Word: madrid
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...accept with emotion and responsibility the commitments that this mandate signifies. Mexico won, the revolution won. The P.R.I, won." With those words, Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, 47, acknowledged what had long been a foregone conclusion. With three-quarters of the nation's polling booths reported, De la Madrid had received 14.3 million votes, some 74% of those cast, far outdistancing his six opponents in last week's presidential election...
Somehow De la Madrid has escaped the controversy surrounding the outgoing administration even though, as Mexico's Secretary of Programming and Budget, he was responsible for Lopez Portillo's grandiose Global Plan for Development, a document that has now been discreetly shelved. One reason De la Madrid may have escaped criticism is his innocuous lifestyle. Highly disciplined and a deeply religious Roman Catholic, he is untouched by any hint of scandal. He likes to spend the weekend reading in his garden. Says one diplomat who has known De la Madrid for years: "He lives comfortably...
Rectitude is something that De la Madrid wants to bring back into fashion in Mexico. He has constantly stressed the theme of "moral renovation." De la Madrid set the tone for his campaign after he discovered a P.R.I, worker driving a Ferrari that had been given to him by the mayor of Mexico City, Carlos Hank Gonzalez. De la Madrid had the man fired and asked for his resignation from the party...
That kind of morality does not sit well with the old-line machine politicians in the P.R.I., who also resent the fact that De la Madrid is a technocrat who has always stood above the rough and tumble of local politics. There were rumblings of unrest within the party when De la Madrid's nomination was announced, particularly since the P.R.I.'s then president, Javier Garcia Paniagua, was not informed of the choice beforehand. Nonetheless the tug of party loyalty, along with some selective purges, has apparently got the machine pols into line, although major power struggles...
...question is whether De la Madrid will be able to manage the party, and the country, during the necessary period of belt tightening. In Washington, some State Department experts are optimistic that he can succeed. Says one Government official, summing up business and banking reactions: "He's the perfect guy to confront the business and economic problems." Whether De la Madrid can restore confidence in Mexico's shaken presidency is another question. De la Madrid says only: "I know that my entry into the government will not be easy." He will have six years to find out just...