Frontera NorteSur, September 1999

PAN and PRD Consider Joining Forces Against PRI

México's two opposition parties, the National Action Party (PAN) and the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) foresee difficulty overthrowing the current and long standing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the presidential election of 2000 and have therefore opened discussion on joining forces and putting up one candidate, as yet to be named.

Candidates for each party have so far begun their campaigns individually with Francisco Labastida Ochoa, PRI, rating as the top PRI candidate according to a recent poll, beating out his major PRI competitor, Roberto Madrazo. A major candidate for the opposition is PRD's Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, recently resigned mayor of México City, who left his post to focus on his campaign. The other is Vicente Fox, current governor of Guanajuato, and the PAN's primary candidate. Individually, these candidates polled behind Labastida, with Cardenas furthest behind. However, according to the poll by La Reforma, if the opposition parties form an alliance, the PRI candidate would lose.

Vicente Fox, who paid a recent visit to the border region in August, expressed his commitment to decentralize the powers of the federal government. He proposed a shared power between the three levels of government and the creation of a special education department for the 40 million Mexicans who are under-educated.

He criticized the current political system and the PRI saying that Madrazo has condemned all of Fox's proposals and gone so far as to take credit for ideas Fox had initiated regarding the overhaul the PRI needs. Instead, Fox praised the "true democracy" demonstrated by the PAN.

The current lead PRI candidate, Labastida, also visited Cd. Juárez in August, and although a member of the long standing PRI he wants to create "a new form of politics," one in which he says women will be the focus. The candidate warned an audience of some 900 Cd. Juárez women that they should respect the values set by the PRI. He also told them, however, that unless they "stop being victims of their own insecurity, insults and delinquency," their participating in politics will never be a reality.

Other focuses of his campaign include improving education by extending public school hours, providing free lunches and strengthening family values, as well as increasing teachers' salaries and implementing foreign language and computer classes for primary grades.

He promised Juarenses that the border city will receive special attention from him should he become president. He was proud of the city's successes but angered by the degree of poverty, and he promised programs that would create housing and improve the water situation as well as the quality of life for residents of Anapra.

"The PRI is creating a new party, one that will give people power. We are giving power to those who deserve it, those that we should have never neglected," the PRI candidate said.

But Labastida isn't the only politician discussing a "new party." While his may be a rhetorical ploy to improve the tarnished image of the PRI, other politicians have been commenting on the literal creation of a new party which would bring the PAN and PRD together.

Francisco Barrio, PAN, former Chihuahua governor reveled in his party's political stance, "Once again the PAN proves its loyalty to democracy by considering an alliance with the PRD." Barrio believes that a lasting relationship should be developed between the parties, and not just a passing collaboration.

Luis Javier Valero, new state PRD leader, believes that merging with the PAN will provide México the opportunity to take part in a truly democratic transition, but the alliance must be complete, according to Valero, in order for it to work.

Continued positive predictions about the alliance were expressed by Luis H. Alvarez, PAN state senator of Chihuahua, however with some reservation. "The only way the coalition will work between the PRD and the PAN is if they allow no intervention from the PRI." The party will have to play their cards right in every aspect of the political campaigns, he said, and only then can they beat the PRI.

However, Fernando Baeza, former PRI state governor and current campaign promoter for Roberto Madrazó, Labastida's key opposition from the PRI, does not believe the alliance will become a reality. In addition to believing the current candidates' personalities are too strong and that neither Fox nor Cardenas will turn the candidacy over to the other, Baeza also believes in the new PRI. "Mexicans are tired of the neoliberal politics. This campaign gives them the opportunity to have a new PRI and be under an administration that will respond to their needs."

Local Politicians Continue To Compete

While the national battle continues between the ruling party and its opposition, a local battle continues to ensue. Chihuahua Governor Patricio Martínez, PRI and Cd. Juárez Mayor Gustavo Elizondo Aguilar, PAN just can't seem to get along. If it is not one thing, it is another, and this month it was Barry McCaffrey, the U.S. "Drug Czar's" visit to the border that brought out the ire in the two border region leaders.

Allegedly McCaffrey was invited to Cd. Juárez by the city's first lady, who is the director of the Family Development Agency (DIF). He was on a Texas tour, and she asked him to stop in México to speak to youths about illegal drugs and he agreed. Because of the nature of the visit, Governor Martínez was not invited, however, he reacted to this with a vehement condemnation of the statistics that McCaffrey espoused while visiting, most of which portrayed the drug use and drug trafficking in México as on the rise, while decreasing across the border.

But this isn't the first time that one leader was not invited to the other leader's party. The state's first lady did not invite Mayor Elizondo, his wife, or any Juarensen for that matter to a recent promotional event for the touring exhibit of "El Papalote," México's children's museum. Martínez said it was "a given" that all Juarenses were invited and that maybe the museum would come to Juárez in two years, which happens to be when Elizondo's term in office will end.

Statistics In On First Nine Months

But for all the political banter that can be chalked up to party politics, we may learn what we need to know from the statistics, and in early August El Diario published the approval ratings of the borders two leaders. Elizondo's and Martínez' first nine months in office were rated in July and Mayor Elizondo has reached an overall approval rating of 7 percent, while Governor Martínez has reached an all time low of 6.2 percent. These results were part of a public opinion poll performed in ten populated centers of the city where a total of four hundred people were questioned.

Elizondo's approval rating has consistently risen since January when it was 6.78, then 6.94 in April and reached 7 percent this summer. On the other hand, Martínez' overall rating had increased from January to April, 6.68 to 6.94 but was down this summer to 6.2. In the remainder of the poll, citizens were asked to rate a number of political endeavors on a scale of five levels: Abominable, Bad, Good, Excellent and No Response. A breakdown of the poll's major results follow, indicating only two of the five rating choices, good or bad, which received the majority of response.

	Good	Bad
Municipal Police Work	44.5%,	35.5%
State Police Work	60%	23.25%
Quality of Public Service	62.75%	23%
Completion of Public Projects	62%	17%
Martínez' Support and Treatment of Cd. Juárez	50.5%	27%
Zero Tolerance Program - Have there been results?	Yes 37%	No 52% (Don't Know 10.25%)
Considering the reduction of legal drinking hours: did the city's annual fair seem to be a family event?	More familial 47.5%	Less familial 14.75% (The Same 15%) (No Response 22.75%)
Has Elizondo fulfilled his campaign promises?	Mostly 25.75%	Barely 58% (Not at all 7.75%)
Has Martínez fulfilled his campaign promises?	Mostly 19.5%	Barely 57.2% (Not at all 14.5%)