1. THE DEMISE OF THE REVOLUTION Osvaldo Jordan November 12, 2009

2. THE END OF THE MIRACLE After the Tlatelolco Massacre, the PRI never recovered its previous level of popular support. Although the Mexican economy boomed during the 1970s, especially after the oil crises, the Lost Decade brought about complete economic collapse. In 1982, Mexico was the first country in Latin American to default on its foreign debt. During the next decades, technocrats implemented Structural Adjustment, including the privatization of state-owned enterprises and the negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

3. THE 1988 ELECTIONS The PRI-candidate, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, fought against the son of Lazaro Cardenas, Cuauhtémoc Cardenas, who was leading a dissident faction of PRI that had formed the Partido de la Revolucion Democratica (PRD). Today, most analysts consider that Cardenas won the 1988 elections. Salinas de Gortari presided over a most corrupt Mexican administration, leaving the country with accusations of theft, extortion and murder. Contradictorily, he was also the main architect of Neoliberal reform in Mexico, including the signature of NAFTA in 1993.

4. THE DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION The same day that NAFTA came into effect, the Ejercito Zapatista para la Liberacion Nacional (EZLN) started an armed insurrection in Chiapas, Southern Mexico. The Ernesto Zedillo Administration (1994-2000) struggled to clean the image of the Presidency, control the insurgency in Chiapas, stabilize the economy following the Peso Crisis, and fully implement NAFTA. In 2000, Zedillo presided over the most clean election in Mexican history, in which the opposition candidate Vicente Fox (PAN) won the election. Cuauhtémoc Cardenas finished third.

5. THE DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION How do you account for the democratic transition in Mexico? -Popular Mobilizations: Tlatelolco, the 1988 elections, and Chiapas? -Degeneration of the PRI corporatist model? -The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)? According to Cameron and Wise (2004), the PRI oversold the neoliberal model.

6. THE AGE OF NEOLIBERALISM Vicente Fox (2000-2006) did not only continue the implementation of NAFTA, but deepened economic reform with the external promotion of Mexican capitalism (Plan Puebla-Panama, now called Mesoamerica Project). Fox cultivated a strong partnership with the United States, yet opposed the War on Terrorism and restrictions on immigration. Even with these independent political positions, he was still called Cachorro del Imperio by Hugo Chavez in 2005.

7. THE 2006 ELECTIONS Mexico For or Against the United States? The main contenders were Felipe Calderon (PAN), who vowed to continue the implementation of NAFTA and the Neoliberal Economic Model, and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (PRD), who was expected to turn Mexico away from Neoliberalism and throw the country deep into the Pink Tide. Has PRI ceased to be a relevant contender in Mexican politics?

8. THE CALDERON ADMINISTRATION Although Calderon has tried to move ahead with privatizing government enterprises, such as CEMEX and Fuerza y Luz, he has also faced entrenched opposition from PRD legislators and grassroots organizations. Calderon has also embarked in a costly war against criminal organizations, deploying the military in the streets, especially in border cities like Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. He has received the decisive military support of the United States through the Merida Initiative, also called Plan Mexico. This program also includes the Central American republics.