. Once the destape occurred, in general the members of the PRI would demonstrate their enthusiasm for the candidate and their loyalty to the party, known as the cargada . But the destape was also a delicate moment, for party unity depended on the losers acceding to the president's choice without public rancor or dissent. When President Miguel de la Madrid (in office: 1982 to 1988) chose Carlos Salinas de Gortari as
11172-464: Was "neither of the right or the left". López Portillo was elected unopposed in 1976 , though in any event the PRI was so entrenched that he was effectively assured of victory when Echeverría chose him as the PRI's candidate. To date, he is the last Mexican president to run unopposed. When he entered office, Mexico was in the midst of an economic crisis. He undertook an ambitious program to promote Mexico's economic development with revenues stemming from
11286-680: Was appointed Subsecretary of Programming and the Budget. His daughter Paulina López Portillo also debuted as a pop singer during his Presidency, and the First Lady Carmen Romano toured Europe with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Mexico City , which was founded and financed by the government of Mexico City through her initiative "to make fine arts education accessible to youths". In 1981, the Cancun Summit,
11400-458: Was aware that the country's main problem was the financial one", which should be faced by his Secretary of Finance, "who had shared with me the attacks of a reactionary and obtuse private sector, which did not hesitate to place its funds abroad in their eagerness to break me down". The PPS and the PARM supported López Portillo's candidacy, as they had traditionally done with previous candidates for
11514-465: Was chosen for his financial and administrative skills, which were deemed much more necessary after the devaluation of the peso in February 1982 and the subsequent economic crisis. On 1 September 1982, at his final annual Address to the Congress ("Informe de Gobierno"), López Portillo gave a famous speech where he condemned businessmen and bankers responsible for capital flight , claimed that the crisis
11628-429: Was elected president for a four-year term, 1920–1924. As Obregón's four-year term was ending, Calles made a bid for the presidency. De la Huerta, a fellow Sonoran, challenged Calles with a massive and bloody uprising, supported by other revolutionary generals opposed to Calles. The De la Huerta rebellion was crushed, but the outbreak of violence was only a few years after the apparent end of the Mexican Revolution, raising
11742-419: Was formed in 1943 to integrate sectors of the urban middle class into the party. Unlike the peasantry or labor, the popular sector was a more ill-defined segment, but it did include the large Federation of Unions of Civil Servants ( Federación de Sindicatos de Trabajadores al Servicio del Estado (FSTSE). By incorporating the military into the PRM structure, Cárdenas's aim was to make it politically dependent on
11856-433: Was founded in 1929, the party structure created a means to control political power and to perpetuate it with regular elections validating the party's choice. Before the party was founded, political parties were not generally the means in which to achieve the presidency. The creation of the party in the wake of the assassination of revolutionary general, former president, and in 1928 president-elect Alvaro Obregón had laid bare
11970-464: Was held, the first political test of the newly founded party. Calles made a speech in June 1929 saying that while the Revolution had produced achievements in the economic and social spheres that in the political sphere it was a failure. He called for a "struggle of ideas" that invited the formation of new parties. The PNR had as its candidate Pascual Ortiz Rubio , but running against him as the candidate for
12084-452: Was interim president of Mexico from December 1928 until February 1930, while a political rather than military solution was sought for presidential succession. The intent to found the party was to institutionalize the power of particular victors of Mexican Revolution . Calles was ineligible to run for president, since he had just completed a four-year term, because of the prohibition in the 1917 Constitution of re-election directly after serving
12198-444: Was killed by security forces during the incident. In the end, López Portillo took office as scheduled on December 1 without further incidents. Although the results ensured the PRI remained in power, the lack of opposition to José López Portillo raised concerns about the lack of legitimacy of the Mexican political system. As a result, an electoral reform law was enacted in 1977, introducing partial proportional representation for
12312-473: Was not his fault ("I'm responsible for the helm , but the storm is not my fault"), announced the nationalization of the banks ("They have looted us, but Mexico is not finished, they won't loot us again!"), and asked for forgiveness for his mistakes as president and the economic crisis. He famously broke into tears during his speech after asking for the forgiveness of Mexico's poor. This passionate speech, however, did little to repair his image, and he remains one of
12426-483: Was not officially recognized and he didn't have access to the media. He had to run as a write-in candidate , as he would not appear in the ballots. These factors led to López Portillo effectively running unopposed. His campaign echoed this "unanimous" support for him, and his slogan was "La solución somos todos" ("All of us are the solution"). López Portillo later joked that, due to running without opposition, it would have been enough for "his mother's vote for him" to win
12540-510: Was officially nominated by the PRI as its presidential candidate for the 1976 elections. The aforementioned Muñoz Ledo was then appointed both President of the PRI's National Executive Committee as well as General Coordinator of López Portillo's campaign, while López Portillo appointed Julio Rodolfo Moctezuma as director of the party's Instituto de Estudios Políticos, Económicos y Sociales (IEPES). Echeverría would later state that he chose López Portillo to succeed him because, as President, "I
12654-583: Was suspected of having been involved in corruption as well, he was never charged with any crimes. It was revealed after his death that he had been a CIA collaborator before he became president of Mexico. López Portillo died from complications of pneumonia at his home in Mexico City on 17 February 2004 at the age of 83, and was buried at the Mexico City Military Cemetery. López Portillo was born in Mexico City , to his father, José López Portillo y Weber (1888–1974), an engineer, historian, researcher, and academic, and his mother, Refugio Pacheco y Villa-Gordoa. He
12768-420: Was the brother-in-law of Calles's son, and was involved with Calles family businesses, but his political views were too far to the right of the PNR to be considered. Ideology trumped family connections. The choice fell to Pascual Ortiz Rubio , a revolutionary general who had been out the country, serving as Mexico's ambassador to Brazil, so had no political base in Mexico. When the 1929 Mexican general election
12882-550: Was the first Senator not to come from the PRI since 1929. There were many rumours that outgoing president Luis Echeverría was planning to carry out a coup d'état against his own candidate, López Portillo, to perpetuate himself in power. On August 13, the Liga Comunista 23 de Septiembre tried to kidnap Margarita López Portillo, sister of the president elect; the attempt failed and the Liga's leader, David Jiménez Sarmiento,
12996-556: Was the grandson of José López Portillo y Rojas , a lawyer, politician, and man of letters. Another ancestor was a Royal Judge in the Audiencia de Nueva Galicia in the eighteenth century. He was the great-great-great-grandson of José María Narváez (1768–1840), a Spanish explorer who was the first to enter the Strait of Georgia , in present-day British Columbia , and the first to view the site now occupied by Vancouver . He studied law at
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