By Ramón I. Centeno
(The University of Sheffield)
Not so much time ago, any future PRI’s comeback seemed inconceivable. Its 2000 defeat seemed irreversible and its death, just a matter of time. So how to explain that the PRI is again on the driver’s seat after being declared terminally ill? Its return possibly signals an interrupted political continuity, which was resumed after a while... with something happening in between: a twelve-years PAN-led interregnum marked by a political earthquake that led us to the bloodshed of the War on Drugs. No doubt a new political equilibrium was reached, and a new Mexico is coming.
(The University of Sheffield)
Not so much time ago, any future PRI’s comeback seemed inconceivable. Its 2000 defeat seemed irreversible and its death, just a matter of time. So how to explain that the PRI is again on the driver’s seat after being declared terminally ill? Its return possibly signals an interrupted political continuity, which was resumed after a while... with something happening in between: a twelve-years PAN-led interregnum marked by a political earthquake that led us to the bloodshed of the War on Drugs. No doubt a new political equilibrium was reached, and a new Mexico is coming.
One is intuitively tempted to see such PRI revival through old good
Marx’s lenses: “first as tragedy, then as farce.” In this sense, a new (farcical)
PRI government would only be its last empirical test before its definite death.
However intellectually appealing this image might be, it seems more appropriate
resorting to Latin American magical realism: "When [s]he awoke, the
dinosaur was still there."[i]
The uncomfortable truth is that the PRI-nosaur
never left though we loved to think so: and no remainder philanthropy is left
in its genes. (Octavio Paz, Mexican poet, Nobel laureate on literature, defined
the classic PRI’s regime as a “philanthropic ogre.”) The neoliberal
version of the old ogre is here to stay.
After all, even in his years out of the Presidency, the PRI never
ruled less than half of the Mexican states, and in 2012 is governing 20 out of
the 32. We have finally woken up from the illusion and when the truth was
becoming apparent, the student movement #YoSoy132[ii]
emerged in the middle of the 2012 electoral campaign. Peña Nieto had been the
unacknowledged official candidate of Televisa, the main TV broadcaster in the
country. Opposing this, a new generation of activists rebelled against the
capitalist monarchy in the Mexican media. (Certainly, what are the merits of
Televisa’s CEO Emilio Azcárraga to lead that company? Is it he the most
suitable professional to deliver information to he Mexicans? No. He is simply
“the heir”, as in any kingdom that deserves decapitation.) But here, as in a
sad reminder of the prevalent Mexican middle-class sensibilities -let us
compare to phenomena such as Occupy Wall
Street- #YoSoy132 was also a deep
critique to capitalism… without noticing it: was not it a condemnation of the
private property over all that, which for being part of the common interest,
should not have to be owned by a single individual?
The dramatic question is: Why did PRI come back to power? Certainly
not only due to failed PAN administrations. At a large extent, because they
kept their presence among the popular classes, their larger-than-life expertise. Their tradition of “popular contact”,
although weaker is still effective: and they have no serious opponent at this
level. Reluctantly both the PAN and PRD-led coalition have tried to copy PRI’s
master model. Overall, the PRI has proved the most experienced and trustable
guardian of Mexican crony capitalism. This party had enough machinery to spread
its promise of order as opposed to
Calderón’s mess. And Televisa’s complimentary support was not insignificant at
all.
If this was not enough, the day of the election there were many
reports of vote buying by PRI operatives. And although it is true that the
electoral system showed ineptitude to deal with these allegations, it is truer that it is worthless having a
flawless electoral body if it is only destined to count corrupted ballots. Maybe
the lesson is that PRI’s legacies can only be rooted out in its terrain: with
“the people.” Otherwise any novel and well-intentioned democratic institutions,
such as the Mexican ones, will eventually be under siege by the regime, still
anchored in PRI’s traditions.
However, if one goes to “the people”… is to say what? Any answer to
this question reveals how useless is supporting the ex PRI’s cadre and
two-times PRD presidential candidate López Obrador whose political program can
be fairly described as a utopian neoliberalism “with a human face.” And this is
the other explanatory variable in regards to PRI’s reinassance: the so-called leftist PRD has consistently showed a
remarkable inability to present an alternative to both neoliberalism and the
war on drugs. This party has largely been reduced to parasitic politics: an
attitude of “wait and see” the actions of both PRI and PAN in order to
criticise them without offering anything instead. The latter is a political
void that only a new left can fill. Will this happen?
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