Mexicans Stage Mass Rally Against PRI

In the largest public demonstration against Mexico’s ruling party in recent memory, hundreds of thousands of fist-waving demonstrators jammed the central plaza here Saturday to proclaim opposition candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas the true winner of this month’s presidential election.

The rally brought together students, peasants, workers and Mexico’s fragmented leftist political parties in a show of unity that has not been seen among the Mexican left since Cardenas’ father, President Lazaro Cardenas, nationalized the petroleum industry and distributed farmland to landless peasants in the 1930s.

The protesters chanted “Death to the PRI!” as the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party is popularly called. They mocked the official winner of the July 6 election, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, with shouts of: “Salinas, don’t you understand we don’t want you!” and “You lie, baldy; you lost the election!”

Such lack of respect for the presidency is highly unusual in Mexico and may be an indication of difficulties Salinas could face in governing this country after he takes office Dec. 1. Several protesters burned an effigy of Salinas.

Cardenas Remains Cautious

But while the crowd was militant, Cardenas, a 54-year-old engineer, was typically cautious, vowing to avoid violence and to employ only legal channels in pressing his claim to have defeated Salinas.

“The immediate struggle is for legality and respect for the will of the people. The people’s instruments are the law, and the framework of action is the constitution of the republic,” Cardenas told the crowd outside the National Palace.

“The president, electoral and government officials know in their consciences to which parties the seats in the new congress belong, and to whom the presidency belongs,” he said.

He urged his backers to “carry out actions that strengthen our organizations, that exercise moral and political pressure,” but he did not lay out a plan of action.

Cardenas has scheduled a series of rallies beginning this week throughout the country, particularly in states such as Guerrero and Veracruz, where the Federal Election Commission declared PRI victories but where Cardenas believes he won.

Cardenas was a member of the PRI until last November, when he left the party after losing an internal battle over the party’s nomination process for its presidential candidate. Salinas, a 40-year-old Harvard-educated technocrat, was hand-picked by the incumbent president, as PRI candidates have been for the last 60 years.

Cardenas ran on the tickets of four leftist parties and claims he won the election with a plurality. The Election Commission has declared Salinas the winner with 50.36% of the vote--the lowest ever for a PRI president. The commission also gave the PRI 260 of the 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 60 of 64 seats in the Senate.

PRI officials believe that Cardenas is still a man of the system and will not allow his backers to threaten the stability of the government. High-ranking PRI officials reportedly met with Cardenas last week, offering him the opportunity to build a strong opposition party--with media access and chances to win governorships--in exchange for his playing by the legal political rules.

Up to now, the PRI has never lost a governorship.

In his speech Saturday, Cardenas charged that the pro-government media, which has largely ignored the phenomenon of his rise to prominence, acted as “accomplices and important elements in the execution of the (election) fraud.”

Cardenas condemned the use of violence and denounced an attack Friday on Carlos Duenas, 30, a Mexican television cameraman who had worked for Cable News Network. Duenas was stopped in his car in southern Mexico City and shot and seriously wounded. Cardenas called it “another attempt against freedom of information.”

Political analysts say they believe Cardenas will continue to press for more seats in the Chamber and Senate. They add that they believe Cardenas is likely to give up his push for the presidency this time and dedicate himself to building a strong opposition power base.

The Election Commission must certify the makeup of the new congress in August and congress, in turn, is to ratify the president in September. Cardenas said he will fight his battles there.

The question, however, is whether Cardenas’ supporters will get ahead of him. Cardenas--whose first name, Cuauhtemoc, comes from an Aztec warrior--has become a larger-than-life figure.

Farmers and students streaming out of the plaza Saturday said they expect Cardenas--not Salinas--to be sworn in to office in December.

“We will keep on supporting him, even if it gets to the point of picking up guns,” said Francisco Cedeno, 33, a farmer from Morelos state.