Heartbeat of Mexico 9/9/97


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

source:frontcomunes@laneta.apc.org


MEXPAZ ANALYSIS #139

"Heartbeat of Mexico "
September 9, 1997

ELECTION RESULTS FORCE CHANGES IN PRI LEADERSHIP
- Roque Villanueva "Resigns" from Party Presidency
- Mariano Palacios Alcocer Named as New PRI President
- Change Frustrates Hopes for Internal Democratization

Humberto Roque Villanueva, polemical and vulgar president of the
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), was ousted from his post on
September 9.  Finance Minister Guillermo Ortega announced that, "in virtue
of having been invited by the President of the Republic to assume the post
of Chief Director of [state-owned] Hidalgo Insurance Co.", Roque had
resigned as party president (La Jornada, September 10).  The forced
resignation, at President Zedillo's "invitation", was a virtual certainty
ever since the resounding defeat handed the PRI at the polls last July 6.

At first, confusion reigned within the PRI.  The news was coincidentally
released the same day that Interior Secretary Emilio Chuayffet appeared
before the Chamber of Deputies to defend the Zedillo administration's
domestic policy, confronting harsh opposition attacks.  The coincidence gave
rise to rumors of a general shakeup within the PRI, or that Chuayffet would
assume the party presidency (Secretary of Agriculture Horacio Labastida
Ochoa was mentioned as another candidate).  Roque Villanueva, trying to put
a good face on things, announced that he had received the "good news" on the
same day as it was announced by the Finance Minister; Roque then
communicated it to PRI Senator Esteban Moctezuma, also tagged for a
promotion within the party.  The whirlwind chain of events, and who knew
what when, compounded the disorientation within the party and sense of
rank-and-file isolation from decision-makers.

MARIANO PALACIOS ALCOCER FINGERED FOR PARTY PRESIDENCY

That afternoon, various media confirmed that Deputy Mariano Palacios Alcocer
had been appointed to the presidency of the party.  Palacios Alcocer enjoys
a distinguished career within the official party.  Currently sub-coordinator
of PRI legislators in the lower house, the new party president is
ex-Governor of Queretaro (1985-1991).  He is considered to be a key member
of the "return to the roots" tendency --headed by another Queretaro
politician, Francisco Ortiz Arana-- and preeminent ideologist within the
official party.

Notwithstanding the appointment of Palacios, the party went through the
motions and issued that same night a convocation inviting all would-be's to
register their candidacies, and the PRI's 200 national councillors to elect
and swear-in the new president two days later, on Thursday, September 11.
Obviously, the convocation was a mere formality, technical compliance with
party statutes.  The truth is that the substitution of Roque had been
planned well in advance, as evidenced by the immediate acceptance of
Palacios by the leaders of the PRI's three formal sectors (peasant, popular
and worker)--all of whom denied that they had been fed directions by the
President.  Further evidence of advance planning was widely circulated,
extra-official talk of Esteban Moctezuma and Beatriz Paredes Rangel (leader
of the peasant sector), among others, as candidates for Secretary General of
the party.  The latter would enjoy a distinct advantage, given his closeness
with President Zedillo, status as political operator within the party, and
resume in the bureaucracy (including stints as Interior Secretary and
Commissioner for Peace in Chiapas).

REACTIONS

PRI:  Party activists, in general, meekly accepted the nomination of
Palacios.  There was, however, some dissidence that demanded open election
of the national president, protesting imposition of Palacios from above and
criticizing the performance of the sectorial leaders.  Predictably,
disagreement met with a deaf ear from the party leadership, and party
discipline prevailed.

The opposition parties (National Action Party, Party of the Democratic
Revolution, Labor Party Green Ecologist Party of Mexico) concurred, in
separate pronouncements, that the removal of Roque Villanueva was due to his
party's abysmal electoral results and "unfortunate" performance at the head
of the PRI, characterized by a confrontational style, arrogance, disdain of
the opposition and coarse behavior (including a widely publicized photo in
which Roque gesticulates obscenely on the legislature floor).  Opposition
leaders also lamented the PRI's inability to elect its executive committee
autonomously and democratically; the party maintains its old spoils system,
maintaining control, quotas and complicity of party rank-and-file.

ANALYSIS

Although expected, the vertiginous fall of Roque Villanueva (literally from
the majors to the farm leagues) is hardly a dignified manner of imputing
blame to Roque for the July 6 fiasco.  Certainly, Roque's tenure at the head
of the PRI left much to desire, chiefly because of his abrasive relations
with the opposition and inability to dialogue and generate consensus.  But
the problem is not one of individuals, but rather of a party who paid a high
price in the last elections for its authoritarian structure and practices,
corruption, and inept economic management over the last decades (among other
factors).  Roque's own political awkwardness was in important factor in his
fall from grace, but at the end of the day, he was merely a scapegoat --as
his predecessors in the post have been-- for deeper problems the party has
yet to correct.

For all the reform-minded discourse within the PRI (and sincere desire of
the progressive minority to revamp the party), internal democratization
remains a chimera.  Decisions are still imposed from the top down,
alienating increasing numbers of party militants and frustrating their
legitimate aspirations for greater influence and political positions.
Continued authoritarianism forebodes a bleak future for the PRI: thinning
membership, defections of experienced, valued militants, inability to define
an ideological profile (where a spoils systems still prevails in distributed
power internally), and worst of all, further debacles at the polls.

David Crow
Javier Medina
Fronteras Comunes
e-mail:  frontcomunes@laneta.apc.org 
 
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