Being Organization’s Man May Backfire in Mexico

MEXICO CITY — On a crisp Saturday morning, hundreds of supporters of Francisco Labastida jammed a pavilion here, shaking green pompoms, jangling cowbells and cheering for the man widely seen as the leading presidential candidate for the world’s longest-ruling party.

The rally appeared to reflect an outpouring of emotion as Mexico faces a milestone in its young democracy: the first presidential primary of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

But a closer look at the crowd showed something different. Consider Pedro Barrientos, 57, a peddler of used clothing. Why did he come? The wizened Barrientos, in a frayed T-shirt and gray slacks, said he was bused in by his local organization of street vendors, a group allied with the PRI. “If we don’t come, they don’t let us sell,” he shrugged.

The PRI may be entering a new era of competition with its Nov. 7 primary. But the recent Labastida rally, packed with PRI-affiliated organizations, indicated that the party’s machinery continues to turn out supporters with an efficiency that would put Tammany Hall to shame.

The beneficiary of the machinery appears to be Labastida, a mild-mannered economist and longtime bureaucrat widely viewed as the choice of President Ernesto Zedillo. But for the first time, being Machine Man is a mixed blessing for a PRI candidate. In an era of stiff competition and skeptical voters, Labastida could win the primary only to find his legitimacy challenged as he heads for the July 2 presidential election.

“If the candidate is chosen in the wrong way, without respecting the rules, he’ll be a flimsy candidate,” warned Manuel Bartlett, one of the four contenders in the PRI primary.

The affable, cautious Labastida, 57, appears to be all the president’s man. He served as the powerful interior minister in Zedillo’s Cabinet. He has generally defended Zedillo’s free-market economic policies. His campaign team is a virtual Who’s Who of administration officials and Zedillo aides.

To an American, such alliances aren’t unusual. President Clinton, for example, openly promotes the candidacy of Vice President Al Gore. But in Mexico, the president long exercised near-total control of politics. Not only did he handpick his successor, his word was “la linea,” the party line, which PRI members had to support--or face punishment.

To many Mexicans, then, the apparent support of the Zedillo administration and PRI hierarchy for Labastida suggests a rigged race.

President Says He’s Staying Impartial

Charges of bias reached such a pitch that Zedillo summoned party leaders and PRI governors Sunday to emphasize that he is impartial. The president reminded them of rules barring PRI officials from endorsing any candidate. In the new PRI, the only party line is democracy, the president declared, to rousing applause.

Despite Zedillo’s assurances, though, many Mexicans remain convinced that the party machinery is out to ensure a Labastida victory.

One sign of such support is the array of PRI organizations backing Labastida. They were packed into the recent Mexico City rally, held at a PRI union sports complex: the national lottery ticket sellers, the national PRI peasant union, PRI neighborhood associations. Such groups often dole out government benefits and professional permits to members. Behind the scenes, the PRI works differently. Forget Big Brother. The PRI is famous for the “telefonazo”--the Big Phone Call.

“The machine works like this: Each leader in the PRI structure says [to his subordinates], ‘Listen, the party line is Labastida.’ It’s like a cascade,” said Jose Antonio Crespo, a political scientist who has studied the party. “PRI members tell me this won’t function like in the past, but it will function well enough for Labastida to win.”

The most stunning sign of such party pressure appeared last week. According to the Mexico City daily Reforma, the governor of Chiapas told a group of PRI state legislators that local officials had to turn out the vote for his candidate.

“Here, we have to guarantee the triumph of Labastida,” Gov. Roberto Albores Guillen said, according to the newspaper, which cited witnesses.

Albores, a PRI die-hard, has denied making such a statement. But the report touched off an uproar. Two PRI presidential candidates--Roberto Madrazo and Humberto Roque Villanueva--have demanded that Labastida be disqualified from the race because of the incident.

Analysts say Labastida could suffer from being dubbed the “official” candidate even if he wins. His opponents in the PRI could cry foul and bolt the party. And in the general election, his opponents would probably attack a Labastida victory as a window-dressed version of the party’s authoritarian practices.

Labastida, however, rejects such arguments. He notes that his popularity ratings have risen despite the charges. And he insists that there is no parallel with the old days, when the government threw all its resources behind PRI candidates. “What are we calling official support?” Labastida asked in an interview with several journalists.

“Doesn’t a union have the right to endorse someone? Doesn’t it?” he demanded. “Isn’t this in the constitution, and in all our laws, that people can do this?”

While Labastida has been labeled the president’s man, the candidate does represent a different style from that of Zedillo.

Unlike the last three Mexican leaders, graduates of prestigious U.S. universities who were described as “technocrats,” Labastida studied in Mexico and doesn’t speak English fluently. He built his career in the bureaucracy, as did recent Mexican presidents. But unlike them, Labastida also won public office, serving as governor of his native Sinaloa from 1987 to 1992. He is often criticized for being dull, but with his experience, Labastida could be a bridge in the PRI, analysts say, between the technocrats and the more traditional politicians, who frequently bicker.

Labastida has defended Zedillo’s often unpopular austerity policies but insists that he will make changes, spending more on programs to help the poor.

“If we don’t give continuity and security to economic growth and increase our national wealth, there’s no economy. This is a necessary condition, but it’s not enough,” Labastida said in the interview. “What we also need is to emphasize a greater social sensibility, so this [wealth] is distributed in a more just way.”

Candidate Faces Difficult Task

While the PRI machinery may help Labastida, he faces a far tougher struggle than in the past, when the president designated the PRI candidate and party groups rallied around the choice.

Analysts note that early in the campaign, Labastida encountered such a stiff challenge from Madrazo that he was forced to overhaul his campaign team and exchange his passive style for aggressive ads.

And, in the final analysis, the winner will be decided by citizens--not the machinery. The primary is open to all Mexican voters.

“This contest is not democratic, but it is real,” Crespo said. “This is a lot for the PRI. There is no guarantee that Labastida will win.”