Mexico Governor Resigns Under Opposition Pressure : Politics: Election fraud protests kept him from Michoacan statehouse. Move is setback for Salinas.

In a political setback for Mexico’s President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, the newly elected governor of Michoacan stepped down Tuesday under pressure from opposition protests that have kept him from entering the statehouse since he was sworn in last month.

Eduardo Villasenor Pena’s resignation--technically a leave of absence--is a victory for the opposition Democratic Revolutionary Party, which has occupied city halls and held daily street demonstrations alleging that the July 12 vote was fraudulent.

Many political observers believe Villasenor and the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) actually won the election, albeit with huge government spending.

At a news conference, Villasenor said he took the step “to preserve peace and harmony” in the state. He told the Excelsior news service: “My decision is personal and I take it convinced that before there is repression, we must seek peace and development for Michoacan. . . . I leave with my hands clean, not stained with blood.”

But in Mexico, such decisions usually belong to the president, with whom Villasenor reportedly spoke by telephone Monday night. Villasenor is the 12th governor to be replaced since Salinas took office four years ago.

While most governors have been removed for corruption or mishandling political crises, last year the newly elected governors of Guanajuato and San Luis Potosi stepped down under opposition protests of vote fraud.

Michoacan is the home state of the Democratic Revolutionary Party’s leader, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, who ran against Salinas in the 1988 presidential election. Opposition parties charge that the government stole that vote, too. Cardenas supporters say the government has been trying to eliminate the PRD, as the left-of-center party is called, ever since.

The government and ruling party clearly invested millions of dollars in public works, campaign advertising and political favors in Michoacan to beat PRD candidate Cristobal Arias. The PRD charges that the government tampered with voter rolls and credentials to the opposition’s detriment. But reporters and independent observers saw little of the outright fraud that has characterized other state votes. The government claimed victory by a wide margin.

Salinas attended Villasenor’s inauguration last month. But PRD protests forced them to move the ceremony out of the state capital.

Political observers believe Salinas is removing Villasenor to preserve political stability in the country to keep the way clear for the North American Free Trade Agreement and foreign investment. The decision came on the eve of a meeting between Salinas and President Bush in San Antonio.

The state legislature named PRI member Ausencio Chavez as interim governor.