1996-09-26 Local Press

Summary of Local Press Clippings from Mexico

September 26, 1996, Credit Lyonnais Securities (USA) Inc.

DEMOCRACY

PRI Assembly; Differences. Disciplines and Discrepancies

 The institutional Revolutionary Patty (PM) held its 17th National Assembly on September 20-22. Grassroots activists joined with some "dinosaurs" to enact some significant changes in the party apparatus. Perhaps the most significant is a change in the statutes that requires party candidates for the offices of President or Governor to have ten years party experience and to have been popularly elected to office in the past. This is seen as a response of grassroots militants to the increasing role of "technocrats" in elected offices.

Presidents de la Madrid, Salinas and Zedillo all would have been disqualified from running from president under the current rules, since none held elected office before being President. Most current Cabinet members are not eligible to seek the Presidency in the year 2000 under these rules, unless they resign and run for another office in the 1997 midterm elections. Only three cabinet members (Secretary of the Interior, Emilio Chuayffet; Secretary of Tourism, Silvia Hernandez; and Secretary of Agriculture, Francisco Labastida Ochna) are currently eligible. The Assembly also determined that at least 30% of PM candidates must be women.

Following the inauguration on Friday night, party activists began clamoring for the expulsion of Carlos Salinas from the party. The issue was relegated to one of the working groups and later it was agreed that it would be sent to the Honor and Justice Commission; in other words, no action will be taken. This was another issue dividing grassroots militants from national level technocrats, but this time the technocrats won.

A working group of the Assembly also approved language stating that the PM would oppose the privatization of petrochemicals, a process which is currently on hold, but considered a priority of the Zedillo government. Following the Assembly, some discrepancies between what was actually approved and what was printed in the final documents arose, angering delegates who feel they have been deceived by the party leadership. For example, although the Assembly voted that candidates for President, Governor, AND SENATORS needed to fill the new requirements, the word "Senators" was left out of the final document. In addition, PM President Santiago Onate began to waver on the petrochemicals issue just one day after the Assembly, when he said that the proposal to oppose the privatization was to be sent to the National Executive Committee; the Assembly itself wasn't defining the party's position, he said. (La Reforma, 22-24 September)

Opposition leaders criticized the Assembly, saying that Salinas is still calling the shots in the PRI, and that the party missed a great opportunity to undertake real reforms. (Reforma, 23 September).

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