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Mexico: Floundering PRI Puts Fox on Firmer Ground
March 6, 2002
Summary
Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is undergoing an internal crisis as the two top candidates for party leadership publicly sling accusations of corruption. President Vicente Fox will use the PRI's infighting and its renewed reputation of corruption to rebuild his support base and get major priorities such as the liberalization of Mexico's oil and energy sectors back on track.
Roberto Madrazo waves to supporters at the Institutional Revolutionary Party's headquarters in Mexico City.
Image Credit: Jose Luis Magana -- The Associated Press
Analysis
Mexico's largest and most influential party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), will swear in Roberto Madrazo as its leader March 4. His victory follows eight days of internal party rancor as both candidates for the position contested the election and exchanged accusations of fraud and vote-rigging for a week following the Feb. 24 poll.
The first-ever open election for PRI leadership, meant to showcase the party's renewed commitment to transparency, turned into a public relations debacle. Rather than move the party forward, the poll has reinforced its decades-old reputation for corruption, as have recent charges that state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) illegally diverted $120 million to PRI in 2000. Mexican President Vicente Fox is the real winner, and he will use Madrazo's tainted victory to rebuild his own flailing political support and get his agenda moving again.
The PRI could see a voter backlash in regional elections as a result of a renewed focus on corruption within the party. This will strengthen Fox and his National Action Party (PAN), especially in state legislatures and governorships, which are currently dominated by the PRI. Though Fox will continue to have difficulty rallying the PAN around him, he will be better-positioned to make progress in some of his major priorities, including the liberalization of Mexico's energy markets.
Various fraud allegations cast a dark cloud over what the PRI hoped would be an important reinvention of the party's image. In the past the party's leader was chosen behind closed doors while for seven decades the country's president came from the PRI. Seeking to rebound from a historic defeat to Fox in the 2000 presidential elections, the PRI decided to allow party members and the general population to elect its leadership for the first time via a nationwide election Feb. 24.
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(Story Source)
(c) 2002 Stratfor, Inc.
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Dan
Mexico: Floundering PRI Puts Fox on Firmer Ground . . .