The Guadalajara Reporter

Peña Nieto’s presidency being tagged as a magical mystery tour in dinosaur land, as the shadow of old oligarchs is sensed

As the victory by Enrique Peña Nieto, presidential candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), seemed a much surer thing that it turned out to be, many of Mexico’s political analysts, scholars, former office-holders and veteran news hawks began murmuring the name of former president (1988-1994) Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

Salinas is a political bogyman and a man of considerable mystery in Mexican political life. Since 1994 he has officially “resided” in Dublin, Ireland, which does not cherish extradition treaties. He is 64 now and been out of office for 18 years. The mystery comes in various forms. Primary among these are: where’s he at (indicating paranoia), and what’s he doing (demonstrating dread). During the run-up to, and during Peña Nieto’s campaign, he was either here strategizing or possibly ducking back to Ireland.  Salinas generally tries to keep a low profile, both at his own choosing, and honoring the preference of the “Revolutionary Family.”  That Family, meaning the PRI and its adjuncts and allies, tried to expel him after his presidency ended ignominiously in 1994.  Many Mexicans still believe he ordered the assassinations of several high ranking priistas, murders for which his brother, Raul, was convicted and sent to prison.  Yet today he’s said to wield sharp political power. This, despite those who blame him for his party’s shattering defeat in 2000 by the pro-Church, pro-business National Action Party (PAN).

Each incoming president must demonstrate to competing groups and powerful individuals that he truly is able to take over the rule of the Republic, that he has huevos.  Salinas did this dramatically, and in a way that took care of two birds with one stone. Joaquin Hernandez Galicia (aka “La Quina”) was the jefe of the 200,000-member oil-workers union, operating Mexico’s government-owned monopoly, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). La Quina had a lot of power, and with it he had created his own sprawling domain – ”a principality of corruption” – headquartered in parts of the states of Tamaulipas and Tabasco. He oversaw what seemed to many Mexicans as a country within a country, operating independently of government oversight.  He used the the gains of corruption to nourish his private empire, buying farms, building union-owned and -operated housing, factories, corner stores, supermarkets, clothing businesses, hospitals, fire departments and funeral homes. The former welder’s spending was devastating Pemex, and maintenance was becoming sloppy and negligent. And La Quina took care of any opposition within his domain swiftly. Those who violated his rule often died in peculiar accidents; one committed suicide by shooting himself in the head three times.

La Quina represented  a problem for Salinas who knew that foreign investment in some (limited) areas of Pemex was necessary in order to bring the company into the modern world. And the union boss had already made it clear that he would allow no foreigners into Pemex, which he said “should always be in the hands of Mexicans.” Besides, he had encouraged Pemex workers to vote against Salinas, a man he didn’t like or trust.

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