Baja Opposition Party Pioneer Dies

A founder of the Baja California branch of Mexico’s main opposition party has died, shortly after the first victory in his 30-year political career.

Zeferino Sanchez Hidalgo, 78, suffered a heart attack and died just four months before he would have been sworn into his seat on the Tijuana City Council.

Sanchez was one of the pioneers of the National Action Party, the main opponent to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, Mexico’s long-dominant political faction.

Sanchez helped found the National Action Party in Baja California in the mid-1950s and was on the state steering committee at the time of his death.

Before his initial victory a month ago, Sanchez had unsuccessfully sought office as mayor and city councilman in Tijuana, and in the state Senate and federal Congress.

“Many of the young people in our party considered him our greatest adviser. He encouraged us to fight the opposition battle, which as you know is very difficult in Mexico,” Javier Moctezuma, a former National Action president in Tijuana, told the San Diego Union.

Sanchez will be replaced on the City Council by another National Action member, Enrique Fernandez Ortega.