Government Ally Replaces Jailed Mexico Union Chief

Less than a month after troops arrested the powerful chief of the oil workers union, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari cemented his victory over labor Thursday when the union elected a new, pro-government secretary general.

Sebastian Guzman Cabrera was brought back from forced retirement after the arrest of union boss Joaquin Hernandez Galicia and become the only candidate for the union’s top post. Guzman Cabrera won on a unanimous voice vote at a special assembly in the union hall.

“The oil workers union ratifies its alliance with the Mexican state,” Guzman Cabrera said after his election to a three-year term. “The role of revolutionary unions is not, as some wrongly believe, to confront and attack the state.”

The new leader also pledged the union’s support to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, “because through 60 years of existence, the PRI has organized the struggle of workers to strengthen unions, preserve their autonomy and (write) into law the conquests of workers.”

Guzman Cabrera is a longtime rival of Hernandez Galicia in union politics and immediately began to dismantle the empire that the jailed labor chief had built. The assembly approved a series of measures to decentralize control of union money and power, and, in doing so, also ensured that Guzman Cabrera will never be able to become a strongman like Hernandez Galicia.

For example, under the reforms, union stores will be run by each of the sections rather than by a central company. Construction or transportation contracts that the state oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, grants to the union will be given to the sections rather than to the executive committee. Large Christmas bonuses paid to each worker by the company will be held throughout the year in union bank accounts at each section.

It apparently was by such redistribution of union benefits that Guzman Cabrera managed to win the backing of the 32 union sections and their leaders, who previously were loyal to Hernandez Galicia.

Known by the nickname La Quina, Hernandez Galicia ruled for more than a quarter century over the largest and wealthiest union in Latin America. He managed union businesses, real estate and aircraft worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He also managed politicians, from mayors to senators.

President Salinas, who took office Dec. 1, decided to put an end to Hernandez Galicia’s empire. On Jan. 9, federal agents and army troops raided his house in Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas, and said they found 200 automatic weapons. Hernandez Galicia and dozens of other union officials were arrested on charges of arms trafficking. Reputed business associates of the union chief also were arrested and charged with evading $1.5 million in taxes.

Since then, the government has added murder to the charges against Hernandez Galicia. Based on the alleged testimony of his jailed bodyguards, the government accuses him of being the “intellectual author” of the 1983 slaying of a political rival, Oscar Torres Pancardo, then-mayor of Poza Rica, Veracruz.

After the arrests, Hernandez Galicia supporters tried to place one of their own men in the secretary general’s post, but the labor secretary refused to recognize him and promptly approved Guzman Cabrera’s reinstatement in the union.

Guzman Cabrera was head of section 10 in Minatitlan, Veracruz, when Hernandez Galicia forced him into retirement last year rather than give him the job of secretary general that was due him by rotation. Although accused of corruption for allegedly “selling” union jobs, Guzman Cabrera’s main virtue in the government’s eyes seems to be that he is an enemy of Hernandez Galicia.

The arrest of Hernandez Galicia and the installation of Guzman Cabrera ends the union’s power to challenge the president. It also apparently paves the way for some economic reforms that the president wants to make, including the break-up of Petroleos Mexicanos into four separate companies. The government is talking about laying off thousands of oil workers.

No union dissidents were allowed inside the union hall Thursday. There was no alternate slate of candidates to lead the union, and no discussion before the vote. The changing of the guard went smoothly, to the music of two brass bands.

Outside, oil workers waited for word that the change had taken place.

“This is a fight between powerful politicians,” said worker Raul Saucedo. “We must be a disciplined union.”