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Pastimes : Mexico -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: marcos who wrote (58)	11/16/2001 12:52:20 PM
From: CIMA	Respond to of 143

Mexico's PRI Party Seeks Makeover MEXICO CITY, Nov 16, 2001 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Still shocked from the loss of the presidency, the party that ran Mexico for seven decades will meet Saturday in its first major convention as an opposition party to modernize and map out a new ideology. The Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, will convene 11,700 delegates simultaneously in five states to develop strategies on issues such as women's rights and international affairs while hoping to avoid a battle for the party leadership. After last year's loss to President Vicente Fox of the National Action Party, the gathering will be an opportunity to transform the PRI into "a more democratic and inclusive party, linked to the interests of Mexican society in the 21st century," PRI President Maria Dulce Sauri said recently. In an effort to reach out to groups that have shunned the party in the past, women will account for half of the delegates, and 30 percent of those attending Saturday's gathering will be under the age of 30. The one order of business indispensable to determining the party's future - the election of a new leader - is not on the conference agenda however. "A lot is at stake," said Jose Antonio Crespo, a political analyst and author of a book about the PRI. "Whoever ends up with the PRI presidency is who will determine how much the party will change." The new president will help determine the PRI's ideology, act as the party's lead negotiator, control a budget of about $43 million and have a powerful say in choosing candidates. The battle for the leadership has become so contentious that party officials have twice postponed elections to avoid party fractures. The assembly could elect a president at the closing ceremony on Tuesday but two powerful party rivals, Francisco Labastida and Roberto Madrazo, have promised they would not try to push candidates through. Labastida crushed Madrazo in the party's first-ever primary in November 1999 but went on to lose the presidential election - the first PRI leader to do so. He is identified with technocrats such as Fox's predecessor, former President Ernesto Zedillo, whose free-market policies are blamed by many PRI activists for the party's loss. Madrazo, accused of being an old-fashioned party boss while he was Tabasco state governor, plans to make another bid for the party leadership, apparently as a step toward the nation's presidency in 2006. Crespo called the emerging battle between the party's two camps dangerous "because it could strongly divide the party," damage the PRI's image and lead to additional losses in midterm elections in 2003. "This could be the definitive end of the PRI, or at best, it would leave it as a marginal party," Crespo said. The fight appears to be more about power than ideology with both camps agreeing that the party should move toward the center-left. "It could be a huge centrist party," said political analyst Joy Langston. "But they certainly can't redefine themselves if the party is spending all of its time and energy fighting." By LISA J. ADAMS Associated Press Writer Copyright 2001 Associated Press, All rights reserved

To: marcos who wrote (58)	1/10/2002 2:43:37 AM
From: CIMA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 143

Mexico: Defeat for Fox, Victory for Democracy January 9, 2002 Summary Mexican democracy took a messy but important step forward in the latest federal budget battle as Congress outmaneuvered the historically dominant chief executive branch. Although the outcome of the debate may hurt the Mexican economy in the short term, the process in which the budget was decided bodes well for the ongoing development of a functioning, multi-party democracy. Analysis Mexico's Congress approved the 2002 federal budget Jan. 1 after 40 hours of intense debate that exceeded a constitutionally imposed, year-end deadline. Unlike it did with a decade's worth of previous budgets, Congress didn't simply rubberstamp the president's proposal; instead, it quashed most of President Vicente Fox's major fiscal reform initiatives. The budget debate represents something of a watershed for Mexican democracy, installing Congress as a stronger counterbalance to the traditionally dominant chief executive branch. Mexicans should be seeing more and more political debate and compromise between the two political branches, and this will help to institutionalize Congress's power. In the long term, Mexico's political system will benefit from the healthier debates and a more balanced, multi-party democracy. The short-term implications of the budget debate will be primarily negative. Many of the reforms Fox sought are necessary to upgrade Mexico's energy sector and attract foreign investment. State-owned oil company Pemex will have less excess revenue to put toward new investments, and potential investments that Fox had envisioned from foreign companies -- such as British Petroleum and Spain's Repsol -- may be more expensive or slightly less attractive, considering the country's credit rating and scarcity of domestic investment. Related Analysis: Mexican Economy Hindering President's Pledges Constitution Hampers President Fox’s Ambitious Plans for Mexico Mexico: The Prospects for the Coming Year