PRI Dissident to Seek Mexico Presidency

For the first time in 35 years, a dissident from within Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party has broken away to run independently for president, according to reports published Tuesday in Mexico City newspapers.

Cuathemoc Cardenas, a former state governor and the son of one of Mexico’s most revered past presidents, will run as candidate for the Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution (PARM), a minor political group, the reports said.

Cardenas himself could not be reached for comment, but PARM members confirmed the reports.

Cardenas’ candidacy is unlikely to affect the outcome of the election, which is scheduled for next July. The ruling party, known as PRI for its Spanish initials, is by far the country’s biggest and best organized. It has not lost a presidential vote in its 58 years of existence.

Still, the renegade campaign represents an unusual departure from what is usually a set-piece electoral process. Also, splits in the PRI are watched closely in Mexico, in case they foreshadow any weakening in the party and a change in the country’s longstanding balance of power.

On Oct. 4, the PRI proclaimed as its candidate Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who then resigned his post as secretary of planning and budget in the present government. Several minor parties either have named or are planning to name their own candidates.

Cardenas’ decision to run is evidently a protest over the choice of Salinas as well as over the way the PRI selection was made. Traditionally, the outgoing president, in this case Miguel de la Madrid, names his own successor as the candidate.

Cardenas, along with a small group of leftist members inside the PRI, formed a self-styled Democratic Current to press for open selection of the candidate.

‘Disgusting’ Nominating Process

The choice of Salinas was the “culmination of a disgusting way” of nominating a candidate, said a statement published Tuesday in the name of the Democratic Current. The statement charged that President De la Madrid had chosen Salinas “behind the backs” of PRI members.

Cardenas and his colleagues in the Democratic Current also had attacked austere economic policies put into effect by Salinas, who was De la Madrid’s chief economic adviser.

A spokesman for the PRI heaped scorn on the move by Cardenas. “He means nothing, and the party he’s running with means nothing.”

Last year, Cardenas ended a six-year term as the PRI governor of Michoacan, the home state of his father, Lazaro Cardenas. Lazaro Cardenas was president of Mexico in the 1930s and gained notoriety for expropriating foreign-owned oil companies.

The Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution has traditionally supported PRI candidates for president while running its own candidates for other posts. However, the party’s vote in congressional races had fallen so low in recent years that it almost disappeared. Taking up Cardenas’ cause is apparently a way for PARM to bolster its image. “We used to be the PRI’s little boy,” party spokesman Francisco Lupian said. “No more.”

It is possible that some other minor parties might back Cardenas, who has name recognition most of their own candidates would lack.

Members of a new leftist grouping called the Mexican Socialist Party have expressed interest in backing Cardenas’ candidacy. The party recently picked its own candidate by open primary, the first time any party in Mexico had nominated a standard bearer that way. The candidate, Heberto Castillo, has hinted that he would step down if Cardenas wanted to run with his party’s backing.

The Conservative National Action Party, long the No. 2 vote getter, is not likely to back Cardenas because his leftist leanings are contrary to National Action’s business-oriented philosophy.

Traditionally, PRI candidates who leave the party to run on their own have ended up in oblivion.