POLITICS-MEXICO: Power of PRI Corporatism Withers

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Aug 28 2000 (IPS) - The corporatism with which the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has governed Mexico for the last seven decades is showing signs of erosion. The party’s peasant organisation will soon disappear, its labour union is breaking into factions and a party leader has been imprisoned on assassination charges.

Marking a turnaround from its submissive attitude before the government, the National Peasant Confederation (CNC), affiliated with the PRI, held a special congress over the weekend in which delegates voted to dissolve the organisation.

A cog in the once-powerful PRI political machine in rural areas, where it proved unable to prevent high levels of poverty and underdevelopment, the leadership of the 62-year-old CNC now openly criticises the government and promises to adapt to the new political era by creating a new rural organisation.

Battered by the PRI’s defeat in the July 2 presidential elections, the CNC, the Mexican Confederation of Workers (CTM) and urban groups – which for the last 71 years insured the power of the PRI through corporatism – now face their worst crisis ever.

Meanwhile, the National Syndicate of Education Workers, also linked to the still-governing PRI, opted to sign an agreement to help draft educational reforms with the team of president-elect Vicente Fox, who will be the first non-PRI president in seven decades.

Before the July presidential elections, Leonardo Rodríguez Alcaine, leader of the powerful CTM, threatened to organise the first-ever national strike if opposition candidate Fox won.

Today, with Fox victorious, Rodríguez Alcaine has renounced his past statements and affirms that he would like to be a “cuate” (friend) of the next president.

But that might not be so easy. Fox is already laying the groundwork to change labour laws in order to put an end to corporatist unionism and to the privileges of labour leaders, who, including Rodríguez Alcaine, have cultivated comfortable lifestyles, surrounded by luxurious homes and cars, and always keeping close to power.

The 50-year-old CTM faces other problems as well. Dozens of its affiliate groups have announced they will abandon the labour central to join the ranks of the Union of Workers, an independent group created just three years ago.

And the CTM’s “compañeros,” as the union leaders have been fondly known to all occupants of Mexico’s presidential seat – including current president Ernesto Zedillo -, never staged their national strike.

For the last six year, the CTM has prohibited its members from holding the traditional Labour Day parade on May 1 for fear the government would come under criticism, acknowledge the organisation’s leaders.

In the July elections, the PRI presented 29 labour candidates for seats in the Chamber of Deputies, but only five won. Back in 1978, when the PRI was seemingly invincible, the CTM labour deputies numbered 102.

But if the new political era does not bode well for Rodríguez Alcaine and his colleagues, the situation may be even worse for other groups and personalities linked to the PRI. Such is the case of urban leader Guadalupe Buendía, leader of the Organisation of Villages and Settlements.

After having served the governing party for more than 25 years, gathering support and mobilising thousands of people for political rallies in the state of Mexico, which neighbours the nation’s capital, the leader is now under arrest, facing assassination and insurrection charges.

Known by the nickname “Loba” (she-wolf), Buendía organised a protest earlier this month in one of the municipalities in Mexico state. It turned into a confrontation between the supporters of rival political parties, which left 13 people dead and more than 100 injured.

Today she is in prison and the PRI has apparently washed its hands of her. Buendía points to the fact that she obtained thousands of votes for her party, land for the party faithful and obtained services such as water and electricity for numerous urban areas. She was the quintessential “cacique” (political boss), say her allies.

Investigations indicate that the “Loba” had received police and political protection for decades, as well as public posts for family members, in exchange for her work for the PRI.

In other poverty-stricken areas of the country, far from Chimalhuacán where Buendía ruled, there are plenty more PRI party bosses and grassroots operators who could be expelled from party ranks, according to some PRI officials.

Research by non-governmental groups conducted during the last presidential elections indicates that PRI leaders in the poorer areas of Mexico exercise their power through intimidation and threats. Several have cases pending with justice authorities.

The days of corporatism in Mexico are not yet over, says anthropologist Roger Bartra, but they seem to be fading.

The PRI lost approximately a million votes in the nation’s rural areas last July, but it continues to be the strongest party there. Of Mexico’s 109 rural electoral districts, the PRI won 86.

“The reports of foreign and national election observers agree that progress made in the areas of transparency and participation at the national level do not correspond with the reality of party bosses and domination in the countryside,” says a report by the non-governmental Civic Alliance, an electoral watchdog group.