PRI Candidate, Top Rival Clash in Presidential Debate

In a showdown shaped more by insults than by policy, Mexico’s two leading presidential candidates traded bitter personal attacks Tuesday night in the first debate ahead of the July 2 election--suddenly the most competitive in the country’s history.

Although all six candidates took part, the 90-minute face-off quickly turned into a duel between front-runner Francisco Labastida of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and Vicente Fox, a challenger known for his cowboy charisma.

In a nation heavily dependent on television and radio for information, the nationally broadcast confrontation could prove decisive in what has become an extremely close race between Labastida and Fox, who is the candidate of the center-right National Action Party, or PAN. At stake is whether the PRI wins its 13th straight presidential ballot since the party was formed in 1929 in the unstable aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.

A new poll this week showed Fox in a virtual deadlock with Labastida, a former interior minister and ex-governor of Sinaloa state. Labastida at times was surprisingly aggressive, as if he were the underdog, and attacked the lanky Fox for having called him “Shorty” and worse.

“I am giving him a chance, now that we are face to face, to explain himself, and if he doesn’t have the character to confront this, how will he have the character to confront the problems of the country, how will he confront drug trafficking, how will he confront organized crime?” Labastida asked of Fox.

Fox replied: “Perhaps I can stop being a person who swears, but you PRI leaders can never stop being the wily, bad rulers, corrupt ones. You can never be rid of that.”

Labastida also challenged Fox’s performance as governor of Guanajuato state, accusing him of having spent most of his time in office traveling rather than governing. Labastida added, “Vicente, you make so many promises, you remind me of the old PRI.”

Fox answered by scoffing at one of Labastida’s anecdotes about an elderly woman lamenting the lack of security in a PAN-governed state. “Mr. Labastida comes with these pretty stories that his [U.S.] advisor James Carville gives him. This is very American, to speak of these little stories that never really happened. This is the only thing that Labastida is learning, to follow the signals of Mr. Carville.”

Fox was less folksy than usual, appearing more serious as he sought to win over a vast television and radio audience throughout Mexico and pick up more momentum in his surge toward Labastida. He referred to his opponent as Mr. Labastida rather than “More of the Same,” as he has done on campaign tours.

Debate Confirms ‘Race Is Between Two’

Early assessments noted the head-to-head clash that has emerged in the presidential race. “I would say the debate is the confirmation that the race is between two,” political scientist Jesus Silva Herzog Marquez said.

One snap survey of viewers, conducted by the BIMSA polling firm, gave Fox a 36% to 19% edge in the debate over Labastida, with the rest spread among other candidates.

Labastida supporters in turn have stepped up their personal attacks on Fox, calling him an inconsistent and opportunistic candidate. “The key question is which face Fox will wear to the debate,” the PRI’s president, Dulce Maria Sauri, told foreign correspondents Monday.

The debate put the core electoral issue right on the table: Do Mexican voters want to end 70 years of rule by the PRI, a centrist agglomeration of interest groups that Fox berates as corrupt, or do they prefer to stick with a known political quantity?

Indeed, Fox cited South Africa’s Nelson Mandela and Poland’s Lech Walesa as examples of other leaders “who have broken the chains of oppressive authoritarianism.”

“Now the eyes of the entire world are on Mexico,” he said. “Let’s have the confidence, let’s believe in ourselves, let’s knock down the wall of corruption, poverty and unemployment.”

Fox entered the debate heartened by a poll conducted by the respected Reforma newspaper showing Labastida with 45% and Fox with 42%. All year, the monthly Reforma polls had consistently given Labastida 47% and Fox 39%.

Given its margin of error, Monday’s poll put Fox in a technical tie in the race for the first time since the former Coca-Cola executive launched his longshot campaign two years ago.

Although most surveys still give Labastida the lead in the race, the margin has narrowed since the PRI became the first party in Mexico to nominate its candidate through an open primary election. Labastida easily won that primary in November, and the participation of nearly 10 million voters gave him what many felt would be unstoppable momentum.

Only one more debate is scheduled, in late May, so the pressure was great for the candidates to perform well during this first opportunity to reach most of the populace.

A similar debate in the last presidential election in 1994 gave a major boost in the polls to the PAN’s Diego Fernandez de Cevallos. Although Cevallos didn’t win the election, the debate was considered crucial to his strong showing.

Analysts, therefore, were closely monitoring Tuesday’s 90-minute showdown, which featured all six candidates in the race. They include leftist Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, a three-time presidential contender who has faded in recent polls but is the only candidate who participated in the 1994 debate with Cevallos and the eventual winner, President Ernesto Zedillo of the PRI.

The debate could prove decisive in determining Cardenas’ political fate. Hovering around 12% in most polls, Cardenas has faced growing pressure to throw his support to Fox and create a de facto anti-PRI alliance. Most analysts doubt that the dour Cardenas, the son of one of Mexico’s most famous left-wing presidents, would bow out to a right-wing opponent, but anti-PRI sentiment could prevail if Cardenas loses ground after the debate.

The other candidates are: Porfirio Munoz Ledo, who founded the left-wing Democratic Revolution Party with Cardenas but recently broke away and joined a small leftist party; Manuel Camacho Solis, a former Cabinet minister who split from the PRI and formed the Party of the Democratic Center; and Gilberto Rincon, a respected leftist elder statesman with little popular support.

The MUND Opinion Services polling firm reported Tuesday that its survey on the role of media found that more Labastida supporters get their information from television and radio whereas Fox supporters rely more heavily on newspapers. The broadcast debate, therefore, gave Fox a chance to reach those who might be less prone to support him.

Change, Continuity Are Seen as Core Issues

Columnist Jorge Fernandez Menendez, writing in the daily newspaper Milenio, noted that, while the polls differ somewhat, “the reality indicates that the two principal antagonists have moved closer in voter support and the election is moving irreversibly toward a polarization between Francisco Labastida and Vicente Fox.”

He said voters “will have to decide between the much more profound change proposed by Fox, even if it isn’t clear exactly where he is headed, or the gradual, measured change that smells like continuity, as proposed by Labastida.”

Congressional surrogates for the front-runners suggested the possible tone for the debate.

Fidel Herrera, the leader of the PRI in the lower chamber of Congress, said before the debate: “The strength of Fox lies in his boots. He thinks with the soles of his boots and then acts.”

Carlos Arce, a PAN congressman, said such a comment by PRI officials “shows the desperation and anguish within the PRI. We know that they are really worried, that the poll results have made them very nervous.”