Word: presidental
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Mexico's "guided democracy" has become so ossified that presidential election campaigns every six years are little more than repetitions of what voters cynically dismiss as "the great paint job." P.R.I. campaign workers plaster every available wall, hut and bridge with absurd slogans (TO NATIONALIZE IS TO DECOLONIALIZE) that make...
(5 of 10) bureaucracy as soon as they take office. For six years, Mexico's chief executive rules more as a monarch than an elected leader of a democratic society. Says a ranking U.S. diplomat: "You look at the Mexican constitution and you see three branches of government. But they...
There are some checks and balances, but in typical Mexican fashion, they operate indirectly. If a President leans too far to the left, as did L�pez Portillo's predecessor, Luis Echeverria, businessmen can express their displeasure by withholding investments; if he leans too far to the right, as did...
"Everybody accepts the fact that Presidents grow rich in office," says a university professor. Indeed, the President's salary is one of Mexico's best-kept secrets. Miguel Aleman Valdes, for example, made multimillion-dollar investments in Acapulco real estate that turned the Pacific Coast city into a famous tourist...
Even today, Mexicans remain puzzled as to why Echeverria chose Lopez Portillo as his successor. Although the two had been friends since their student days at the National University, they had little in common. Echeverria was a politician to his ringer tips, and something of a political demagogue. Lopez Portillo...