By Neville Spencer
On July 2, Vicente Fox Quesada of the conservative National Action
Party (PAN) was elected president of Mexico putting an end to 71 years
of continuous rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Though
the rule of the PRI had been under threat since the elections of 1988,
it came as a surprise that it was a challenge from the right rather than
the left which finally ended the PRI dynasty, leaving progressive movements
and activists wondering whether to celebrate or bemoan the result.
The PRI's remarkable reign, winning successive elections over seven
decades, was built on a combination of progressive reforms, corruption
and clientelism, and a certain dose of repression. Its most progressive
phase was during the government of Lazaro Cardenas during the '30s when
significant land reforms were carried out and foreign oil companies nationalised
The PRI has commanded a certain degree of residual loyalty among peasants
and workers from its more progressive days.
But, through its control over the state and state resources, the PRI
also created a huge network of clientelism and corruption to maintain its
popular support and isolate any opposition. At the base level, local party
leaders would give out food, clothing or money in exchange for votes and
allocate state resources to local projects where support needed to be won
or loyalty maintained. At higher levels, multi-million dollar corruption
involving politicians, the wealthy elite and the drug cartels could be
conducted with almost complete impunity, ensuring that backing the PRI
was a profitable enterprise.
An important part of the PRI's power was, and to a diminishing extent
still is, the unions. The PRI has had almost complete domination of the
union movement. Some PRI union leaders do enjoy the support of their members,
but many unions have simply been set up with little or no involvement from
their members and are given official recognition, though their activity
often consists simply of union leaders selling protection contracts to
companies in exchange for keeping their members from taking any industrial
action.
Where this system was insufficient to win support, imprisonment, torture
and assassination of the PRI's opponents was allowed with impunity and
electoral fraud at all levels of government and within unions was efficiently
organised.
Challenge to the PRI
The first serious challenge to the PRI came in the 1988 elections. The
Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) was formed when the left of the
PRI split away, led by Cuauhtemoc Cardenas (son of former president Lazaro
Cardenas), also absorbing most of Mexico's small left-wing parties. The
PRD was probably the victor in the 1988 presidential elections but fraud
kept the PRI in power.
Until the period in the lead up to last year's election, the PRD was
the main opposition party in spite of not quite maintaining the level of
support it had in 1988. But polls in the election period increasingly put
Fox of the PAN ahead of the PRD and even showed he had a decent chance
of defeating the PRI.
Since the PRI had been in power as long as most Mexicans could even
remember, and that it represented such a seemingly immovable obstacle to
democracy or progressive change, there was a certain constituency created
who, even though they might be more sympathetic to the PRD, would be glad
to get rid of the PRI even by voting for the right.
There is certainly merit to the idea that almost any way of separating
the PRI from its control over state resources will make it more difficult
for it to perpetuate itself through corruption and clientelism and throw
open Mexico's political system at least a little.
This idea had even led to the serious contemplation of a left-right
electoral alliance between the PRD and PAN though this alliance foundered
before it had started. Former PRD president Porfirio Munoz Ledo who split
from the PRD to form his own party in 1999 still threw his support behind
Fox's campaign. He compared his stance to the Chileans who, he said, “united
to get rid of Pinochet ... we're doing the same with PRInochet”.
The PAN
The PAN is traditionally the party of the conservative Catholic church
hierarchy and has mostly collaborated with the PRI over the last two decades
in implementing its neoliberal agenda of austerity and privatisation of
public assets. It is firmly pro-business, as well as adhering to the conservative
social policies of the Catholic church such as its anti-abortion and anti-gay
positions.
Realising that the polls showed him as the candidate with the best chance
of defeating the PRI, Fox added to the PAN's conservative agenda some promises
aimed to appeal to those who opposed the PRI from the left rather than
the right. Fox took on as an adviser the well-known former leftist commentator
Jorge Casaneda who had previously been an adviser to Cardenas.
Central in his attempt to steal the left agenda was his promise to restart
peace talks with the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), the indigenous
guerrilla army which led an uprising in southern Mexico in 1994. Previous
peace talks had stalled since 1997 after the PRI had signed an accord with
the EZLN on indigenous rights but then refused to pass legislation to implement
it. At the time, the PAN had opposed the accord but one of Fox's election
promises was to put legislation to the parliament to implement it.
Now that Fox has won the presidency, popular pressure to implement some
of his more populist promises will have to battle against the pressure
from within the PAN and its traditional constituency to be true to its
own conservative traditions. Most of those selected by Fox to fill posts
in the new government are right-wing advocates of neoliberalism, but he
has continued to try to court some left support. He has named Casteneda,
though now a supporter of neoliberalism anyway, as foreign relations secretary
and Mariclaire Acosta, former president of the Mexican Commission for the
Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, as “ambassador for human rights
and democracy”.
Peace talks
Since his inauguration on December 1, there has been some positive progress
toward peace talks with the EZLN. One of the EZLN's main preconditions
for resuming talks is the withdrawal of the army from pro-Zapatista communities
in the southern state of Chiapas. Since the conflict began in 1994, the
PRI had set up army outposts in or next to most of the communities known
to be sympathetic to the Zapatistas. The army and police have a record
of complicity in the formation of paramilitary groups which have harassed
and killed Zapatista sympathisers, most notoriously in the Acteal massacre
of 45 people in 1997.
On the day of his inauguration, Fox ordered the removal of 53 army checkpoints
in Chiapas. The actual withdrawal of troops has proceeded more slowly.
On December 22, troops were withdrawn from the community of Amador Hernandez,
the site of confrontations between troops and Zaptista supporters in 1999.
On December 31, troops were also withdrawn from Jolnachoj. Early that
morning 700 Zapatista supporters in their trade mark ski masks had demonstrated
outside the military base. Fox decided to diffuse the tension by immediately
withdrawing the troops. Troops were also withdrawn from two other communities
in January.
Another condition for the recommencement of peace talks is the release
of Zapatista prisoners. State governor Pablo Salazar announced the release
of the first 20 prisoners on December 29 and promised that there would
be further releases to come. Salazar, who took office on December 8, stood
for governor as the candidate of a coalition that included the PRD and
the PAN.
Fox's attitude toward the other insurgent movements, which began following
the Zapatista rebellion and are based in the states of Guerrero and Oaxaca,
is not so congenial. Prior to taking office he had promised to use “all
means to eradicate [them]”.
Statements from other members of the PAN have also signalled a more
bellicose attitude toward the EZLN. In response to the Zapatista's announcement
of their intention to send a delegation of 24 rebel commanders to Mexico
City to call for support for the implementation of the San Andres accord,
leading PAN members have called for them to be arrested as soon as they
leave Chiapas.
Past record of the PAN
The PAN has already held government in a number of states, particularly
in the north. Its track record in these states has not shown it to be friendly
to workers and the poor. Fox's own background is as a state governor and
Coca-Cola executive.
In the northern states, along the border with the US, is the free trade
zone where foreign companies are given tax exemptions to set up assembly
plants. Unions, apart from PRI-controlled pseudo-unions, have been generally
absent in this zone and attempts to organise them have been opposed, often
violently.
The most important struggle to set up an independent union in the zone
has been at the Korean-owned Han Young plant in the state of Baja California
Norte. Workers there have been fighting since 1997 to have their union
recognised and to force management to negotiate with their own union.
The state's PAN government has allowed blatantly illegal tactics to
be used to prevent the formation of the union. It has allowed violent attacks
against the workers and has used the local electoral board, through which
the workers have to vote to choose the union to represent them, to engage
in open fraud to prevent them choosing an independent union.
In spite of its being pro-business, one of the main hopes placed in
the new PAN government is that it will bring an end to financial and electoral
corruption. Whilst the PAN's track record on this issue is nothing like
that of the PRI, it still points more to an amelioration of PRI-style corruption
rather than its elimination. It should also be kept in mind that the PRI
is still well-connected and resourced and still holds government in many
states as well as influence in many state and non-state institutions such
as the army and unions.
Evidence of Fox's own involvement in corruption and illegal electoral
practices emerged during his campaign. On June 5, a federal PRD deputy
announced that the surname “Fox Quesada” appeared on the list of 747 people
and companies whose loans were covered by the government's bank bailout
which followed the 1994 economic crash and is estimated to have cost up
to US$100 billion. Details have been difficult to obtain, but there is
evidence that much of this money went to covering loans taken out by wealthy
people and corporations who had the means to repay but simply preferred
to pocket the money and allow the loans to be covered by public funds.
The name of the PRI's presidential candidate “Labastida Ochoa” also appeared
on the list.
Also in June, the Mexican daily La Jornada reported that the
US Treasury Department was investigating large transfers of money from
the US to Mexico by Fox's brother. The article said that this money might
have been transferred for use in Fox's election campaign which would be
in violation of Mexican electoral laws.
The same article also said that the First National Bank has filed charges
against another of Fox's brothers who had taken out a loan for US$100,000
claiming it was for a company named Vegetales Frescos. The bank claimed
that the company turned out to be an empty warehouse located next to Vicente
Fox's home.
Tabasco election
Although they were held before Fox took office, the October elections in
the PRI-governed state of Tabasco give some indication of how likely it
is that electoral fraud can still be conducted with impunity. Shortly prior
to the election, several PRD deputies and two PAN deputies were involved
in uncovering two houses run by the PRI which contained computers and sophisticated
communications equipment along with lists and photos of every voter in
the state. However, police and electoral officials simply refused to open
any investigation.
When the deputies arrived to raid the second house, 200 elite police
agents armed with grenade launchers and tear gas immediately arrived to
protect the house, later escorting its occupants with boxes of materials
out of the house. Reporters who had filmed the transportation of electoral
materials and copies of voter credentials were also caught by the police
and beaten.
The election results gave a narrow victory to the PRI over the PRD.
The PRD immediately challenged the results. On December 29, following Fox's
inauguration, a federal court overturned the results of the election, leaving
an impasse as to who would be governor until new elections. Fox himself
simply said it was up to the local parties to sort out. Following various
manoeuvers and a fistfight in the Tabasco legislature, a federal PRI deputy
was made governor until next year when a newly elected governor will take
office.
While corruption can be expected to continue in Mexico, it will probably
lack the professionalism and efficiency that the PRI machine had developed
during the seven decades it ran the state from top to bottom. Since not
all levels of government and state institutions are dominated by the same
party, the impunity with which the PRI was able to conduct all sorts of
illegal activities will no longer be available to the same extent.
